What is the carbon footprint of Ahmedabad's chemical units in Vatva, Naroda and Odhav, and how does one unit compare?
A typical dyes and pigments unit in Vatva uses about 532 toe a year, close to 1,540 t CO2, nearly three-quarters of it from natural gas. Across Ahmedabad's 750 chemical units, TERI's BEE study counted 144,624 toe in 2020-21, roughly 488,000 t CO2 at today's factors (estimate).
The cluster, by estate and fuel
About 600 units in Vatva, 100 in Naroda and 50 in Odhav. Around 80% make dyes and dye intermediates, and about 76% are small units producing 200 to 600 tonnes a year.
In 2020-21 the cluster burnt 121 million scm of natural gas, 18,000 t of coal and 10,800 t of biomass, and bought 308 million kWh. Gas fires the boilers, thermic fluid heaters and hot air generators for dryers; some micro and small units still burn wood or coal.
Where your unit sits
- Unit sizes in the study run from 15.1 to 2,080.6 toe a year.
- Typical dyes and pigments unit: 478.2 toe of heat and 53.6 toe of electricity, 531.8 toe in all.
- Typical other-chemicals unit: 129 toe of heat and 52.8 toe of electricity, 181.8 toe.
- Heat is 89.2% of energy across the units studied, so the dryer and the boiler set your number.
What a tonne of dye carries
Divide your year's CO2 by tonnes produced. A small unit at 400 t a year with the typical dyes profile would carry close to 3.9 t CO2 per tonne from its own energy, before the raw materials it buys. Drying in tray and spin flash dryers takes 20 to 36 hours a batch, the longest and one of the most heat-hungry steps, so start looking there.
Who asks, and why CBAM is not it
Dyes, pigments and most organic chemicals are not CBAM goods. The requests come from customers: textile and leather processors counting their purchased chemicals, multinational buyers asking for a product carbon footprint per kg, and lenders financing a boiler or dryer upgrade.
Where the study says to cut
- Feed-water preheating from boiler flue gas, and air-to-fuel control on thermic fluid heaters.
- Temperature-based control on spray dryer fans and feed pumps.
- Timers on reactors and ball mills to stop idle running, IE3 motors in place of rewound ones, and rooftop solar.
What to file each month
- Monthly gas bills in scm and electricity bills in kWh.
- Coal or wood invoices by weight if you use any.
- Batch register with kg produced per product, so shared steam can be split by batch.
Estimate: one typical dyes and pigments unit for a year
- Heat: 478.2 toe x 10 million kcal / 8,750 kcal per scm = 546,500 scm of gas
- Gas CO2: 546,500 scm x 2.05 = 1,120 t CO2
- Electricity: 53.6 toe at the study's 860 kcal per kWh = 623,300 kWh x 0.675 = 421 t CO2
- Total: 1,120 + 421 = 1,541 t CO2 a year
- Cluster: gas 121 million scm x 2.05 = 248,050 t; coal 18,000 t x 1.76 = 31,680 t; power 308 million kWh x 0.675 = 207,900 t; about 487,630 t
Assumes all heat is gas, using the study's 8,750 kcal per scm and Senseible's default factors with the FY 2025-26 grid factor. Biomass CO2 is reported separately and left out. Your bills give your figure.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads your gas and electricity bills into a dated Scope 1 and 2 record with the factor behind each line; add tonnes produced and you have the per-tonne figure a customer or lender asks for.
- Get your carbon number
- Vatva dye intermediate boiler CO2
- Answering a TfS PCF request
- Green loans for Gujarat chemical plants
Sources: TERI for BEE, Cluster Profile Report: Ahmedabad Chemical Cluster (SAMEEEKSHA), SAMEEEKSHA, Ahmedabad chemicals cluster summary, Regulation (EU) 2023/956 (CBAM), Annex I, CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 22.0, IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy
Last reviewed 2026-10-29.