Kitchen Gas Emission Comparison

CO₂ emissions from cooking energy

For the same useful energy reaching the pan, cooking fuels put out wildly different amounts of CO₂. A few reference factors to anchor on: LPG (cooking gas cylinder) runs about 3.0 kg CO₂/kg of gas burned; piped natural gas about 2.7 kg CO₂/m³; electric induction on the Brazilian grid only about 0.1 kg CO₂/kWh, kept low by how much hydropower the grid leans on. The formula is emissions = consumption × emission_factor. Take a family of four burning one 13 kg LPG cylinder a month: 13 × 3.0 = ~40 kg CO₂/month, around 480 kg over a year. Put that same household on induction (~120 kWh/month) and, on the Brazilian grid, it drops to roughly 12 kg CO₂/month — about a quarter of the gas figure. Flip to a coal-heavy grid (~0.6 kg/kWh), though, and induction climbs to ~72 kg CO₂/month, worse than LPG.

Applications

Household sustainability studies, picking a kitchen energy source during a renovation, energy-transition planning, weighing the climate cost of moving from LPG to induction, ESG reporting for restaurants and bakeries, and public-policy work on cooking-fuel subsidies.

FAQ

Is induction always cleaner than LPG? Only when the electricity grid behind it is clean enough. In Brazil it is, by a wide margin. Where coal dominates the grid, LPG can actually be the lower-carbon choice.

Why use kg CO₂/kg of gas rather than per kWh? Because LPG is sold by weight, and the 13 kg cylinder is the standard in Brazil. Converting to kWh just tacks on an extra step (1 kg of LPG ≈ 12.8 kWh of energy) and the comparison comes out the same either way.

Does cooking efficiency matter? It does. Induction gets ~85% of its energy into the pan, while gas manages only ~40%. Set grid carbon aside entirely and induction still throws away far less heat into the kitchen.