Which Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change fuel line do rice husk, sawdust, dung cake and charcoal fall under?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Table 1.1 has separate solid biomass lines. Wood and wood waste: 15.6 megajoules (MJ) per kilogram and 112,000 kilograms (kg) of carbon dioxide (CO2) per terajoule (TJ). Other primary solid biomass, which covers vegetal and animal waste: 11.6 and 100,000. Charcoal has its own line.

What each IPCC line says

• Wood and wood waste: wood and wood waste combusted directly for energy. It also includes wood for charcoal production but not the actual production of charcoal, which would be double counting.
• Other primary solid biomass: plant matter used directly as fuel that is not already in wood and wood waste or in sulphite lyes. Included are vegetal waste, animal materials and wastes, and other solid biomass. It also takes non-wood inputs to charcoal production, for example coconut shells.
• Charcoal: the solid residue of the destructive distillation and pyrolysis of wood and other vegetal material, combusted as energy.
• My reading: sulphite lyes, black liquor, is the pulp mill's own line and does not apply to a factory boiler on bought fuel.

Where common Indian fuels land

This is my reading of IPCC's wording. IPCC lists none of these fuels by name except coconut shells.

• Firewood, logs, sawdust, planer shavings, offcuts: wood and wood waste.
• Rice husk, groundnut shell, mustard stalk, cotton stalk, bagasse, coffee husk: vegetal waste, so other primary solid biomass.
• Dung cakes: animal materials and wastes, so other primary solid biomass.
• Coconut shell: named in IPCC's text under other primary solid biomass.
• Charcoal bought as fuel: charcoal.
• Briquettes and pellets: IPCC does not mention them. Follow the raw material, and if the feedstock is mixed, use the main one or split by weight and say so.

What the choice changes

• Heat value: 15.6 MJ per kg for wood against 11.6 for other primary solid biomass, a difference of 4.0 MJ per kg that disappears if you use a tested value.
• Factor per TJ: 112,000 for wood against 100,000, so wood is 12% higher on the same energy. IPCC gives charcoal the same 112,000.
• Per tonne with defaults: wood 15.6 x 112 = 1,747 kg CO2; other primary solid biomass 11.6 x 100 = 1,160 kg. Filing husk under wood overstates the figure by 51%.
• The CO2 from all of these goes on its own biogenic line, not in Scope 1. Methane and nitrous oxide stay in Scope 1, as the biomass boiler answer explains.

100 tonnes of rice husk, two filings

• Other primary solid biomass: 100,000 kg x 11.6 MJ = 1,160,000 MJ = 1,160 gigajoules (GJ) = 1.16 TJ; 1.16 x 100,000 = 116,000 kg CO2
• Filed under wood by mistake: 100,000 x 15.6 = 1,560 GJ = 1.56 TJ; 1.56 x 112,000 = 174,720 kg CO2, which is 50.6% higher
• With a tested husk value of 13.0 MJ per kg (example): 1,300 GJ x 100 kg per GJ = 130,000 kg CO2 on the husk line, and 145,600 kg on the wood line, a 12% gap that is only the factor

The 13.0 MJ per kg test value is an example. Husk and shell burn differently, so have each tested.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records. Biomass is often bought without a heat value, so keep the supplier's test report, if any, and a one-line note of which IPCC line you chose.

• Biomass or waste fuel in a boiler: what is Scope 1
• Firewood bought by the quintal
• Evidence for a biomass fuel supplier
• Firewood, charcoal, coal: two heat values

Sources: IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2, Chapter 1 (Table 1.1 definitions of fuel types, Tables 1.2 and 1.4)

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. IPCC defines fuel types for national inventories. Ask your buyer or verifier which line they expect for briquettes and mixed feedstock.