# What is the carbon footprint of the Yamunanagar plywood cluster if sawdust is the main fuel?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/yamunanagar-plywood-cluster-sawdust-energy-co2

About 48,000 t of fossil CO2 a year, all from 71.2 million kWh of grid power at the FY 2025-26 factor (estimate). TERI's profile of 696 units also counts 414,600 t of sawdust, about 96% of the energy; that CO2 is biogenic and goes on its own line.

## Who is in the cluster

- 300 plywood units of about 10,000 sq ft a day, 356 peeling units of about 3,500 sq ft a day, and 40 saw mills of about 1.5 t a day.
- About 3 million sq ft of plywood a day, roughly half of India's plywood, mostly from poplar.
- Peeling units and saw mills use only electricity; plywood units burn their own sawdust in boilers for drying and hot pressing.

## Where the cluster's 71.2 million kWh go

- Plywood units: 300 x 171,160 kWh = 51.3 million kWh, about 72%.
- Peeling units: 356 x 50,281 kWh = 17.9 million kWh, about 25%.
- Saw mills: 40 x 48,384 kWh = 1.9 million kWh, about 3%.
- Boilers are mostly 3 tph, hand-fired, about 55% efficient, without economisers or condensate recovery.

## About the profile's 6,976 t CO2

The profile prints 6,976 t CO2 for 71.2 million kWh. That is under 0.1 kg per kWh, far below any Indian grid factor, so do not reuse it. Multiply your own kWh by 0.675.

## Cluster and unit figures (estimate)

- Grid: 71.2 million kWh x 0.675 kg = 48,060 t CO2
- Plywood units: 51.3 million kWh x 0.675 = 34,660 t; peeling units 12,080 t; saw mills 1,310 t
- Sawdust: 1,32,672 toe = 5,555 TJ x 112 t CO2 per TJ = about 622,000 t biogenic CO2
- Sawdust methane and nitrous oxide: 5,555 TJ x (30 kg x 27 + 4 kg x 273) = about 10,600 t CO2e, Scope 1

Quantities from TERI's Yamuna Nagar profile. IPCC 2006 defaults for wood waste (112 t CO2, 30 kg CH4, 4 kg N2O per TJ), AR6 GWPs, CEA FY 2025-26 grid factor.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads your UHBVN bills into monthly records at the CEA factor for each bill's year, which gives the fossil line of your carbon number per sheet or per cubic metre.

- [Your MSME carbon number](https://senseible.earth/msme-carbon-number)
- [One plywood unit's sawdust and power](https://senseible.earth/answers/yamunanagar-plywood-unit-sawdust-and-power)
- [Yamunanagar resin and Scope 3](https://senseible.earth/answers/yamunanagar-plywood-resin-scope-3)
- [Plywood per cubic metre](https://senseible.earth/answers/plywood-carbon-footprint-per-cubic-metre)

Sources: [TERI, Energy profile: Yamuna Nagar plywood industry cluster (2016)](https://sameeeksha.org/pdf/clusterprofile/YamunaNagarPlywood.pdf), [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), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel emission factors)](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html), [IPCC AR6 Working Group I (global warming potentials)](https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/), [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard)

Last reviewed 2026-10-31.