# What does moving an oil-fired rotary furnace to induction do to a foundry's CO2?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/foundry-oil-fired-rotary-furnace-to-induction-co2

Less than the fuel saved suggests, because the power moves to the grid. The report for the Batala, Jalandhar and Ludhiana foundry cluster shows a 66.97 tonne CO2 cut a year, with 458 MWh of electricity used in the proposed case. Downtime is about 3 weeks.

## The report's baseline

- Oil-fired rotary furnace: 515 litres a day, 3.43 tonnes of raw material a day, 3.2 tonnes of output a day, 800 tonnes a year.
- Proposed induction furnace: 1,830 kWh a day, 458 MWh a year, raw material 3.328 tonnes a day.
- Rejection falls from 7% to 4% in the report's assumption.

## Why the CO2 cut is smaller than the oil saved

Burning oil is Scope 1. Electricity is Scope 2. A furnace oil litre carries a large factor and a kWh a small one, but the induction furnace uses a lot of kWh. The net effect is what the report shows, and it moves with the grid factor of the year.

## One thing to check in the report

Its summary table prints the oil use as 128,750 tonnes, and elsewhere as kilograms. 128,750 divided by 515 litres a day is 250 days, so the figure is litres. Use litres from your own bills.

## Downtime

The summary table says about 3 weeks of process downtime; the text says 2 to 3.

## Worked CO2 from the report's numbers, with Senseible's factors

- Oil: 515 litres x 250 days = 128,750 litres. At 2.97 kg CO2 per litre: 382.4 t CO2 a year.
- Electricity: 1,830 kWh x 250 days = 457,500 kWh. At 0.675 kg per kWh: 308.8 t CO2 a year.
- Net cut: 382.4 minus 308.8 = 73.6 t CO2 a year.
- The report shows 66.97 t, using its own factors.

The 250 days is implied by the report's own numbers. The report dates from 2011.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads furnace oil and electricity bills into Scope 1 and Scope 2 records per site, so the before and after of a furnace change comes from your own invoices.

- [Furnace oil litres to kilograms](https://senseible.earth/answers/furnace-oil-litres-to-kg-density)
- [Cupola to induction in Howrah](https://senseible.earth/answers/howrah-foundry-cupola-to-induction-co2)
- [Carbon calculators](https://senseible.earth/calculators)

Sources: [SAMEEEKSHA and BEE, DPR: replacing an oil-fired rotary furnace with an induction furnace, Batala, Jalandhar and Ludhiana foundry cluster](https://sameeeksha.org/pdf/dpr/Batala_Jalandhar_Ludhiana_foundry_cluster/Replacement_of_oil_fired_rotary_furnace_with_induction_furnace_Batala_Jlndr_Ludh_Fdry_Cluster.pdf)

Last reviewed 2026-11-03.