Where does the energy go in a tannery: drying, hot water, space heating or machines?
The European Commission's tanning reference document puts about 85% of a tannery's energy as heat and 15% as electricity. Drying and hot water take 32 to 34% each, space heating 17 to 20%, and machines and process vessels 9 to 12%. Those figures come from studies made in the 1970s and 1980s.
The split the reference document prints
- Heat is about 85% of a tannery's energy and electricity about 15%. The document says this follows from studies made in the 1970s and 1980s.
- Heat: drying 32 to 34%, hot water 32 to 34%, space heating 17 to 20%.
- Electricity: machinery and process vessels 9 to 12%, pressurised air 1.5 to 3%, light 1.5 to 3%.
- Boilers generally run on gas, oil or coal, and sometimes on waste such as fat, tallow and pallets. Most tanneries use electricity from the public supply.
Where the document differs from itself
The table gives drying 32 to 34%. In its description of drying, the same document says drying is one of the most energy intensive processes and may account for up to 45% of total energy consumption. Treat 32 to 34% as the table's share and 45% as the upper case it mentions. It does not say which tanneries reach 45%.
What this means for your records (my reading)
This is my reading, not the document's. Boiler fuel for drying, hot water and space heating is Scope 1 and shows on fuel invoices. Electricity for drums, pumps, compressors and light is Scope 2 and shows on the electricity bill. So a tannery's fuel lines should be several times its electricity line once both are in the same unit. If yours are not, check whether a fuel invoice is missing or a boiler is running on steam bought from outside.
Why your split may differ
The document says climate has a decisive influence and that a tannery's thermal need is thought to fall by 2% for each degree the annual average temperature rises. It gives no Indian split. Compare your own months with each other first, then with this table as a rough guide.
Example month: does your split look like 85 to 15?
- Electricity bill: 40,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) x 3.6 = 144,000 megajoules (MJ) = 144 gigajoules (GJ)
- For electricity to be 15% of the total, heat would be 144 / 0.15 x 0.85 = 816 GJ, so a total of 960 GJ
- Electricity emissions: 40,000 x 0.675 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kWh for financial year (FY) 2025-26 = 27,000 kilograms (kg), or 27.0 tonnes
- If your fuel invoices convert to far less than 816 GJ, look for a missing invoice before you conclude the tannery is efficient
The 40,000 kWh is an example. 1 kWh = 3.6 MJ. Convert fuel to GJ with the fuel's calorific value from your supplier or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defaults.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into records by billing period. It does not split a bill between drying, hot water and machines; that needs your own meters.
- Leather Working Group energy and carbon data
- Ambur tannery boiler and effluent plant emissions
- Carbon footprint per square foot of leather
Sources: European Commission, Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Reference Document on Best Available Techniques for the Tanning of Hides and Skins, February 2003 edition (filed by the publisher as superseded), CEA, CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector, version 22.0, GHG Protocol Corporate Standard
Last reviewed 2026-11-06. Figures are from the February 2003 edition of the European tanning reference document, which the publisher files as superseded; its energy and effluent tables rest on European tanneries and on older studies. Check the current edition and your own records before you quote a number to a buyer.