# What is the carbon footprint of a grinding wheel?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/grinding-wheel-abrasive-carbon-footprint

Most of it is in the abrasive grain, aluminium oxide or silicon carbide, which is energy intensive to make. Your own share is the kiln fuel or electricity that fires vitrified wheels, or the ovens that cure resin bonded ones, divided by kg of wheels.

## Where the CO2 sits

- Scope 3: grain, bond materials and resin, from supplier figures where you can get them.
- Scope 1 and 2: firing kiln or curing oven, mixing and pressing.
- Rejects: count the energy of fired wheels you scrap against good output.

## Per wheel

Allocate by mass: a 10 kg wheel carries ten times the plant energy of a 1 kg wheel.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads the plant's electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and fuel invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, the plant-level input to a per-unit figure. Bought-in materials go to the supplier evidence trail; product reports are self-declared drafts.

- [Silicon carbide CO2 per tonne](https://senseible.earth/answers/silicon-carbide-acheson-furnace-co2-per-tonne)
- [Ceramic spray dryer CO2](https://senseible.earth/answers/ceramic-spray-dryer-co2-per-tonne-powder)

Sources: [IPCC 2006 Guidelines](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/), [CEA CO2 Baseline Database](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-database/?lang=en), [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard)

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.