Does the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) Tiruppur manual really pay back low liquor soft flow dyeing machines in 59 months?

BEE's Tiruppur manual books five soft flow machines at a liquor ratio of 3.5 against 8, costing rupees (Rs) 156 lakh (1 lakh = 100,000) and saving Rs 31.90 lakh a year of water, wood and power. Payback is 59 months, the longest of its measures, and water is two fifths of the saving.

What the report assumes

• Five soft flow machines, 1,850 kilograms (kg) a batch (the table does not say each or total), two batches a day at 70% use: 1,850 x 2 x 0.70 = 2,590 kilograms of fabric a day.
• Material to liquor ratio 8 now and 3.5 proposed, a cut of 4.5, with 8 washes a day.
• Water: 2,590 x 4.5 x 8 = 93,240 litres a day, at Rs 55 a kilolitre. That is Rs 5,128.2 a day and Rs 12.82 lakh a year, which implies 250 working days.
• Wood: 30% of the boilers' 1,500 tonnes a year is 450 tonnes, at Rs 3,000 a tonne, Rs 13.5 lakh. The table prints 14.
• Power: pumps and stirrers of 99 kilowatts (kW), 20% saved. The table prints 19.7 kW saved over 6,000 hours as 118,614 kilowatt hours (kWh); 99 x 20% x 6,000 would be 118,800. We use the printed 118,614, at Rs 4.7 a kWh, Rs 5.57 lakh.

How 59 months comes out

12.82 + 13.5 + 5.57 = 31.89, printed as 31.90 lakh. Rs 156 lakh / 31.90 = 4.89 years, or 58.7 months, printed as 59. The manual's summary table of all measures prints the payback column as months in one place and years in another; the months are right for this row.

By share, water is 40% of the saving, wood 42% and power 17%. The wood saving is an assumed 30%, not a measured one, so it carries the most doubt.

Two things in the report that do not tie

• The daily fabric of 2,590 kilograms equals one capacity figure x 2 x 0.70. It only works if 1,850 kilograms is the total for all five machines. Our reading; the table does not say.
• The manual's cost table prices single machines at a total of Rs 61.9 lakh for 450 kilograms, Rs 70.3 lakh for 600 and Rs 90.9 lakh for 1,200. Rs 156 lakh is less than the Rs 161.2 lakh of one 1,200 and one 600 kilogram machine, so we cannot see what five machines at Rs 156 lakh means. Ask a maker for a quote for your own batch size before you use the payback.

If water is cheap where you are

Drop the water line and the saving is 13.5 + 5.57 = 19.07 lakh. Rs 156 lakh / 19.07 = 8.2 years, about 98 months. The payback depends mostly on your water and effluent plant cost per kilolitre, so use your own bills.

The carbon side

The 118,614 kWh is Scope 2: 118,614 x 0.675 = 80,064 kilograms, about 80 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) at the financial year (FY) 2025-26 grid factor. The manual counts its wood at 1.50 tonnes of CO2 a tonne as non-renewable. The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol says direct CO2 from the combustion of biomass shall not be included in scope 1 but reported separately, so keep the 450 tonnes as tonnes of wood and report the CO2 on its own line.

The report's own sums, step by step

• Fabric: 1,850 x 2 x 0.70 = 2,590 kilograms a day
• Water: 2,590 x (8 minus 3.5) x 8 washes = 93,240 litres a day = 93.24 kilolitres x Rs 55 = Rs 5,128.2
• Wood: 1,500 x 0.30 = 450 tonnes x Rs 3,000 = Rs 13.5 lakh
• Power: 118,614 kWh x Rs 4.7 = Rs 5.57 lakh
• Total Rs 31.9 lakh a year; Rs 156 lakh / 31.9 = 4.89 years = 59 months

Figures are the manual's, at its study-year prices. Check today's prices and a current quote.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so the wood and electricity bought each month are on file to test the report's baseline against. Water, effluent and kilograms of fabric come from your own meters and production register.

• Low liquor ratio dyeing: steam and CO2 saving
• Tiruppur manual: payback table in months or years
• Tiruppur hot drained water recovery report
• Tiruppur knitwear cluster: buyer carbon data
• Green loan readiness check

Sources: BEE, Manual on Energy Conservation Measures in Textile Cluster, Tirupur (prepared by Winrock International India, via SAMEEEKSHA), GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, Scope 1 definition

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. Figures are from BEE's undated manual, about 2010 to 2011. Prices, machine costs and the grid factor have moved; use current quotes and the factor for your reporting year.