Seeing Biomass Potential In Indonesia, Environmentally Renewable Energy

Pertamina's project illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

YOGYAKARTA - Rida Mulyana, Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), encourages businessmen to invest in New and Renewable Energy (EBT). One of the EBTs that has abundant potential in Indonesia is biomass. How much potential for biomass in Indonesia?

The Indonesian government continues to encourage the use of EBT to anticipate energy scarcity in Indonesia. The use of biomass waste needs to be carried out both by the government and domestic companies for the sustainability of power plants. Utilization of biomass waste is also useful as a fuel supplier. Countries in Europe have been implementing biomass energy for decades.

The potential of biomass energy in Indonesia is very abundant because the country is passed by the equator, agrarians, and archipelagic countries. Biodiversity in the country is a source of biomass waste. Agriculture waste and plants are promising potentials to produce biomass energy.

So what is biomass energy and how big is the potential in Indonesia?

Biomass or bioenergy is one of the environmentally friendly energy that comes from biological products, such as wood industrial waste, animal waste, organic waste, agricultural products, and other industrial agros.

However, although the potential is very high, biomass energy in Indonesia is still being utilized properly. This energy must be processed and utilized for the welfare of the Indonesian people.

Utilizing EBT biomassa has a good impact on energy and the environment. This EBT is able to increase national energy security. In addition, this EBT also helps provide clean energy that can reduce carbon emissions.

Processing biomass waste into fuel requires gasification technology, namely the transformation of solid fuel in armochemical way into gas (cair). There are four main processes in gasification, namely drying, pyrolysis, collusion, and reproduction. Meanwhile, there are three types of gasifiers, namely moving-bed, fluid-bed, entrained-flow gasifiers.

Biomassa can be processed into electrical or heat energy with an established technology process. In addition, biomass can also be used as search fuel, such as bioethenol and biodiesel.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources conveyed that the potential for biomass in Indonesia reaches 443 thousand megawatts (MW). This energy utilization itself is only 1.9 percent, especially for power plants.

The Indonesian Biomassa Energy Society (MEBI) revealed that the generating power from biomass energy reached 32.6 Giga Watt. Meanwhile, biomass energy included in the 2021-20230 Electric Power Supply Business Plan (RUPTL), Biomass Power Plant (PLTBM) has only reached 5.5 GW.

Djoko Winarno, Chair of MEBI, said that the potential for PLTBM in Indonesia is contained in the Energy Plant Forest. This potential energy is spread in various regions in Indonesia, such as Aceh, Sumatra, Kalimantan, to eastern Indonesia.

The total area of the Energy Plant Forest reaches 10.8 million hectares. The results of biomass energy can come from palm oil, rubber, cassava, wood, cow's waste, husks, corn, sugar cane, and the like.

The government continues to increase the capacity for the use of biomass as clean energy. To realize this mission, the government launched a production forest area specifically for the development of energy forests as a producer of bioenergy raw materials.

That was an explanation of the potential for biomass in Indonesia. Currently, demand continues to encourage various parties to take advantage of the use of biomass because the potential is very abundant and has many benefits for energy and nature in Indonesia.

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