Indonesia Expands Green Fuels

MINISTRY OF ENERGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES

REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

PRESS RELEASE

NUMBER: 252.Pers/04/SJI/2020

Indonesia Expands Green Fuels

High dependency on fossil energy has driven the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (EMR) to develop environmentally friendly fuels. Besides promoting the blend of solar diesel and 30% of Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME), the government has also encouraged the development of palm oil-based green fuels.

Director of Bioenergy of Directorate General of New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation, Ministry of EMR, Andriah Feby Misna, said that the government has continued to promote the use of biofuels. Testing of B40 and development of green fuels have been conducted with the hope of producing Green Diesel (D100), Green Gasoline (G100), and Green Jet Avtur (J100), all of which are based on Crude Palm Oil (CPO).

"The government has engaged PT Pertamina to develop green fuels at Pertamina's refineries which are located at palm oil production centers, both by co-processing at existing refineries and, in the future, by constructing new (standalone) refineries dedicated to green fuels. Green fuel products have characteristics similar to fossil-based fuels, in fact, some parameters show these fuels have much better quality than fossil-based fuels," said Feby in Jakarta on Saturday (18/7).

Green diesel or diesel bio-hydrocarbon is superior to both fossil-based diesel and FAME-based biodiesel, because it has a relatively higher Cetane number, lower sulfur contents, better oxidation stability, and a clearer color.

Co-processing is one method of producing green fuels, by processing biofuel raw materials and petroleum at the same time.

"Pertamina has successfully injected Refined Bleached Deodorized Palm Oil (RBDPO) to Distillate Hydrotreating Refinery Unit (DHDT) at several existing refineries, using the Merah-Putih catalyst which is produced by Indonesian people, the ITB team," said Feby.

For Dumai Refinery Unit II, continued Feby, Pertamina has also tested the blends gradually, from 7.5%, 12.5% up to 100%. "We must appreciate Pertamina for its success to produce green diesel using 100% CPO as raw material. I hope the trials will be continued at other Refinery Units and implemented continuously so that we can become totally self-reliant in producing environmentally friendly fuels with raw materials from our own country," explained Feby.

To create a uniform perception about biofuel products, the government is preparing a nomenclature proposal for biofuels, namely Biodiesel under code B100, Bioetanol (E100), Bio-hydrocarbon gasoline (G100), Bio-hydrocarbon diesel (D100), and Bio-hydrocarbon avtur (J100). (IY)

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