Does a Morbi tile unit use more or less energy for each tonne of ceramic product than Italian and Chinese plants, according to the Bureau of Energy Efficiency manual?

The Morbi manual's table gives Morbi 210 kilowatt hours of electricity and 1.07 million kilocalories of heat for each tonne of ceramic product. Italy is 139 and 1.16, China 259 and 1.05, India 210 and 1.34. Morbi uses more electricity than Italy and slightly less heat.

The four rows

• India: 210 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity and 1.34 million kilocalories (kcal) of heat for each tonne of ceramic product.
• China: 259 kWh and 1.05 million kcal.
• Italy: 139 kWh and 1.16 million kcal.
• Morbi: 210 kWh and 1.07 million kcal.

Where the numbers come from

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) manual says the figures for China, Italy and India come from a Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) booklet on ceramic industries, and the Morbi figures from its own energy audit study. The manual does not give the year of the booklet's figures, the products behind them, or whether heat is counted the same way in all four rows. The table is headed Specific Energy Consumption in Ceramic Manufacturing and does not say which products it covers. So it is a rough guide, not a ruling.

What the rows show

• Electricity: Morbi's 210 is 1.51 times Italy's 139, and 19% below China's 259. It is the same as the all-India figure.
• Heat: Morbi's 1.07 million is 8% below Italy's 1.16 million, 2% above China's 1.05 million, and 20% below the India row's 1.34 million.
• Italy uses the least electricity. On heat Morbi is second lowest of the four, close to China. If your buyer is Italian, the power line may be where you look weaker. That is my reading, and the table's basis is unclear.

Turning a million kilocalories into gas

At the manual's 8,800 kcal for each standard cubic metre (scm) of natural gas, Morbi's 1.07 million kcal is about 122 scm for each tonne, Italy's 1.16 million is about 132 scm. That is only a unit change. It assumes all the heat is gas, which in Morbi in 2009 it was not, since solid fuel fed many spray dryers.

What to send a buyer who asks

• Your own electricity per tonne and heat per tonne, from your last twelve months of bills and tonnes packed.
• A line saying how heat was counted: gas only, or gas plus solid fuel at its heat value.
• The table above only as background, with its source, never as your own figure.

Your own line, example numbers

• Twelve months: 6,600,000 kWh, 3,600,000 scm of gas and 30,000 tonnes of tile packed (an example)
• Electricity: 6,600,000 / 30,000 = 220 kWh for each tonne
• Heat: 3,600,000 scm x 8,800 kcal = 31.68 billion kcal; / 30,000 tonnes = 1.056 million kcal for each tonne

Example numbers, chosen to show the sum, not a Morbi average. If solid fuel also feeds your dryer, add its heat the same way, using the heat value on the supplier's sheet.

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 gas and power per square metre
• Why tile makers in Castellon and Sassuolo pay for carbon and imported tiles do not
• Morbi tile exporters and EU buyers

Sources: BEE, Manual on Energy Conservation Measures in Ceramic Industry, Morbi cluster (SAMEEEKSHA)

Last reviewed 2026-11-07. Table 10 is from the April 2010 BEE Morbi manual. The Italy, China and India rows are the SIDBI booklet's, as the manual states, and carry no date there.