Which coal heating value do the Surat manual and its boiler reports use: 4,100, 4,500, 5,800 or 6,000 kilocalories a kilogram?
The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) Surat manual lists 2,300,972 tonnes of imported coal as 943,398 tonnes of oil equivalent (toe), which is 4,100 kilocalories (kcal) a kilogram. Its own cases use 5,800 and 6,000. If all of it is imported coal, at 5,800 coal is 79% of cluster energy, not 73%.
What the cluster table prints
- Electricity 725.7 gigawatt hours (GWh): 62,411 toe. Natural gas 3,147 lakh (1 lakh = 100,000) standard cubic metres (scm): 283,230 toe. Imported coal 23,00,972 tonnes (2,300,972): 943,398 toe. Total 12,89,039 (1,289,039). The three lines add to the total.
- Divide each toe figure back by its quantity. Electricity gives 860 kcal a kilowatt hour (kWh). Gas gives 0.9 toe per 1,000 scm, 9,000 kcal an scm. Coal gives 0.41 toe a tonne, or 4,100 kcal a kilogram (kg).
Other coal values in the same documents
- The manual's cogeneration case uses a gross calorific value (GCV) for imported coal of 5,800 kcal/kg ('GCV of imported coal 5800 kcal/kg'). Its jet machine drain heat case also uses 5,800, with coal at rupees (Rs) 3,500 a tonne.
- Its condensate recovery case uses 6,000 kcal a kg. The 3 tonnes an hour (TPH) boiler report assesses imported coal at 6,000 and prints 4,500 for coal in the new boiler's specification. The 4 TPH report assesses lignite at 4,000.
- So imported coal is 4,100 in the cluster total, and 5,800 or 6,000 in the cases. The manual does not explain the difference. One possible reason is that the tonnage includes lignite: the table has only an 'Imported Coal' row and no lignite row, yet the manual says lignite is also burned, and 4,100 sits next to the 4,000 kcal a kg lignite figure in the 4 TPH report. The page cannot settle it. The 4,500 comes only from the two boiler reports' new-boiler specifications, not from the manual text.
What changes
A higher heating value makes the same tonnes more energy. If all of it is imported coal, at 5,800 kcal a kg coal is 2,300,972 x 0.58 = 1,334,564 toe, and the total is 1,680,205, with coal 79.4% of it. At 6,000 coal is 1,380,583 toe, total 1,726,224, coal 80.0%. As printed, coal is 943,398 of 1,289,039, which is 73.2%; gas is 22.0% and electricity 4.8%.
Coal leads either way. What moves is how far, and any toe a tonne or kcal a rupee figure you build on the table.
For your own books
Carbon dioxide (CO2) comes from tonnes burnt times a factor per tonne, not from toe. Use your supplier's test report for heating value and carbon content, or common defaults of 2.44 kg CO2 a kg for imported coal and 1.76 for Indian coal.
If all 2,300,972 tonnes were imported coal at 2.44, that would be about 5.61 million tonnes CO2. It is a cluster-scale estimate from our arithmetic, not a figure the manual prints, and it is lower if part of the row is lignite or Indian coal.
The same tonnage at three heating values, if all imported coal
- Printed: 2,300,972 t x 0.41 = 943,398 toe; total 1,289,039; coal share 73.2%
- At 5,800 kcal a kg: 2,300,972 x 0.58 = 1,334,564 toe; total 1,334,564 + 62,411 + 283,230 = 1,680,205; share 79.4%
- At 6,000: 1,380,583 toe; total 1,726,224; share 80.0%
- CO2 at 2.44 kg a kg, if all imported coal: 2,300,972,000 kg x 2.44 = 5.61 million tonnes
Quantities and printed toe are the manual's. The other heating values are the manual's and report's own cases; the totals and shares are our arithmetic.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so the coal and gas you bought are on file in tonnes and scm, and CO2 starts from your own tonnes, not from toe. Your coal's heating value is on the supplier's test report.
Sources: BEE, Manual on Energy Conservation Measures in Textile Cluster, Surat (SAMEEEKSHA), BEE, Detailed project report: energy efficient boiler, 3 TPH, Surat (SAMEEEKSHA), BEE, Detailed project report: energy efficient boiler, 4 TPH, Surat (SAMEEEKSHA), CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 22.0
Last reviewed 2026-11-06. The manual is BEE's Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) programme study with prices of its year. Use your own test reports for heating value.