IPB Expert: Bioavtur Development From Bankrupt Oil, Pertamina's Extraordinary Program

JAKARTA - Environmental economist IPB University Aceng Hidayat assessed that the environmentally friendly fuel development program from Used Cooking Oil (UCO) or crude oil, was Pertamina's extraordinary breakthrough. Aceng also said that the program strongly supports performance ahead of 100 days of the Prabowo-Gibran Administration in the energy sector.

I appreciate this extraordinary program. Pertamina always initiates the development of alternative energy. This is very supportive of the Government's program, including before 100 working days," said Aceng to the media, Wednesday, January 22.

Aceng said that the use of refined oil to be processed by Pertamina into environmentally friendly fuels, namely Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) or bioavtur, could be a solution to the conditions currently being faced by Indonesia. First, to reduce the burden of environmental pollution. Second, supporting self-sufficiency in energy launched by President Prabowo Subianto.

Regarding the reduction in environmental pollution, Aceng said that jelantah is a waste that has not been resolved so far. The reason is that often the polluting material is dumped in waterways.

"So the use of jelantah as fuel is an environmental solution," he said.

Aceng also said that the waste oil utilization program strongly supports energy self-sufficiency.

"Very supportive, in line. Because efforts to self-sufficiency in energy, for example by using renewable energy, of course, the source must be sought," explained Aceng.

According to Aceng, the defense has enormous potential. Not only households and SMEs, even some industries, according to him, also produce broken oil.

The source is abundant, the potential is extraordinary. Moreover, the Indonesian people are very happy with fried food, so that the energy raw materials will not be short. If it can be gathered, everything will certainly be an alternative energy that will also have an extraordinary impact," he said.

That's why Aceng also agrees with a study from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). The study said that the use of agricultural residue, including crude oil in Indonesia, could produce 33.2 million kilo liters of bioavtur or three times greater than the need for domestic aircraft fuel.

"From this data, the source is indeed very abundant. Very potential," he said.

Can it reduce fuel imports? "Yes, of course," he concluded.

Regarding the collection of jelantah oil, previously Pertamina collaborated with Noovoleum, which has been certified internationally as an oil collector. Through this collaboration, Pertamina runs the UCO Green Movement program, which is a pilot project in collecting offsets from the public. The public can submit a jelantah in the UCollect Box by obtaining rewards in the form of UCollect e-wallet balances.

The amount of e-wallet balance will fluctuate according to the price of crude oil in the market. Currently, per liter is valued at around Rp. 6,000/liter with daily updates through the Mypertamina apps.