# Does solvent recovery at a Mahad chemical unit change its carbon footprint?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/mahad-chemical-unit-solvent-recovery-energy

Yes, in two directions. Recovering solvent cuts purchased solvent, whose production carries emissions, but distillation uses steam and power. Count both: steam fuel and electricity in Scope 1 and 2, and avoided solvent purchases as lower Scope 3. Measure per batch.

## What to measure

- Steam and power used by recovery columns.
- Litres of solvent recovered and reused.
- Fresh solvent bought before and after.

## Where it shows

Energy for recovery adds to Scope 1 and 2. Buying less fresh solvent lowers Scope 3 category 1.

## Factors

Use solvent factors from suppliers or a labelled database.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads bills, fuel invoices and production records into dated, fingerprinted records, so the figure you send a buyer can be traced to its documents.

- [Purchased solvent factors](https://senseible.earth/answers/emission-factors-for-purchased-solvents)
- [Taloja chemical CO2 per tonne](https://senseible.earth/answers/taloja-chemical-unit-steam-and-power-co2)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard)

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.