Is my math right? (Checking the value of Combustion Mixture)

[drdking]

I've been messing around with a Combustion Mixture power setup and I'm trying to figure out if it's actually worth it early-mid game over a steam boiler setup.
Sorry for formatting, I'll try to make it as clear as possible.

Edit: Literally as I was writing this I discovered the Oil Burner building (this is my first time playing w/ petroleum handling) and it threw everything out of whack, and changed the whole tone of this post.


Recipe: Crude Oil -> CM @ 500C
100 Crude + 4 Coke -> 100 CM @ 500C /3 seconds
=> 33.3 Crude + 1.33 Coke -> 33.3 CM @ 500C / second
=> 6.78 MW
However, the 1.33 Coke @ 5 MJ each = 6.66 MW
And Crude is 0.7 MJ @ 33.3/second = 23 MW
So essentially you're just wasting all the crude for nothing if you go this route.
Even with a Mk03 Combustion Turbine, you're still only going to get 23 MW which is still a loss.


Recipe: Fuel Oil -> CM @ 800C
200 Crude -> 100 Fuel / 2 seconds
100 Fuel + 4 Coke -> 150 CM @ 800C / 3 seconds
Simplifying to per second
100 Crude -> 50 Fuel
33.3 Fuel + 1.33 Coke -> 50 CM @ 800C
Using the same 33.3 Crude/second as recipe 1 for comparison
33.3 Crude -> 16.67 Fuel (+ 0.66 Coke) -> 25 CM @ 800C
=> 8.24 MW
This time we only used 0.66 Coke/second @ 5 MJ => 3.25 MW
We're still using the same amount of Crude though, which was 23 MW from before
Note: Fuel oil has a slight increase in fuel value from crude, but it just makes this math worse.
Still a big loss, but not quite as much. With a Mk03 Combustion turbine you do see a slight power gain, but by the point you can make those you have better options elsewhere.

I'm not going to put the math here but a quick look at other flammable fluids makes it seem like anything that I can throw into an oil burner will out perform taking the steps to convert it to Combustion mixture.

tl;dr It seems that Crude or its products or any flammable fluid should never be converted into Combustion mixture, at least early game. I haven't dug though all the late game recipes so there might be a way to use it later. If you do want to power your base with fluids, just use the Oil Burner.


Bonus Math: Or a recipe that seems to be worth it?

Recipe: Hydrogen -> CM @ 520C
200 Hydrogen + 3 Coke -> 150 CM @ 520C / 3 seconds
Simplifying to per second
66.6 H2 + 1 Coke -> 50 CM @ 520C
=> 10.6 MW
This time we're depending on Electrolyzers to generate the hydrogen which is a non insignificant power consumption. According to the Factory Planner mod this will require just over 1 MW of power, taking that away from our 10.6 MW we have a net gain now of 9.6 MW
We're still using 1 Coke / second @ 5 MJ => 5 MW
=> For each MJ of Coke we're getting 1.96 MW of CM
Not a bad increase, just under doubling our original input, and this time the only resource we're using is water, which is infinite.

[kingarthur]

well the biggest advantage the combustion mixture has over the other options is space. you can get far more power out of a given area compared to steam engines.

[immortal_sniper1]

yes just a few recipes re worth it syngas Loil Hoil if from distilling and H2

but when it comes to size it is much smaller and after a point it becomes much more UPS light then boilers

[BlueTemplar]

My main issue with combustion mixtures is that so far, for all those that I've already mathed out, they're much more polluting than the best (for latest 0.16 at least - might not be relevant in 0.17 ?) option : shrooms => coke => boilers.

[immortal_sniper1]

My main issue with combustion mixtures is that so far, for all those that I've already mathed out, they're much more polluting than the best (for latest 0.16 at least - might not be relevant in 0.17 ?) option : shrooms => coke => boilers.

LOL i never even thought of pollution tho this can be fixed by py pretty fast

and the shroom way was the power for my first and second based it killed my ups in the 2-3GW range