The technology group Wärtsilä Corp. (Helsinki, Finland; www.wartsila.com) is to supply the generating equipment to provide the electrical power for an extension to a major Pakistani cement manufacturing facility. Cherat Cement Ltd. has contracted Wärtsilä to supply three Wärtsilä 34DF dual-fuel engines capable of operating on both natural gas and heavy fuel oil (HFO). The total electrical output will be approximately 29 MW. Wärtsilä will also provide advisors to oversee the installation and commissioning of the engines. The order was booked in August 2017.
Cherat Cement, located in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in the north-west of Pakistan, is a leading cement producer with a manufacturing capacity of some 2.45 million ton/yr. To meet the growing demand for cement in Pakistan, the company is further expanding its production facilities, with a new line of 2.11 million ton/yr, and for this additional power supply is required. The existing plant is also powered by Wärtsilä equipment, consisting of four Wärtsilä 32 engines.
“We need to enlarge our facilities and this we must to do quickly on a tight schedule. Wärtsilä has supported this timetable by agreeing to deliver their generating sets on a very short time table and this, together with the positive experience we have had with the Wärtsilä engines already installed, is why we had no hesitation in choosing Wärtsilä,” says Azam Faruque, CEO of Cherat Cement.
The engines are scheduled for delivery in March 2018 and the plant is expected to be fully operational by June 2018.
In addition to the need for quick delivery, the customer’s prime requirements were to have efficient, multi-fuel engines. The Wärtsilä 34DF engine utilizes advanced technology to deliver high efficiency and is capable of operating on either natural gas or conventional liquid fuels.
With this recently signed contract, Wärtsilä now has an installed base of 2.1 GW in Pakistan.