Guides:Filtration

**Charcoal vs Ceramic filtering :**

 The answer can be short : use ceramic if you have excess sulfur waste water from other processes , if not stick to charcoal , however ... is not that simple I'll explain in this guide why.  Filtration is the means by which we get mineral sludge and we'll be comparing both filtrations and giving you the reasoning behind the decisions

**Math behind this :**Our main goal in seablock will almost always be to have net positive loops so we can automate the process we're targeting ... filtration is the same , our loop to look after will be sulfur. We'll use 100 mineral sludge as an example because makes numbers easier to understand.

To make 100 mineral sludge we need

* 100 slag slurry = 10 slag or 20 crystal dust + 30 sulfuric acid
* 30 sulfuric acid = 45 sulfur dioxide gas + 20 purified water
* 45 sulfur dioxide gas = **0.75 sulfur**

Now that we established our needs (0.75 sulfur , considering the rest its easily obtainable from other sources) we need to look at how to satisfy them :

**Charcoal filtering :**

* 50 mineral sludge
* 40 sulfuric waste water

This means that for every 100 mineral sludge that i make i get 80 sulfuric waste water ... In hydro plants **I can make 1 sulfur per 100 sulfuric waste water so the ratio is 1:100**. Considering i get 80 sulfuric waste water at a 1:100 ratio that means i get 0.8 sulfur per 100 mineral sludge ... that means I can satisfy my loop

**Ceramic filtering :**

* 35 mineral sludge
* 20 sulfuric waste water

This means for every 100 mineral sludge we get 57.1 sulfuric waste water and that makes 0.57 sulfur which is not enough to sustain our loop and we'll need to input sulfur periodically from other source.

**Then should I stick to charcoal filtering?  :**As I explained in the introduction the answer its not that simple , you CAN get sulfuric waste water from other sources , I'll give you the usuals and the ones that I use

* Saphirite chunks working full time in 1 flotation cells mk1 gives you 50 sulfuric waste water every 2.7s (2sx0,75cs)
* Stiratite chunks same as saphirite
* Bobmonium chunks same as saphirite
* Algae liquefaction gives you 60 sulfuric waste water every 5 seconds (however it depends on your base layout maybe your petrochems are far away from your filtering process so its most likely not worth to move it there with pipes)
* IF YOU HAVE BLUE SCIENCE researching sulfur processing will allow you to make porous lime filters (iron filter + 5 lime) and combined with water you can make sulfuric waste water + used filter and can be reused with acid gas as byproduct ... so basically you can get Sulfuric waste water + acid gas with only water + lime(heavy mud water >concentrated mud water> Light mud water > Limestone >lime in blast furnace) input + filter cycle

**Is it worth? When should I make the transition? :**Yes , totally worth , the 40% increased production will allow you to greatly expand your plate production in preparation for the rest of the science , that will improve your metallurgy process specially considering if you're thinking about ceramic you are in the part of the game where you're starting to need zinc , nickel , and chrome soon . You'd change whenever you have your flotation cells first because you need aluminum in order to make the ceramic filters and second because you'll need that extra sulfuric waste water from those processes  .
I didn't consider the other sources of sulfuric waste water (fishing , bio plastics etc) because they are totally not worth the effort.

Questions :  If you have any questions regarding priorities or something is not clear enough you can contact me through discord "Araiguma#3135" or My twitch