Minister Of Energy And Mineral Resources Will Massively Develop Bioethenol As An Alternative To Fuel

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arifin Tasrif admitted that he would develop bioethenol massively.

According to him, the development of the new type of fuel must go through a series of stages and tests to illustrate the feasibility of mass production.

"Surely we have to go there because we still have a large area of land," said Arifin, quoted on Tuesday, July 18.

Arifin explained. after successfully developing Biodiesel, the government plans to develop Bioethenol as a mixture of fuel oil (BBM) to become vehicle fuel.

The development that has been carried out by the Government is currently still on a pilot project scale to calculate the quality of the fuel produced and its economic value.

"We are currently only in the pilot stage, then there will be a scale up. Later the economic analysis will be analyzed and during that time there must also be free marketing. First try the response from the community either or not, then the quality is good or not and indeed there must be stages like that. And if it is on a large scale, we will build the industry," said Arifin.

For information, President Joko Widodo on November 4, 2022, has launched the Bioethenol Tebu program for Energy Resilience.

This inauguration was held on the sidelines of a working visit at the bioethenol factory PT Energi Agro Nusantara (Enero), Mojokerto Regency, East Java.

Meanwhile, the ITB Bioethenol Study Team conducted a 5 percent ethanol mixing study into Pertalite (RON 90) to be the same quality as Pertamax (RON 92).

The ITB study is consistent with a 5 percent ethanol mixing study with Pertalite RON 90 conducted by PT Pertamina.

The potential downstream of sugarcane-based bioethenol opens up opportunities to create energy security through reducing dependence on national fuel imports, while creating a new, environmentally friendly renewable energy mix.

The ITB research results also show that Indonesia has saved foreign exchange of US$2.6 billion from substitution for diesel imports through the Biodiesel, palm oil program.

On the other hand, the ITB report projects that Indonesia will import up to 35.6 million kiloliters by 2040 or almost double the total import of fuel oil in 2021.

The use of bioethenol as a mixture of fuel can reduce imports of gasoline, reduce vehicle emission pollutants, and create potential employment opportunities in the agricultural sector and bioethenol production.

Another benefit of bioethenol is the potential reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of up to 43 percent including CO2, NOx and PM2.5 particles and increasing Indonesia's renewable energy mix which is targeted to reach 23 percent by 2025.

The decrease in emissions can occur because ethanol as gasohol has an octane value of 128 (RON), so mixing with gasoline will increase octane levels and the quality of fuel burning.

To support the fuel substitution program to BBN, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), together with the research team of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), supported by the US Grains Council (USGC) has also succeeded in compiling a Strategic Roadmap for the Acceleration of the Implementation of Bioethenol in Indonesia.

The roadmap study, which began to be compiled in 2021, is to support the program to implement Bioethenol's use of fuel for motorized vehicles and prepare the Bioethenol industry in Indonesia.