Indonesia Plans To Build Sugar Cane Estate Project

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian government plans to build the largest Sugar Cane Estate project or sugarcane plantation in the country.

This project aims to meet the needs of sugar and ethanol in the country.

Deputy Minister of SOEs Kartika Wirjoatmodjo said the project development plan had also been approved by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).

Tiko, Kartika's nickname, said that the sugarcane plantation project would later produce large amounts of sugar and could be processed into ethanol or bioethenol.

"Currently we are encouraging Indonesia to build the Estate Sugar Cane because we know that two countries, namely Brazil and India, are currently building the Estate Sugar Cane on a large scale, so that their energy resistance and energy transition are driven towards Bioethenol used," he said in Jakarta, Wednesday, October 11.

Tiko said, internal government discussions regarding the project development plan have been carried out. But unfortunately, Tiko has not explained the whole details regarding the construction site to the required investment budget.

"This is one of the things we discussed and the President is very supportive for us to accelerate the development of the Estate Sugar Cane, which is also a sugar and ethanol producer that can make transitions to environmentally friendly fuels," he said.

"In Brazil now Bioethenol has reached 27 percent, and has made engines to support 100 percent of Etanol," he continued.

For your information, Indonesia itself has started to develop fuel oil with ethanol mixtures. Currently, the fuel is known as Pertamax Green 95. Where, it contains 5 percent ethanol.

The availability of ethanol itself is generally obtained from sugar cane molases. Therefore, in developing environmentally friendly fuels, the availability of sugar cane must also be considered for domestic sugar production needs.

PT Petamina (Persero) also plans to develop Pertamax Green 92, where this fuel will be mixed with ethanol as much as 7 percent.

Later, this fuel will be used to replace fossil fuels, Pertalite.

However, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arifin Tasrif said the development of Pertamax Green 92 in Indonesia must also pay attention to the availability of ethanol in the country first.

This is because the change of Pertalite to Pertamax Green 92 will require large amounts of ethanol.

"We have to develop sugarcane plantations, then maximize domestic sugar production, yes it continues to grow. Later if this develops, we can make the excess ethanol or indeed there is a special decate area to build industrial ethanol," said Arifin.

Therefore, according to Arifin, Pertamax Green 92's production plan is still long, because Pertamina is still testing it. This includes developing the ethanol industry in Indonesia.