Refinery - Space Engineers Wiki (2024)

Large Ship / Station
Refinery

ComponentsRequired

Functional

Steel Plate100

Computer20

Hack

Overview

The Refinery is a functional Block available for Large Ships and Stations, used to process raw Ores into useful Materials. If connected to a Conveyor Network via one of the inventory access points, the Refinery can automatically pull in Ores from attached inventories to process, and any attached Assemblers can pull refined Materials from the Refinery as needed. Unlike the Basic Refinery, the Refinery is capable of refining all ore types in the game, with the exception of Ice, which must be processed inside an Oxygen Generator. Both of its ore and ingot inventories hold 7,500L

7.5m³
750hL

each.

Usage

Each Ore once mined from an ore vein from an Asteroid, Moon, or Planet is in a very impure form that is mixed up with other elements and contaminated with impurities not suited for fashioning into useful Components, the Refinery for lack of a better word Refines the ores into their pure forms much like Smelting. Since the Ores are riddled with impurities most of the Ore will be processed away leaving behind only the base element. Each type of ore has their own ratio of impurities and the time necessary to remove.

Efficiency

In addition to this every type of Refiner (Refinery, Basic Refinery) also has their own ore efficiency ratio and refining speed. The factors in determining the yield of any given quantity of ores being turned into useful materials is as follows:

Materials Produced == Ore × (RefineryEfficiency × 1.0905077 ^ YieldModules)Ore = the specific Ore's Material Efficiency (Ore-Ingot Ratio)RefineryEfficiency = the refiner's Material Efficiency (which for the Refinery is 1)YieldModules = the amount of attachment point connected Yield Modules, each module fills 2 attachment ports - so provides 2 each.

Using this we can estimate the yield of 50 kg of Nickel Ore to come out to 20 kg of processed Nickel Ingot, since:

50 kg of Nickel Ore × 0.4 (the ore's efficiency) × 1 (the refinery's base efficiency) = 20 kg of Nickel Ingots

Refining Rates

Ore	Processing Time	Combined Efficiency	Consumption	Production	Production Time	Result
Cobalt Ore	2.308 s/kg	30%	0.433 kg/s	0.13 kg/s	7.692 s/kg	Cobalt Ingot
Gold Ore	0.308 s/kg	1%	3.25 kg/s	0.033 kg/s	30.769 s/kg	Gold Ingot
Iron Ore	0.038 s/kg	70%	26 kg/s	18.2 kg/s	0.055 s/kg	Iron Ingot
Magnesium Ore	0.385 s/kg	0.7%	2.6 kg/s	0.018 kg/s	54.945 s/kg	Magnesium Powder
Nickel Ore	0.508 s/kg	40%	1.97 kg/s	0.788 kg/s	1.269 s/kg	Nickel Ingot
Platinum Ore	2.308 s/kg	0.5%	0.433 kg/s	0.002 kg/s	461.538 s/kg	Platinum Ingot
Scrap Metal	0.031 s/kg	80%	32.5 kg/s	26 kg/s	0.038 s/kg	Iron Ingot
Silicon Ore	0.462 s/kg	70%	2.167 kg/s	1.517 kg/s	0.659 s/kg	Silicon Wafer
Silver Ore	0.769 s/kg	10%	1.3 kg/s	0.13 kg/s	7.692 s/kg	Silver Ingot
Stone	0.008 s/kg	5.04%	130 kg/s	6.552 kg/s	0.153 s/kg	Gravel Iron Ingot Nickel Ingot Silicon Wafer
Uranium Ore	3.077 s/kg	1%	0.325 kg/s	0.003 kg/s	307.692 s/kg	Uranium Ingot

Based on game data file content.

Kilogram ore consumed per second = Refinery Speed × Ore Mass ÷ Ore RefineTime

Kilogram ingots produced per second = Refinery Speed × Refined Mass × Refinery Efficiency ÷ Ore RefineTime

Upgrade Modules

A Refinery starts with 100% in all categories. When you add modules, the Refinery's Control Panel will show the adjusted percentages. The Refinery block itself has eight attachment points for modules, all on the flat grey side. Each module can occupy up to two attachment points.

There are three types of upgrade module for Refineries:

Power Efficiency modules

Improves the Refinery's power efficiency by about 22%, Multiplicative, for each attachment point.

For 1 attachment slot: 560kW
560,000W
0.56MW
/ 1.2228445 ^ 1 ≈ 458 kW
For all 8 slots: 560kW
560,000W
0.56MW
/ 1.2228445 ^ 8 ≈ 112 kW

Yield modules

Increase the number of ingots you get for a given quantity of ore. This also has the effect of producing ingots faster. It does not affect ore consumption rate, nor does it affect power consumption.

Effectiveness modules increase Material Efficiency by about 9% per attachment point. Their influence is cumulative, so three attachment points give 1.09 ^ 3 = 1.3 times the efficiency (30% bonus rather than 27%). Filling all eight will yield a 100% bonus. This means that maximizing Effectiveness will generate twice as many ingots from a given volume of ore.

Note however that a refinery cannot produce more ingots than it consumes ore. For iron, the conversion is already 70% mass-efficient. Maximum Effectiveness would give us a theoretical yield of 0.7 x (0.8 x 2) = 1.12 ie. 1kg of ore would become 1.12kg of ingots, but the refinery cannot produce more ingots than there is ore (as this would be creating matter). For most ores this isn't an issue though.

Speed modules

Increase the speed at which ore gets converted into ingots, and increases power consumption.

