NEED TO OPTIMISE GAS CONSUMPTION

Bangladesh has scarce natural resources, and out of only a few mineral resources gas is a major one. Yet the reserve of gas in our country is not abundant and it’s depleting fast. On one hand, the demand for gas has been increasing gradually in all the sectors – be it household, industries and even 46% of the gas supply goes to electricity generation, and captive generation takes up around 15%. Gas is one of the primary and most important inputs to the manufacturing industries which is key to accelerated economic growth. To bring a balance between these two, our government has taken several initiatives which include importing gas, prioritizing renewable energy and so on.

Gas is an essential element for the textile and RMG industry particularly, for the backward linkage (spinning, dyeing, and finishing) and wet processing industries. Since we are promoting more investments in the backward linkage and prioritizing higher value addition which requires sophisticated processes, the need for energy will be higher in coming days. We have clearly 2 options, first – exploring new and alternative energy sources which our government is working on, and second – being energy efficient by reducing wastage and enhance efficiency.

There are some areas where inefficiency occurs frequently in the industry. For example – we still have old boilers which are not energy efficient. Improper insulation causes inefficiency too. Such inefficiencies result in higher gas consumption, increase cost and productivity loss which ultimately results in financial and environmental impacts. If we can identify the area of inefficiencies we can optimize the use of gas. We can reduce two-third of gas consumption by installing energy efficient modern boiler machines in our factories. Installation of efficient technology such as low liquor ratio dyeing machines, co-generation, ensure proper insulation of steam distribution lines, using G-Trap and condensate recovery system in boiler, waste heat recovery system, etc. will help to optimize the use of gas. Some of these steps require investment and some of them may be done without any investment. Even if it requires some investment, the return in the longer term is higher and there is always an intangible value to be green and energy efficient. So, we need to raise awareness and develop in-house culture on how we can become more efficient.

Let me add a few more words on safety issue. Gas leakage in household and industrial usage can be fatal, so we need to be more careful and adopt safety precautions. In addition to our own safety initiative at factories, we can go a step further to make the people around us, our workers and employees aware about safety of household gas usage. Our little efforts may save lives.