# What do off-grid Ranchi brick kilns burn, and what is the cluster's CO2?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/ranchi-brick-kilns-coal-diesel-off-grid

Grade B coal, plus a little generator diesel, because Ranchi's 200 or so kilns are not on the grid. A 15,000 brick a day kiln fires 31.5 lakh bricks on 788 t of coal and 1.1 kL of diesel. At India's coal factor the cluster's 157,600 t is about 277,000 t CO2 (estimate).

## The Ranchi kiln

Almost every kiln is a fixed chimney Bull's trench kiln, firing hand moulded solid bricks from December to June, about 210 days. Bricks are 9½ x 4½ x 3 inch and about 3.6 kg, heavier than most north Indian clusters. A season's output sells as about 50% Class 1, 22% meeta, 22% Class 2, with 6% rejected.

## No electricity bill, one Scope 2 line fewer

With no grid connection, a generator pumps the moulding water and powers whatever else the kiln needs. That makes the kiln's footprint all Scope 1: coal and diesel. It also means there is no meter reading to lean on, so the diesel slips and the coal weighbridge slips are the whole record.

## Why 25 t per lakh, against 17 in Lucknow

- Heavier bricks: 3.6 kg here against about 3.0 kg there.
- Poorer firing: TERI measured 1.69 MJ per kg of fired brick, against 1.38 in Lucknow and 1.1 to 1.2 for a well run kiln.
- Closing that gap is worth roughly a third of the coal.

## Your coal, your factor

TERI printed 166,000 t CO2 for the cluster's coal, about 1.05 t per tonne. The 1.76 used here is India's national average for domestic coal. If your coal supplier gives a GCV test, use it: a lower grade coal burns more tonnes for the same heat, but each tonne carries less carbon.

## What TERI says to change first

- Feeding practice, about 10%: crushed coal, small charges every 20 minutes, one fireman.
- Zigzag firing, a further 10% or so: 15,760 t of coal a year across the cluster.

## One Ranchi kiln, a season (estimate)

- Coal: 788 t x 1.76 t CO2 = 1,387 t
- Diesel: 1.1 kL x 2,645 kg = 3 t
- Total: 1,390 t, all Scope 1
- Per lakh bricks: 1,390 / 31.5 = 44 t, or about 440 kg per 1,000 bricks
- Cluster: 157,600 t coal x 1.76 = 277,380 t, plus 210 kL diesel = 555 t: about 277,900 t

Coal, diesel and output from TERI's Ranchi brick kiln profile. Coal at India's domestic average of 1.76 kg CO2 per kg; diesel at the IPCC 2006 default.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads coal invoices by the kilogram and diesel slips by the litre into a season's Scope 1 total, coal at 1.76 kg CO2 per kg; dividing by bricks fired needs your own production count.

- [Your MSME carbon number](https://senseible.earth/msme-carbon-number)
- [Lucknow kilns: coal per lakh bricks](https://senseible.earth/answers/lucknow-brick-kilns-coal-per-lakh-bricks)
- [Zigzag conversion and credits](https://senseible.earth/answers/zigzag-kiln-conversion-carbon-credits)

Sources: [TERI, Cluster profile: Ranchi brick kilns (SAMEEEKSHA)](https://sameeeksha.org/pdf/clusterprofile/Ranchi-Brick-Kilns.pdf), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html)

Last reviewed 2026-10-31.