Re:Makes sense (Score 1)

Carriers are big, but they are stuffed full of what they need to fight - and fuel tanks are tucked into odd corners well below the water line. Not much spare room for the major industrial plant required to produce sufficient fuel in a reasonable amount of time.

I'm not sure what form factor the current fuel storage tanks on the carriers have, but it seems a winning idea might be to design the fuel plant with the same footprint as storage tanks, then your refit process is just removing the (which is now unneccessary, since you can make your own fuel and thus store less) tank and insert the refinery.

As an added bonus, the fuel tank space should already be plumbed with piping connected to filling ports and other tanks, or at least enough space for it.