In this month, various activities were conducted by 5 international experts, as well as national experts. The main activities conducted during the month are summarized below.
1. Energy audit activities
As a part of project activities to practice energy audit for large industrial consumers, the PI Consultant Team visited two factories in Chattogram region, i.e. Karnaphuli Paper Mills Ltd. and Abul Khair Steel Ltd. (AKS). The team of SREDA officers, led by Mr. Mohammad Alauddin, the Chairman, also joined the visit to introduce SREDA’s activities to the top management of both factories.
1.1 Karnaphuli Paper Mills Ltd.
Visit to Karnaphuli Paper Mills Ltd,, state-owned paper manufacturer, was made on 9th of March 2022. The factory has the function of pulp production (upstream) and that of paper production (downstream), as shown in the flow diagram below.
In fact, however, the pulp production has not been used for years and imported pulp and recycle paper are used as the material for paper production. Only paper production was in operation but the machines are generally old and poorly maintained. Furthermore, the factory’s sale, which relies on the paper usage of public schools, has been stagnant due to the negative effect of COVID-19, and many of the production lines were suspended on the day of the consultants’ visit.
The PI Consultant Team carried out an energy audit, mainly on the paper machine that was in operation. Only at a glance, steam leakage was observed in some parts, which can cause not only energy waste but also impairment of product quality. The analysis using a thermo camera shows that the temperature of paper drums ranges from 56 degrees to 106 degrees, despite that it is recommended that the temperature of drums is maintained constantly above 100 degrees. Steam leakage is considered to be the main reason for such poor performance.
The analysis shows that the factory’s team consumption per ton paper was 51 ton-steam/ton, which is about 8 times higher than the average of Japanese paper manufacturers (6.3 ton-steam/ton). Its electricity intensity was 5,700 kWh/ton, which is 3.7 times higher than that of Japanese manufacturer (1,550 kWh/ton).
Though there’s a huge space for improving energy efficiency, the factory’s poor financial performance has hindered making appropriate investment to address this. A high-level managerial decision will be needed for changing the factory’s status.
1.2 Abul Khair Steel Ltd. (AKS)
Abul Khair Steel Ltd. (AKS) is the largest steel manufacturing company in Bangladesh using electric arc furnace (EAF). Visit to AKS was made on 10th of March 2022.
Though taking picture of the manufacturing process and carrying out the measurement was limited due to the company’s policy, its management is cooperative to the visit. A guided tour of the factory was offered and operational data for analysis were provided afterwards.
Operational data of the factory and its performance analysis are shown below. The electricity intensity of EAF per product was 450 kWh/ton and is as good as international benchmark.
Table 1 Operational data of AKS (left) and performance analysis (right)
A measurement of surface temperature of reheating furnace indicated that there’s some space for improving heat insulation, such as that for burner tile and end plate of pre-heated combustion air pipe.
As a company that belongs to the Abul Khair Group, AKS’s management is generally well organized. The CEO mentioned that the company is willing to strengthen strategic relations with government organization like SREDA and added that any proposal for further improving its energy efficiency is welcome.
2. Awareness raising activities
2.1 Success story video clip and brochure preparation
After schedule arrangements with IDCOL and BIFFL, the filming of the success story videos has finally begun.
The first of a total of 9 companies to be filmed and interviewed was Tosrifa, with visits to their RMG and dying factories on the 14th and 15th of March, respectively. The filming schedule in the month of March is shown in the following table.
Table 2 Film Shooting Schedule
| Sat | Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu |
| 12/Mar | 13/Mar | 14/Mar | 15/Mar | 16/Mar | 17/Mar |
| Tongi | Gazipur | Savar | |||
| Tosrifa Industries Ltd.(RMG) | Tosrifa Industries Ltd.(Dying, RMG) | Odyssey Craft Private Ltd (RMG) | HOLIDAY | ||
| 19/Mar | 20/Mar | 21/Mar | 22/Mar | 23/Mar | 24/Mar |
| Dhamarai | Mongla | ||||
| SnowtexSportswear Ltd. (RMG) | PM: Move to Mongla | Meghna Cement Mills Limited. (Cement) | |||
| 26/Mar | 27/Mar | 28/Mar | 29/Mar | 30/Mar | 31/Mar |
| Chattogram | |||||
| HOLIDAY | Shun Shing Cement Industries Ltd. (Shikolbaha) | Pahartali Textile & Hosiery Mills. |
It took a while until the shooting schedule was set, which caused a few days delay to start, but with a very cooperative and attentive attitude of the interviewed companies and the comprehensive professionality of Charuaprangon’s team, filming is going very well. Even though the biggest part of filming will be finished in March, there are three more companies to be filmed in April (Etafil Accessories, Aman Spinning Mills, Asia Composite Mills). Furthermore, the editing of the filmed material into the actual promotion videos, as well as designing the promotion brochure is also planned to be completed in April.
