JAKARTA – After the success of producing biodiesel and bioavtur, the government has now partnered with Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) to conduct a test of gasoline production from crude palm oil (CPO), which is called Bensa or palm gasoline at the scale of production demo plant.
Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arifin Tasrif said on Tuesday that the high quality Bensa will become the parameter to conduct a feasibility study (FS) and detail engineering design (DED) for Bensa production at the capacity of 238.5 kiloliter per day in Musi Banyuasin regency of South Sumatera province and Pelalawan regency of Riau province.
“Today, I’ve got the chance to see the process of producing gasoline from the crude palm oil (CPO). It’s been long initiated by Professor Subagjo and his colleagues from ITB and only two years ago we tried to scale it up from the laboratory. From the scale of pilot plant, around 1,000 liters of Bensa have been produced. By using catalyst, the pilot plant has managed to produce palm gasoline with Research Octane Number (RON) 115, meaning that it is a high quality fuel,” Minister Arifin said when visiting the pilot plant of Bensa production in Kudus, Central Java on Tuesday.
He said that with RON of 115, the Bensa is a high quality palm gasoline that is able to meet the rising global demand for environmentally friendly energy to prevent the climate change impacts. “Now, our next step should be on how to make it commercial and more competitive at the global market,” said Arifin.
Minister Arifin also said that Bensa will also help Indonesia to achieve energy self-sufficiency, and to reduce imports of oil fuels and LPG, which have burdened the state budget. “So, we’ve asked the team of ITB to continually improve the production process of Bensa. Looking forward, we’re trying to develop it at commercial scale that will be later used at home and exported to foreign markets,” said Arifin.
The Bensa product demo Plant is a pilot production unit that converts the Industrial Vegetable Oil (IVO) to palm gasoline through the process of cracking, which is developed by the catalyst engineering center of ITB (PRK ITB), the chemical reaction and catalyst engineering laboratory of ITB (LTRKK ITB), under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Subagjo. The conversion process of IVO to palm gasoline is conducted in a reactor by using the zeolite-based catalyst developed by PRK ITB and LTRKK ITB.
The Bensa project is developed under a cooperation of ITB and PT Pura Barutama with financing from the oil palm plantation fund management board (BPDPKS). (*)
Source: bisnis.com
