# Which Indian foundry clusters did the national energy study cover, and where does my foundry fit?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/india-foundry-clusters-energy-share

India has about 5,000 foundries, around 3,680 operating, using 0.9 Mtoe a year. A national study of 14 clusters, from Agra to Shivamogga, found they use about 0.4 Mtoe, roughly 45% of it, at 3.2 to 5.0 GJ per tonne. Work out your own GJ per tonne to see where you sit.

## The 14 clusters studied

Agra, Ahmedabad, Batala-Jalandhar-Ludhiana, Belagavi, Coimbatore, Faridabad, Indore, Kolhapur, Howrah, Jaipur, Rajkot, Samalkha, Shivamogga and Saharanpur. Ahmedabad and Rajkot were picked for detailed energy audits.

## The national picture

- Foundries: about 0.9 Mtoe and 6.6 million t CO2 a year.
- Cupolas on coke melt about 69% of liquid metal, induction furnaces about 31%.
- The 14 clusters average about 28,600 toe each, so clusters differ widely. Indore used 5,516 toe in 2007-08 and Samalkha 3,300 toe in 2015.

## Place your foundry

1. Add a year's electricity: kWh x 0.0036 gives GJ.
2. Add coke: tonnes x 28.2 GJ (IPCC default), plus any oil or gas from its invoices.
3. Divide by tonnes of saleable castings.
4. Compare with 3.2 to 5.0 GJ per tonne. Above 5, look first at yield, rejections and melting.

## Energy is not carbon

Two foundries at the same GJ per tonne can emit very different CO2. A GJ of grid electricity carries about 0.19 t CO2 at 0.675 kg per kWh; a GJ of coke about 0.11 t. Report both figures.

## A 600 t a year cupola foundry (estimate)

- Electricity: 60,000 kWh x 0.0036 = 216 GJ
- Coke: 75 t x 28.2 = 2,115 GJ
- Total 2,331 GJ / 600 t = about 3.9 GJ per tonne, inside the study's range
- CO2: 75 x 3.02 + 60,000 x 0.000675 = 227 + 41 = about 268 t, 0.45 t per tonne

Inputs are the Samalkha profile's typical unit. Studies may convert fuels differently, so compare ranges, not decimals.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible turns your bills and fuel invoices into a carbon number per tonne, labelled with the factors used, so the comparison with your cluster rests on your own records.

- [Your MSME carbon number](https://senseible.earth/msme-carbon-number)
- [Indore foundries and the grid](https://senseible.earth/answers/indore-foundry-cluster-electricity-share-carbon)
- [Foundry CO2 per tonne of good casting](https://senseible.earth/answers/foundry-carbon-footprint-per-tonne-good-casting)

Sources: [SAMEEEKSHA newsletter, March 2023 (secondary steel sector study)](https://sameeeksha.org/newsletter/SAMEEEKSHA_March_2023.pdf), [UNIDO and TERI, Indore foundry cluster profile](https://sameeeksha.org/pdf/clusterprofile/IndoreFoundryClusterBrief.pdf), [TERI, Cluster profile: Samalkha foundries (2015)](https://sameeeksha.org/pdf/clusterprofile/Samalkha-Foundries-Haryana.pdf), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel emission factors)](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html), [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)

Last reviewed 2026-10-31.