This mod is currently still in development.
Industrial Chemistry
This mod overhauls how chemical processes work, from the point of view of an industrial chemist.
Materials are not combined via ratios in moles, but rather by volume or mass. Tin is only 1/9 of bronze rather than the 1/4 seen in mods. Oxide ores (hematite, cassiterite, etc) require carbon reduction to reach their metallic counterparts, while sulfide ores (pyrite, galena, etc) are roasted. Production of glass, paper, concrete, and various colorants will be overhauled to portray more accurate chemical compositions. A wide range of reactions including acid-base, double-replacement, decomposition, and combustion can be conducted on the majority of items in the mod.
Resources can be obtained from varying reactions, limited by factors of economic viability and environmental impact. Industrially relevant reactions typically produce isolatable products in differing states of matter (solid, liquid, gas).
Environmentalism
This mod will feature a significant focus on environmentalism. Pollution from smelting is predominantly CO2 (from carbon reduction of oxides, and burning of the fuels themselves), and SO2 (from sulfides). Various waste byproducts can be reused, such as the ashes from burning fuels for production of concrete. The effects of pollution range from global warming which can bleach coral and raise the temperature of biomes themselves, to acid rain which can destroy soluble blocks (like limestone) and kill plants and fish. Gases can be captured in gas tanks, but it can be expensive to capture and inefficient to store.
Simplicity and Education
While many resources can be obtained or produced, it involves only a few main conversion methods: Heating at high temperatures, calcination/pyrolysis (heating without oxygen/air), roasting (heating with oxygen/air), Carbon reduction (heating with carbon monoxide from burning carbon fuels), and chemical reactions (combining multiple resources with or without heat). Each of these processes has only one machine associated with it, resulting in only 5 machines total. If/when I implement electrolysis, it will become 6 machines.
The chemical processes depicted in this mod should represent accurate chemical reactions, or close approximations based on what is available in Minecraft. Mod-specific knowledge should equate to an approximate knowledge of the real-world process, without inclusion of (too much) fantastical elements. Creation of the philosopher's stone and other such products are based solely on the writings of "the Masters" and do not involve magic. That's not to say potions, enchanting etc will be removed, they simply don't play a part in science-based chemical reactions.
The most difficult part of the mod will likely be unlearning misinformation in vanilla minecraft or other mods. The red mushrooms are hallucinogenic and poisonous, and are not a good food ingredient for a normal stew. Most flowers in Minecraft not only aren't used for dyes, colorants for glass, concrete, and glazes use completely separate mineral pigments from lead, titanium oxide, etc. TNT is different from dynamite and neither are made from gunpowder.
Horizontal growth
Tools and blocks often have an inverse relation between hardness and toughness. Wooden swords are more durable than a copper sword, but don't do more damage than a shovel. Diamond swords are extremely fragile, with similar durability than a vanilla gold sword. While obsidian is very hard (requires equivalent to diamond pickaxe to mine), it is still a glass and prone to shattering upon heavy impacts (from explosions).
The player is thus recommended to make appropriate tools and materials for their purposes. General purpose weapons should be made of bronze or steel for a good balance of sharpness and durability, but depending on player preferences and resource stockpiles can be changed. Reinforced Concrete is a very sturdy material but is not useful for quick construction, or for taking down and moving somewhere else.
As the mod is currently in progress, some information above is subject to change. There are some bugs in the pre-alpha 0.1 version that have already been fixed. Will upload version 0.2 once I get a few more features (blast furnace, more items) implemented.
Screenshots:
Limestone (greenish), Dolomite (tan-ish), cerrusite (white lines on limestone), Cassiterite (black crystals on stone), galena (grey on dolomite), Malachite ("Placeholder"), vanilla iron
Some of the resources available. All made by me except for copper ingot which I pulled from MC 1.17. Powders are not just recolors, they have variances in texture and particle size. Clay generation can be seen in the background.
Temperature is dependent on biome, altitude, and time of day. No gas tank means the smoke is emitted into the atmosphere.
With gas tank, no smoke is emitted, and the gas tank is filled (max stack 1). Charcoal fuel returns wood ash. Currently (upcoming v0.2) smoke is emitted if there is already a filled tank.
Roasting bones returns bone ash. In pre-alpha 0.1 it is in the primary output slot, it has since been changed to be created in the powder output slot. Coal fuel returns fly ash.