GIS Boss, Hendi Prio Santoso, Talks About The Use Of Waste As An Alternative Fuel

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Semen Indonesia)

JAKARTA - The discourse on handling, managing and utilizing waste in Indonesia continues to be a crucial issue that requires the roles of various parties. Not only that, a simultaneous pattern of handling through a comprehensive long-term program is deemed necessary to solve this quite complex problem.

Luckily, many parties have started to realize and are "quietly" or openly moved to take action. The 3R appeal (reduce, reuse and recycle), for example, is quite familiar in the community as a result of the positive campaign echoed by a number of parties.

No exception is the initiative made by BUMN, PT Semen Indonesia Tbk (SIG) which has chosen to focus more on sustainability issues.

"With the support of our company vision and sustainability strategy, our focus is more on the circular economy business," said SIG Managing Director, Hendi Prio Santoso, to the media, some time ago.

In order to realize sustainable development, according to Hendi, his party is committed to continuing to innovate and develop technology in order to maximize the company's performance and also its benefits to the community and the surrounding environment.

One of them is through the use of alternative energy for fuel, as part of the company's real support for the government's steps to reduce the use of coal.

"We want to provide a long-term solution in overcoming the problem of domestic waste that can have a positive impact on the environment and society at large," said Hendi.

He explained that all GIS factories are now without exception using biomass as an alternative fuel. At the Solusi Bangun Andalas factory (Aceh), Semen Padang (West Sumatra) and Semen Tonasa (South Sulawesi), for example, the alternative fuels used come from rice husks and sawdust.

Meanwhile, since 2008, all operations at the Tuban Factory, East Java, have also used biomass fuel from rice husks, coconut husks, tobacco waste, and also corn kernels.

"All of the agricultural waste we get from a number of districts in East Java, including Tuban, Lamongan, Bojonegoro, and Banyuwangi. This year, every month the Tuban Factory receives 2,553 tons of rice husks, 244 tons of cocopeat, 244 tons of tobacco waste. , as well as 90 tonnes of reject paper, all for our alternative fuel sources, "said Hendi.

As for the factory owned by PT Solusi Bangun Indonesia Tbk (SBI) which is one of the company's subsidiaries, Hendi continued, his party has used municipal solid waste (MSW) as an alternative fuel in making cement through the Integrated Refused Derived Waste Management Facility. Fuel (TPS RDF) built in the Tritih Lor area, Jeruklegi, Cilacap Regency.

This facility was inaugurated in July 2020 and is the first integrated domestic waste processing facility in Indonesia. This facility is owned by the Regional Government of Cilacap Regency (in this case the Environmental Service, DLH) in collaboration with the Royal Danish Government, the Provincial Government of Central Java, and has received support from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and the Ministry of Public Works and Housing (PUPR).

"In this long-term project, SBI is appointed as the operator and is responsible for preparing human resources through various trainings, as well as offtaker for RDF products," said Hendi.

The urban waste utilization facility at TPA Jeruklegi, Cilacap Regency, is built on an area of 1 hectare and is capable of processing domestic waste of 120 tons per day which can produce 60 tons of RDF per day. 60 tons of RDF per day can replace 40 tons of coal per day.

Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF) is a product of domestic waste that is processed by the biodrying method to be used as renewable energy and used as an alternative fuel. Utilization of waste is able to substitute the use of coal into fuel by up to 3 percent of Thermal Substitution Rate (TSR).

Waste Utilization in Bantargebang

Most recently, at the end of September 2020, SBI has collaborated with the DKI Jakarta Province Environment Agency (DLH) and PT Unilever Indonesia in the management and utilization of domestic waste at the Bantargebang Integrated Waste Disposal Site (TPST) to become an alternative fuel in the form of Refused Derived Fuel (RDF) ). The cooperation is carried out in a certain zone in Bantargebang TPST which is more than 10 years old.

The process of converting waste into fuel includes digging and sieving, then sending it to the SBI Factory site in Narogong, West Java to be chopped, and going through a process of reducing moisture content with a mixture of other materials to produce RDF that meets quality standards for alternative fuels for cement factories.

The minimum RDF product to be produced from this initial project is 1,000 tons / month, of which 80-90 percent consists of plastic waste that will be used by SBI as an alternative energy source.

"Hopefully this technological innovation carried out by GIS can later become an example in waste management so that it can reduce the dependence of municipal / regency waste management on the final waste processing site (TPA) which until now has always been a problem, both environmental and social," hoped Hendi.