How much husk and power do Burdwan's rice mills use per tonne of rice?
Per tonne of rice, 0.28 t of husk and 106 kWh. In 2024-25 the cluster's 500 or so mills burnt about 2.03 million t of husk and used 773 million kWh to turn 11.3 million t of paddy into 7.27 million t of rice. Husk CO2 is biogenic; grid power carries the fossil CO2.
Who mills what
- About 275 parboiled mills, 75 pressure parboiled, 75 scented and 75 de-husking units making raw rice.
- 200 large mills above 70 t of paddy a day process 7.2 million t; 150 medium and 150 small mills the rest.
- Parboiled rice is 55% of output.
- De-husking units use only electricity; parboiling mills need steam for soaking and drying.
Husk: your fuel and your by-product
Husk gives about 90% of a parboiling mill's energy, electricity 10%. Mills typically burn 85% of their own husk and sell the rest, at about Rs 2,200 a tonne. Mills with old boilers buy extra husk. Husk CO2 is biogenic and reported separately; methane and nitrous oxide from burning it do count in Scope 1.
Typical mills
- Large: 6,468 t husk and 2,596,841 kWh a year.
- Medium: 3,558 t husk and 1,326,045 kWh.
- Small: 1,320 t husk and 366,604 kWh.
- A parboiled unit uses 0.058 to 0.061 toe per tonne.
Where to save
Replace old single pass boilers with efficient IBR boilers: they lose heat through open charging doors, bare surfaces and hot flue gas with no waste heat recovery. Husk saved can be sold, and kWh saved cuts the fossil figure a rice buyer sees.
Per tonne of rice (estimate)
- Husk: 2.025 million t / 7.27 million t rice = 0.28 t per tonne
- Power: 773 million kWh / 7.27 million t = 106 kWh per tonne
- Fossil CO2: 106 x 0.675 = 72 kg per tonne of rice (46 kg per tonne of paddy)
- Large mill: 2,596,841 kWh x 0.675 = 1,753 t CO2 a year
- Cluster husk: about 2.46 million t CO2, reported as biogenic
From TERI's 2024-25 Burdwan energy profile. Husk CO2 uses the profile's energy figure with the IPCC default of 100 kg CO2 per GJ for solid biomass.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads your electricity bills and husk purchase or sale bills into one record, with husk on its own biogenic line, so your carbon number per tonne holds up.
Sources: TERI, Energy profile: Burdwan rice mill cluster (2024-25), CEA, CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector (grid factor 0.675 kg CO2 per kWh, FY 2025-26), IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel emission factors), GHG Protocol Corporate Standard
Last reviewed 2026-10-31.