NUST Faculty Participates as Invited Speaker at NDU
The National
Defence University organized a Seminar on “Energy Security of Pakistan:
Challenges and Prospects” the event was organized as a joint panel discussion.
Dr. Mohammad Bilal Khan Principal-CES, Mr. Shahid M. Sattar, Member (Energy)
Planning Commission of Pakistan and Mr. N.A. Zuberi, MD Private Power and
Infrastructure Board were invited as member of the panel. Dr. Bilal was
privileged to present his thoughts on Importance of Thar Coal Project for
Energy Security of Pakistan: Recommendations and Way Forward. Dr. Bilal
emphasise that Pakistan is blessed with huge coal reserves, bulk of these are
subsurface. It is imperative to utilize these indigenous reserves to provide
import substitution of diesel and furnace oil worth USD 12 billion per annum.
Comparing the CAPEX and OPEX of competing technologies i.e. dry batteries, fuel
cells, it was highlighted that GTL derived petrol and diesel offer lowest OPEX
to run the vehicle, thus bringing coal to the cheapest platform available for
commuting. Moreover Syngas obtained from coal gasification is the raw material
for a variety of products including Electric Power, Synthetic Diesel, Hydrogen
for Fuel Cells and Urea Fertilizers, and several petro-chemicals.