Biomass Vs. Biofuel?

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ItsAllgood6694

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Jul 29, 2019
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Hello, I'v been wondering what the most efficient use of my biomass is? Im looking to make the most buildcraft MJ possible, so my question is: what will produce more? Boimass in the biogas engine or refine the biomass into biofuel and put it in a combustion engine? I understand that its a 10:3 ratio when you put it through a still and both produce 5 MJ/t in their respective engines. This would make biomass better right? Any help provided is greatly appreciated.
 

Larroke

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Jul 29, 2019
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I bucket of fuel burns significantly longer then 1 bucket of biomass (40,000 ticks opposed to 10,000 ticks) both run at 5MJ/T so that means the values are 50K MJ - biomass, 200K MJ - BioFuel. Since it takes 10 buckets of mass to make 3 buckets of fuel that still leaves BioFuel with 20% more energy potential as Biomass but adds the need for additional complication required with teh combustion engine.

The other advantage though to fuel, is you can pump it into a liquid fueled boiler for the ultimate power system.

I keep a 5x5x5 biomass tank full primarily as a buffer with a 3x3x5 biofuel tank full as the feed into my boiler(s). works like a charm. So I at any time have access to which ever if I needed it portable for engines.
 

Malkuth

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Jul 29, 2019
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I only use biomass.. But like the post above.. Its the best way to go.. Totally skip over the Combustion engines and go straight for Liquid Fueled boiler...

But I found that I don't really need all that power for MJ anyway... But I might do it eventually.. Just to say I can... Plus you can convert to EU if you go the Boiler route.
 

eculc

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Jul 29, 2019
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I believe that using the still to convert biomass to biofuel is an energy-neutral process -- that is, the energy received from using biogas engines is equal to the energy you get using biofuel engines minus the cost of converting into biofuel. they're equal, except that you can use biofuel in combustion engines and liquid boilers.
 

Malkuth

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Jul 29, 2019
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I believe that using the still to convert biomass to biofuel is an energy-neutral process -- that is, the energy received from using biogas engines is equal to the energy you get using biofuel engines minus the cost of converting into biofuel. they're equal, except that you can use biofuel in combustion engines and liquid boilers.

If Larroke math is correct then I don't think its Neutral.. Like Said I only use biomass anyway.. But seems like its correct. Are you saying he forgot to add the Fuel used to make the Biogas from a Still? Which maybe you would be correct..
 

Peppe

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Jul 29, 2019
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I bucket of fuel burns significantly longer then 1 bucket of biomass (40,000 ticks opposed to 10,000 ticks) both run at 5MJ/T so that means the values are 50K MJ - biomass, 200K MJ - BioFuel. Since it takes 10 buckets of mass to make 3 buckets of fuel that still leaves BioFuel with 20% more energy potential as Biomass but adds the need for additional complication required with teh combustion engine.

The other advantage though to fuel, is you can pump it into a liquid fueled boiler for the ultimate power system.

I keep a 5x5x5 biomass tank full primarily as a buffer with a 3x3x5 biofuel tank full as the feed into my boiler(s). works like a charm. So I at any time have access to which ever if I needed it portable for engines.

The conversion cost in a still is not insignificant... i think it was like 26k or so per bucket of biofuel.

You could burn 10 buckets of biomass for 500k mj or 3 buckets biofuel for 600k - ~75k conversion costs = 525k mj.

So net biofuel vs biomass is about the same fuel just down to your preference on engines.

3x3 Liquid boilers give a little bump to biofuel making it more efficient than biomass and could be worth heatup costs.

Comparing all the options it all the fuels and production options are pretty balanced. Biomass engines vs combustion engines have their upsides and downside. Combustion vs Boiler has its upsides and downsides as well, so you as the player can make a choice of any of them and have a good powerplant.
 

Larroke

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Jul 29, 2019
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Yes, conversion costs.. didn't think it was that high though. Issue with using boilers / automation /renewable fuels too much you begin to get blind to the costs of things.

its still 5%, but with it being renewable.. it really comes down to how many steps do you want to toy with. Once fully automated, it just doesn't matter either way (fuel or mass).

If your manually toting fuel cans out to quarries though... Then it does matter, with fuel you'd have to visit that quarry 1/4 as much to refuel (each bucket of fuel is 33.4 minutes, mass only 8.3 minutes. really though, who doesn't automate this as well?
 

MilConDoin

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Jul 29, 2019
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The 26k are per 3 buckets of biofuel (a fuel tank of 10 buckets of biomass), not per bucket.
 

Guswut

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Jul 29, 2019
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If your manually toting fuel cans out to quarries though... Then it does matter, with fuel you'd have to visit that quarry 1/4 as much to refuel (each bucket of fuel is 33.4 minutes, mass only 8.3 minutes. really though, who doesn't automate this as well?

Why would you be manually moving fuel out to your quarry? If you can afford the diamonds for the quarry, you can afford the cost of two liquid tesseracts or two ender chests and two turtles to load and unload your fuel into and out of your system.
 

Larroke

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Jul 29, 2019
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Why would you be manually moving fuel out to your quarry? If you can afford the diamonds for the quarry, you can afford the cost of two liquid tesseracts or two ender chests and two turtles to load and unload your fuel into and out of your system.

Hence the comment.... at the end...

But perhaps some people just Choose not to use Tesseracts (it happens), and choose not to automate fuel delivery (very sad) or lack the understanding of the components to do it (it happens) which is what the "IF" covers.
 

Guswut

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Jul 29, 2019
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Hence the comment.... at the end...

But perhaps some people just Choose not to use Tesseracts (it happens), and choose not to automate fuel delivery (very sad) or lack the understanding of the components to do it (it happens) which is what the "IF" covers.

There was a challenge flying around to go through the entire game not using the 3x3 crafting grid at all.

People are going to decide to do things that don't make sense (for example, I like biofuel because of the color. Also, I did the above challenge. Let me tell you, creeper mining for coal is fun stuff!) when you think about it logically. The best course of action is usually something that becomes the popular course of action (until it is nerfed by Greg, heh heh heh), so it isn't really the type of thing that consideration is required to deal with as such.

If someone knows enough to know how to use a quarry, I'd expect them to have some basic knowledge on how to power it, which includes getting power to said quarry automatically. It may be unfair of me, but if I read up about a quarry allowing mining to go on whilst I was not there, I'd be wondering how the heck I was going to power it while I wasn't there.
 

Bibble

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Jul 29, 2019
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I usually find myself going straight to biofuel because:
A) When I start messing with it, it's usually to get my excess of saplings to a more manageable state.
B) It's a little easier to convert to either MJ or EU, depending on need.
C) It's got a higher storage density (a tank will store more MJ of biofuel than biomass).

Also, I tend to set up a power loop, whereby the biomass is first used to power the entire process, before the excess is distilled.
 

ItsAllgood6694

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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Okay thank you all for replying so quickly, I think my question has been thoroughly answered. I think ill go with the biofuel in the liquid boiler myself for a renewable way to get my power. Thanks again for all the quick replies.