fact-check my power plant brainstorm

[draeath]

Does this look solid, or are there any gaping holes that I am not aware of? This would be my first time using MJ as a primary power source (I usually use IC2 EU). FTB Unleashed 1.1.3

Automated Wheat farms -> Wheat/Seeds -> Plantballs (undecided on how to actually farm the wheat, open to suggestions)
Some wheat pulled aside for compost (directly in recipe)
Some plantballs pulled aside for compost (macerate to dirt)
Once I have plantballs and compost, I would process in fermenters to biomass, and from there in stills for ethanol.

I would then be able to use the ethanol directly in combustion engines, or in a railcraft boiler. I realize I can use the biomass directly, but that 30% ratio sounds awfully nice (almost on-par with oil:fuel)

Doing some research a good ratio of fermenters to stills is 2:9, so I will use that as my base "unit" and create farms as required to fill that. I'm not decided on how to power things yet, I'm only concerned with raw production right now. I'm aware that I would need to "jump-start" this system with MJ to get things moving, but I should have a net-positive in MJ output even after powering the machines required for all of this.

Am I on the right track? If I'm looking at things right, I should have no "waste" products from all of this, only possible surplus of wheat/seeds (which is OK with me - stick em in a DSU and they are there if you need them)

 

[SatanicSanta]

Sounds doable. I recommend an mfr harvester

 

[CreepaCatcha]

The only problem i would worry about is the production rate of the farms. if you're resource rich it wouldn't be hard to set up (MFR planters and harvesters) but you would need lots of farms to sustain whatever is making the power. (most likely a steam boiler) After it heats up and the fuel cost settles down you could re-purpose some of the farms

Besides that, it is a great idea-one that i would have never thought of to be fair.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Plantballs are notoriously bad for generating biomass. While it seems theoretically possible, I don't think it would be very viable.

In fact, looking over the numbers, you're basically screwing yourself. Wheat by itself produces 100 mB biomass, it takes 8 wheat to make one plantball, which only produces 400 mB, so you are halving your output by not just using wheat straight.

Cactus and Sugar Cane each produce 200 mB biomass, it would likely be much more viable to create a sugarcane or cactus farm and run it off of that.

 

[draeath]

Ah, good catch! I'd still need to handle plantballs though, else any extra seeds collected would be wasted (you can make plantballs from them).

Unless you can ferment them directly?

EDIT: I'd need some for compost anyway, one of the few renewable-friendly ways to get dirt is to macerate plantballs.
EDIT2: I'd -still- need some way to get dirt even if I went with cactus, but sugarcane would work - since that would allow cane -> plantball -> dirt (macerator)
EDIT3: I think if I went with cactus I'd just go direct to the boiler with cactus coke. I think I'll set up a cane farm. Now to figure out how to farm it - I don't want to just use pistons/water like you can do in vanilla. Would a farming cart be able to take off only the top of the cane if the rail was raised up?

 

[MigukNamja]

For flavor, I vote an SC2 mining cart that breaks the dirt, AE transition planes that collects dirt, wheat, and seeds, a turtle to replace the dirt blocks, and an MFR planter to till the soil and plant the seeds. As a bonus, you can add a stone golem to keep the planter stocked.

 

[draeath]

AE transition planes that collects dirt

On Unleashed 1.1.3? That's entirely too Rube Goldberg for me, though

 

[UrNotFunny]

You could use MFR to add Cows to your production cycle. Just have some of them in a pen with a Sewer (with upgrade to cover the whole area) and a composter and you could make Industrial Fertilizer which could be used with a MFR Fertilizer to speed up your wheat growth and make the farm produce more without increasing its size. I'm not sure if Industrial Fertilizer works in Fermenters or not, if so you could get rid of the wheat completely.

My Biofuel production is running from an MFR tree farm. Planter + Harvester gathers saplings, wood and apples. Apples are sent to a Squeezer and the mulch and fruit juice is used in the Fermenter which processes the saplings for biomass -> Stills -> steam boiler. The byproduct wood is turned into charcoal for another fuel source.

I'm only running 1 farm, 1 fermenter 4 stills and 1 liquid boiler right now and I have excess biofuel production to start another boiler when I am ready for it. I imagine if you went 2 fermenters and 9 stills you would need quite a lot of biostuff to keep it running and have a huge biofuel production.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Ah, good catch! I'd still need to handle plantballs though, else any extra seeds collected would be wasted (you can make plantballs from them).

Unless you can ferment them directly?

EDIT: I'd need some for compost anyway, one of the few renewable-friendly ways to get dirt is to macerate plantballs.
EDIT2: I'd -still- need some way to get dirt even if I went with cactus, but sugarcane would work - since that would allow cane -> plantball -> dirt (macerator)
EDIT3: I think if I went with cactus I'd just go direct to the boiler with cactus coke. I think I'll set up a cane farm. Now to figure out how to farm it - I don't want to just use pistons/water like you can do in vanilla. Would a farming cart be able to take off only the top of the cane if the rail was raised up?

Seeds can be used to make plantballs to make dirt to make compost. Wheat can be left alone. So any spare seeds that aren't replanted can be dedicated to plantballs while your wheat does everything else and still run it all on a wheat farm.

Still don't know how viable it would be, but it would be about twice as viable as your original system.

