# Karnal's chemical units run mostly on coal and LDO: what is the footprint per tonne?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/karnal-chemical-units-coal-ldo-carbon

Coal decides most of it: close to 58% of the CO2. Karnal's 91 working chemical units make about 104,528 t a year from 7,007 t of coal, 1,171 kL of oil and 8.7 million kWh, roughly 21,300 t CO2 on today's factors, or about 0.2 t per tonne of product.

## Two very different kinds of unit

- Pharma and API units are about 53% of units but only 13,578 t of output. A typical one uses 6.82 toe a year, all electricity.
- Other chemicals (soaps, detergents, paints, resins, surfactants) make 90,949 t. A typical one uses 114.92 toe, 88% of it thermal, on coal and diesel.
- So an average for the cluster fits neither: work out your own.

## Cluster energy (cluster profile)

- 107 MSMEs, about 91 operating; 4,947 toe a year.
- Coal 64% of energy, oil (LDO, furnace oil, diesel) 21%, electricity 15 to 18%.
- Coal of 4,200 to 4,800 kcal per kg goes mostly into boilers for process steam.

## Work out your own per tonne

1. Coal tonnes from purchase bills, adjusted for stock, x 1.76 t CO2 (Indian coal) or 2.44 (imported).
2. Oil: litres x 2.645 kg for diesel or LDO, 2.97 kg for furnace oil.
3. Electricity: kWh x 0.675 kg.
4. Divide by tonnes dispatched in the same months.

## Where to cut

Condensate recovery, flue gas loss reduction and insulation in the steam system, and screw compressors. Karnal is on BEE's first-phase ADEETIE list for chemicals, so a loan for listed technologies can carry an interest subvention.

## Cluster footprint on today's factors (estimate)

- Coal: 7,007 t x 1.76 = 12,332 t CO2
- Oil: 1,171 kL x 2.645 = 3,097 t CO2 (higher if much of it is furnace oil)
- Electricity: 8.7 million kWh x 0.675 = 5,873 t CO2
- Total about 21,300 t / 104,528 t = 0.20 t CO2 per tonne
- Typical pharma unit: 6.82 toe = about 79,300 kWh x 0.675 = 54 t CO2 a year

Quantities from the cluster profile. Coal at India's BUR-2 factor, oil at diesel's; your own invoices decide the real figure.

## What Senseible does here

The calculators give a quick per tonne figure from your coal, oil and power; Senseible can then read the invoices behind it into monthly records.

- [Carbon calculators](https://senseible.earth/calculators)
- [Coal invoice: what to read](https://senseible.earth/answers/coal-invoice-what-to-read-for-emissions)
- [ADEETIE cluster list](https://senseible.earth/answers/adeetie-eligible-clusters-list)

Sources: [TERI for BEE, Cluster profile report: Karnal chemical cluster](https://sameeeksha.org/pdf/clusterprofile/Karnal%20chemical%20cluster.pdf), [BEE, ADEETIE scheme booklet (eligible clusters and technologies)](https://beeindia.gov.in/WriteReadData/RTF1984/1772790517.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.