Is electricity from a waste heat recovery system zero emission in my inventory?

Yes, in effect: power from a waste heat recovery system that you use on site adds no Scope 2, because you did not buy it, and adds no new Scope 1 unless you burn extra fuel to run it. The emissions behind the heat are already in Scope 1, from the kiln or furnace fuel.

Why there is no separate figure for WHRS power

Scope 2 covers purchased electricity. Power you generate and use yourself is not purchased, so the GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance gives it no Scope 2. The Corporate Standard counts emissions from your own generation in Scope 1. For a WHRS, the fuel was burnt for the process, and that CO2 is already in Scope 1. Counting it again against the electricity would double count.

When it is not zero

• Auxiliary firing: if coal, gas or oil is burnt to boost steam in the WHRS boiler, that fuel is extra Scope 1.
• Blended plants: if the WHRS shares a turbine with a coal-fired captive boiler, split the output by steam source, or count all the fuel and treat the power as own generation.
• Fugitive leaks from the cycle, such as refrigerants in an organic Rankine cycle unit, are Scope 1 in CO2e.

How to report it

1. Total electricity consumed, split into grid purchase and own generation from waste heat.
2. Scope 2 on the grid kWh only, at 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh location-based for India.
3. The kiln or furnace fuel in Scope 1 as usual, with no deduction for the power made from its heat.
4. Units exported to the grid are not subtracted from Scope 1 or Scope 2.

Carbon credits are a separate question

Lower grid purchases from WHRS cut your Scope 2. Whether the project can also earn carbon credits depends on an approved methodology, additionality and a registry's rules. Do not assume it qualifies, and do not claim the same reduction in your inventory and as credits sold to someone else.

Worked example: a cement plant for one year

• Total electricity used: 10,000 MWh
• From WHRS: 3,000 MWh; from the grid: 7,000 MWh
• Scope 2: 7,000,000 kWh x 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh = 4,970,000 kg, 4,970 t CO2
• If the WHRS power were wrongly treated as grid: 10,000,000 x 0.710 = 7,100 t CO2, an overstatement of 2,130 t

Factor: CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0. Keep WHRS generation meter readings as evidence for the split.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reports purchased grid kWh as Scope 2 from your electricity bills, so WHRS power consumed on site adds no Scope 2, and it reads fuel invoices for Scope 1. Its carbon credit eligibility signals are a first screen, not a ruling that a WHRS project can earn credits.

• Emissions saved by waste heat recovery
• Manufacturing Scope 2 emissions in India
• CHP emissions allocation

Sources: GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance (2015), GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, Chapter 4, CEA CO2 Baseline Database

Last reviewed 2026-10-16.