How much generator diesel does a seafood plant burn per tonne, and why do Veraval and Bhubaneswar differ so much?
The profiles' tables give 320 kilolitres (kL) of diesel for about 108,000 tonnes at Veraval, about 3 litres a tonne, and 890 kL for about 33,600 tonnes at Bhubaneswar, about 26. At 2.645 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) per litre that is about 8 and 70 kilograms a tonne.
The cluster and plant figures
- Veraval cluster: 320 kL over 108,000 tonnes = 2.96 litres a tonne. Plant rows: 2 kL on 600 tonnes, 5 kL on 1,800, 10 kL on 3,000, which is 3.3, 2.8 and 3.3 litres a tonne.
- Bhubaneswar cluster: 890 kL over 33,600 tonnes = 26.5 litres a tonne. Plant rows: 20 kL on 600 tonnes, 55 kL on 1,800, 200 kL on 9,000, which is 33.3, 30.6 and 22.2 litres a tonne.
- Both profiles say every plant has a diesel generator (DG) set to hold the cold store through scheduled and unscheduled outages.
Where the profile text and its tables differ
The Veraval text says DG sets use under 3% of the energy. Its table gives 307 of 9,423 tonnes of oil equivalent, 3.3%. The Bhubaneswar text says DG sets use under 10%. Its table gives 860 of 5,170, 16.6%, and the three plant rows work out at 19%, 18% and 15% on the cluster table's own ratio of 860 tonnes of oil equivalent to 890 kilolitres. We could not find the reason for the difference. The litres in the tables are what an invoice would carry, so use those, not the percentage in the text. The Veraval and Bhubaneswar pages quote the text figures; this page shows what the tables give.
What the diesel adds in carbon
Diesel is a small share of a seafood plant's carbon dioxide at Veraval and a visible one at Bhubaneswar, because power is the main source in both. The example below shows the split.
What to log in your own plant
- Litres bought each month, from fuel invoices.
- The generator's run hours and the outage dates they match.
- Whether the diesel also runs a boat, a truck or an ice plant outside the building, so it is counted once.
Diesel against power, financial year (FY) 2025-26 grid factor and diesel at 2.645 kg per litre (example)
- Veraval: diesel is 1.2% of plant carbon dioxide (the 71,550 tonnes from power is on the Veraval cluster page)
- Bhubaneswar: diesel is 6.5% of plant carbon dioxide (power's 33,818 tonnes is on the Bhubaneswar cluster page)
- Per tonne of product: 26.5 litres x 2.645 = about 70 kg at Bhubaneswar; 2.96 litres x 2.645 = about 8 kg at Veraval
Quantities from the profiles (Veraval 2016-17, Bhubaneswar 2015-16). Grid 0.675 kg CO2 per kWh (FY 2025-26) and diesel 2.645 kg CO2 per litre.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so generator diesel and grid power both show up month by month. Senseible does not log generator run hours or outages, so keep those in your own sheet.
- Veraval seafood cluster: energy and CO2
- Bhubaneswar shrimp cluster CO2
- Diesel invoice to CO2
- Free calculators
- Bhubaneswar shrimp plant kWh per tonne
Sources: Cluster profile of Veraval seafood processing industries, The Energy and Resources Institute (energy tables), Cluster profile of Odisha (Bhubaneswar) seafood processing industries, The Energy and Resources Institute (energy tables), Central Electricity Authority (CEA), CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector, version 22.0 (0.675 kg CO2 per kWh, FY 2025-26), IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel emission factors)
Last reviewed 2026-11-06. Litres per tonne are our division of printed totals. The text and table percentages in the profiles disagree and we have not resolved why.