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NTM’s chemical processing machines form the backbone of mid-to-late game material production. Where the early game focuses on shaping metal with the Press and Anvil, the chemical tier requires you to manipulate fluids, separate isotopes, run multi-step reactions, and handle increasingly exotic compounds. Machines like the Centrifuge and Chemical Plant come online shortly after the Assembly Machine and remain relevant all the way through the endgame — uranium enrichment, polymer synthesis, desh production, and TATB explosives all depend on this tier of machinery. This page covers each chemical processing machine, its power requirements, and the most important recipes it enables.
Most chemical processing machines require HE electricity. Make sure your power generation is stable before investing heavily in this tier — a Chemical Plant mid-reaction with no power will stall but not destroy your inputs.

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Machines

The Centrifuge separates items and fluids by density, functioning as a more efficient form of ore processing. It is one of the first chemical machines you will build, unlocked shortly after the Assembly Machine.Early game use: The Centrifuge’s initial and most critical role is extracting Mercury from redstone ore — Mercury is a required ingredient for making Desh, the first major alloy upgrade in NTM. Without a Centrifuge, Desh production is blocked.Ore processing: Running ores through the Centrifuge yields more output than smelting directly in a furnace. Ore crystals created by the Ore Acidizer yield even more when centrifuged (see the Ore Acidizer entry below).Late game use: The Centrifuge becomes critical for uranium isotope separation — processing uranium compounds to isolate U-235 from U-238 for reactor fuel and weapons applications.Power requirement: HE electricity. Power demand scales with recipe complexity.Key recipes: Mercury from redstone ore, all ore dust separations, uranium isotope processing, thorium separation.
The Chemical Plant is the universal chemical processor, buildable immediately after the Assembly Machine. It accepts multiple fluid and item inputs to produce chemical outputs, and it is used in an enormous range of recipes throughout the entire progression.The most important early Chemical Plant products are:
  • Desh — the first major alloy, requiring Mercury and Light Oil
  • Polymer — essential plastic for electronics and advanced machine components
  • Hydrogen Peroxide — used in explosives and chemical synthesis
  • Sulfuric Acid — required for ore acidizing and many downstream reactions
The Chemical Plant is not particularly power-hungry by NTM standards, but it requires a steady HE supply. It has multiple fluid input and output slots, and most recipes require setting input fluids with a Fluid Identifier.
The Chemical Plant is often the bottleneck in mid-game progression. Building two or three in parallel for different reaction chains is strongly recommended once you have stable power.
Power requirement: HE electricity (moderate demand, varies by recipe).Key recipe categories: Desh synthesis, polymer production, acid production, explosives precursors, coolant fluids, reactor chemicals.
The Compressor increases the pressure level (“PU”) of a fluid. Certain fluids change their properties when compressed — for example, Perfluoromethyl becomes Cold PFM when compressed to 2 PU, making it suitable as a reactor coolant.Each Compressor can only raise pressure by one PU per machine. To reach 2 PU you need two Compressors in series. Compressed and uncompressed fluids of the same type share the same pipe network (there is no pressure identification in the pipe system), but compressed fluids cannot be stored in tanks.A compact variant of the Compressor exists with a smaller footprint for tight builds.Power requirement: HE electricity.Key uses:
  • Compressing Perfluoromethyl to 2 PU for reactor coolant loops
  • Compressing Petroleum Gas into LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) for high-energy fuel
  • Compressing Crude Oil for Vacuum Oil Processing (requires 2 PU, two Compressors in series)
Remember that you need one Compressor per PU increase. Vacuum Oil Processing requires crude oil at 2 PU, meaning two Compressors must be chained. A single Compressor will only bring oil to 1 PU, which is not sufficient.
The Industrial Mixer combines two fluids and one item into a single fluid output. The recipe is defined by setting the output fluid type using a Fluid Identifier. If a given output has multiple possible input recipes, the active recipe is cycled with the [C] button in the GUI.The Mixer is used throughout NTM’s chemistry chain wherever a reaction requires combining a liquid, a gas, and a solid catalyst or reagent into a new compound.Power requirement: HE electricity.Key recipes: Fracking Solution (required for the Hydraulic Fracking Tower), various fuel blending operations, chemical synthesis reactions that combine a fluid with a solid reagent.
