JAKARTA – Used cooking oil (UCO) is abundant in Indonesia and can be used as an alternative raw material to produce biofuel, said Refina Muthia Sundari, Research Manager of Traction Energy Asia.

“It’s an alternative commodity and very promising for Indonesia,” she said recently.

According to Sundari, the innovation to produce biodiesel from the used cooking oil is not new for Indonesia and the world. But in Indonesia the use of UCO for biodiesel production is still very limited.

Refina said that the use of used cooking oil for biodiesel production in Indonesia is facing a number of problems. “The technology is there, but it’s more expensive. It’s very likely that we can develop it. But we haven’t yet had regulations on its governance and trading,” Sundari said.

According to her, another main problem is concerned with the guarantee of its supply due to the absence of UCO logistic system and management. Currently, there is no company or institution that can guarantee the sustainability of UCO supply for the biofuel production.

“Based on our research we see that more than 70% of Indonesian people dispose their used cooking oil straight into the drain,” said Refina.

“Currently, most of UCO collectors, instead of processing their collected UCO, they just sell locally or export it,” she said.

Actually, she said that the UCO can become a solution for Indonesia to increase its energy resilience and reduce the environmental impacts.

“But the government, business players and other stakeholders need to take a joint comprehensive action to maximize the use of UCO as alternative raw material to produce biofuel,” she said. (*)

Source: sawitku.id