Silicon Smelter

The Silicon Smelter is a production building that refines sand and Coal into Silicon. It models a carbothermic reduction process: carbon from Coal (on Serpulo) is used to reduce silicon dioxide in sand to elemental silicon, the same fundamental reaction employed by the Silicon Arc Furnace when using graphite as the carbon source. The underlying chemical equation is SiO2 + 2C → Si + 2CO.

The smelter's inputs, outputs, and power usage are fixed: it consumes Coal and sand while drawing electrical power to produce Silicon at a steady rate. Its operation is continuous so long as required inputs and power are supplied.

• Inputs: Coal at 1.5/s, Sand at 3/s
• Power: 30 power/s
• Craft time (per cycle): 0.666 s
• Output: Silicon at 1.5/s

Because the process converts two units of carbon per silicon at the chemical level, design-wise the building requires a significant steady Coal supply when used on maps with Coal (Serpulo). The Silicon Arc Furnace is an alternate silicon producer that uses graphite as its carbon source; the Smelter instead accepts Coal.

Practical notes for planning and integration: ensure continuous feeds of Sand and Coal and a stable power source capable of delivering 30 power per smelter. The listed input and output rates allow straightforward balancing: each smelter consumes 3 sand per second to produce 1.5 silicon per second, so chains and conveyors should be sized to match those rates to avoid bottlenecks. Because the process is electricity-driven, locate smelters within reach of power infrastructure or tie them into centralized grids.