JAKARTA – PT Perusahaan Gas Negara Tbk (PGN), the gas subholding company of the state-owned company (BUMN) Pertamina Group, has managed to innovate with the production of biomethane from palm oil mill effluent (POME), a liquid waste of palm oil from palm oil mills. PGN has planned to distribute the renewable energy in Sumatera and Kalimantan.
The biomethane production involves PGN’s subsidiary PT Gagas Energi Indonesia (Gagas) which will expand the new gas business with the production of compressed biomethane (Bio-CNG) under a cooperation with PT KIS Biofuels Indonesia (KIS).
Initially, during the first year KIS will distribute around 36,500 MMBTU to Gagas. Its next step will be to conduct necessary adjustment and upgrade it up to 100% in the fifth year.
The company stated that the business cooperation is a follow-up step to the signing of memorandum of understanding (MoU) between PGN and KIS during the G20 meeting in Bali in 2022. Besides, PGN is committed to expanding the use of renewable and ecofriendly energy by maximizing the local potentials available in Indonesia.
“The cooperation on the use of Bio-CNG between Gagas and KIS for retail customers is part of our efforts to support the government in realizing the target of Net Zero Emission in 2060,” PGN Strategy and Business Development Director Rosa Permata Sari said in a written statement on Saturday (13/1/2024).
The Bio-CNG has the character like the natural gas supplied by PGN so far. “We’ve conducted a mapping of its distribution around production centers of palm oil in Sumatera and Kalimantan islands. As a renewable energy, the Bio-CNG production and consumption will help the government in reducing Indonesia’s reliance on fossil fuels, which are not ecofriendly as they have very high carbon emissions.
The cooperation between Gagas and KIS has been started since 2023, which was then strengthened through the meeting of PGN, KIS and Gagas on Wednesday (10/01/2024). The meeting was attended by PGN Strategy and Business Development Director Rosa Permata Sari, KIS Director KR Raghunath, and Gagas President Director Muhammad Hardiansyah in Jakarta.
Based on the Bio-CNG cooperation scheme, KIS processes the liquid waste of palm oil into gas with the characteristics similar to natural gas. Then the biogas is compressed and distributed by Gagas to commercial and industrial customers.
Gagas President Director Muhammad Hardiansyah said that his company will keep its role as provider of ecofriendly energy.
“Gagas will keep implementing its role as the provider of ecofriendly energy through the mode of beyond pipeline. This time one of the supplies we’ve got is derived from more sustainable source, which is the liquid waste that has been processed by KIS into biomethane and we will distribute in the form of BioCNG,” he said.
KIS Director KR Raghunath said that their cooperation in producing the biomethane from liquid waste of palm oil will further strengthen the industry of biomethane in Indonesia and help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions.
“This project cooperation will help reduce emissions and support Indonesia in realizing the target of Net Zero Emission,” said Raghunath. (*)
Source: sawitindonesia.com
