Refinery

The Refinery is a building used for crafting recipes involving fluids. Most notably, this includes recipes transforming  Crude Oil into  Rubber,  Plastic, or  Fuel, but it is also used as part of advanced production recipes, such as refining  Bauxite into  Alumina Solution and then further into  Aluminum Scrap. It has one Pipeline and one Conveyor Belt connectors for both input and output, allowing for the production and consumption of recipes involving fluids and/or solid items.

The Refinery is noteworthy for producing by-products as part of its process. For example, refining Crude Oil into Rubber produces  Heavy Oil Residue, which must be dealt with, or else production of the primary output will stop.

Recipes

Recipe	Ingredients	Duration	Products	Unlocked by
Alumina Solution	12 × Bauxite120 / min 18 × Water180 / min	6 sec	12 × Alumina Solution120 / min 5 × Silica50 / min	Tier 7 - Bauxite Refinement
Aluminum Scrap	4 × Alumina Solution240 / min 2 × Coal120 / min	1 sec	6 × Aluminum Scrap360 / min 2 × Water120 / min	Tier 7 - Bauxite Refinement
Fuel	6 × Crude Oil60 / min	6 sec	4 × Fuel40 / min 3 × Polymer Resin30 / min	Tier 5 - Oil Processing
Ionized Fuel	16 × Rocket Fuel40 / min 1 × Power Shard2.5 / min	24 sec	16 × Ionized Fuel40 / min 2 × Compacted Coal5 / min	MAM Sulfur Research - Ionized Fuel
Liquid Biofuel	6 × Solid Biofuel90 / min 3 × Water45 / min	4 sec	4 × Liquid Biofuel60 / min	Tier 5 - Fluid Packaging
Petroleum Coke	4 × Heavy Oil Residue40 / min	6 sec	12 × Petroleum Coke120 / min	Tier 5 - Oil Processing
Plastic	3 × Crude Oil30 / min	6 sec	2 × Plastic20 / min 1 × Heavy Oil Residue10 / min	Tier 5 - Oil Processing
Residual Fuel	6 × Heavy Oil Residue60 / min	6 sec	4 × Fuel40 / min	Tier 5 - Oil Processing
Residual Plastic	6 × Polymer Resin60 / min 2 × Water20 / min	6 sec	2 × Plastic20 / min	Tier 5 - Oil Processing
Residual Rubber	4 × Polymer Resin40 / min 4 × Water40 / min	6 sec	2 × Rubber20 / min	Tier 5 - Oil Processing
Rubber	3 × Crude Oil30 / min	6 sec	2 × Rubber20 / min 2 × Heavy Oil Residue20 / min	Tier 5 - Oil Processing
Smokeless Powder	2 × Black Powder20 / min 1 × Heavy Oil Residue10 / min	6 sec	2 × Smokeless Powder20 / min	MAM Sulfur Research - Smokeless Powder
Sulfuric Acid	5 × Sulfur50 / min 5 × Water50 / min	6 sec	5 × Sulfuric Acid50 / min	Tier 7 - Control System Development
Coated Cable Alternate	5 × Wire37.5 / min 2 × Heavy Oil Residue15 / min	8 sec	9 × Cable67.5 / min	Tier 5 - Oil Processing
Diluted Packaged Fuel Alternate	1 × Heavy Oil Residue30 / min 2 × Packaged Water60 / min	2 sec	2 × Packaged Fuel60 / min	Tier 5 - Oil Processing
Electrode Aluminum Scrap Alternate	12 × Alumina Solution180 / min 4 × Petroleum Coke60 / min	4 sec	20 × Aluminum Scrap300 / min 7 × Water105 / min	Tier 7 - Bauxite Refinement
Heavy Oil Residue Alternate	3 × Crude Oil30 / min	6 sec	4 × Heavy Oil Residue40 / min 2 × Polymer Resin20 / min	Tier 5 - Oil Processing
