Distiller

Draw

20 FE/t

Buffer

20,000 FE

Tanks

8,000 mB each

Inputs

Three slots

Upgrades

None

ID

enthalpy:distiller

What it does#

The Distiller turns sugar cane, apples, potatoes and melon slices into ethanol. Ethanol burns in the Ignition Engine and, mixed with plant oil in the Reaction Vat, makes biodiesel.

It works one item at a time, but it has three input slots. Each time it finishes an item, every other filled slot has a one in five chance of distilling an item alongside for free. Keep all three slots stocked and it quietly outpaces its own rate.

Lava makes it faster. With lava in its tank it spends twice the power each tick and finishes in half the time, using a little lava per item.

Building it#

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It will not run until there is a cauldron on top. Place one and the Distiller turns it into its own open vat, with the ethanol showing inside. Pipes on the cauldron can drain ethanol too.

Using it#

Drop crops into any of the three input slots. The header reads Needs a cauldron until the cauldron is on top; after that it shows the power it is using.

Distiller20 FE/tRunning

FE

32

16

5

Inventory

mB

Auto-inputAuto-outputSoundsRedstone

Always

Low

High

• Distils crops into ethanol; needs a cauldron on top, which it sets into itself
• Sugar cane, apples and potatoes: 80 mB each; melon slices: 20 mB
• Works one item at a time, with a 20% chance each other slot distils one too
• Lava doubles its speed, at 20 mB per item
• Lava goes in through input faces; ethanol comes out of output faces

Side ConfigULRDBInputOutputBothNone1234567

1. 1
   The power buffer. Distilling takes a lot of FE per item, so a bigger supply helps.
2. 2
   Running while it distils. Idle when it has nothing to distil, is out of power, or the ethanol tank is full.
3. 3
   The three input slots. It takes crops with a distilling recipe and works down the slots in order. The other filled slots can bonus-distil alongside.
4. 4
   The lava tank, with a red border. It is optional: with lava the Distiller runs twice as fast. Lava goes in through input faces, by pipe or bucket.
5. 5
   Fills as the current item is distilled.
6. 6
   The ethanol tank. It fills until you drain it; a full tank pauses the machine. Drain it with a bucket, by pipes on an output face, or from the cauldron on top.
7. 7
   Which faces take crops and lava, and which give ethanol.

Recipes#

3,200 FE

80 mB

800 FE

20 mB

3,200 FE

80 mB

3,200 FE

80 mB

Starchy and sugary crops give four times as much as a melon slice, so melons are a poor use of the machine.

Automation#

Every face is open by default. Change them as you need:

Every face Input & Output (takes crops and lava, gives ethanol). Auto-input off, Auto-output off.

Crops go into any face set to input, and lava goes through them too; hoppers only fill the crop slots, and pipes fill the lava tank. Ethanol leaves through output faces, and auto-output pushes it into neighbouring tanks and pipes. Side configuration explains faces, modes and redstone control for every machine.

Upgrades#

It takes no tier kits or modules.

If you want it faster, give it lava. That is its only speed-up.

Good to know#

• It sets an empty cauldron into its own vat on its own. A cauldron with water in it is left as it is, so empty it first.
• Lava is only spent when an item finishes, and only when the tank has enough for it. With no lava, it simply runs at normal speed.
• The bonus distilling only happens between different filled slots, so keep two or three stocked rather than one big stack.
• Each batch of ethanol arrives whole, so a nearly full ethanol tank can stall it even with room for part of a batch.

Related#

• Fuel chains: from crops to ethanol and biodiesel
• Fluids: what ethanol is for
• Reaction Vat: ethanol and plant oil into biodiesel
• Vortex Separator: where the plant oil comes from