What is the energy use of a PVC tufted coir mat unit?
The BEE study of Alleppey measured two PVC tufting units at 155 and 303 toe a year: 1,99,395 kWh with 1,37,500 litres of furnace oil, and 3,29,838 kWh with 2,75,000 litres. The oil for the curing heaters is about three quarters of each unit's fossil CO2.
What the oil heats
PVC resin, plasticiser and other inputs are mixed for about an hour into a liquid, pumped to the tufting machine and spread on a bed. Coir yarn pieces are tufted into it, and the mat passes under heating panels until PVC and coir bond. Those panels run on hot air from furnace oil fired thermic fluid heaters, which is where most of the energy goes. Shearing, cutting and printing run on electricity.
The two units in the study
- Smaller unit: 1,99,395 kWh and 1,37,500 litres of oil a year, 155 toe.
- Larger unit: 3,29,838 kWh and 2,75,000 litres, 303 toe. That is 1,000 litres a day over 275 days.
- Oil is about 89 to 91% of each unit's energy, on the study's own toe figures.
- The cluster's 7 PVC units together use 2,121 toe, a quarter of the whole cluster's energy.
Furnace oil to wood gas, the study's own sum
- A 4 lakh kcal per hour heater running 4,400 hours: 2,75,000 litres of oil a year.
- Same heat from a wood gasifier: 9,62,500 kg of wood, plus 41,250 kWh to prepare it and six more workers.
- Running cost fell from Rs 104.5 lakh to Rs 35.3 lakh a year; the gasifier cost Rs 20 lakh, a 3 month payback.
- Fossil CO2 falls by about 789 t a year. The wood's own CO2 is biogenic and is reported separately, along with where the wood came from.
The part your energy bill leaves out
A buyer asking for CO2 per mat will need the PVC compound too. It is a bought material, so it sits in your Scope 3 and can outweigh the heater oil. Ask your PVC supplier for a figure per kg, and keep your energy and your materials on separate lines so the buyer can see both.
PVC tufting units, fossil CO2 a year (estimate)
- Smaller: 1,99,395 kWh x 0.675 = 135 t + 1,37,500 L x 2.97 = 408 t; 543 t, oil 75%
- Larger: 3,29,838 kWh x 0.675 = 223 t + 2,75,000 L x 2.97 = 817 t; 1,039 t, oil 79%
- After a gasifier on the larger unit: 817 t of oil CO2 gone, 41,250 kWh x 0.675 = 28 t added; about 789 t less
Energy and gasifier case from the BEE SME Program study of the Alleppey coir cluster. Grid factor CEA FY 2025-26; furnace oil 2.97 kg CO2 per litre. Wood CO2 not included, as it is biogenic.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads furnace oil invoices and KSEB bills into monthly fossil CO2 and keeps each invoice behind the figure. It does not hold a factor for wood or for your PVC compound; those come from your own records and your supplier.
Sources: BEE SME Program, Alleppey coir cluster study (SAMEEEKSHA), CEA, CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector, version 22.0
Last reviewed 2026-11-01.