# How do I calculate the energy and emissions of scouring raw wool?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/ludhiana-wool-scouring-energy-per-kg

Scouring is mostly heating water and drying wool. Add the boiler fuel and the electricity used in the scouring line over a period, convert them to CO2, and divide by kilograms of clean wool out. Measure water temperature and liquor ratio too, because those drive the steam use.

## What to count

- Boiler fuel for hot scour bowls and dryers: coal, wood, PNG or oil, from invoices.
- Electricity for pumps, squeeze rollers and dryer fans x 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh.
- Effluent treatment energy if the plant runs its own.

## Per kg of what

Raw greasy wool loses a large share of its weight in scouring. Divide by clean wool out, and say so, or the figure will look much better than it is.

## Where to save

Lower bowl temperatures where the detergent allows, heat recovery from effluent, and better squeezing before the dryer cut steam per kg.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel, electricity and freight invoices into a dated, fingerprinted record per site, so each figure you send a buyer can be traced back to the documents behind it.

- [Woollen shawl footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/woollen-shawl-carbon-footprint-per-shawl)
- [Effluent heat recovery](https://senseible.earth/answers/dyehouse-hot-effluent-heat-recovery-saving)
- [Ludhiana hosiery per garment](https://senseible.earth/answers/ludhiana-hosiery-unit-carbon-per-garment)

Sources: [CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-database/?lang=en), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults)](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html), [ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org)](https://www.iso.org)

Last reviewed 2026-10-21.