JAKARTA – The National Research and Innovation Board (BRIN) said that palm oil is the most likely raw material of renewable energy to replace the fossil fuels.
“Based on the assessment conducted by the renewable energy team of BRIN, the palm oil is the most likely option for development to replace the fossil fuels,” BRIN Crops Research Center Head Yudhistira Nugraha said in Jakarta on Saturday (02/03/2024).
He said that the BRIN’s assessment is based on three factors, namely availability of raw material supply, technology and down-streaming, and government’s policies on incentives, funding and investment.
According to him, Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of crude palm oil (CPO) with a total production of 44.2 million tons per year. “With that big production, Indonesia has an abundant source of raw material for production of biodisel,” said Yudhistira.
Based on data from the agriculture ministry, Indonesia has a total oil plant plantation areas of 14.68 million hectares, of which 40% are owned by smallholders. Most of its palm oil production is exported, making it the largest contributor of foreign exchange for Indonesian economy.
He said that currently the government is implementing the mandatory biodiesel 35% (B35) program, as an upgrading of the previous B30 and B20 programs. Looking forward based on its success, the government has planned to further upgrade it to B100 (green diesel) program in the future.
“The development of palm oil-based biofuel production technology needs a big investment. It’s a big challenge in developing the alternative fuel,” he said.
“The higher efficiency of fossil fuel production compared to that of the biofuel needs to be considered with regard to the green inflation, so that prudent steps are needed for its national application to avoid negative impacts to the national economy,” he said.
The Coordinator of Research and Development (R&D) at the Surfactant and Bioenergy Research Center (SBRC) of LPPM IPB, Dwi Setyaningsih said that generally the proportion of new and renewable energy to the national energy mix in 2022 only reached 14.11%.
Meanwhile, the government targets the contribution of new and renewable energy in the national energy mix will reach 23% in 2025 (or equivalent to around 45 GW) and 31% in 2050.
According to Dwi, so far only biodiesel in the bioenergy sector that had reached a significant development. Other bioenergy, such as bioetanol, biomass co-firing, and biogas, is still far from expectation.
Dwi said that the development scheme of biodiesel based on palm oil with the support of CPO production capacity and the government’s policy has pushed up the contribution of biodiesel if compared to other bioenergy sources in Indonesia. “But the sustainability of biodiesel production is still haunted by the high cost of production. It’s quite a challenge to develop it in a bigger scale,” she said. (*)
Source: sawitku.id