JAKARTA – Indonesia is aiming the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) based on crude palm oil (CPO) as a solution to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the international aviation sector.

“The green aviation fuel is potential to support efforts of reaching the target of reducing global emissions,” Deputy in charge of food and agribusiness coordination at the economic coordinating ministry, Dida Gardera said when addressing the seminar on “2024 ICAO APAC Regional Seminar on Environment”.

During the occasion, Dida pointed out the important points in his presentation titled “Indonesia’s Potential for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Development”. First, it is concerned with Indonesian market and potential. Indonesia is one the biggest aviation markets in the world with 251 airports already in operation and there will be 50 new airports.

As the world’s largest producer of palm oil, Indonesia produced 3.9 million tons of used cooking oil (UCO) in 2023 and plans to produce 238 million liters of SAF per year in 2026.

“Second, the benefits and challenges of SAF. It is a clean energy and can help reduce the greenhouse gas emission. But commercially, its use is still facing challenges, such as limited supply of raw material, high cost, and inadequate infrastructure,” Deputy Dida said in a press statement on Friday (23/08/2024).

Third, the test of SAF in Indonesia. The SAF test has been conducted in Indonesia since 2020 with the result of co-process of J2.4 and test flights on several aircrafts. The latest test flight was conducted in the third quarter 2023 with Garuda Boeing 737-800, which showed that there was no difference of performance of the aircraft compared to that with the use of conventional fossil aviation fuel.

Fourth, the potential of Palm Kernel Expeller (PKE). The side product from the extraction process of palm oil is potential to be processed into bioethanol that can be used as the raw material of SAF. (*) Source: sawitku.id