The commercial start-up of the sugarcane milling company Shakarganj Mills’s new biogas power plant in Jhang, Pakistan, comes as the country is working to overcome its current 3,500MW energy shortage. The new plant is expected to generate enough power to support more than 50,000 homes in Pakistan.
The new biogas plant is also providing a new, on-site source of power to help the mill and other industrial operations meet production requirements and remain competitive.
The biogas used to fuel the Jenbacher gas engines is extracted from spent wash, a residue of Shakarganj Mills’s ethanol production operation that uses sugarcane molasses as a raw material.
GE supplied Shakarganj Mills with eight JGS320 Jenbacher units for a cogeneration plant, designed to support the mill’s on-site power and heating requirements. Electricity from the 8MW plant is also being delivered to the national grid through a 22-year power purchase agreement with the local grid operator. The estimated 8MW of heat from the engines’ exhaust gas and jacket water is used to support the company’s distillery process.
