# How should an Ankleshwar bulk drug unit count emissions from solvent recovery and incineration?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/ankleshwar-api-unit-solvent-recovery-emissions

Steam and power used to distil solvents back for reuse are ordinary Scope 1 and 2. Solvent you burn in your own incinerator or thermal oxidiser is Scope 1 at its carbon content. Solvent waste sent to a common incinerator is Scope 3, Category 5, using the operator's figure or a stated estimate.

## Three routes, three answers

- Recovered in house: count the steam and electricity used by the recovery columns.
- Burnt in your own incinerator: Scope 1, carbon in the solvent converted to CO2, plus any support fuel.
- Sent out to a common hazardous waste incinerator: Scope 3, waste generated in operations.

## Working out the carbon

For a known solvent, the carbon fraction comes from its formula; toluene is about 91 percent carbon by mass, methanol about 37 percent. Multiply tonnes burnt by carbon fraction and by 44/12.

## Records to keep

Solvent purchase invoices, recovery logs, incinerator feed records and manifests for waste sent out. They also support the solvent balance a pharma buyer may ask for.

## Worked example: 10 tonnes of toluene burnt in your own oxidiser

- Carbon: 10 t x 0.913 = 9.13 t C
- CO2: 9.13 x 44/12 = 33.5 t CO2, Scope 1
- Plus the support fuel burnt, from the fuel invoices

Carbon fractions come from the chemical formula. Mixed solvent streams need the mix from the recovery log.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel, steam, electricity and raw material invoices into a dated, fingerprinted record per unit, so a product figure can be traced back to the documents behind it.

- [Pharma KSM imports factor](https://senseible.earth/answers/pharma-ksm-imports-from-china-emission-factor)
- [CETP and effluent scope](https://senseible.earth/answers/cetp-effluent-emissions-which-scope)
- [Tablet footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/pharma-formulation-carbon-footprint-per-1000-tablets)

Sources: [IPCC 2006 Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/), [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard)

Last reviewed 2026-10-21.