Waste Reduction at Zarkhez - Update
Zarkhez plant is a batch process plant and designed in way that it has normal WIP generation rate
around 30 ~ 35 Met per batch. Over the past 3 years, this number has increased to around 150 tons / batch,
which led to poor housekeeping and high WIP inventory buildup at site. To arrest the rising trend of waste
generation and to salvage the accumulated waste, a six sigma project was launched to look at the
processes and connected issues and not only try to reduce the waste generation but also to capitalize
on the available waste product which has a lot of nutrient value.
A six sigma team was formulated with a target to reduce the waste generation by at least 50% and find
ways to salvage the available waste and reduce the same by about 50% to recover the cost of
nutrients as well as putting an end to the cost of financing due to stuck product which is not in a
saleable condition.
After applying the relevant six sigma
techniques, the results were very promising
taking us closer to the assigned targets. We
plan to end the year with WIP under 3.5 KT
versus the opening of 8.8 KT and plan to fix the
loopholes identified during the project to
reduce further generation for better, cleaner
and efficient operations.
Talha Zahid & Team
C2E Winding Temperature Issue Resolution
C2E is the third carbon dioxide compressor at Urea-II driven by a synchronous motor MC-2E. With a power
rating of 7500HP, MC-2E is the largest medium voltage motor on Plant-I.
Over the couple of years an increase in the overall stator winding temperatures had been observed by
operations Urea-2 which resulted in running the motor at reduced load i.e. motor was running at 292°F at
70% loading while alarm was configured at 293°F. This was a literal border line case! This restricted the
overall plant load and hence, production of Urea-2.
Electrical team explored the probable root causes of this issue and formulated a three pronged corrective
approach i.e. Power factor adjustment was done as per the V-curves to bring the field current values
down. Thorough Dry Ice Cleaning was carried out on the stator and rotor to clear the cooling pathways
and evaluation to change the cooling system from Weather Protected to Totally Enclosed Fan Cooled
type is being done.
After the activity a decrease in almost 100°F was observed at the same loading and ambient
temperature. C2E is brand new and good to go the extra mile now!
Team: Mutahir Rasool, Khalid Rasheed, Muhammad Ishfaq Javed,
Muhammad Rafay Usman, M. Imran, Moen Irfan