Karnal's chemical units run mostly on coal and LDO: what is the footprint per tonne?
Coal decides most of it: close to 58% of the CO2. Karnal's 91 working chemical units make about 104,528 t a year from 7,007 t of coal, 1,171 kL of oil and 8.7 million kWh, roughly 21,300 t CO2 on today's factors, or about 0.2 t per tonne of product.
Two very different kinds of unit
- Pharma and API units are about 53% of units but only 13,578 t of output. A typical one uses 6.82 toe a year, all electricity.
- Other chemicals (soaps, detergents, paints, resins, surfactants) make 90,949 t. A typical one uses 114.92 toe, 88% of it thermal, on coal and diesel.
- So an average for the cluster fits neither: work out your own.
Cluster energy (cluster profile)
- 107 MSMEs, about 91 operating; 4,947 toe a year.
- Coal 64% of energy, oil (LDO, furnace oil, diesel) 21%, electricity 15 to 18%.
- Coal of 4,200 to 4,800 kcal per kg goes mostly into boilers for process steam.
Work out your own per tonne
- Coal tonnes from purchase bills, adjusted for stock, x 1.76 t CO2 (Indian coal) or 2.44 (imported).
- Oil: litres x 2.645 kg for diesel or LDO, 2.97 kg for furnace oil.
- Electricity: kWh x 0.675 kg.
- Divide by tonnes dispatched in the same months.
Where to cut
Condensate recovery, flue gas loss reduction and insulation in the steam system, and screw compressors. Karnal is on BEE's first-phase ADEETIE list for chemicals, so a loan for listed technologies can carry an interest subvention.
Cluster footprint on today's factors (estimate)
- Coal: 7,007 t x 1.76 = 12,332 t CO2
- Oil: 1,171 kL x 2.645 = 3,097 t CO2 (higher if much of it is furnace oil)
- Electricity: 8.7 million kWh x 0.675 = 5,873 t CO2
- Total about 21,300 t / 104,528 t = 0.20 t CO2 per tonne
- Typical pharma unit: 6.82 toe = about 79,300 kWh x 0.675 = 54 t CO2 a year
Quantities from the cluster profile. Coal at India's BUR-2 factor, oil at diesel's; your own invoices decide the real figure.
What Senseible does here
The calculators give a quick per tonne figure from your coal, oil and power; Senseible can then read the invoices behind it into monthly records.
Sources: TERI for BEE, Cluster profile report: Karnal chemical cluster, 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.