Steel furnaces cause far more pollution than electric furnaces.
However, electric furnaces use up energy, and when I burn coal (or solid fuel) in boilers to power these, I am also causing pollution.
Assuming I am not using solar panels but only boilers and steam engines to power my ore industry, which one is the greener option per unit of ore smelted?
Best Answer
Update for 0.17
Electric Furnace:
Steel Furnace:
Boiler:
Now everything is 100% efficient. So to add in the additional pollution for power generation:
180kW * ( 30/m / 1800kW ) = 3.0/m
But you're also consuming an extra 90kW of fuel now, if you're using coal, mined with electric mining drills:
90kW * (1 coal / 4000kJ) * (0.5 s / 1 coal) * 10/m = 0.1125/m
This will of course also adds additional pollution for the electricity to mine, but it's only off by about 1%.
So added up The Electric Furnace = 1+3.0+0.1125=4.11125 /m compared to the Steel Furnace's 4 /m. So now the Electric Furnace slightly less environmentally friendly before adding any modules or using solar or nuclear power. A single level 1 efficiency module would make it more friendly however.