Move to check misuse, save natural gas
Sunday, 19 December 2010
FHM Humayan Kabir
The government has taken a move to check misuse and save natural gas at inefficient industries as it seeks to find a way out to boost the capacity of their boilers that consume more fuel, officials said Wednesday.
Energy ministry officials said they would design a programme to launch a drive in the large gas consuming entities for enhancing their capacity or replacing the incompetent gas-run boilers across the country.
"If we can raise one per cent efficiency of the industrial boilers, 95 million cubic feet (mcf) of gas will be saved per month," a senior energy division official told the FE.
In Bangladesh, some 5,700 industries consume nearly 1020mcf of gas per day. Out of the consumption, 95 per cent are fed by their boilers. A government survey during the last caretaker government found that gas-fed boilers in different industries under Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd. franchise areas consume 20 to 30 per cent extra gas due to their inefficiency and wrong operation.
Bangladesh, one of the industry-prone growing economies in Asia, has more than 500mcf of gas supply shortage per day against the demand of nearly 2500mcf.
Due to gas supply shortage, the country's power generation at the gas-run stations has plunged by 500 to 600 megawatt, power division officials said.
An energy division official said: "First, we'll identify inefficient larger gas users, the cause of their incompetence and then assess the techno-economic and financial viability of those users. After that we will work out a programme in a bid to overcome the problem."
"We have decided to invest Tk 32 million for dealing with these issues so that we can take necessary measures to check the misuse and save gas," he said.
The energy division would finalise a programme by December next year and recommend to the government its implementation, said the energy division official.
The government study said that the thermal efficiency of gas-run boilers in different industrial units was 62-72 per cent, which could be raised to 80-85 per cent through upgrading.
Most of the industrial boilers have inadequate insulation, unadjusted air-fuel ratio, damaged insulation in steam lines and different other faults which have reduced their efficiency to 62 to 72 per cent, the report said.
(Related story on page-20)
The government has taken a move to check misuse and save natural gas at inefficient industries as it seeks to find a way out to boost the capacity of their boilers that consume more fuel, officials said Wednesday.
Energy ministry officials said they would design a programme to launch a drive in the large gas consuming entities for enhancing their capacity or replacing the incompetent gas-run boilers across the country.
"If we can raise one per cent efficiency of the industrial boilers, 95 million cubic feet (mcf) of gas will be saved per month," a senior energy division official told the FE.
In Bangladesh, some 5,700 industries consume nearly 1020mcf of gas per day. Out of the consumption, 95 per cent are fed by their boilers. A government survey during the last caretaker government found that gas-fed boilers in different industries under Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd. franchise areas consume 20 to 30 per cent extra gas due to their inefficiency and wrong operation.
Bangladesh, one of the industry-prone growing economies in Asia, has more than 500mcf of gas supply shortage per day against the demand of nearly 2500mcf.
Due to gas supply shortage, the country's power generation at the gas-run stations has plunged by 500 to 600 megawatt, power division officials said.
An energy division official said: "First, we'll identify inefficient larger gas users, the cause of their incompetence and then assess the techno-economic and financial viability of those users. After that we will work out a programme in a bid to overcome the problem."
"We have decided to invest Tk 32 million for dealing with these issues so that we can take necessary measures to check the misuse and save gas," he said.
The energy division would finalise a programme by December next year and recommend to the government its implementation, said the energy division official.
The government study said that the thermal efficiency of gas-run boilers in different industrial units was 62-72 per cent, which could be raised to 80-85 per cent through upgrading.
Most of the industrial boilers have inadequate insulation, unadjusted air-fuel ratio, damaged insulation in steam lines and different other faults which have reduced their efficiency to 62 to 72 per cent, the report said.
(Related story on page-20)