Unified Chemical Plant — FAQ

What does this mod do?

This mod adds the Unified Chemical Plant — a large 7×7 building that combines the capabilities of a chemical plant, oil refinery, and fuel refinery into a single structure. It can process all recipes from these three building types.

How do I unlock it?

The recipe is unlocked by the Advanced Oil Processing technology. No separate research is needed.

What does it cost to build?

• 2× Chemical Plant
• 100× Steel Plate
• 80× Pipe
• 100× Stone Brick
• 40× Advanced Circuit
• 20× Electric Engine Unit

What are the default stats?

How do I change the settings?

All settings are startup settings. Go to Settings → Mod Settings → Startup tab, find "Unified Chemical Plant" and adjust:
- Module slots — number of module slots (0 to 8)
- Crafting speed — crafting speed multiplier (4 to 12 in steps of 2)
- Base productivity (%) — built-in productivity bonus (0% to 200%)
- Minimum energy usage (kW) — energy at the lowest speed (4)
- Maximum energy usage (kW) — energy at the highest speed (12)
- Minimum pollution (per minute) — pollution at the lowest speed (4)
- Maximum pollution (per minute) — pollution at the highest speed (12)
- Allow building on space platforms — Space Exploration compatibility

Changing startup settings requires a game restart.

How does energy consumption work?

Energy usage is interpolated linearly between the minimum and maximum settings based on the selected crafting speed. At speed 4 you get the minimum, at speed 12 you get the maximum, and intermediate speeds are proportionally scaled.

For reference, vanilla buildings use: chemical plant = 210 kW, oil refinery = 420 kW.

Additionally, energy usage scales with quality tiers. Higher-quality buildings have increased crafting speed (engine default), and energy consumption increases proportionally. This uses the engine's quality_affects_energy_usage flag with QualityPrototype::crafting_machine_energy_usage_multiplier.

How does pollution work?

Pollution is configured the same way as energy — with minimum and maximum settings, interpolated based on crafting speed. Default: 6/min at speed 4, up to 18/min at speed 12.

For reference, vanilla buildings emit: chemical plant = 4/min, oil refinery = 6/min.

Set both values to 0 if you want zero pollution. Pollution is also affected by efficiency modules ("pollution" is in allowed_effects).

What fluid connections does it have?

• 2 inputs on the north side
• 3 outputs on the south side

This layout supports complex recipes like advanced oil processing that require multiple fluid outputs.

Is it compatible with Space Exploration?

Yes! The mod automatically detects Space Exploration and adds fuel-refining recipe support. You can also enable the "Allow building on space platforms" setting for full SE compatibility.

Productivity in space: SE normally disables productivity modules and base productivity for all buildings in space (except labs and miners). The Unified Chemical Plant overrides this — when SE creates the "-spaced" clone of our building, our data-final-fixes automatically restores productivity in allowed_effects and the base productivity bonus. This means you can use productivity modules and keep the base productivity bonus on space platforms.

Note: This works because our mod loads after SE (via optional dependency). If for any reason the fix doesn't apply, check the Factorio log for [Unified Chemical Plant] messages.

Is it compatible with other mods?

The mod inherits crafting categories from the base chemical plant, oil refinery, and fuel refinery at load time. Additionally, it re-syncs all categories in data-final-fixes, so any categories added by other mods (such as Space Age adding new chemistry recipes) are automatically picked up. If a mod adds a recipe to any of these three buildings, the Unified Chemical Plant should be able to craft it.

Does it work in multiplayer?

Yes. All configuration is done through startup settings, which are synchronized across all players.

Does quality affect this building?

Yes. Higher-quality versions receive:
- Increased crafting speed (via engine's crafting_machine_speed_multiplier)
- Increased energy usage (proportional to speed increase, via crafting_machine_energy_usage_multiplier)
- More HP (automatic by engine)

Module slots do not scale with quality — they stay exactly as configured in settings.

What are the side fluid connections?

Optional east-west pass-through fluid connections can be enabled via the "Side fluid pass-through" setting. Note: the Factorio engine assigns fluids to input boxes automatically based on recipe ingredient order, so the side box receives the last fluid ingredient.

Why is the building so expensive?

The Unified Chemical Plant replaces three separate buildings (chemical plant, oil refinery, fuel refinery), has more module slots, higher crafting speed, and built-in productivity. The recipe cost (including electric engine units) reflects this power level and is designed for mid-to-late game.

The building doesn't show fuel-refining recipes!

Make sure you have Space Exploration (or another mod that adds the fuel-refining recipe category) installed and enabled. Without SE, fuel-refining recipes don't exist.

Credits

Graphics assets by Hurricane046, used under CC BY license.