Sulfur vs Sulfuric Acid on Main Bus

[GoldFalcon9]

I'm considering producing sulfuric acid locally and just putting sulfur on the main bus, what are the pros and cons to this?

[DaveMcW]

A sulfuric acid pipe can move 2.5 times as much sulfur as a blue belt.

[Hedning1390]

Sulfur is like copper wire, expanding with a very rapid production, and like copper wire should avoid belts. Build it next to the consumer and use direct insertion.

[bobucles]

Pro: It's on the bus
Con: Stop putting intermediates on the bus.

[JimBarracus]

pro:
can also be used for dynamite

con:
-except for dynamite it is only used for sulfuric acid
-one petroleum pipe has much more throughput than a belt of sulfur
-sulfuric acid is only needed for three things: batteries, blue ciruits and uranium mining.

Best thing is to have one central production and distribute it by train.

[ColonelSandersLite]

pro:
can also be used for dynamite

Yes, sulfur is useful for explosives, at least if you're playing with biters.

That being said, is it even an advantage to ship sulfur away from your refinery to make explosives elsewhere? Besides sulfur, explosives also require coal and water. Both of which are already required at your refining setup anyways.

I guess the choice is going to be between:

A: Your munitions plant imports explosives.
B: Your munitions plant imports sulfur and water (It should already have coal).
C: A dedicated explosives plant imports sulfur, water, and coal and ships explosives to the munitions plant.


I guess what I'm saying is that as a pro, that's pretty iffy.


To be fair to the pro side of things though:

I have a hard time imagining the throughput of sulfur on a belt vs acid in pipes as being at all important either. If you're going for a 1000 sci/min base, the batteries are going to take a whole 24.54 sulfur/second.

I guess you can exceed a blue belt of sulfur going from 1000 to 2000 sci/min, but is that even a practical concern? If you're scaling up battery production that much, it might just be easier to draw in a second line for organizational reasons anyways.

On the blue chip end of things, you're only going to exceed a blue belt of sulfur going from 3000 to 4000 sci/min. Again, is it really a practical concern? Compared to the 1,802.4 Green Chips/second that array is going to eat, it just seems like a non issue to me.

So yeah, I'm going to say that I would consider the throughput consideration to be a pretty iffy con.

[zOldBulldog]

I build my explosives next to the Sulfur/Sulfuric Acid plant, put the acid on the bus, and since explosives are fairly low volume items I just send them by logistic bot where needed.

I don't know if that is ideal or not... but it seems to work great for me.

[ColonelSandersLite]

I build my explosives next to the Sulfur/Sulfuric Acid plant, put the acid on the bus, and since explosives are fairly low volume items I just send them by logistic bot where needed.

I don't know if that is ideal or not... but it seems to work great for me.

Yeah, I do explosives at the refining plant too. My munitions plant takes a belt split between explosives and 238. That seem to fulfill all my biter killing needs.

[Ranakastrasz]

I have a set of 4 pipes as part of my bus. Oil and Water are two of them, with Sulfuric acid and Lubricant as the others.

Also outputs of Solid fuel, Plastic, and Batteries.

Raw sulfur is rarely used -> Explosives are generally made and used to make rockets directly, and then shipped to ME via robots.
Lubricant is used for engines and Belts, and Sulfuric acid is used for Mining and electronics.
Water is used by refineries, but also concrete, so yea.

Solid fuel, Plastic, and batteries are all just normal outputs, although the solid fuel gets diverted later into making nuclear/Rocket Fuel, or just to the steam engines. (Ya know, until I replace it)

So, Sulfuric acid here.

[zOldBulldog]

I have a set of 4 pipes as part of my bus. Oil and Water are two of them, with Sulfuric acid and Lubricant as the others.

Also outputs of Solid fuel, Plastic, and Batteries.

Raw sulfur is rarely used -> Explosives are generally made and used to make rockets directly, and then shipped to ME via robots.
Lubricant is used for engines and Belts, and Sulfuric acid is used for Mining and electronics.
Water is used by refineries, but also concrete, so yea.

Solid fuel, Plastic, and batteries are all just normal outputs, although the solid fuel gets diverted later into making nuclear/Rocket Fuel, or just to the steam engines. (Ya know, until I replace it)

So, Sulfuric acid here.

I do almost exactly the same, except that I make Rocket Fuel directly from the Solid Fuel output (and some solid fuel going into a Provider Chest). Then I put the Rocket Fuel on the bus.

But I'm wondering if there is a benefit to putting the Solid Fuel on the bus instead of the Rocket Fuel...

Besides making Rocket Fuel, do any of your assembler factories consume solid fuel?

[Ren]

For me, what I find works best is to have a chemical processing center separate (mostly) from the main belt. This process center starts with crude refining, and makes lubricant, acid, batteries, plastic, and solid fuel. Those 5 items are trained to other areas, whether it be to another factory module, or to a main bus, depending on my setup that map.

[Ranakastrasz]

Used for steam engines mainly.