Vortex Separator

Draw

20 FE/t

Buffer

20,000 FE

Tanks

8,000 mB each

Lanes

One, up to three with Manifolds

Upgrades

Kits, modules

ID

enthalpy:vortex_separator

What it does#

The Vortex Separator spins things apart. In its normal item mode it takes one item and turns it into a fluid, a second item that only sometimes appears, or both. Oil Globs become crude oil, seeds become vegetable oil, raw fish become fish oil with a chance of Fish Meal, and salt melts into molten salt over a little lava.

Switch it to fluid mode and it stops taking items. It refines fluids instead: crude oil and lava make gasoline, and water and lava make steam. That is the step between a bucket of crude oil from a Slick Eel farm and fuel for the Ignition Engine, and between a water supply and the Kettle Engine.

Building it#

#######

Using it#

In item mode, put items in the top row of the lane. Products leave through the slots below, and any fluid goes into the output tank on the right. Click the tabs to see the Configuration tab, where the mode switch lives.

Vortex Separator20 FE/tRunning

FE

12

Inventory

mB

TierBaseSpeed100%Energy/op100%Buffer20k

Auto-inputAuto-outputFluid modeVoid Tanks

Output

Input

SoundsRedstone

Always

Low

High

• Spins items apart into items and fluids
• Oil Globs into 100 mB of Crude Oil each
• Fluids collect in its tank; drain it with a bucket or pipes from output faces
• Fluid mode: 100 mB crude oil + 50 mB lava make 100 mB gasoline
• Fluid mode: 100 mB water + 25 mB lava make 500 mB steam
• Fluid mode runs one batch at a time, so it takes no Manifold modules
• Seeds into 50 mB of vegetable oil each
• Raw fish into fish oil: 25 mB, 50 mB from oily fish, 100 mB from a Candlefish

Side ConfigULRDBInputOutputBothNone123456789

1. 1
   The power buffer. Every operation spends FE from here, at the rate in the header.
2. 2
   Running while an item is being separated. Idle when nothing can start, for example when the output tank is full or a recipe is waiting for lava.
3. 3
   The input slot. Anything with a separating recipe is accepted. The arrow below fills as the item is worked. It is one lane; Manifold modules open more. In fluid mode this slot refuses items.
4. 4
   The item product. Recipes that only make a fluid leave this slot empty.
5. 5
   The bonus output: a second item some recipes only sometimes give, like Fish Meal from fish.
6. 6
   Lava, shown as a thin bar under the lane in item mode. Recipes that melt things, like salt, spend lava from here and wait when there is not enough.
7. 7
   The output tank. Fluids collect here until a bucket or pipe takes them. A full tank pauses the machine.
8. 8
   Fluid mode switches the machine between items and fluids. Void Tanks empties the input and lava tanks (Input) or the output tank (Output) on the spot. It cannot be undone, and it is how you clear a wrong fluid.
9. 9
   Which faces take items and fluids, and which give them out.

Fluid mode#

Turn on Fluid mode on the Configuration tab and the screen changes. The lane is replaced by two gauges, an input tank with a purple border and a lava tank with a red border, with a progress bar between them and the output tank on the right as before. The input tank holds whichever fluid you pipe in, and that fluid picks the process. Any input face takes either fluid; the machine sorts them by what they are.

Fluid mode runs one batch at a time. Any Manifold modules are handed back to you when you switch, and it refuses new ones until you switch back.

What it makes#

Item mode#

2,000 FE

100 mB

2,000 FE

50%100 mB

#

1,000 FE

50%25 mB

#

1,500 FE

50%50 mB

2,000 FE

100 mB

3,000 FE

2,000 FE

100 mB

#100 mB

6,000 FE

1,000 mB

#25 mB

1,500 FE

250 mB

#

1,000 FE

50 mB

Salt is the only recipe pair that needs lava in item mode, and it is worth knowing why: the molten salt feeds the Brine Accretor. Set a Vortex Separator beside an Accretor with auto-output on and the salt goes straight in. The salt guide has the full loop.

Fluid mode#

Water to steam is a gain of five to one: a bucket of water and 250 mB of lava make five buckets of steam. Gasoline is one to one, so lava is the cost.

A batch starts when the input tank holds at least the input amount and the lava tank holds at least the lava amount. Each batch takes the same energy, so a faster tier or Celerity modules shorten it.

Automation#

Out of the box every face takes and gives, and nothing is pushed on its own:

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

On an input face, fluids go to the lava tank if they are lava and to the input tank if they are crude oil or water. On an output face only the output tank can be drained, so pipes cannot pull your lava back out. Turn on auto-output to push the output fluid and products into neighbouring tanks, pipes and machines. Side configuration explains faces, modes and redstone control for every machine.

Upgrades#

A tier kit speeds it up and opens module slots.

Tier	Kit	Draw	Buffer	Module slots
Base	None	20 FE/t	20,000 FE	0
Tempered	Tempered Upgrade Kit	40 FE/t	40,000 FE	2
Fortified	Fortified Upgrade Kit	60 FE/t	80,000 FE	4
Luminous	Luminous Upgrade Kit	80 FE/t	160,000 FE	6
Harmonic	Harmonic Upgrade Kit	120 FE/t	320,000 FE	8

• Celerity Module · up to 8
• Economizer Module · up to 8
• Manifold Module · up to 2

• Celerity works faster, at a higher energy cost per operation: 50% more speed each.
• Economizer cuts the energy each operation costs.
• Manifold opens extra lanes in item mode, up to two. Lava is shared between the lanes.

Good to know#

• The three sight glasses on the front show the input, lava and output tanks, so you can read the machine without opening it.
• A recipe that needs more lava than the tank holds waits with its progress kept. Fill the lava and it carries on.
• If crude oil or water is stuck in the input tank when you want the other process, use Void Tanks on the Input side. It also empties the lava tank.
• Not all fish are equal here: a Candlefish gives the most fish oil per fish, and the recipe list above shows the rest.

Related#

• Fuel chains: from fish and globs to gasoline and steam
• Fluids: what each fluid is for
• Distiller and Reaction Vat: the rest of the fluid line
• Upgrades and modules