You can see my balance calculations regarding Heavy Oil in this another discussion thread:
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/BiodomeIndustries/discussion/6563ccda83a34706f3023799
I specifically reduced Heavy Oil requirements for Solid Fuel from Wood Gas, as previously it was just Solid Fuel from Heavy Oil, but worse. Currently, Solid Fuel from Wood Gas is slightly more efficient than Solid Fuel from Light Oil and much more efficient than Solid Fuel from Heavy Oil Cracking. If my numbers are bad, please feel free to correct me.
Increasing the size of the Biodome is not really an option. I'm using Vanilla Science Lab textures (can't do art to save my life), which are designed for 3x3. I don't like stretching textures as the pixellisation becomes really obvious, giving the mod a very "low rent" feel. It's already cheap and ugly since I put it together from stock assets.
On the subject of realism, I wasn't really aiming for any. My primary reason for making this mod was specifically because I found the existing Wood and Fish mods to be far too conservative. I'd used Bob's Greenhouse mod for a long time, and had to change production speeds multiple times until I got something comparable to the rest of the Vanilla game. I've not played Space Exploration, Krastorio or AngelBob - none of the larger, more elaborate mods.
I can't really speak to how well my mod balances against them. However, you have access to crafting time, cost and I think product multipliers in options. You can tweak settings directly from in-game to suit your tastes, if you feel my balance point was too lenient. I didn't include very granular options because it's a pain to make and creates options clutter, but there should be multipliers for all the overall stats.
I'm open to changing the energy consumption of the Biodome if you'd like. It's just a reskinned Science Lab right now, so it has the same energy consumption as that.