Leached Caterium Ingot Alternate	9 × Caterium Ore54 / min 5 × Sulfuric Acid30 / min	10 sec	6 × Caterium Ingot36 / min	Tier 7 - Control System Development
Leached Copper Ingot Alternate	9 × Copper Ore45 / min 5 × Sulfuric Acid25 / min	12 sec	22 × Copper Ingot110 / min	Tier 7 - Control System Development
Leached Iron Ingot Alternate	5 × Iron Ore50 / min 1 × Sulfuric Acid10 / min	6 sec	10 × Iron Ingot100 / min	Tier 7 - Control System Development
Polyester Fabric Alternate	1 × Polymer Resin30 / min 1 × Water30 / min	2 sec	1 × Fabric30 / min	MAM Mycelia Research - Synthetic Polyester Fabric
Polymer Resin Alternate	6 × Crude Oil60 / min	6 sec	13 × Polymer Resin130 / min 2 × Heavy Oil Residue20 / min	Tier 5 - Oil Processing
Pure Caterium Ingot Alternate	2 × Caterium Ore24 / min 2 × Water24 / min	5 sec	1 × Caterium Ingot12 / min	MAM Caterium Research - Caterium OR Tier 5 - Oil Processing
Pure Copper Ingot Alternate	6 × Copper Ore15 / min 4 × Water10 / min	24 sec	15 × Copper Ingot37.5 / min	Tier 5 - Oil Processing
Pure Iron Ingot Alternate	7 × Iron Ore35 / min 4 × Water20 / min	12 sec	13 × Iron Ingot65 / min	Tier 5 - Oil Processing
Pure Quartz Crystal Alternate	9 × Raw Quartz67.5 / min 5 × Water37.5 / min	8 sec	7 × Quartz Crystal52.5 / min	MAM Quartz Research - Quartz Crystals OR Tier 5 - Oil Processing
Quartz Purification Alternate	24 × Raw Quartz120 / min 2 × Nitric Acid10 / min	12 sec	15 × Quartz Crystal75 / min 12 × Dissolved Silica60 / min	Tier 7 - Control System Development
Recycled Plastic Alternate	6 × Rubber30 / min 6 × Fuel30 / min	12 sec	12 × Plastic60 / min	Tier 5 - Oil Processing
Recycled Rubber Alternate	6 × Plastic30 / min 6 × Fuel30 / min	12 sec	12 × Rubber60 / min	Tier 5 - Oil Processing
Sloppy Alumina Alternate	10 × Bauxite200 / min 10 × Water200 / min	3 sec	12 × Alumina Solution240 / min	Tier 7 - Bauxite Refinement
Steamed Copper Sheet Alternate	3 × Copper Ingot22.5 / min 3 × Water22.5 / min	8 sec	3 × Copper Sheet22.5 / min	Tier 3 - Coal Power
Turbo Heavy Fuel Alternate	5 × Heavy Oil Residue37.5 / min 4 × Compacted Coal30 / min	8 sec	4 × Turbofuel30 / min	Tier 5 - Oil Processing OR MAM Sulfur Research - Compacted Coal
Turbofuel Alternate	6 × Fuel22.5 / min 4 × Compacted Coal15 / min	16 sec	5 × Turbofuel18.75 / min	MAM Sulfur Research - Turbofuel
Wet Concrete Alternate	6 × Limestone120 / min 5 × Water100 / min	3 sec	4 × Concrete80 / min	Tier 3 - Coal Power

Overclocking

Main article: Clock speed

The Refinery can be overclocked using Power Shards. Overclocking increases the input/output speed of the Refinery at the cost of exponentially increased power demand.

Clock speed	25%	50%	75%	100%	150%	200%	250%
Consumption (MW)	4.8	12	20.51	30	51.27	75	100.73

By-products

A Refinery stops working if any of its output, whether the belt slot or the fluid slot, is fully backed up if the recipe involves by-products. To keep the refinery running, BOTH its products must be constantly removed from it.

