Which of the nine Bureau of Energy Efficiency measures for Jagadhri brass and aluminium units pays back first?

In the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) Jagadhri manual, heat recovery and an efficient pit furnace pay back in 0.2 years on rupees (Rs) 0.30 lakh. Thermocouples take 0.5, a wood gasifier or induction furnace 1.3, and a gasifier on annealing furnaces comes last at 3.5 (3.7 by my sum).

The ranking from Table 28

• 0.2 years: heat recovery on a coke fired pit furnace (25 units, 7.1 tonnes of coke, Rs 1.92 lakh a year for Rs 0.3 lakh); the same on an oil fired pit furnace (6.4 kilolitres of furnace oil); and the efficient pit furnace (50 units, 7.1 tonnes of coke).
• 0.5 years: thermocouples on annealing furnaces (150 units, 24 tonnes of wood, Rs 1.08 lakh for Rs 0.5 lakh).
• 0.6 years: modified wood fired annealing furnace (100 units, 21.1 tonnes of wood, Rs 0.95 lakh for Rs 0.6 lakh). Its issue column reads "No confidence on saving".
• 1.3 years: wood gasifier on coke fired melting (50 units, 42 tonnes of coke, Rs 11.3 lakh for Rs 15 lakh), the same on oil fired melting (37 kilolitres, Rs 11.2 lakh), and the induction furnace (30 units, 52.4 tonnes of coke, Rs 14.16 lakh for Rs 18.6 lakh).
• 3.5 years: wood gasifier on annealing furnaces (75 units, 48 tonnes of wood, Rs 2.16 lakh for Rs 8 lakh).

Checks

• Payback by my sum: 0.3 / 1.92 = 0.16; 0.5 / 1.08 = 0.46; 0.6 / 0.95 = 0.63; 15 / 11.3 = 1.33; 18.6 / 14.16 = 1.31; 8 / 2.16 = 3.70. Only the last differs from the printed figure (3.5).
• Table 25 prints induction savings of Rs 14.6 lakh, Table 28 Rs 14.16 lakh. 52.4 tonnes x Rs 27,000 = Rs 14.15 lakh, so Table 28 is the one that ties.
• The rupees imply the manual's prices: coke Rs 27 a kilogram (7.1 x 27,000 = 1.92 lakh), wood Rs 4.5 (24 x 4,500 = 1.08). The same check on the oil rows implies about Rs 30 a litre (Rs 1.92 lakh / 6.4 kilolitres; Rs 11.2 lakh / 37), not the Rs 28 the Jamnagar manual uses.

The cluster totals, and why they are a ceiling

The manual sums the units: 4,199 tonnes of coke, 9,311 tonnes of wood and 2,027 kilolitres of furnace oil a year. Adding its rows agrees: coke 2,093 + 178 + 356 + 1,573 = 4,200; oil 1,867 + 160 = 2,027; wood 3,600 + 2,111 + 3,600 = 9,311. My sums of the rupees give about Rs 2,161 lakh a year saved for Rs 2,823 lakh invested, which is about 1.3 years.

But the unit counts add to 555 against the 175 units the manual counts in the cluster (100 brass and 75 aluminium). One furnace cannot take heat recovery, a new pit furnace and a gasifier at once. So read the totals as the most the table could show, not what will happen.

Fossil carbon dioxide in the coke and oil totals (estimate)

• Coke: 4,199 tonnes x 3.02 = about 12,700 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year
• Furnace oil: 2,027 kilolitres = 2,027,000 litres x 2.97 kilograms = about 6,000 tonnes
• Wood, 9,311 tonnes: biogenic CO2, reported apart from the fossil total
• Gross figure, about 18,700 tonnes of fossil CO2, before any grid power an induction furnace adds

Coke at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) default for coke oven coke; furnace oil at about 0.95 kilograms a litre and the same default for residual fuel oil. Estimates, and a ceiling given the overlap above.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so coke, wood, oil and power bought each month are on file before and after you fund a measure. It does not size equipment or rank projects.

• Green loan readiness check
• Heat recovery: which saving to trust
• Jagadhri brass and aluminium cluster footprint
• Coke pit furnace to induction: CO2

Sources: BEE and Zenith Energy Services, Manual on energy conservation measures in brass and aluminium cluster, Jagadhri, IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2, Chapter 1 Introduction, IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2, Chapter 2 Stationary Combustion

Last reviewed 2026-11-06. Figures are from BEE's Jagadhri manual, which prints no year on the pages used. Sums of rupees and the overlap point are the author's. CO2 is an estimate.