What does a shared rice husk gasifier for 5 to 6 brass units cost and save?

A shared 250 kg gasifier and furnace set for 5 to 6 brass units costs Rs 25.45 lakh in Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)'s Bhubaneswar report. It replaces 29,952 kg of hard coke and 47,952 kg of charcoal a year, for Rs 12.85 lakh of benefit and a 1.98 year payback. The report's summary quotes about double those fuel figures.

What the common facility is

One rice husk gasifier feeds a producer gas melting furnace and a reheating furnace, each of 250 kg a batch, shared by a group of 5 to 6 units. The report puts the equipment at Rs 22.82 lakh: gasifier Rs 11 lakh, melting furnace Rs 2.6 lakh, reheating furnace Rs 3.6 lakh, service charges Rs 2.5 lakh, VAT Rs 2.15 lakh and transport Rs 0.97 lakh. With erection and other costs the project is Rs 25.45 lakh.

Against the 60 kg rental model

• 60 kg model: Rs 10.13 lakh, one owner, two renting neighbours, payback 2.08 years.
• 250 kg common facility: Rs 25.45 lakh, 5 to 6 units, payback 1.98 years.
• The larger set is modelled on 36,000 kg of brass a year and burns 1.33 kg of charcoal per kg of brass. The 60 kg set burns 1.0.

The report disagrees with itself

Its executive summary says the saving is 60,048 kg of coke and 95,760 kg of charcoal. Section 3 and the sums use 29,952 kg and 47,952 kg, and the money works from those. The summary figures are about double. Ask for the working before you quote either.

The CO2 figure

The report states 219 tonnes (t) a year without showing how. Hard coke is the fossil fuel and gives about 90 t. Charcoal and husk are biomass, reported apart from the scopes under the GHG Protocol. BEE's reheating furnace report for the same cluster leaves charcoal CO2 out of its credit sum because charcoal is made from wood.

Who owns it

The report does not say who owns or runs the facility or how members pay. Settle that, and who buys the husk, before anyone signs, because the saving only exists if the units actually use it.

The sums, and an equal split (example)

• Fuel now: coke 29,952 x Rs 8.5 = Rs 2,54,592; charcoal 47,952 x Rs 22.5 = Rs 10,78,920
• Husk after: 11,243 + 6,583 = 17,826 kg x Rs 1.5 = Rs 26,738. Fuel saving Rs 13,06,774
• Blower power: 9,590 kWh x Rs 2.3 = Rs 22,057. Net Rs 12,84,717. Payback 25.45 / 12.85 = 1.98 years
• Equal split across 5 units: Rs 5.09 lakh each and Rs 2.57 lakh a year. Across 6 units: Rs 4.24 lakh and Rs 2.14 lakh
• Fossil CO2: coke 29,952 x 3.02 = 90.5 t, less power 9,590 x 0.675 = 6.5 t, so about 84.0 t a year

The equal split is an example, not the report's. Coke at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2006 default and power at Central Electricity Authority (CEA)'s financial year (FY) 2025-26 factor.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records. A common facility needs each member's own fuel records to show the saving per unit; each member's account can hold its own bills. The green loan check shows what a lender asks for.

• Green loan readiness check
• A 60 kg gasifier with a rental model
• The Bhubaneswar brass cluster and its melting furnace
• Cluster common facility emissions

Sources: BEE, Detailed project report: common facility rice husk gasifier, 250 kg, Bhubaneswar brass cluster (2010, SAMEEEKSHA), IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy, Tables 1.2 and 2.3, CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 22.0, GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, revised edition, Chapter 9

Last reviewed 2026-11-04. Report figures are from a BEE SME programme project report; costs and paybacks are at the report year's prices. Check today's prices and a current quote before you rely on the payback. Re-check the grid factor when CEA publishes a new edition.