2.2 Awareness raising Workshop for food processing industry
As part of the promotion of Energy Efficiency in the industrial sector, the PI Consultant Team has approached 9 national ice cream brands (Bellissimo, Bloop, Igloo, Kwality, Lavello, Milk Vita, Polar, Savoy and Za ‘n Zee). The aim was, to organise a workshop for enhancing the awareness of energy efficiency in the food processing sector. The ice cream industry was chosen, as it is on of the energy intensive industries within the food processing sector and has a potential to benefit from energy efficient equipment included in the loan eligibility list, such as refrigerators and chillers.
An invitation letter combined with a concept paper was sent out to the major national ice cream brands with a positive response from most approached companies. Additionally, preliminary meetings have been held with representatives of Igloo, Savoy, Bloop and Lavello to encourage the participation to the workshop.
For enhancing the awareness of energy efficiency in food processing industry, a workshop for ice cream companies was conducted on 21st March 2022. About 15 people from ice cream companies participated in the workshop, as well as SREDA officers and PI Consultant Team.
Following the presentation from SREDA and PI Consultants, open discussion was made on the technologies for enhancing energy efficiency of food processing industry proposed by the PI Consultants. Questions were made raised by factory engineers such as the effectiveness of spot cooling, air curtain and factory automation. There was also a comment that much energy is consumed for transport and storage of ice cream in addition to production.
3. Reward / Award Programs
The reward program aims to provide rewards to excellent designated consumers (DCs) in order to commend their performance on and contribution to the energy efficiency enhancement. The draft design of the program has been documented and handed over to SREDA for their review and action. The award program aims to commend eligible organizations and practice for their achievements in order to cast light on non-DCs. The draft design of the program has been documented and handed over to SREDA for their review and action.
4. Estimation of investment needs to reach EE&C target
The investment needs for achieving the EE&C target by 2030 have been estimated based on information and data available at the moment. The annual investment figure would surpass US$ 1 billion. The Consultant suggested to obtain financing data from the Bangladesh Bank in order to increase the accuracy of the estimate and to advance the preparation for fund mobilization.
5. National energy data management
SREDA intends to continue and improve the quality of the national energy balance publication. The work on the preparation for the national energy balance booklet FY 2020-21 started. With the aim to supplement some of the missing information which were not available in the past publications (for example, refinery production information, aviation and maritime bunkers, biofuel utilization status, etc.), the PI Consultant Team conducted a review on the currently available information and listed up the required data and actions for an improved publication for FY 2020-21. SREDA intends to convene a stakeholder seminar to call for collaborations among the relevant organisations.
6. Monthly Monitoring Meeting
The progress of the Project started to become rapid and robust with the fading of the stagnant effect of COVID-19. SREDA, with the aim to better administrate the vivid progress with the Project lending, convened an administrative meeting with the IFIs on 22 March 2022. It was an administrative level practical meeting to share the recent progress among the Project executing agencies. The Project Implementation Consultant Team supported the meeting discussion by sharing the Project monitoring format, asking the participants for updates. It was decided that monitoring for the Phase II Project (BD-P109) requires to be started, and that this progress information sharing at administrative level should be continued on monthly basis.
Appendices
Appendix 31-1: Energy audit at Karnaphuli paper mill
Appendix 31-2: Energy audit at AK steel mill
Appendix 31-3: Designing Reward Program
Appendix 31-4: Designing Award Program
Appendix 31-5: Assessing the EEC Investment Needs