Biodiesel fuel could free Jakarta from pollution

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

To reduce air pollution due to emissions from public buses and trucks that run on diesel fuel, the Jakarta administration plans to develop biodiesel fuel as an alternative to the fossil fuel burned in the diesel-fueled engines.

"We have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) to develop biodiesel for use in Jakarta," said head of the Jakarta Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD), Kosasih Wirahadikusumah, on Thursday on the sidelines of a biodiesel seminar.

"We also plan to cooperate with Riau provincial administration as it has a biodiesel plant. We will ask Riau to provide the fuel for Jakarta."

According to the official web site www.biodiesel.com, biodiesel is biodegradable, nontoxic and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics. It is a renewable resource, based on soybean and other oil crops that are grown each year.

"We can find over 50 kinds of plants for biodiesel raw materials here in Indonesia. There is the potential to develop a commercial industry in this country," said one of the speakers, Tatang H. Soerawidjaja of the Indonesian Biodiesel Forum (FBI).

He said that biodiesel fuel produced almost no sulfur, only 15 parts per million (ppm), in its emission and had more lubricant while the best fossil fuel Indonesia produced 500 ppm and the worst could even put out 3,000 ppm.

"The world emission standard, Euro II, rules that vehicular emissions should be below 350 ppm," said Tatang.

Another advantage is that biodiesel is compatible with the fossil diesel fuel and both can be mixed to lower the toxic exhaust emissions so there is no need to change the engine specifications.

Tatang said it was not complicated to set up a biodiesel fuel factory and only required modest funds.

"This factory can be handled by local technicians and will absorb a huge amount of manpower," he said.

Another speaker, Soni Solistia Wirawan of BPPT, said there were three schemes in using biodiesel as an alternative fuel.

"We can use 100 percent biodiesel as fuel, blend 5 percent to 30 percent biodiesel with fossil fuel, and use biodiesel as an additive," he said.

BPLHD and PT Energy Alternatif Indonesia, a biodiesel supplier, made a joint experiment on 10 public buses in the capital. The result confirms that blending biodiesel with diesel fuel increases the bus engine performance and at the same time reduces toxic exhaust emissions.

"We blended only 5 percent to 10 percent of biodiesel to the 10 buses for normal operation. We found that the blend reduces the emission opacity level by 60 percent, noise level by 5 percent to 6 percent and makes the bus more economical," said another speaker Bambang Tribudiman of PT energy Alternatif Indonesia.

In the future, Jakarta will have a bigger pilot project for public buses to blend biodiesel with diesel fuel on a daily basis, Kosasih said.

However, there are several obstacles to commercialize biodiesel because its raw materials are more costly than fossil diesel fuel.

"The biodiesel costs up to Rp 5,000 (59 U.S. cents) per liter, depending on the raw materials used, higher than the subsidized diesel fuel price which is Rp 1,650. In Germany, biodiesel is only Rp 6,000 per liter compared to fossil diesel fuel which is Rp 8,000 per liter. They subsidize biodiesel instead," said Tatang.

"The government must support the biodiesel project. Nothing has been done so far due to the strong lobbying from the oil and gas industry and many still question the benefit and feasibility of biodiesel. FBI will keep on trying to promote it," he added.

I-box Fuel Raw Material Selling Price Emission Fossil diesel fuel Crude fossil Rp 1,650 CO, CO2,

oil Sulfur,

other

gases

Biodiesel fuel Vegetable oil, Rp 4,000- little

palm, soybean, Rp 5,000 toxic gas

and fifty other and O2

plant varieties