What does a 60 kg rice husk gasifier save a Bhubaneswar brass unit?

One owner installs it and rents time to two neighbours. In the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) report, 21,600 kg of hard coke and 25,920 kg of charcoal across three units give way to about 12,850 kg of rice husk. Cost Rs 10.13 lakh, net benefit Rs 4.86 lakh a year, payback 2.08 years.

How the rental model works

• The main unit buys and runs a rice husk gasifier with a producer gas melting furnace and a reheating furnace, each of 60 kg a batch.
• Two neighbouring units of the same size use it and pay the main unit rent equal to half of their hard coke and charcoal saving.
• Rice husk is cheap in the cluster because many owners also farm rice. The report prices it at Rs 1.5 a kg against Rs 8.5 for hard coke and Rs 22.5 for charcoal.

What one unit burns now and after

• Now: 7,200 kg of hard coke in melting and 8,640 kg of charcoal in reheating, for 8,640 kg of brass.
• After: 2,703 kg of husk for melting and 1,581 kg for reheating, so 4,284 kg.
• Three units together: 21,600 kg of coke and 25,920 kg of charcoal replaced by 12,852 kg of husk.

Gasifier and furnace together

The gasifier turns about 75% of the husk's heat into gas, and the redesigned gas furnaces are taken at 25%, so about 19% overall. The existing pits are measured at 3.91% for melting and 1.32% for reheating. The new furnaces are closed, insulated and fitted with a recuperator, and a small electric blower replaces the hand bellows.

The CO2 figure needs care

The report states 133 tonnes (t) a year and does not show the working. Hard coke is a fossil fuel and gives about 65 t. Charcoal and husk are biomass, and the GHG Protocol asks for biomass CO2 to be reported apart from the scopes. The same BEE programme's reheating furnace report leaves charcoal CO2 out of its credit sum because charcoal is made from wood. So when a lender or buyer asks for fossil CO2 avoided, use the coke less the blower power.

Before you commit

• All prices are from 2010. Charcoal at Rs 22.5 a kg is the biggest line, so check what you pay now.
• The report allows 15 years of life, new refractory every 5 years, and 8 days of downtime.
• The sums take husk at 2,500 kcal a kg. Moisture and supply through the year are yours to check.

Money and CO2 on the report's numbers

• One unit's fuel now: coke 7,200 x Rs 8.5 = Rs 61,200; charcoal 8,640 x Rs 22.5 = Rs 1,94,400
• Husk after: 2,703 x Rs 1.5 = Rs 4,054 and 1,581 x Rs 1.5 = Rs 2,372. Own saving: Rs 2,49,174
• Rent from the two units: Rs 2,55,600. Blower power: 8,060 kWh x Rs 2.3 = Rs 18,537
• Net: 2,49,174 + 2,55,600 minus 18,537 = Rs 4,86,237. Payback 10.13 / 4.86 = 2.08 years
• Fossil CO2: coke 21,600 x 3.02 = 65.2 t, less blower 8,060 x 0.675 = 5.4 t, so about 59.8 t a year

Coke at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2006 default (107,000 kg CO2 per terajoule at 28.2 gigajoules per tonne) and power at Central Electricity Authority (CEA)'s financial year (FY) 2025-26 grid factor. Report text gives the blower cost as Rs 18,357; its table shows Rs 18,537.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so fuel use before and after the gasifier sits in one dated trail. Apply the factor above to your coke tonnes. The green loan check shows what a lender asks for on a furnace loan.

• Green loan readiness check
• The Bhubaneswar brass cluster and its melting furnace
• A shared gasifier for 5 to 6 units
• Biogenic CO2 in a GHG report

Sources: BEE, Detailed project report: rice husk gasifier for melting and reheating, 60 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.