September is not always a happy month like the popular Vina Panduwinata’s song of “September Ceria” (Happy September) has always impressed. Last September turned out to be “Sad September” for Indonesian people, after President Joko Widodo announced the increase of the subsidized Pertalite from Rp7,650 to Rp10,000 per liter, and the subsidized Pertamax from Rp12,500 to Rp14,500 per liter.
The two kinds of oil fuels, which have been subsidized by the government for long, are the most widely consumed oil fuels (BBM) among Indonesian people.
Apparently, the government was forced to raise the prices in order to cut subsidy as the subsidy for the oil fuels had increased to Rp502.4 trillion, which was three times from the amount set in the state budget for the energy subsidy. It was projected to continue rising along with the rise of oil price increase at the global market. The government also saw the subsidy as not on target as many people of the middle class had also taken advantage of the subsidized energy.
The energy subsidy paid by the government has been surging as a result of the increase of energy prices at the global market, which was particularly triggered by the outbreak of Russia – Ukraine war by the end of February 2022.
The energy price increase has reminded Indonesia that it is prone to energy crisis, especially the oil fuels. It is because the country is still very dependent on the fossil fuels, especially diesel fuel and gasoline that are still imported at certain volume.
Based on data from the ministry of energy and mineral resources (MEMR), in 2019 Indonesia consumed a total 35.3 million kiloliters of gasoline, of which around 54 percent or 19.19 million kiloliters derived from import. The import is projected to increase in the future due to rising demand as a result of population growth and economic growth.
CNBC reported on 23 August 2021 that the capacity of local oil refineries was relatively stagnant at 1.0 million barrels per day, while production of crude saw a decrease. It indicates that Indonesia’s reliance on imported crude and oil fuels, including the gasoline, will continue rising to meet the domestic need in the future.
Indonesia is in need of a new effective strategy to reduce or even to stop the reliance on the imports of oil fuels, especially gasoline. Part of the strategy should be to develop green gasoline from palm oil, which is locally known as Bensin Sawit (Bensa) as a substitute to the imported gasoline.
What is Bensa?
The oil palm tree is regarded as a wonder tree. One of its wonders is its carbon element in its oil (CPO and CPKO) which resembles the fossil fuels. Its fatty acid has a characteristic very close to that of hydrocarbon structure in fossil fuels.
To make use the palm oil as the raw material for the production of Bensa, a team of researchers from Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) has created a catalyst, called Merah Putih (Red White). The catalyst is used in a chemical process as part of the production process of green diesel fuel (biofuel), green gasoline (bensa), and green avtur and others.
Besides causing only low carbon emission, the green fuels also have more advantages. For example, the bensa has higher octane that makes it in higher quality than the fossil-based gasoline. Based on its test results, bensa has Research Octane Number (RON) at 115, which is higher than Pertamax Turbo at the level of RON 98 and even higher than that of Pertamax Racing.
Gasoline with high octane is very suitable for vehicles with high compression, which are now widely produced. It is also friendly to environment and machine as it lightens the machine work, prolongs machine age and is cheaper.
According to a report of Infosawit.com, Melia Laniwati Gunawan, a researcher of ITB’s Chemical Reaction and Catalyst Technology, said that bensa with RON of 105-112 can be blended with fossil gasoline with RON 70-80 to produce bio-gasoline of RON 93, which is still higher than Pertamax RON 92 produced by Pertamina.
Bensa for future energy resilience
Indonesia was once a major producer of oil in the world and a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). But then it could not raise oil production to meet the rising demand at local market, making it to rely on import. It changed its status from a net exporter to net importer of oil since 2004 until now.
In 2006, the world saw an energy crisis which was resulted from shortage of supply and price increase. Since then many countries, including Indonesia, paid serious attention to divert its energy sources from fossil fuels to biofuels. The Indonesian government has included the biofuels into its energy mix policy and provided incentives.
Indonesia has managed to produce the biofuels based on Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME), which is derived from palm oil. Listed as the world’s top-3 producers of biofuels, Indonesia reached a record level as a country with the highest blending rate of biofuel at 30% of FAME and 70% diesel fuel (B30) in 2020.
With the biodiesel production, Indonesia has also managed to drastically reduce its reliance on import of diesel fuel. In 2010, its import of diesel fuel was 46% of the total domestic consumption. But in 2020, it managed to reduce it to only less than 10%. With the import reduction, the country could save its foreign exchange.
The success story is mainly due to the government’s biofuel mandatory program. Based on such experience, Indonesia can actually apply the same case for the bio-gasoline as bensa mandatory program. It should be implemented intensively and progressively from a certain level of blending to higher level of blending. For example, from G-10 to G-20 and G-50.
If Indonesia is strongly committed to implementing such mandatory program, Indonesia will not only stop its reliance on imports and reduce emissions, but it will also help create a national energy resilience which can withstand a global energy crisis in the future. (*)
Source: palmoilina.asia
