Turning loss to gain

USPCAS-E is turning losses into gains for manufacturers

It’s been 66 years since former General Motors president Charles E. Wilson was misquoted as saying “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country.” The line took off because it’s easy to extrapolate national benefit from corporate success. If industry can increase profitability and operate equipment in a greener way, such benefits also impact society at large.

That’s the hope behind recent research conducted by the U.S.-Pakistan Centers for Advanced Studies in Energy (USPCAS-E). An applied research project has resulted in energy-saving equipment that’s likely to deliver considerable savings to Pakistan-based Coronet Foods, a subsidiary of English Biscuit Manufacturers.

keeping energy from going Up in smoke

Natural gas prices have skyrocketed in Pakistan. This past September, Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) approved a 57 percent increase in gas prices for the commercial sector. General industry saw a 40 percent increase and the power sector took a 57 percent hike.

“Industry will be hit squarely,” says Ahmed Sohail Khan, the USPCAS-E technical advisor with the University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Peshawar. “Gas prices have more than doubled in recent months.”

That’s bad news for bakeries like Coronet Foods, which relies on gas for production.

“Coronet Foods is one of the largest biscuit producers in Pakistan and our production mainly depends on gas,” says Asif Sultan, a professional engineer and principal investigator on a joint research project with USPCAS-E. “The share of gas in our utility bill is 80 percent in terms of monetary value.”

Due to limited resources and the low pressure of natural gas, Sultan says Coronet uses a combination o