A chemical unit buys block ice to cool its reactors: which scope is that ice in, and how do I estimate its carbon dioxide (CO2) when the ice plant gives no figures?

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On our reading of the Scope 3 standard, bought ice is a purchased good, category 1, because you burn no fuel and draw no power to make it. With no data from the ice plant, Bhimavaram's cluster averages of 102 kilowatt hours (kWh) and 2 litres of diesel a tonne give about 74 kg of CO2 a tonne (estimate). The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol's Scope 3 standard puts "all upstream (i.e., cradle-to-gate) emissions from the production of products purchased or acquired by the reporting company in the reporting year" in category 1, purchased goods and services. It says emissions from the use of purchased products are counted in scope 1 "(e.g., for fuel use)" or scope 2 "(e.g., for electricity use)". Melting ice in a reactor jacket is neither, so our reading is that the ice is category 1. The power the ice factory used to freeze it is the factory's own scope 2, and reaches you only through the ice. A delivery you pay for, in a vehicle you do not own or operate, falls in category 4, upstream transportation and distribution. The Ahmedabad profile says a few micro and small chemical units use ice blocks for cooling instead of an ammonia chiller, and that local ice factories in the cluster supply them. The Thane and Ahmedabad profiles say a few units with intermittent processes use ice blocks instead of chillers. Thane's peroxide batch uses ice water. Thane's list of savings includes a chiller machine "to eliminate the use of ice-based chilling system". Our reading: if you switch, that cooling moves from category 1 into your own power in scope 2. Bhimavaram's 80 block ice plants used 38,410,897 kWh and 762,222 litres of diesel to make 375,994 tonnes of ice, so 102.2 kWh and 2.03 litres a tonne. At 0.675 kg of CO2 a kWh and 2.645 kg a litre of diesel: 69.0 + 5.4 = 74.4 kg of CO2 a tonne of ice. By plant size the table prints 76 to 112 kWh a tonne, which matches its kWh and tonnes, and which is about 51 to 75 kg a tonne from power. The profile's text gives 83, 102, 114 and 118 kWh a tonne for the four sizes, which do not match its own table lines. The table's total row prints 98, which is the plain average of the four rows (76, 99, 105 and 112); weighted by tonnes, the printed totals give 102.2. We used the printed totals. Tonnes of ice bought each month, from delivery slips: blocks times block weight. The supplier's name and, if they will give it, their kWh and tonnes for a month. A line that says the figure is an estimate, with its basis. Do not net it against your own Scope 2.

A chemical unit buys block ice to cool its reactors: which scope is that ice in, and how do I estimate its carbon dioxide (CO2) when the ice plant gives no figures?

Where bought ice sits

How common it is in the cluster profiles

An estimate when the ice plant gives nothing

What to keep

Example: 1,500 kg of ice a day

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