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Indonesia Progressing to Fulfill the Biodiesel Demand

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The pursuit of finding the right alternative energy to be widely used by the public has been begun a long time ago. Although there are various types of alternative energy, Indonesia has been focusing its research to improve the quality of biodiesel. Biodiesel is renewable alternative energy that has been widely used for many purposes, such as industrial purposes, as well as diesel-based vehicles. Many researchers have proven that biodiesel fuel will be significantly effective in reducing the gas emission that causes our earth to heat and could lead to a bigger disaster in the future. However, in developing new alternative energy, it is certain that some other factors should also be considered.

Today Indonesia has implemented biodiesel widely as the mandatory program from the authorized regulator. However, other than the environment-friendly benefit that Indonesia has perceived from utilizing the biodiesel fuel in the last couple of years, other factors such as the prospect of this commodity whether in terms of domestic and global trade effect, should also be considered.

Domestically Indonesia is currently focusing on increasing the quantity of mixture that is mixed with the traditional solar to create biodiesel fuel, as this is an effort to gradually decrease the import of traditional solar. The materials that are mixed into the traditional solar to create biodiesel fuel is Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME), where currently Indonesia is able to produce 12 million Kiloliters (Kl), and able to supply as much as 10 million Kl domestically and globally. In order to increase the quantity of FAME, the country needs to extend the production volume, as then it will balance domestic and overseas supplies.

Over the last couple of years, the export of biodiesel has increased from 187 thousand Kl in the year 2017 and peaked at 1.9 million Kl in 2018. This trend shows how the demand of the international market, where obviously had to be balanced with the production rate. However, looking at the production rate, it seems that Indonesia has to massively increase as the domestic demand is also increasing. In 2020, domestic demand has reached the number of 9.6 million in order to support the government implementation of B30.

This trend of increasing demand domestically and internationally has to be the concern of biodiesel producers, as this is a great sign that the market is wide open for Indonesia’s biodiesel industry. Dadan Kusdiana, Head of Research and Development of Ministry Of Energy Resources And Minerals explains that currently, they are progressing technical test in order to increase the production of FAME, along with the stakeholders in the industry such as PT Pertamina (Persero), APROBI, shipping associations, and others.

Hopefully, Indonesia will be able to fulfill the demand for the domestic and international market as Indonesia has been one of the main suppliers in the industry. More utilization of biodiesel means a better environment for the earth and future generations.

 

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