Summary

Mekanism gas-burning generators are awesome. They put out a lot of power without requiring exotic fuel, and are perfect for bootstrapping up to bigger sources of RF.

However they can be a little annoying to figure out and setup, especially with how machine sides work in Mekanism.

No fear! I put together a complete guide for setting up your first ethylene generators, including how to configure Mekanism pipes and machines. All it needs is a bit of RF to jump-start the whole thing, and you'll be in business.

The whole thing takes up 3x4x3 blocks, 5x4x4 if using water source blocks, so it's also pretty compact.

Bill of Materials

https://i.imgur.com/pUclLQD.png

Organics:

• 1x Apple sapling

• 1x Apple

• 1x Mulch

• 1x Hopping Bonsai Pot

• 1x Filing Cabinet

• 1x Filing Folder

The easiest way to get an apple sapling is to crush an apple in a crushing tub to get seeds, then plant it on dirt / grass and let it grow until it turns into a sapling. You can bone meal it to speed it up.

Mechanics:

• 1x Crusher

• 1x Pressurized Reaction Chamber

• 1x Electrolytic Separator

• 1-2x Gas-Burning Generator

• 4x Mekanism Speed Upgrade (if using 2 generators)

Logistics:

• 1x Infinite Water Source / 2x bucket of water

• 1x Fluid Extraction Cable (if not using Infinite Water Source)

• 1x Configurator (if using 2 generators)

• 2-3x Basic Pressurized Tube

• 3x Energy Cable (@Cyclic)

• 2x Item Extraction Cable

Installation

1. https://i.imgur.com/GBn6KVy.png
   Decide where your power output is going to be. Put your three energy cables in a lower case 'r' shape; the top and right of the 'r' are your output locations.

2. https://i.imgur.com/grGTFVk.png
   Place down your gas-burning generator(s). If only using one, put it down on the left. Make sure that the green ports on the generators are connected to your energy cables.

3. https://i.imgur.com/sxpQeqW.png
   Place the electrolytic separator on top of the energy cable furthest from the generators. Make sure the handle on top is facing towards the bottom of the 'r'.
   The separator outputs hydrogen to its left and oxygen to its right (when facing you). We place it this way so that we can feed hydrogen to the reaction chamber.

4. https://i.imgur.com/kUSFgCd.png
   Right-click on the electrolytic separator. Click the tiny button on the right and toggle it until it says "Dumping Excess". Since we are not using the oxygen from this setup, we need to dump it, or the system will clog and stall.

5. https://i.imgur.com/Eyh5gON.png
   Standing behind the generators, the energy cables should now be making an "L" shape. Place the pressurized reaction chamber on top of the bottom right energy cable. Make sure its display is facing you.

6. https://i.imgur.com/Y22ImtV.png
   Place a pressurized tube between the separator and the reaction chamber. While holding a charged configurator, sneak-right click the side of the tube facing you until the connection type changes to none.

7. https://i.imgur.com/xhESGqx.png
   Connect the generators with tubes. Note that these tubes should not connect to the tube you placed in the previous step.

8. https://i.imgur.com/kjT7kCh.png
   If using an infinite water source, place it behind the reaction chamber. If you are going to be using water sources, put down any solid block, then the fluid extraction cable on top of it such that it feeds both the separator and reaction chamber.

9. https://i.imgur.com/bAfLJUM.png
   Place the crusher down beside the last exposed energy cable side.

10. https://i.imgur.com/lWpPZ0x.png
    If you are using water source blocks, the image above will be your final setup. This will affect the placement of the filing cabinet and item extraction cable.

11. https://i.imgur.com/ZIDirHy.png
    Craft the filing folder with the apple. This creates a folder that will only accept apples into it. We want this because crushing an apple gives us 4 bio fuel, while crushing a sapling only gives us 2.

12. https://i.imgur.com/iKl2Ctb.png
    Place down the filing cabinet. Put the folder into it (open and close the cabinet by right-clicking it with an empty hand). Then put the hopping bonsai pot on top, followed by the mulch, and finally the apple sapling. Make sure you put the folder into the cabinet.

