Has Been Done In India And Brazil, Ethanol Proposed As Substitute For BMM Fossil: Indonesia Has PTPN That Can Produce

Photo: Doc. Between

JAKARTA - SOE Minister Erick Thohir encourages ethanol to be a substitute for fossil fuels in Indonesia. This method has been done by countries such as India and Brazil.

"We are encouraging PTPN Holding to increase (production) partly for sugar and partly for ethanol. We know now that many countries in the world such as Brazil or India have encouraged ethanol as a substitute for fuel," said SOE Minister Erick Thohir in a Working Meeting (Raker) ) together with Commission VI of the DPR RI which was monitored online, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, August 24.

Ethanol itself, he continued, has a Research Octane Number (RON) of up to 130. If we can consolidate ethanol as a fuel substitute, it will improve state finances, where the results of Indonesian oil production with good quality can be sent abroad. Then Indonesia imports fuel with lower quality and mixed with ethanol.

"We see that Thailand alone can produce this bioethanol up to 12 percent and India can produce up to 10 percent, why can't we? This is what we are trying to do," said Erick Thohir.

Erick Thohir also continues to encourage SOEs to substitute fuel imports or produce new types of energy. The Ministry of SOEs, he said, encouraged the palm oil program to become B40 fuel or biofuel.

Previously, the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) developed environmentally friendly alternative energy sources such as bioethanol for biofuels.

Head of BRIN's Energy Research and Manufacturing Organization Haznan Abimanyu said Bioethanol is one of the biofuels whose use can be used as an additive and substitute or blending for gasoline.

The use of ethanol as a fuel mixture can reduce 70 to 90 percent of carbon dioxide emissions compared to 90 octane equivalent fuel oil.

However, the use of bioethanol as a domestic fuel still faces several challenges, namely the physical properties of ethanol, the commitment to the availability of raw materials and databases, and the energy balance.