How did Morbi tile kiln fuels change from kerosene to coal gas to piped gas, and what records should a unit keep if it switched part way through a year?
The Morbi manual says the cluster began on kerosene in the early 1990s, moved to liquefied petroleum gas in the mid 1990s, then after 2000 to coal gas from gasifiers, and later to piped natural gas for kilns. If you switched mid-year, count each month's fuel with its own factor.
The sequence the manual gives
- Early 1990s: kerosene as the thermal fuel.
- Mid 1990s: liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
- After 2000: producer gas, which is a fuel gas made by burning solid fuel, such as coal or lignite, with too little air in a machine called a gasifier. It replaced LPG because LPG's energy cost more than energy from coal gas.
- In the years before the manual (2010): piped natural gas arrived, and many units moved their kilns onto it.
- Gasifiers, and a machine the manual calls a potrifier that burns coal in a bed of hot air-blown particles to give hot gas, stayed the main source for spray dryers. With time and quality problems, some units moved spray dryers to natural gas too. Those that did were considering making their own power with the exhaust heat as well.
What else the manual says about supply
- Natural gas came from the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC), with a good network in Morbi.
- The Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation gives units a monthly quota for buying coal.
- Weekly electricity load shedding was usual, and most units have their own diesel generator sets for the gaps.
- It also names biomass, briquettes, sawdust and wood as thermal fuels used in some units.
Why a mid-year switch is tricky
Each fuel has its own carbon dioxide for each unit you buy. If a unit ran its kiln on coal gas for five months and piped gas for seven, a single average factor for the year would be wrong for both halves. Count each month with the factor for the fuel burnt that month, then add the months.
Records to keep
- The month of the switch and what changed: kiln, spray dryer or both.
- Coal purchase invoices and any quota letter, with tonnes and the supplier's heat value if printed. Quota papers show an allowed tonnage, not what you burnt, so count from invoices and stock.
- Gas bills with the meter reading for the kiln and, if separate, the spray dryer.
- Diesel bought for the generator set. Outages make this a regular fuel, and it is easy to forget.
A year with a switch in July, example numbers
- January to June: 150 tonnes of imported coal a month into the gasifier at 2.44 kg of carbon dioxide a kilogram (the factor for imported bituminous coal): 366 tonnes a month, 2,196 tonnes for six months
- July to December: 55,000 standard cubic metres (scm) of piped gas a month at 2.05 kg: 112.75 tonnes a month, 676.5 tonnes for six months
- Year: 2,196 + 676.5 = 2,872.5 tonnes
Quantities are examples and the two halves are not claimed to give equal heat. Use your own invoices, and the factors for the fuels you burnt.
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.
- Morbi coal gas against piped gas kiln carbon dioxide
- Morbi fuels by cost per heat, 2009
- Morbi cluster energy and carbon
- Calculators
Sources: BEE, Manual on Energy Conservation Measures in Ceramic Industry, Morbi cluster (SAMEEEKSHA), IPCC, 2006 Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Volume 2 Energy
Last reviewed 2026-11-07. The sequence and supply notes are from section 2.5.1 of the April 2010 Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) Morbi manual. The fuel mix has moved on since 2010. Factors are from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2006 defaults; check the factor for your own coal.