# How much power and CO2 can waste heat recovery save in a 2 x 100 TPD DRI plant?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/dri-kiln-waste-heat-power-saving-bankura

About 23.5 million kWh of grid power a year. TERI's 2025 Bankura profile says a 2 x 100 TPD coal-based DRI plant can run a 5 MW waste heat power plant, costing about Rs 500 million, avoiding roughly 15,900 t CO2 at the FY 2025-26 grid factor. Better kiln lining saves another 580 t of coal per kiln.

## Where the heat is

Off gas leaves a DRI rotary kiln at 950 to 1,000 C. A waste heat boiler turns it into high pressure steam for a turbine; the power runs the plant and any surplus can go to the grid. The kiln shell itself runs at 180 to 250 C, and radiation from it is about 5% of the heat input.

## Bankura's DRI plants

- 10 DRI plants make 1,396,500 t a year on 1.53 million t of domestic and imported coal: 700,875 toe and 2.87 million t CO2 by TERI's count.
- That is about 64% of the cluster's energy (700,875 of 1,089,563 toe). TERI's text says 48%, but its own table gives 64%.

## Is 5 MW worth it

Rs 500 million for 23.5 million kWh a year is about Rs 21 of investment per kWh saved each year. Divide that by what you pay per kWh to get a rough payback before running costs. At an assumed Rs 7 per kWh it is about three years; use your own tariff and steam data.

## What it does to your carbon numbers

- Kiln coal does not change, so direct emissions stay where they are.
- Grid purchases fall, so your Scope 2 figure and the footprint a domestic buyer sees fall with them.
- Do not put a grid factor on the waste heat power; its fuel is already counted in the kiln.
- Sponge iron counts direct emissions only under CBAM, so waste heat power does not lower the CBAM figure. Coal burnt per tonne of sponge iron does.

## Two kiln changes in the same profile

- Mullite-based low conductivity lining on a 100 TPD kiln: about 580 t of coal a year.
- Pellets instead of 5 to 20 mm ore lumps: better yield, fewer fines, less coal per tonne.

## Savings at FY 2025-26 factors (estimate)

- Waste heat power: 23.5 million kWh x 0.675 kg = about 15,860 t CO2 a year
- TERI's profile gives 16,685 t, using a slightly higher grid factor
- Better lining: 580 t Indian coal x 1.76 = 1,021 t CO2; imported coal at 2.44 = 1,415 t
- Payback: Rs 500 million / (23.5 million kWh x Rs 7) = about 3 years, before running costs

Plant figures from TERI's 2025 Bankura energy profile. The Rs 7 per kWh tariff is an assumption for the example. Grid factor from CEA for FY 2025-26.

## What Senseible does here

The green loan check shows what a lender asks before funding a waste heat plant. Senseible reads coal invoices and power bills into monthly records, so the grid power saved shows against your own baseline.

- [Green loan check](https://senseible.earth/green-loan-check)
- [Bankura cluster: energy and CO2](https://senseible.earth/answers/bankura-secondary-steel-cluster-energy-co2)
- [Counting waste heat power](https://senseible.earth/answers/barbil-sponge-iron-plant-waste-heat-power)
- [Durgapur DRI belt carbon](https://senseible.earth/answers/durgapur-secondary-steel-cluster-dri-carbon)
- [Is sponge iron covered by CBAM?](https://senseible.earth/answers/are-pig-iron-and-sponge-iron-covered-by-cbam)

Sources: [TERI, Energy profile: Bankura secondary steel cluster (2025)](https://sameeeksha.org/pdf/Bankura%20cluster%20profile.pdf), [CEA, CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector, version 22.0](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-view?mappingId=234&lang=en), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html), [CBAM Regulation (EU) 2023/956, consolidated text](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/956/2025-10-20)

Last reviewed 2026-10-31.