Useful crop: Palm fruit at a plantation in Indonesia. The country produced 140,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from palm fruit in 2021. — AP
JAKARTA: The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, in cooperation with state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI), has kicked off a trial of 40% palm oil biodiesel (B40) to power the Bogowonto train connecting Pasar Senen Station in Central Jakarta and Lempuyangan Station in Yogyakarta.
Eniya Listiani Dewi, the ministry’s renewables director-general, said the B40 biofuel trial aimed to test the durability of the train engine and was scheduled to last 1,200 hours, or 50 days.
“Today, we held a launch ceremony for the B40 trial in the railway sector,” she told news site Kompas.com, adding that the trial “would be deployed continuously” until its conclusion in December.
She expressed hope that the results of the trial would green-light the use of biofuel in trains, “because we want B40 to be used soon”.
Indonesia’s biodiesel uses the highest proportion of palm oil in the world, and its B40 programme aims to reduce the country’s reliance on imported diesel while ramping up demand for domestically produced vegetable oils.
The Oil Palm Plantation Fund Management Agency estimated on Jan 31, 2023 that 30.22 trillion rupiah would be needed to subsidise the distribution of biodiesel that year.
Following last year’s successful trial of B40 in four-wheeled vehicles, the series of trials planned for this year aim to assess its use in agricultural machinery and trains.
According to Eniya, the government then plans to expand the B40 trials to test the biodiesel in heavy equipment, shipping and power plants, the latter in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, using an estimated total volume of 16 million kilolitres.
“We expect the results [of the trials] for all of these sectors by December this year,” she said. She also expressed confidence that despite the different standards and test periods for each sector, the technical instructions would be finished by the year-end in preparation for rolling out B40 next year.
Eniya expected the mandatory B40 programme to reduce annual emissions by up to 14.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in both the automotive and non-automotive sectors, and save around US$9bil in foreign exchange.
“The implementation of the biodiesel programme is aimed at stabilising palm oil prices, reducing the trade deficit and accelerating the use of our natural resources or agricultural sources” to benefit oil palm farmers, she added.
KAI vice-president of logistics Suryawan Putra Hia said that its trains currently used B35 biodiesel at an annual rate of 300 million litres.
“So far, there is no issue with using biodiesel in trains.
“In the future, perhaps B100 standard will be a real challenge, but we are optimistic that the B40 will not have a significant impact on the engines,” Suryawan told CNN Indonesia on Monday.
Indonesia is the third-largest biofuel producer in the world after the United States and Brazil, according to the Statistical Review of World Energy 2022 by British oil and gas giant BP.
According to the report, Indonesia’s biofuel production reached 140,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2021, or around 8% of the 1.74 million boepd produced globally.
The United States and Brazil produced 643,000 boepd and 376,000 boepd, respectively, that year. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
