Complex Engineering Problem

Subject: ME-413, Power Plants Marks: 20

CLOs: 3, 4, PLOs: 5,6

According to the Washington Accord complex engineering problems are

problems that:

A. Cannot be resolved without in-depth engineering knowledge.

B. Involve wide-ranging or conflicting technical, engineering and other issues.
C. Have no obvious solution and require abstract thinking and originality in analysis to formulate
suitable models.
D. Involve infrequently encountered issues.
E. Outside problems encompassed by standards and codes of practice for professional engineering.
F. Involve diverse groups of stakeholders with widely varying needs.
G. High level problems including many component parts or sub-problems.

Brief:
Pakistan’s first Supercritical coal power plant comprising 2 x 660 MW plant is a part of CPEC and
is established to help alleviate Pakistan’s energy shortfall. An estimated 4.48 Million tons of coal is
required annually for the plant, based on a calculation of 22 hours of power generation per day. The
rate of standard coal consumption for power generation (Gross) is 291.65g/kWh with an annual
power generating capacity of 8976 GWh. The gross annual fuel to electricity efficiency of the plant
is 42.11% and the operating temperature of supercritical steam generator is 580 oC. Air quality
monitoring system, flue gas desulphurization, and electric precipitator have been installed to reduce
the ash and Sulphur emissions from the plants.
Pakistan is a coal rich country with coal reserves of 185 Billion Tons. For smooth operation of a
plant, a reliable supply of coal from the fields is considered to be very important but for this case,
the coal used for the power generations is being imported from Indonesia and South Africa, and is
transported by rail from the Port of Karachi and Port Qasim to plant’s site viz. Qadir abad, Sahiwal.
Considering the sustainability of its supply, it is not advisable that we keep on using the imported
coal. We must use our own local cheap resource. Some quarters say that the coal from Pakistan's
own Thar coalfield is found to contain excessive amounts of sulfur and lime, and is not deemed to
be of high enough quality for the project.

The data about this power plant can be obtained from:

NEPRA
CPPA
NTDC
Punjab Energy
Or any local agency.

The deliverables are :

1. Study the and compare standards of global (US, EU, Japan) , national and provincial emissions
(water, flu gas, soil and other relevant) level of coal fired power plant
2. Study different clean coal technologies and recommend & justify the suitable technology for
Pakistani coal (at least 15 references from literature).
 3. Evaluate (Technical) the techniques (mining, transportation, utilization, carbon dioxide
emissions, pollution) to make it possible to use the local coal in place of imported coal with at
least 50% up to 100% local coal quantity.
4. Perform cost benefit analysis of the selected techniques / system.
5. Evaluate the social and economic benefits of using local coal
6. Analyze the environmental impact and sustainability of local coal in comparison to imported
coal.

Note:
➢ Use the standard unit in all calculation.
➢ The submission deadline for assignment will be May 10, 2020 Sunday mid-night (23:59) on
Turnitin.
➢ Table, graph and text as image is not allowed and only word file submission will be considered.
➢ The late submissions will be penalized as 10% marks deduction per day up to three days.
➢ The submission after three days will not be considered.
➢ No resubmission is allowed.
➢ Percentage of originality is 70%.

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