Do the Bureau of Energy Efficiency Jamnagar reports for 200, 300 and 350 kg gas pit furnaces show different savings per tonne of brass?
No. The three Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) Jamnagar reports all burn 103.74 normal cubic metres (Nm3) of gas in place of 192.16 kilograms of coal per tonne of brass. Payback falls from 3.61 to 2.38 to 2.02 years only because they assume 400, 600 and 700 tonnes melted a year.
What is the same in all three reports
- Baseline: 192.16 kilograms (kg) of coal per tonne of brass. It comes from one audit melt of 255 kg on 49 kg of coal at 6,500 kilocalories (kcal) a kg, a furnace efficiency of 9.71%.
- Proposed furnace: 103.74 Nm3 of gas per tonne, at 17% efficiency, with waste heat recovery and automatic temperature control. Gas is taken at 8,600 kcal a kg and 0.8 kg a cubic metre.
- Prices: coal at rupees (Rs) 18 a kg and gas at Rs 24 a Nm3, which the reports print as a saving of Rs 969.01 a tonne.
- A 5 horsepower (HP) blower adds 7,460 kilowatt hours (kWh) a year, Rs 37,300 at Rs 5 a kWh, in every report, whatever the furnace size.
- 2,000 operating hours a year, seven days of downtime and 13 weeks to install.
What changes: tonnes melted, and so payback
- 200 kg an hour: 400 tonnes a year, 76.86 tonnes of coal replaced by 41,497 Nm3. Saving Rs 3.50 lakh, cost Rs 12.65 lakh (Rs 11.50 lakh furnace plus Rs 1.15 lakh erection), payback 3.61 years, net present value (NPV) Rs 1.35 lakh, internal rate of return (IRR) 12.73%.
- 300 kg an hour: 600 tonnes, 115.29 tonnes of coal, 62,245 Nm3. Saving Rs 5.44 lakh, cost Rs 12.94 lakh, payback 2.38 years, NPV Rs 6.82 lakh, IRR 24.82%.
- 350 kg an hour: 700 tonnes, 134.51 tonnes of coal, 72,620 Nm3. Saving Rs 6.41 lakh, cost Rs 12.94 lakh, payback 2.02 years, NPV Rs 10.53 lakh, IRR 32.25%.
- In each report the tonnes equal the rated kg an hour times 2,000 hours. The audit melt behind the 192.16 figure was 255 kg. So the 300 and 350 kg results assume the furnace melts a full rated charge every hour of the year (my reading of the printed sums).
- The 300 and 350 kg reports carry the same Rs 12.94 lakh price (Rs 11.76 lakh plus Rs 1.18 lakh erection), so the larger furnace looks better partly because its extra output is free.
The reports disagree on carbon dioxide (CO2)
- All three print the gas at about 2.02 kg of CO2 a Nm3: 84 tonnes for 41,497, 126 for 62,245, 147 for 72,620.
- The coal is where they split. The 200 kg report prints 153 tonnes of CO2 for 76.86 tonnes of coal, about 2.0 a tonne. The 300 and 350 kg reports print 300 for 115.29 and 349 for 134.51, about 2.6 a tonne. Same coal, same cluster, so both cannot hold.
- The net cuts printed are 69, 174 and 201 tonnes a year. At the 1.76 kg of CO2 a kg we use for Indian coal, and counting the blower at 0.675 kg a kWh, the cuts are about 46, 72 and 85 tonnes, or 116, 120 and 121 kg per tonne of brass.
- The 300 kg report's cluster line also prints 348 for 200 units. At 174 tonnes each that is 34,800; the 350 kg report's 40,200 is 200 times 201, so the 300 kg line looks like a slip.
Before you pick a size
- Weigh the coal and the brass for a month on your existing pit. Coal per tonne is the one number all three reports borrow from a single melt.
- Size the furnace to the tonnes you really melt, not the rated hour. A furnace that melts 300 tonnes a year does not earn the 600 tonne saving.
- Ask the gas supplier for the heat content and billing unit on the invoice. The reports use 8,600 kcal a kg, and piped gas may differ.
The 300 kg furnace at 600 and at 300 tonnes
- At 600 tonnes: 600 x Rs 969.01 = Rs 5.81 lakh, less Rs 0.37 lakh blower power = Rs 5.44 lakh. Rs 12.94 lakh / Rs 5.44 lakh = 2.38 years
- At 300 tonnes: 300 x Rs 969.01 = Rs 2.91 lakh, less Rs 0.37 lakh = Rs 2.53 lakh. Rs 12.94 lakh / Rs 2.53 lakh = about 5.1 years
- CO2 per tonne of brass: coal 192.16 x 1.76 = 338 kg; gas 103.74 x 2.02 = 210 kg; blower 12.4 kWh x 0.675 = 8 kg. Net cut about 120 kg
The 300 tonne line is my arithmetic from the report's own per-tonne figures. Coal at our estimate of 1.76 kg CO2 a kg; gas at the reports' own implied 2.02 kg a Nm3.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads coal invoices, gas bills and electricity bills into monthly records, so coal or gas per tonne of brass before and after a furnace change is on file. It does not size furnaces or check a maker's efficiency claim.
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Sources: BEE, Detailed project report: energy efficient gas fired pit furnace, 200 kg an hour, Jamnagar brass cluster (2010, SAMEEEKSHA), BEE, Detailed project report: energy efficient gas fired pit furnace, 300 kg an hour, Jamnagar brass cluster (2010, SAMEEEKSHA), BEE, Detailed project report: energy efficient gas fired pit furnace, 350 kg an hour, Jamnagar brass cluster (2010, SAMEEEKSHA), Central Electricity Authority (CEA), CO2 Baseline Database, version 22.0
Last reviewed 2026-11-06. Report figures are from BEE's Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) programme project reports; costs, fuel prices and paybacks are at 2010 prices. Redo the payback with today's coal and gas prices and a current quote.