BlockFactory:Fluids

Water, steam, oil products and acid travel through pipes. You lay your first pipes in Epoch 1 for steam power; later pipe tiers carry oil and gas, and finally corrosive Sulfuric Acid. You can never hold a fluid in your inventory: in recipe windows a fluid shows up as an icon with an amount.

Fluids

Icon	Fluid	Comes from	Needs at least
	Water	Water Pump	Pipe T1
	Steam	Water Boiler, Heat Exchanger	Pipe T1
	Crude Oil	Oil Pumpjack	Pipe T2
	Heavy Oil	Oil Processor	Pipe T2
	Light Oil	Oil Processor, Heavy Oil cracking	Pipe T2
	Petroleum Gas	Oil Processor, Light Oil cracking	Pipe T2
	Lubricant	Fabricator T2/T3 (from Tallow and Water), Chemical Plant (from Heavy Oil)	Pipe T2
	Sulfuric Acid	Chemical Plant (from Sulfur, Iron Plate and Water)	Reinforced Pipe T1

The Field Manual and the recipe browser also show the lowest pipe each fluid needs. How the oil products are made: Oil Processing.

How pipes work

• Pipes connect on their own. A pipe links to pipes on its four sides and to every machine connection that points at it. Pipes do not connect up or down. The shape (straight, end, corner, T, cross) follows from the neighbours.
• One network, one fluid. All connected pipes form one network with one shared content, and a network only takes the fluid it already carries. Keep different fluids in separate pipe runs.
• Each pipe holds 100 units. Flow is not limited by the pipe tier or by distance: a network carries whatever its pumps and machines put in.
• The window in each pipe shows which fluid is inside.
• The weakest pipe decides. If any pipe in a network cannot carry a fluid, the whole network refuses it.
• Two machine connections that point directly at each other also connect, without a pipe in between.
• Pipe and Storage Tank contents are not saved. After a server restart they start empty and refill from pumps and machines within seconds.

Pipes

All pipes are 1 × 1. The tiers differ in which fluids they carry and in their health.

Icon	Pipe	Epoch	Research	Carries	Health	Recipe
	Pipe T1	0	Start	Water, Steam	60	1 Iron Plate
	Pipe T2	2	Fluid Handling	everything except Sulfuric Acid	80	1 Steel Plate + 1 Pipe T1
	Pipe T3	3	Reinforced Pipes	everything except Sulfuric Acid	250	2 Steel Plate → 2
	Reinforced Pipe T1	3	Reinforced Pipes	all fluids	250	2 Steel Plate + 1 Plastic Bar → 2
	Reinforced Pipe T2	4	Fortification	all fluids	250	2 Reinforced Pipe T1 + 1 Rune Slate → 2
	Reinforced Pipe T3	5	Nuclear Power	all fluids	250	1 Reinforced Pipe T2 + 2 Concrete + 1 Steel Plate

Sulfuric Acid is corrosive and needs a Reinforced Pipe.

Underground Pipes

An Underground Pipe connects to a normal pipe at its back and jumps underground to the next Underground Pipe of the same tier in front of it. Place the second one facing the other way, like an underground belt. Each tier only connects to its own tier. Underground Pipes carry every fluid, including Sulfuric Acid.

Icon	Pipe	Epoch	Research	Gap	Recipe
	Underground Pipe T1	2	Fluid Handling	up to 10 blocks	5 Iron Plate + 2 Pipe T2 → 2
	Underground Pipe T2	3	Reinforced Pipes	up to 15 blocks	5 Steel Plate + 2 Pipe T3 → 2
	Underground Pipe T3	4	Fortification	up to 20 blocks	4 Steel Plate + 2 Reinforced Pipe T1 → 2

Pumps and tanks

Icon	Building	Epoch	Research	Size	Capacity	Recipe
	Water Pump	1	Steam Power	1 × 2	pumps 1,200 water/s	2 Electronic Circuit + 1 Pipe T1 + 1 Iron Gear
	Storage Tank	2	Fluid Handling	3 × 3	25,000 units	20 Iron Plate + 5 Steel Plate
	Fluid Pump	3	Reinforced Pipes	1 × 2	200 units	1 Engine Unit + 1 Steel Plate + 1 Pipe T3

• Water Pump: place it at the shore while looking at the water. The walkway goes out over the water, the outlet faces you. It needs no power, but without water in or under its walkway it pumps nothing. One pump supplies 20 Water Boilers, see Power.
• Storage Tank: a buffer for any fluid, with one connection in the middle of each side. Use opens a window with its fluid, fill level and flow (filling, draining or steady). Each side is its own pipe network with a quarter of the capacity (6,250 units); the tank keeps the sides apart and balances them like connected vessels. So a Pipe T1 on one side does not block oil coming in through Pipe T2 on another side; the T1 side simply stays empty.
• Fluid Pump: a small inline buffer with one connection at the back and one at the front. It takes any fluid and shows when fluid is flowing through it.

Crude Oil comes from the Oil Pumpjack, see Oil Processing. To move fluids by train, use a Fluid Wagon, see Railways.

Machine connections

Machines with fluid inputs or outputs have fixed connection points, usually shown as pipe stubs on the model: Water Boiler, Steam Generator, Fabricator T2 and T3, Tree Farm, Oil Processor, Chemical Plant, Oil Pumpjack, Auto Drill (acid for uranium, in the middle of its back), Heat Exchanger and Steam Turbine. A pipe must touch the connection point exactly.

Status icons

Icon	Status	Meaning	Fix
	Wrong Pipe: needs Pipe T2	A machine or pump is connected to a network that cannot carry its fluid (oil or gas in a network with Pipe T1).	Replace the Pipe T1 pieces in that network.
	Wrong Pipe: needs Reinforced Pipe	Sulfuric Acid in a network with normal pipes.	Use Reinforced Pipes for the whole network.
	Tank Full	An output tank of the machine is full, so it stopped.	Connect a pipe that takes the fluid away, or a Storage Tank.

See also

• Power
• Oil Processing
• Nuclear Power
• Railways