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Crafting & machines

How to refine oil into petrol, diesel and kerosene

Crude oil is only the start. One machine, the refinery, splits it into fuels, makes plastic and fills the dewars of rocket kerosene.

In short

  • Scoop oil with a bucket (left click: standing you take a whole 1 m cube, 64 voxels; crouching, a single voxel) and pour it into the refinery with a right click, or bring it by pipe.
  • Fractions: 1 m³ of crude oil gives 16 voxels each of kerosene, petrol and diesel, 16 units of natural gas and 1 tar, in 20 s.
  • Plastic: 32 voxels of crude oil (or 32 units of natural gas) give 2 plastic in 10 s. RP-1: an empty dewar and 64 voxels of kerosene give a dewar of rocket kerosene in 15 s.
  • The refinery burns any fuel, or a heating element on a small power cable (3 kW). Its own oil is never its fuel.
On this page
  1. How do I bring oil home?
  2. What does the refinery make?
  3. What is each cut good for?
  4. Where do I keep and use the cuts?
  5. Questions

How do I bring oil home?

  1. 1

    Find a pocket

    Oil lies in lodes under the plains, under seeps of bitumen. See how to find oil.

  2. 2

    Craft a bucket

    Three iron ingots in a V. A bucket holds one cubic metre (64 voxels) of one liquid.

  3. 3

    Scoop it

    Left click on oil: standing, the bucket takes the oil of the whole aligned 1 m cube; crouching, a single voxel.

  4. 4

    Pour it in

    Right click the refinery with the full bucket: it empties into its crude tank. For a factory, bring the crude by pipe.

What does the refinery make?

The refinery is a copper column over a steel firebox. Pick what it makes on its screen. Crude oil comes in by bucket or by the pipe on its side; each cut waits in its own tank and leaves by its own pipe, or into an empty bucket or cylinder held against it. The tar drops into a slot. When the gas holder is full, the natural gas burns off in its flare.

ChoiceTakesGivesTime
Fractions1 m³ of crude oil16 voxels each of kerosene, petrol and diesel + 16 units of natural gas + 1 tar20 s
Plastic32 voxels of crude oil, or 32 units of natural gas2 plastic10 s
RP-1An empty dewar + 64 voxels of keroseneA dewar of RP-1 (rocket kerosene)15 s

What is each cut good for?

CutBurns as fuelUse
Petrol50 s a bucketFuel for generators and fires
Diesel60 s a bucketThe best liquid fuel for a generator
Kerosene40 s a bucketFuel, and RP-1 for rockets
Natural gas30 s a cylinderPlastic; liquid methane at the gas plant
Tar-Asphalt, the large power cable, insulation

Where do I keep and use the cuts?

  • Store them: a tank holds 16 m³ of one liquid or one gas; the large tank holds more for a factory.
  • Burn them: a generator takes oil, kerosene, petrol and diesel in its tank, and gives up to 5 kW to its cables.
  • Go to space: RP-1 from the refinery, liquid oxygen and liquid methane from the gas plant fill the rocket's tanks. See rockets.
  • Tar also comes from bitumen at the crafting grid: 16 voxels give 2 tar.

Questions

Can the refinery burn the oil it refines?

No. A bucket of its own feed is refused in its fuel slot. Feed the fire with coal, wood or another fuel, or put it on a small power cable.

Do I need electricity?

No: the refinery burns fuel. On a powered small cable (3 kW) its heating element replaces the fire.

Where does the tar go?

Into the refinery's tar slot, taken by hand or by a conveyor.

Updated