• To handle solid by-products: Connect the Conveyor to an AWESOME Sink via a Smart Splitter with an 'Overflow' rule.
• To handle fluid by-products: Connect the Pipeline with a pipe overflow mechanism, then package the fluid with Empty Canisters. The packaged fluid can then be sent to the AWESOME Sink.
• It is also possible to remove fluid manually by holding down the by-products icon and dragging it to the trash can slot in inventory. The fluid is destroyed using this process.
  • Heavy Oil Residue can be converted to Petroleum Coke, which is way faster than packaging and also doesn't consume any plastic.

Head lift

Main article: Head lift

A Refinery has a recommended head lift of 10 meters, measured from the center of its pipe outlet.

Details of how it works

Internal buffers

The Refinery has internal buffers on its inputs and outputs. The amount of stuff in these buffers is visible in the UI in-game.

• For the solid (belt) input, the buffer size is one stack of items. The exact number of items depends on which item it is. In this Wiki, you can see the "Stack size" on each item page.
• For the fluid (pipe) input, the buffer size is 50 m³ of fluid.
• For the solid (belt) output, the buffer size is one stack of items. The exact number of items depends on which item it is. In this Wiki, you can see the "Stack size" on each item page.
• For the fluid (pipe) output, the buffer size is 50 m³ of fluid.

Accepting inputs

A Refinery that does not have a recipe set, or does not have power, will not accept items or fluids on its inputs. A Refinery that has a recipe set and has power:

• will accept items into its belt input until the internal item input buffer is full.
• will accept fluids into its pipe input until the internal fluid input buffer is full.

The Refinery will take fluid from its input pipe, and put it into its input buffer, regardless of the fluid level in the input pipe. If the flow into the input pipe is not enough, then the Refinery can completely empty the input pipe.

Fluids will never flow out of the input buffer back into the input pipe. They can only flow from the input pipe into the input buffer.

The Refinery will only accept the items and fluids that are needed for the selected recipe. Other items will not be taken into the Refinery. Note that the wrong item on a belt will block the belt, preventing any more items going into the Refinery, until the Pioneer manually fixes the problem.

The Pioneer can manually load items from their inventory into the item input buffer, or take items from that buffer to their inventory. There is no way to manually load fluid into a Refinery.

Making the recipe

A Refinery will make the selected recipe if all the following are true:

• it has a recipe set.
• it has power.
• it has not been turned off with the "Standby" switch in the UI.
• for all the inputs, there is enough materials in the internal buffers to make the recipe.
• for all the outputs, there is enough free space in the internal buffers to hold the results of the recipe.

If any of those are false, then it will not make the selected recipe.

In particular, note that if there's not enough space in the output buffers, then the Refinery will not even start to make the recipe. It will sit idle until there's space. Once there is space, (if the other conditions are true), then it will start to make the recipe, which will take the time specified in the recipe.

For example, the Aluminum_Scrap recipe requires 4 Alumina Solution in the input fluid buffer, and 2 Coal in the input item buffer. It also requires space for 6 Aluminum_Scrap in its output item buffer. Since Aluminum_Scrap has a stack size of 500, there needs to be no more than 500 - 6 = 494 Aluminum Scrap already in the output item buffer. It also requires space for 2 m³ Water in its output fluid buffer, so there needs to be no more than 50 - 2 = 48 m³ Water already in the output fluid buffer.

Outputs

A Refinery will output solid items on to the belt from its output item buffer. This will happen even if the Refinery has no power or has been turned off.

If a Refinery has power and is turned on, then it will try to output fluids from its internal fluid output buffer to the output pipe. If a Refinery has no power, or has been turned off, then fluids will not flow out of the internal output buffer, even if the connected pipe is completely empty.

Fluids will never flow from the output pipe back into the output buffer. They can only flow from the output buffer to the output pipe.

