# What is the total energy use and CO2 of the Ballari iron and steel cluster outside the integrated plant?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/ballari-steel-cluster-energy-and-co2

Leaving out JSW's integrated plant, TERI's 2025 study counts 42 iron and steel plants in Ballari making 8.71 million t a year, using 1.84 Mtoe and emitting 8.34 million t CO2. Sponge iron is most of it: 27 plants and 5.64 million t CO2, about two thirds.

## The 42 plants

- Sponge iron: 27 (23 stand-alone, 4 within composite plants), 2.616 million t.
- Pellets: 4, 4.54 million t. Induction furnace: 3. Re-rolling: 4. Ferro alloy: 2. One mini blast furnace and one BF-BOF plant.
- Most are designated consumers under BEE's PAT scheme, so they already report energy to BEE.

## Coal is the story

Coal and coke, 3.34 million t a year, give 94% of the energy and 7.4 million t CO2, more than 88% of the total. Sponge iron kilns burn 2.61 million t of it. Electricity, 1,330 million kWh, is 6% of energy and about 11% of CO2.

## Why a cluster average per tonne misleads

8.34 / 8.71 looks like 0.96 t CO2 a tonne, but more than half of the 8.71 million t is pellets that go on into the kilns, so tonnes are counted twice. Use the figure for your own process instead.

## What the study suggests

- Sponge iron: waste heat power, kiln preheating from waste heat, pellets in place of lump ore, mullite kiln lining, drives on fans and pumps, and in time gas-based DRI.
- Induction furnaces: scrap bundling, continuous casting with direct rolling.
- Re-rolling: recuperators, coal gasifiers in place of pulverised coal, better furnace lining.

## CO2 per tonne by process (from the study)

- Sponge iron: 5.64 million t / 2.616 million t = 2.16 t CO2 per tonne
- Ferro alloy: 0.60 / 0.137 = 4.4 t CO2 per tonne
- Mini blast furnace: 0.49 / 0.24 = 2.0 t CO2 per tonne
- Induction furnace: 0.21 / 0.30 = 0.70 t CO2 per tonne
- Re-rolling: 0.16 / 0.572 = 0.28 t CO2 per tonne
- Pellets: 0.64 / 4.54 = 0.14 t CO2 per tonne

Production and CO2 from TERI's 2025 Ballari study, which excludes JSW's integrated plant.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads coal invoices (1.76 t CO2 a tonne Indian, 2.44 imported) and power bills into monthly records; electricity stays in the record for buyers' footprints even though CBAM leaves it out for steel. It has no built-in coke factor.

- [CBAM for exporters](https://senseible.earth/cbam)
- [kWh and coal per tonne by process](https://senseible.earth/answers/secondary-steel-sec-by-process-ballari)
- [Ballari pellet plant CO2](https://senseible.earth/answers/ballari-pellet-plant-co2-per-tonne)

Sources: [TERI, In-depth study: Iron and steel industries in Ballari cluster (2025)](https://sameeeksha.org/pdf/publications/Ballari%20Cluster%20Report%20Report.pdf), [Regulation (EU) 2023/956 (CBAM), consolidated text](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/956/2025-10-20), [CEA, CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector (grid factor 0.675 kg CO2 per kWh, FY 2025-26)](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-view?mappingId=234&lang=en), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel emission factors)](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html)

Last reviewed 2026-10-31.