DGK Cement to install power generation plant

KARACHI:  The D G Khan Cement has planned to install a plant to generate electricity through recovery of waste heat (WHR) at a cost of Rs 2.5 billion (about $ 27 million) to cut dependence on imported fuel and cut expenses.

According to decisions of its board of directors, this project to be set up at the company's site in Khairpur, will have an installed capacity of 8.6 megawatt (MW) which can generate up to 10 MW with some changed operating parameters.

The company said that the electricity generated through this plant will be eventually free of cost as no fuel will be used.

The project's plant and machinery will be supplied by M/s. FL Smith, Denmark. The project will be eligible for carbon credits. The electricity produced will replace expansive electricity purchased from WAPDA and power generation from furnace oil and result in annual savings of Rs 300 to 350 million. The project is expected to complete in  the first quarter of financial year 2013.

The company said that severe shortage and rising electricity tariff in the country had forced the management of DGKC to ponder over the alternative power generation sources.

The company is successfully generating power through WHR plant with an installed capacity of 10 MW, from its cement plants at D G Khan.

DG Khan Cement is also exploring other possibilities to generate power from alternative fuels including different industrial, agricultural and municipal wastes.

The phase- I of alternative fuel usage, refuse- derived fuel (RDF) has been successfully completed at Khairpur cement plant, using different industrial and agricultural wastes like, rice husk and powder, wheat straw, cotton sticks and waste, wood powder, corn cops and sticks, molasses, municipal waste etc.

This has saved the company from using almost 5040 tons of imported coal. The second phase of RDF at Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa site and first phase at DGK site has also been initiated. The projects are expected to complete in the first quarter of FY 2012. The cost of these two projects will be around Rs 125 billion.