The Pioneer can manually take items from the item output buffer to their inventory. There is no way to manually take fluid from a Refinery. There is no way to manually add anything to either output buffer.

Changing recipe

If you change the recipe, then any items in the input and output buffers will go into your inventory. Any fluids in the input and output buffers will be instantly destroyed.

This even applies if the new recipe uses the same things as the old recipe (e.g. both needing Water input).

If there is not enough free space in your inventory for all the items, then they will all go into a new Dismantle Crate that will appear on the floor directly underneath the Pioneer.

Tips

• Oil-product refining is a multistage process, and the uses of specific machines tend to change. A useful technique is to wrap a stack of belts and pipes up one side of a row of Refineries, around the far end and down the other side, with the output side of the Refineries facing toward the origin of the belt. This way, individual Refineries can be easily reconnected to different inputs and outputs, and any Refinery in the complex can draw from the output of any other.
• Placing Refineries in the center of a 5-foundation-wide slab and running input/output manifolds through the center of the outermost foundations places them at the perfect distance to be reached by a Conveyor Lift or vertical pipe branch.

Trivia

• Refineries were originally called Oil Refineries prior to Update 3 which changed the look of the Refinery along with introducing more Liquids and Pipelines.
• Refineries in Update 3 could initially package and un-package Liquids prior to moving that function to the Packager in a later Update 3 game patch.

See also

• Oil Extractor
• Blender
• Packager

Gallery

• 

  A screenshot from the E3 2018 presentation, where Oil Refineries can be seen in the background.
• 

  Early Access Oil Refinery prior to Update 1 (Front View)
• 

  Early Access Oil Refinery UI prior to Update 1
• 

  Update 2 Oil Refinery (Side View)
• 

  A closed-loop of Satisfactory Petrochemical with Plastics, Rubber, and Fuel as final products with no by-product.
• 

  Collapsing the crafting recipe menu at the Refinery's UI to minimize intensive scrolling when selecting a recipe.
• 

  Several blocks of Refineries crafting pure Ingots.
• 

  An end game refinery plan, producing 600 Rubber, 600 plastic, 25 Fabric, and 720 Petroleum Coke/min. You will need to input empty canisters, rubber, and plastic at the beginning.

History

• Patch 0.8.2.9: Some improvements to Pipe SFX causing hitches/stuttering in factories with a lot of Refineries/Blenders built
• Patch 0.8.2.0: Fixed an Audio issue leading to performance hitches in factories with Refineries, including audio optimizations for the Refinery
• Patch 0.3.6:
  • New visuals
    • Slightly smaller size (width from 12 m to 10 m and height from 30 m to 21 m), can now clip through part of the smokestack
  • Moved packaging and unpackaging recipes to the Packager
    • Existing Refineries will continue to work, but it will not be possible to select the recipes on newly built ones
    • Diluted Packaged Fuel wasn't moved as it is not just a packaging recipe (Heavy Oil Residue is being refined to Fuel)
• Patch 0.3.2.2: Reduced power consumption from 50 to 30 MW
• Patch 0.3.1.0: Fixed position
• Patch 0.3:
  • Renamed to Refinery.
  • Now is used to refine other fluids besides Crude Oil
  • Now can package and unpackage liquids
  • Some recipes now produce by-products
  • Added a Pipeline in/output.
• Patch 0.1.9: Adjusted alignments of input and output
• Patch 0.1.5:
  • Changed crafting cost from 2 Heavy Modular Frame, 5 Motor, and 20 Cable to 4 Heavy Modular Frame, 8 Motor, and 25 Cable
  • Changed length and width from 22x13m to 20x12m

Early game development

Prior to Closed Alpha, In early game development there was not a dedicated refinery, but that function was combined in a multi-purpose Manufacturing Plant. In Sprint 6 (week 12), the refinery became its own buildable as a Oil Refinery.

• See also: Game Development - Manufacturing Plant