Draft Raw Materials, RI Can't Mix All Fuel With Bioethenol

BBM (intermediate)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) has dismissed reports that Indonesia will mix all of its fuel with bioethenol.

Director General of Oil and Gas of Earth, Tutuka Ariadji said this was because Indonesia did not have enough raw materials to make this mixing.

Tutuka said supply chains are still a problem and his party is still looking for solutions to this. He also said this is different from biodiesel where Indonesia has many palm oil raw materials.

"It's still a bit long (use) ethanol, because what do we use? If our biodiesel has the upstream, palm oil, but we don't have this yet," said Tutuka, quoted on Tuesday, February 13.

Tutuka said, one of the keys to using ethanol is the availability of raw materials such as sugar cane upstream which is considered insufficient for the need to mix fuel with Nabati Fuel (BBN). Thus, the use of fuel ethanol will not interfere with domestic sugar supply.

"Initially the supply chain didn't have it upstream, so I don't think it can be as fast as biodiesel," continued Tutuka.

For this reason, he said, fuel with ethanol mixtures is still in the technical and commercial trial stages, so it still takes time to implement massively. Tutuka also emphasized that his party does not yet have a plan to implement bioethenol mixing in the near future.

"If it's the same as the biofuel earlier, ethanol, we are still trying it technically and commercially. So it still takes time," he added.

Regarding the option of importing raw materials, Tutuka said this was still difficult to do because it would require a fee and the price charged for the new type of fuel would be very high.

Tutuka also added that his party had tested the mixing of Pertalite RON 90 with bioethenol which produced fuel with RON 92 but could not be distributed massively due to the impact of raw material packaging.

"If commercialized massively, where does the source of ethanol come from? Where do natural resources come from? That is our main key. It must be sustainable," concluded Tutuka.