Govt Committed to Bio-hydrocarbons Development
MINISTRY OF ENERGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES
REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA
PRESS RELEASE
NUMBER: 338.Pers/04/SJI/2020
Date: 5 November 2020
Govt Committed to Bio-hydrocarbons Development
The government is committed to promoting the development of bio-hydrocarbons with the same or even better characteristics than hydrocarbon compounds or fossil-based fuels.
This statement was made by Head of Human Resources Development Agency of Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (EMR) Prahoro Yulijanto Nurtjahyo at the opening of a webinar titled "Welcoming the Bio-hydrocarbons Era in Indonesia" which was held virtually on Wednesday (4/11).
"Environmentally friendly bio-hydrocarbons can in the future be used directly as a substitute for fossil fuels without the need to adjust vehicle engines. Bio-hydrocarbons consist of green gasoline, green diesel, and bioavtur," said Prahoro.
Agreeing with Prahoro, Tatang Hernas Soerawidjaja, a speaker in the webinar who is also Chair of IKABI (Indonesian Bioenergy Expert Association) said that Indonesia is gifted with extraordinary wealth of vegetables which enables the country to become the bio-hydrocarbons center of the world and developed countries in the era of bio-based economy.
"Hopefully, innovations created by Indonesian people will suffice to empower this extraordinary vegetal wealth, and to turn it into a potential driving force that promotes strong and rapid economic growth of our country in the future," said Tatang.
On the same occasion, Lies Aisyah, a researcher of PPTMGB Lemigas, said that the development of biofuels for energy had been expected to reduce dependence on imported oil and to replace diesel fuel and gasoline. Currently, the B30 mandatory policy requires a 30 percent mixture of palm oil-based biofuel in diesel fuel.
The government's direction of the mandatory biodiesel policy and bio-hydrocarbons/green fuels development is vital to strengthen national energy security, save foreign exchange, and reduce CO2 emissions. "The top priority is to formulate policy direction, standards and quality (specifications), and nomenclature of bio-hydrocarbons," said Lies.
Concluding the webinar, Andianto Hidayat, VP of Downstream Research Technology Innovation of PT Pertamina said that Indonesia was ready to welcome the bio-hydrarbon era. The readiness is shown with the production of domestic catalysts (Katalis Merah Putih, the red and white catalysts), while the synergy among State-Owned Enterprises has produced products from the co-processing done at Refinery Unit (RU) II Dumai and RU III Plaju. The products are aimed to complete generation I biofuels which are made from vegetable fatty oil and starch, and generation II biofuels from lignocellulosic materials.
"The acceleration of research, testing, and development of bio-hydrocarbons (Pertamina's Biorefinery Project) is inseparable from the support of the government, particularly Ministry of EMR, in providing a relaxation of biodiesel prices." (IY)
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