So I've got an idea for "tier-2" production of lubricant (and maybe ethanol too) that would seem to be inline with the Rotarycraft philosophy and style and I don't think it's been brought up yet.
Coal gassification is the process of converting coal into
syngas, a fuel gas mixture. The operation of one type of gassifier is detailed
here with a nice diagram to boot.
This syngas can then be converted using the
Fischer–Tropsch process into hydrocarbon products such as synthetic lubrication oil and synthetic fuel. The catalysts used are typically either Iron or Ruthenium with Ruthenium yielding higher molecular weight hydrocarbons. Iron is pretty self explanatory in Minecraft and Ruthenium is a platinum-group metal so platinum ingots or "shiny" ingots should be able to function as the catalyst.
In the diagram below, I've simplified both processes into two machines which are fed a variety of resources and heated in order to produce lubricant and optionally ethanol. In order to determine the output of the Fischer-Tropsch reaction chamber, you could change between iron and platinum catalyst and adjust the heat to a different temperature. Since the reaction chamber would produce liquids, the ethanol would need to be pumped into engines or into the Fluid Crystallizer. Omitting ethanol production and using only an iron catalyst would allow this system to operate with only vanilla and rotarycraft items and only the addition of syngas as a liquid. Also, with syngas being primarily hydrogen and CO, maybe it could be used as a liquid fuel for heaters? I split it up into two machines instead of one because the gassifier has quite a few inputs and it would lead to a cluttered block with pipes all around it (small multiblock tower maybe for additional in/out?). Anywho, let me know what you guys think.