Productivity modules add 50% to the Productivity stat for each attachment point occupied, giving a maximum of 400% achievable with 4 modules filling all points. This does not yield 5 times the refinement speed, however. A Refinery has a base refining speed of 1.3 and productivity gains are added to this at a rate of 0.5 per attachment point, so the actual speed can be calculated as:

p = number of Productivity attachment points (0 to 8)Productivity shown in control panel = 100% + (p*50%)base speed = 1.3actual refining speed = 1.3 + (p/2)observed speed increase = p*38.46%

So the maximum Productivity boost actually yields about 4 times the base refining speed, rather than 5 times.

Combined effect

spd = Speed attachment pointspow = Power Efficiency attachment pointseff = Effectiveness module attachment points

Power modifier = (1+0.5*spd)/(1.2228445^pow)Effectiveness modifier = 1.0905077 ^ effProduction modifier = 0.5*spd

Media

Tips

~~It's far more efficient to have an Arc Furnace refine your iron than the refinery.~~ The Arc Furnace was repurposed in v1.189 to the Basic Refinery.
Power efficiency modules are better than you think, when your refinery is running 24/7, this can save tons of power!

Known Issues

Refineries use system resources when they process, so having tons of them in a small confined area can slightly affect performance. Still present as of Update 01.111
Refineries don't discriminate between different types of ores, so your refinery may be wasting time on stone instead of more valuable ores. A good way to address this is with the Programmable Block and a Refinery script from the Steam Workshop, or use a Conveyor Sorter.

Programming

Action List - Refinery

Update History

Update 01.048	Fixed infinite refinery production issue Fixed cannot stack items in production queue Fixed issue when refineries were still working even when the power was cut off
Update 01.047.016	Fixed issue with refineries still working when power is cut off
Update 01.045	Improved rendering performance of refinery
Update 01.043.013	Fixed refinery issues
Update 01.033	Fixed material resources not being displayed
Update 01.023	Silver refinement is 4x faster Fixed rare infinite loading caused by refinery
Update 01.022	Increased the uranium refinement speed by 20% Fixed unit display in refinery Fixed refinery speed
Update 01.021.029	Fixed refinery sound
Update 01.021	Added new (Idle, processing) sounds
Update 01.020	Refinery sends items into the assembler when it’s built next to it and shares a conveyor door New sounds added
Update 01.013.008	Fixed crash in refinery
Update 01.013	Refinery became a functional block.
Update 01.004.011	Fixed refinery collision model

FAQs

Why won't basic refineries work space engineers? ›

It needs power and to be hooked up to a container. The basic refinery has very limited space. If it's inventory is full it's not going to run or accept anything being put in to it. It's best to connect it to a container.

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How to speed up refinery space engineers? ›

The Refinery works at maximum speed when supplied with 560 kW of power. Supplying it with less will cause it to stutter and process ores slower, but it will still be functional.

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Can a Basic Refinery refine cobalt? ›

Cobalt Ore is one of the harder metals to smelt in Space Engineers (as of 10/11/2016). It cannot be processed in a Survival Kit and it is one of the three ores that can be first processed in the Basic Refinery, but only at low yield levels.

Read On ›

What is the difference between Basic Refinery and refinery in space engineers? ›

The Basic Refinery can only be built on large grids. It is 1/8th the size of the regular refinery, having a 1x1x2 footprint rather than 2x2x4 blocks. Unlike the larger and more expensive Refinery it has no attachment ports allowing it to be upgraded.

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Why does Space Engineers run poorly? ›

Single-player performance glitches (lag) can be usually caused by: Large and complex ships moving near asteroids or other ships. Too many floating objects in small space. Too many gatling guns, rocket launchers shooting, explosions.

What is the stone ratio in space engineers? ›

Mined Stone is processed best in Survival kits or standard Refineries, and less efficiently in Basic Refineries. Stone processing separates it into Iron Ingots, Nickel Ingots, Silicon Wafers, and Gravel. In a Basic Refinery, 100 kg of stone produce only 3.53 kg of byproducts, thus a 3.53% weight ratio.

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Do yield modules work on assemblers? ›

Note: Yield Module do not have any effect on Assemblers.

How do ore detectors work with Space Engineers? ›

Ore Detector is an entry-level functional block in Space Engineers. When attached to a ship and supplied with power, it displays up to 5 ore locations as Signals on the player's HUD when they are within detection range — exactly like the Hand Drill does, but with possibly greater range.

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Which is the simplest refinery configuration? ›

The simplest refinery configuration, called a topping refinery, is designed to prepare feedstocks for petrochemical manufacture or for production of industrial fuels in remote oil-production areas. It consists of tankage, a distillation unit, recovery facilities for gases and light hydrocarbons, and…

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What are the problems with refineries? ›

As well as requiring vast amounts of energy and natural resources, such as water, they also generate high levels of waste, some of which is toxic. Air emissions are some of the most harmful by-products of the refining process, contaminating not just the air but also soil and water.

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Why aren t my conveyors working in Space Engineers? ›

Usually this problem occurs from something that's not connected right somewhere in the system. Check the whole line and make sure you didn't accidentally remove something vital with a misclick. Additionally, if it's a small grid, there are some things, such as oxygen bottles, that they can't transfer.

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Why won t my thrusters work in Space Engineers? ›

1st-Find your way to a control panel and make sure you havent accidently turned on "thrust override". This will leave them on regardless if you turn them on or off. Your settings for manual control of your thrusters should read "toggle block {on}" and "thrust override {disabled}".

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Why can't we build more refineries? ›

The U.S. capacity to meet this growing demand is limited. Refineries cost billions to build or retrofit for expansion. In the current high gas price environment, they are cash cows. Yet when gasoline prices are low, as was the case just two years ago, they run on razor-thin profit margins.

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