How does the Khurja potteries profile get to a saving of 1,339 tonnes of oil equivalent a year, and how big is that?

The Khurja profile gives a saving of 1,339 tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) a year from four measures, and they add up to it: 482 for lighter kiln cars, 482 for automation, 268 for heat recovery and 107 for motors. That is about 8.3% of its printed total of 16,192 toe, or 7.3% of the 18,442 in its text.

What a tonne of oil equivalent is

Oil, gas and electricity are sold in different units, so reports convert them all into one: the energy in a tonne of oil. That unit is the tonne of oil equivalent (toe). It lets a report add litres of oil to units of electricity.

The four lines

• Lighter kiln cars in tunnel kilns: dead weight cut by about 30%, saving about 3% of total heat input, 482 toe a year.
• Kiln automation of tunnel and shuttle kilns, now run by hand: about 3%, 482 toe.
• Waste heat recovery on shuttle kilns, preheating burner air: an average of 7%, 268 toe.
• Efficient motors in place of ones rewound more than twice: about 5% of motor energy, 107 toe.
• The profile's total: 1,339 toe a year, and 482 + 482 + 268 + 107 = 1,339. Lighting and voltage stabilisers are mentioned but not counted.

How each number ties to the profile's own tables

• 482: 3% of the heat. Oil rows 14,602 toe plus gas 1,455 toe is 16,057, and 3% of that is 481.7. So the 3% is on all oil and gas, whatever the argument about the total below.
• 268: 7% only of shuttle kiln heat. A shuttle kiln uses 64 toe of heat a year in the profile's kiln table and the cluster has 60, so 60 x 64 = 3,840, and 7% is 268.8. If the 7% had been on all heat it would be 1,124. My reading, but it ties.
• 107: 5% of motor energy implies motors use 107 / 0.05 = 2,140 toe, about 90% of the 2,385 toe of electricity. At the table's own rate of 2,385 toe for 27.7 million kilowatt hours (kWh), 107 toe is about 1.24 million kWh.

How big it is

The profile's text gives the cluster's energy as 18,442 toe and its table prints 16,192; the Khurja total page linked below explains that gap. On the text figure the 1,339 is 7.3%; on the printed total, 8.3%. Either way it is under a tenth.

What the sum does not tell you

• The measures overlap in the kiln. Lighter cars, automation and heat recovery all cut kiln fuel, so doing all three saves less than the three added, if each is measured on the same starting heat. The profile adds them. That is my caution, not the profile's.
• A single unit needs its own audit. 8% is a cluster figure, and each unit's own mix of tunnel and shuttle kilns sets its share.

What 7% on one shuttle kiln means, using the profile's own ratios

• Shuttle kiln heat in the profile's table: 64 toe a year
• 7% heat recovery: 64 x 0.07 = 4.5 toe a year
• The profile's oil row is 14,602 toe for 19,032 kilolitres, 0.767 toe a kilolitre
• 4.5 / 0.767 = about 5.8 kilolitres of oil a year saved

The oil row mixes light diesel oil and rubber process oil, so this is a rough guide. Use your own litres from invoices.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so a unit's own gas, oil and power lines are on file to set beside the report's figures. It does not measure a kiln or replace an audit.

• Khurja fuels and the loan route
• Khurja energy total: 18,442 or 16,192
• Tunnel kiln with lighter cars
• Green loan readiness check

Sources: TERI, Cluster profile report: Khurja potteries (SAMEEEKSHA)

Last reviewed 2026-11-07. All figures are from the 2015 cluster profile of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) for Khurja. The tie-outs are my arithmetic on its printed tables.