 

[MigukNamja]

You could use MFR to add Cows to your production cycle. Just have some of them in a pen with a Sewer (with upgrade to cover the whole area) and a composter and you could make Industrial Fertilizer which could be used with a MFR Fertilizer to speed up your wheat growth and make the farm produce more without increasing its size. I'm not sure if Industrial Fertilizer works in Fermenters or not, if so you could get rid of the wheat completely.

My Biofuel production is running from an MFR tree farm. Planter + Harvester gathers saplings, wood and apples. Apples are sent to a Squeezer and the mulch and fruit juice is used in the Fermenter which processes the saplings for biomass -> Stills -> steam boiler. The byproduct wood is turned into charcoal for another fuel source.

I'm only running 1 farm, 1 fermenter 4 stills and 1 liquid boiler right now and I have excess biofuel production to start another boiler when I am ready for it. I imagine if you went 2 fermenters and 9 stills you would need quite a lot of biostuff to keep it running and have a huge biofuel production.

MFR tree farms are great for wood production, but not so much for saplings for biomass --> biofuel/ethanol. Forestry farms are great at sapling production, but less so at wood production.

 

[draeath]

How do the forestry farms work these days? I see lots of whining about lots of extra blocks - but I've not tried them since it was as simple as slapping a wheat farm and combine down and powering them.

I might go that route, I was worried about getting enough mulch from the apples but as it works for UrNotFunny I might go that way. Wood production would be secondary to the saplings and apples - I could use the charcoal for other things easily enough or perhaps in a small solid-fuel boiler to supplement steam output.

UrNotFunny, how are your 'excesses' with that arrangement? Do you find yourself close to the wire or are you drowning in apples?

 

[MigukNamja]

If you can make 1 block, you can make 36 to 100. The part that's not fun for most people are all the steps that are involved, like the Tin Electron Tubes from the Thermionic Fabricator. Then, the tricky part with the Farm Gearbox, Farm Hatch, and Farm Valve. It's easy once you do it once, but the first time, it can be very frustrating figuring exactly what to do and what to place where.

My setup is 1x gearbox, 1x valve, and 1x hatch on the bottom edges. That way, I can use the bottom or the side face. I then put 2x hatches on top and put a vanilla hopper on top of each, with a chest or barrel on top of the hoppers. In one chest/barrel, I'll put dirt. In the other, I'll fertilizer. As for power, it should only require 1 or 2 MJ/t at most. It also doesn't use much water. A single pump with a single redstone engine is way more than enough. And, the hatches will auto-eject their bottom face into a pipe or into chest or hopper then a chest.

As for mulch from apples, you will get plenty - more than plenty. You just have to alternate apple juice with water if you want to convert all your saplings to biomass. But, even then, you'll get way more mulch than you need.

Until/unless you breed trees to get the super-fruity ones, you won't get enough fruit (apples) into squeezers to match the saplings. You'll have to alternate juice with water.

Late-game, I'll either breed trees to get better trees, or just switch from apple juice to honey. I usually end up with 6 to 12 alveraries anyways.

 

[draeath]

Does apple juice just speed the reaction, or do you actually get more ethanol out of it?

Also, I have no idea what any of those things (aside from the fabricator) are, or what they do, or how to arrange them. I'm sure there's information around but I'm kind of lost as to figuring out what actually applies to the version in the pack. Do you have any videos you'd recommend that cover them?

EDIT: any particular tree species I would want to use? I don't know what trees actually grow apples. I'm OK with tree breeding though I've never done that before - but I believe I understand the mechanics (eg even how to get butterflies to work indoors for faster breeding)

 

[MigukNamja]

Same speed, but you get more biomass out of it, which results in more ethanol. Juice has a 1.5.x multiplier compared to water.

As for video, yes, there are several good ones. Here's one I like, starting @ 3:58

 

[Wekmor]

You can tell it's a spotlight by direwolf, you can see him wielding a diamond sword in the thumbnail :d

 

[MigukNamja]

LOL, I never noticed, but now that you mention it, yeah ;-)

 

[draeath]

Shoot, that consumes... some kind of soil block but it's not dirt. As well, am I able to use mulch as a fertilizer? I'm trying to avoid any kind of mining requirements (basically I'm after a closed loop)

 

[MigukNamja]

You can use MFR compost turned into Forestry Fertilizer, which is made from sewage into an MFR Composer. The sewage is a liquid from MFR Sewers, which is collected passively (no power required) when an MFR Sewer is on the same grass level as cows. Other animals might work, too, but I've only used cows.

That's a lot of work for just fertilizer. Just 1 or 2 apatite nodes is usually enough to keep a multifarm going for a week or so, assuming server with the farm chunkloaded all the time. If single-player, a single apatite node will last virtually forever.

MFR farms are easier, but I like Forestry ones for the ability to put better (bred) trees in there.

 

[draeath]

Ah, well - this thing needs to be able to run for weeks upon weeks unattended 24/7 I don't play enough and don't want to have to tend to it when I do, once it's up and running

Is that soil-like block only used for initial setup? Or does it require periodic replacement?

 

[draeath]

Wait, does mulch/compost really work? From the wiki:

Though compost and mulch can both replace fertilizer anywhere else, only phosphorous fertilizer ground from apatite gems statisfies these needs of a farm.

This is unclear to me. It seems to imply only apatite works!?