Government Aims to Convert Piles of Waste into Fuel, with TNI and BRIN Involved

KOMPAS.com report: The Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs, Zulkifli Hasan, said the government will process piles of waste at the final disposal site (TPA) into fuel oil (BBM). The programme will be carried out together with the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), the Ministry of Education, Higher Education, Science, and Technology (Kemdiktisaintek), and the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI). “Previously, waste was converted into electricity; now we are collaborating again (waste-to-BBM) with the TNI, with technology from BRIN and Dikti,” Zulhas, as he is known, said during an event at the Office of the Coordinating Ministry for Food Affairs in Jakarta on Tuesday, 19 May 2026. Previously, the government focused more on converting waste into electricity through the Waste-to-Electricity project (PSEL). Now, the government is promoting the use of waste to produce BBM using pyrolysis technology. The technology works by decomposing organic matter through high-temperature heating. Zulhas revealed six locations are targeted for the waste-to-BBM project: “There are six sites. There are at Bantargebang, Bandung, and Bali,” he said. Under the PSEL project, the government uses newly arriving waste daily. Meanwhile, the pyrolysis project for BBM uses stockpiled waste that has piled up at the TPA. “We already have waste piling up, as high as a 16-storey building. Like in Bantargebang. That is now being treated with pyrolysis. Those tall piles of waste will be converted into BBM,” Zulhas said.