What does a new rice whitener pay back in a 1 tonne an hour and a 1.5 tonne an hour mill, and is the tonnes figure in the report paddy or rice?

A new rice whitener in place of cone polishers pays back in about 1.6 years at both mill sizes in the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) Ganjam reports. The money comes from about 10 rupees (Rs) more for each quintal (100 kilograms) of rice, not from saving power.

What changes in the mill, in plain words

After the husk comes off, brown rice still has a thin skin of bran. Polishing rubs it away to make white rice. Old cone polishers rub the grain against a rough surface, which leaves a duller look and more broken grains. A whitener is a newer machine that polishes more gently.

The reports say the rice from a whitener has better quality and sells for more. They do not claim it uses less power. A lakh is 100,000 rupees.

The two sizes side by side

• 1.0 tonne an hour (TPH) mill: paddy processed 2,000 tonnes a year, rice made 1,400 tonnes, or 14,000 quintals. Benefit Rs 1.40 lakh a year. Investment Rs 2.18 lakh (equipment Rs 1.43 lakh plus Rs 0.75 lakh for cabling, civil work and changes). Payback 1.56 years. Internal rate of return 46.49%.
• 1.5 TPH mill (the report is titled 1.5 to 2.0 TPH): paddy processed 2,400 tonnes, rice 1,680 tonnes, or 16,800 quintals. Benefit Rs 1.68 lakh. Investment Rs 2.65 lakh (equipment Rs 1.65 lakh plus Rs 1.00 lakh). Payback 1.58 years. Internal rate of return 45.39%.
• Both reports show carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction as nil and say the whitener and the cone polisher use about the same power.

Where the Rs 1.40 lakh comes from

Both reports say rice from whiteners sells for about Rs 10 to Rs 15 a quintal more than rice from cone polishers. The sums use the low end: Rs 2,810 against Rs 2,800 a quintal. So 14,000 x Rs 10 = Rs 1.40 lakh, and 16,800 x Rs 10 = Rs 1.68 lakh.

Rs 10 on Rs 2,800 is a gap of 0.36%, so the case depends on your buyer actually paying it. In the 1.5 TPH report's table of three mills, two sell to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) levy at Rs 18 a kilogram and one sells fine rice at Rs 28. The report does not say whether levy rice earns the extra amount. Ask your buyer before you count on it.

At the high end of Rs 15 a quintal, our own arithmetic gives Rs 2.10 lakh and Rs 2.52 lakh a year, and a payback of about 1.0 year at both sizes.

Paddy or rice: one label in the tables is off

Table 1.1 in each report calls the 2,000 and 2,400 tonnes 'Production (Rice)'. The body text calls the same numbers paddy processed, and the annexure shows rice made as 1,400 and 1,680 tonnes. 1,400 / 2,000 and 1,680 / 2,400 are both 70%. So the tonnes in Table 1.1 are paddy, the rice grain still in its husk, and rice is 70% of it.

That matters for the electricity figure. The reports give 14 and 20.5 kilowatt hours (kWh) for each tonne of production, which is per tonne of paddy. Per tonne of rice the same mills are 28,000 / 1,400 = 20 kWh and 49,000 / 1,680 = 29.2 kWh. When a buyer asks for energy per tonne of rice, do not hand over the paddy figure.

Before you buy

• Get a buyer or trader to say in writing what extra price they pay for whitened rice, and for which grade.
• Ask for the broken rice share of your present output, since lower breakage is part of the claimed gain and the reports do not put a number on it.
• Count the stoppage the reports allow for fitting: six days in the summary table, one week in the text.

Both mills, line by line

• 1.0 TPH: 14,000 quintals x Rs 10 = Rs 1,40,000. 2.18 / 1.40 = 1.56 years
• 1.5 TPH: 16,800 quintals x Rs 10 = Rs 1,68,000. 2.65 / 1.68 = 1.58 years
• At Rs 15 a quintal: 14,000 x 15 = Rs 2.10 lakh, 2.18 / 2.10 = 1.04 years; 16,800 x 15 = Rs 2.52 lakh, 2.65 / 2.52 = 1.05 years
• Electricity per tonne of rice: 28,000 kWh / 1,400 = 20.0; 49,000 kWh / 1,680 = 29.2 (per tonne of paddy: 14.0 and 20.4, printed as 14 and 20.5)

These are the reports' printed figures with simple arithmetic on top. The Rs 15 line and the per tonne of rice line are our own reading. Costs are the reports' 2010 prices.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so your mill's units a month show up once the bills are uploaded. The standard read is fuel and electricity bills. Sales prices are not part of it, so keep your sales records for the price gap.

• Cone polisher or whitener: does it cut a rice mill's carbon?
• Ganjam rice mills: electricity saving
• Rice mill carbon footprint per tonne of paddy
• Green loan readiness check

Sources: BEE and SAMEEEKSHA detailed project report: whitener 1.5 to 2.0 TPH in place of cone polishers, Ganjam rice mill cluster, BEE and SAMEEEKSHA detailed project report: whitener 1.0 TPH in place of cone polishers, Ganjam rice mill cluster

Last reviewed 2026-11-07. Costs and paybacks are at the reports' 2010 prices. The paddy and rice reading of the tonnes is our own, from the reports' annexure; the price gap depends on your buyer.