How coal-heavy are East and West Godavari refractory units, and is there a loan route?

Coal is 9,882 of the cluster's 9,940 toe, burned in downdraft kilns: roughly 40,000 t CO2 a year, about 0.64 t per tonne of refractory. Both districts are on BEE's ADEETIE list, so a loan for a kiln upgrade that saves at least 10% energy can earn interest subvention.

26 units, one kind of kiln

• 19 units in East Godavari and 7 in West Godavari make about 62,530 t a year, worth about Rs 36 crore.
• Almost all fire in downdraft kilns of 40 to 250 t a batch. Green ware dries in the open, so most kilns stop in the monsoon.
• Coal of 4,000 to 4,800 kcal per kg comes largely through a state quota from Singareni. Units say quota coal is poor and they burn more of it; open market coal is better but dearer.
• Energy is 40 to 45% of the cost of a tonne.

What a unit uses

The average unit burns 380 toe of coal and 26,145 kWh a year; the range runs from 164 to 977 toe. Firing takes 6.66 GJ per tonne of product.

The loan route, step by step

1. Check you qualify: Udyam registration and manufacturing inside the named cluster.
2. Pick the upgrade: the cluster profile points to dampers, coal sizing and feeding, kiln temperature indicators, flue gas preheating, and in time a tunnel kiln. BEE's technology list is open, so these can be proposed.
3. Build a baseline from 12 months of coal bills, electricity bills and tonnes fired, so the empanelled auditor can size a saving of 10% or more.
4. Borrow Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 crore; micro and small units get 5 points off the interest rate, medium units 3, with the net rate floored at 2%.

Keep the saving visible

Subvention is paid each year the saving holds, so log coal per tonne fired every month. A wet season with fewer firings should not look like a lost saving.

One unit's baseline (estimate)

• Coal: 380 toe x 10 million kcal / 4,400 kcal per kg = about 864 t
• CO2: 864 t x 1.76 = 1,520 t; 26,145 kWh x 0.675 = 18 t; total 1,538 t
• Output: 62,530 t / 26 units = about 2,405 t, so 0.64 t CO2 per tonne
• A 10% coal saving: 86 t of coal, about 152 t CO2 a year

Energy and output from the 2019-20 cluster profile; coal tonnes assume the middle of the reported heat value range. Use your own coal bills.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads twelve months of coal invoices and electricity bills into a dated baseline with CO2, the starting point an auditor needs before sizing the 10% saving.

• MSME green loan schemes
• ADEETIE interest rates
• Refractory brick CO2 per tonne

Sources: TERI for BEE, Cluster profile report: East and West Godavari refractory cluster, SAMEEEKSHA, East and West Godavari refractory cluster summary, BEE, ADEETIE scheme booklet (eligible clusters and technologies), IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel emission factors), CEA, CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector (grid factor 0.675 kg CO2 per kWh, FY 2025-26)

Last reviewed 2026-10-31.