13. https://i.imgur.com/W7vC1iq.png
    Place down the item extraction cables, one feeding the crusher with apples, and the other feeding the reaction chamber with bio fuel.

14. https://i.imgur.com/vOkaB9l.png
    Configure the crusher. You want it to accept item input from the right (or front, if using water source blocks), and to output items to the top. https://i.imgur.com/7WQaKrX.png

15. https://i.imgur.com/RVFGMon.png
    Configure the reaction chamber, making sure it outputs to the top and accepts input from the right.

16. https://i.imgur.com/cL0m7px.png
    Also configure the reaction chamber's gas outputs (it's the triangle with the exclamation mark, on the top right of the config screen) to accept input from the left and output to the front. Click the top right button to turn on auto-eject.

17. https://i.imgur.com/RbS2QwV.png
    Connect the top of the reaction chamber to wherever you plan to store the substrate. You need to get rid of substrate, otherwise the system will clog and stall, but I recommend storing it, since you'll need it to produce the higher levels of mulch.
    Since you're here, grab some substrate to upgrade the mulch for your apple sapling.

18. https://i.imgur.com/L6qRmmx.png
    If you're running 2 generators at maximum capacity, you need to install 2 speed upgrades each into your reaction chamber and your crusher. https://i.imgur.com/66oYsdv.png

19. https://i.imgur.com/kXGTOJV.png
    Jump-start the whole system by putting down a generator beside the energy cables. And there you have it. A basic self-sustaining 15.5kRF/t setup.

Hi. Is there any "perfect" ratio between PRC, Crushers, Separators for ethylene power? With little overflow in case of some force majeure. If this is pack-specific, could you, please, tell me for packs you know?

I am trying to setup some Mekanism gas-burning generators ethylene, but I can't my system to produce more ethylene than I burn.

My full setup is shown here: https://imgur.com/ObBEGEo

Basically it consists of

• 5 IE Garden cloches producing melons

• 2 Electrolytic separators (Upgrades: 8 energy, 3 speed)

• 2 PRCs (Upgrades: 8 energy, 8 speed)

• 2 Crushers (Upgrades: 8 energy, 8 speed)

• 3 Gas-burning generators

I have seen this setup a bunch of times on this subreddit and on some E2E playthroughs on Youtube but I can't seem to get it working properly. Here are some things I've already tried/checked:

• Not enough biomass/hydrogen/water? Nope, the PRCs are always maxed out on all of this. I did have to add speed upgrades to the Crushers and Separators to make this happen though.

• Gas cables not good enough? Nope, the PRCs are instantly emptied of their ethylene.

• Energy cables not good enough? Nope, I'm using enhanced energy conduits from Ender IO which are supposed to handle 50k/t which should be more than enough. The 6 machines use up a little over 6k/t. I have no idea how much the garden cloches take but the problem remains even if I disconnect them from power.

• The energy cube shown in the image does have a low max output but I have replaced it with a conduit and the problem remains.

• The PRCs are not backed up on substrate, they are sent to a storage drawer with a void upgrade.

• I know this setup requires some power to kickstart but even with the generators half-full of ethylene it quickly drains.

At this point I was pretty fed up so I went to a creative testing world hoping I could figure out what was wrong. I rebuilt the same setup with the same conduits and same upgrades and was shocked to see that here it worked perfectly and the gas-burning generators filled up with ethylene. Here is my creative setup in case someone spots any difference I didn't see: https://imgur.com/D9MaNnv

I have no idea what could possibly be going wrong. Any advice would be appreciated.

So I'm playing ATM9 with a buddy and is it the new versions or what because my generators don't go faster than 2 mB/t while the Ethylene in them keeps increasing and they just don't really meet demand you know? So I wondering how can I increase the burning speed because everything is fine in terms I/O other than the generators. I do wonder if it is because of the fact that is 5 of them.

This is our setup, we use watermelons and if we get desperate we have a "backup" sugarcane plantation.

I use "front" for reference on the actual floor and underground so you can kind of tell where you're at when looking at it.