The Condenser converts Low-Pressure Steam back into liquid water, closing the loop in any steam-based power or processing system. Four variants exist with vastly different throughput capacities:
VariantThroughputPower Required
Small Condenser100 mB/tNone (passive)
Auxiliary Cooling Tower1,000 mB/tNone (passive)
Large Cooling Tower10,000 mB/tNone (passive)
High-Power Condenser1,000,000 mB/tYes (HE electricity)
Passive condensers work without any power input. Only the High-Power Condenser requires electricity.Critical uses: Closing the steam loop in Steam Engine setups, managing low-pressure steam exhaust from Catalytic Cracking Towers, and handling coolant loops in most nuclear reactors.
Always size your condenser to match your steam production rate. A Small Condenser on a high-output Steam Engine will overflow quickly and waste water. Upgrade to a Cooling Tower as your boiler capacity grows.
The Ore Acidizer converts raw ores into crystals. When those crystals are then processed in the Centrifuge, they yield significantly more output than processing raw ore directly. The Acidizer is also used heavily for Bedrock Ore Processing.The combination of Acidizer + Centrifuge is the most material-efficient ore processing path available before the Shredder becomes an option.Key recipes: Ore-to-crystal conversion for all NTM ores, bedrock ore acidizing for the high-yield processing chain.
Bedrock Ore Processing is its own major sub-system. The Acidizer is one of the key entry points for that chain. Refer to the dedicated bedrock ore processing documentation for the full workflow.
The Shredder grinds ores into powder, doubling the yield compared to direct smelting. Any item that has no defined shredder recipe will be processed anyway and converted into Scrap, a useful secondary material.The Shredder requires two shredder blades to operate. Blades degrade with use — except blades made from Desh, which never break. Investing in Desh blades early is strongly recommended to avoid maintenance.The Shredder is more efficient when all input slots are filled simultaneously: it processes one item from every occupied slot per cycle, so a fully loaded Shredder produces far more output per tick than a partially loaded one.Power requirement: HE electricity.Key recipes: All ore-to-dust conversions (doubles yield vs. furnace), scrap generation from junk items, Desh ore processing.
The Arc Welder primarily produces welded plates and is also used for assembling missiles. Its power demand varies heavily based on the recipe — some operations are relatively cheap while others require substantial HE capacity.One critical early use of the Arc Welder is producing Dense Copper or Gold Wire before the Crucible becomes available. The Crucible can cast dense wire using a foundry mold, but creating that mold requires one sample of dense wire first — and the Arc Welder is the only way to make that first sample.Power requirement: HE electricity (variable demand; missile assembly is especially power-hungry).Key recipes: Welded steel plates, welded aluminum plates, dense wire bootstrapping, missile airframes and warhead assembly.
The Combination Oven (often called “comboven”) is a type of oven that can produce both solid and liquid outputs from a single reaction. It requires an External Heat Source (TU via copper contact) rather than HE electricity.The Comboven is used throughout the chemistry chain wherever a heat-driven reaction produces mixed-phase products — for example, coking operations that yield both a solid carbon product and a liquid byproduct, or processes shared with the Pyrolysis Oven for Bedrock Ore Processing.Power requirement: TU from an External Heat Source (Firebox, Heating Oven, Fluid Burner, Electric Heater, or Heat Exchanging Heater placed below).Key recipes: Coke production, bedrock ore processing intermediates, advanced alloy precursors, reactions that require both solid and fluid outputs simultaneously.

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Processing Chain Overview

Ore Processing Path

Raw Ore → Acidizer → Crystals → Centrifuge → 2× or more outputAlternatively: Raw Ore → Shredder → Ore Dust → Furnace → 2× ingots

Chemical Synthesis Path

Chemical Plant handles most multi-step synthesis. Feed it fluid inputs (set with a Fluid Identifier) and item reagents to produce Polymer, Desh, acids, and coolants.

Uranium Enrichment Path

Centrifuge is essential for isotope separation. Process uranium ore → Centrifuge → separate U-235 from U-238 → feed enriched uranium to reactor fuel assembly.

Pressure Processing Path

Compressor chain elevates fluid PU for Vacuum Oil Processing (2 PU crude oil) and reactor coolant (2 PU cold PFM). Chain multiple Compressors for multi-step elevation.

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