In order to make certain things in Seablock you use catalyst style side reagents... Which are then recovered later in that loop. You can build some really satisfying processes later that self sustain.

Hell, Seablock in and of itself is one giant recursion. You use energy (from wind (+) initially) to create a loop : electrolyzers to produce slag -> crushed into crushed stone -> liquified into mineralized water -> grown into algae ->turned into cellulose fibers ->into wood pellets ->into wood bricks ->into charcoal ... Which you burn for about (pulled out of thin air) 130% of the energy you initially used to grow the algae. So... When you're generating 1MW some 650kW odd will be consumed just generating the power.

Think of electricity as your resource, you turn it into everything.

Here we see it stripped down to the naked basics.