BPPT produces cheap coke briquettes for small industries
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) has launched a pilot project to produce coke briquettes from local coal amid the rising price of imported coke.
BPPT deputy chairman for the Development of Natural Resource Technology Jana Tjahjana A. said the agency had developed the technology to produce coke from local coal, which would substitute imported coke from China, Taiwan and Japan.
"We have successfully tested this coke at several factories, and soon will produce around 2 tons a day to show to investors that investing in a coke factory could be profitable," said Jana.
He said many small- and medium-scale steel and iron factories had to temporarily stop operations due to high energy costs resulting from the rising price of coke; electricity or fuel oil as an alternative energy source would be even more expensive than imported coke.
"Many factories, for instance in Batur Ceper, West Java, have had to halt production because of the price increase," he said.
Jana said over the past two years, the price of coke had increased by almost 400 percent. Coke cost Rp 1,600 per kilogram in January 2002, and by this February, the price had risen to Rp 6,000 per kilogram due to decreased supply from China.
BPPT's coke would be much cheaper than the imported material, around Rp 3,000 per kilogram.
"There is no reason for small-scale factories not to use the local coke, as it is cheaper and only a little lower in quality than the imported one," said Jana.
He said the difference in quality was evident in the materials' ability to burn scrap: One ton of imported coke could burn 7 tons of steel, while the a ton of local coke could burn 5 tons of steel.
"We urge investors to build coke factories, because there will be a huge demand. Investment capital for a single factory with an annual capacity of 2 tons of coke is around Rp 300 million," he said.
He predicted that the high price of imported coke would at least continue until 2008.
Coke is residual fuel made from coal through destructive distillation. The material is mainly used in small and medium factories to burn and melt iron and raw steel to manufacture finished iron and steel products, but it is also used in sugar, glass, timber and other factories.
Indonesia is the world's largest producer of coal, but most of the mined coal is non-coking coal, due to the its low carbon composition.
Indonesia imports 92 percent of its domestic coke consumption of 210,000 tons per year. Small- and medium-scale steel and iron factories consume 90,000 tons of coke annually, and factories in Batu Ceper alone consume 30 tons of coke daily.
Jana said the BPPT coke was made from West Sumatra's Ombilin coal in a two-step process: Carbon is added to the coal at a temperature of more than 1,000 degrees Celsius and then fused with asphalt at high pressure, after which the coke is molded into briquettes.