Wartsila

Wärtsilä is providing Cherat Cement Ltd with generating equipment that will produce an electrical output of 29MW.

The major cement manufacturer has contracted Wärtsilä to supply three 34DF dual-fuel engines capable of operating on both natural gas and heavy fuel oil (HFO). Wärtsilä will also provide advisors to oversee the installation and commissioning of the engines. The order was booked in August.

Cherat Cement, located in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in the north-west of Pakistan, has a manufacturing capacity of 2.45 million tonnes per annum.

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 tonnes, and additional power supply is required for this. The existing plant is also powered by Wärtsilä equipment, consisting of four Wärtsilä 32 engines.

Cherat Cement CEO Mr Azam Faruque said: "We need to enlarge our facilities and this we must do quickly on a tight schedule.

"Wärtsilä has supported this timetable by agreeing to deliver their generating sets on a very short timetable 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."

The engines are scheduled for delivery next March and the plant is expected to be fully operational by June.

In addition to the need for quick delivery, the customer’s prime requirements were to have efficient, multi-fuel engines. The Wärtsilä 34DF engine utilises 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 2.1GW in Pakistan.