Use of biogas as energy to be studied

Use of biogas as energy to be studied

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned gas company PT Gas Negara is
exploring the possibilities for the use of biogas, processed from
garbage, as an alternative energy source, the company's president
said yesterday.

Qoyum Tjandranegara told a seminar here that a feasibility
study for an organic waste treatment plant has shown that the
Greater Jakarta area -- made up of Jakarta and neighboring towns
Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi -- could utilize its garbage to
produce biogas which can, in turn, be converted into electricity.

As a result of the study, a US$35-million pilot project has
been carried out in which 250 tons of waste has been processed
each day -- about 90,000 tons per year -- to run a power plant
with a capacity of between 1.2 megawatts (MW) and 1.5 MW.

"From an economic point of view, processing city waste is not
a profitable business, but it is very useful for the
environment," Qoyum said.

Yesterday's seminar concerned the utilization of organic waste
as an alternative energy source. It was organized jointly by Gas
Negara, PT Citra Lamtoro Gung Persada and Goetz GmbH Metall- und
Anlagenbau of Germany.

Qoyum acknowledged that the waste-processing business would
be difficult to carry out if it relied on commercial funds alone.

"Government subsidies, or very, very soft loans are required
for such a business," he said.

He said Gas Negara is currently seeking soft loans, "possibly
those with a maturity period of about 30 years and an annual
interest rate of one percent", for the establishment of such
plants.

He declined to give details of the proposed waste-treatment
plants, saying only that they are still at the earliest stage of
preparation.

Qoyum said Gas Negara would try to obtain low-cost funding,
while Citra Lamtoro Gung, the company's private-sector partner,
would seek commercial loans. Citra Lamtoro Gung is owned by
businesswoman Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana.

Wolfgang Tietz of Goetz GmbH Metall- und Anlagenbau, which
conducted the pilot project, told the seminar that, at present,
most of Jakarta's waste is dumped at waste disposal sites.

The dumped refuse, he said, posed a potential danger to the
environment. Moreover, the dumping sites cannot be used for
construction even years after the waste disposal has stopped, he
added.

He said that Jakarta's population of eight million disposes of
about 4,000 tons or 20,000 cubic meters of waste every day.

Of that amount, about 80 percent is collected from households,
taken to central collection points and then loaded on trucks and
transported to garbage dumps, he said.

The latest dumping point is the 108-hectare Bantar Gebang
area, about 40 kilometers southeast of Jakarta.

Tietz said the waste treatment method considered most suitable
for Jakarta is anaerobic fermentation, since more than 80 percent
of Jakarta's waste is comprised of organic matter, mainly
vegetable material.

That treatment is carried out in a capsulated digester, he
said. It yields a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, called
biogas, which provides a source of renewable energy.

According to a cost-benefit analysis, the conversion of the
biogas into electricity costs between Rp 33,900 (US$14.80) and Rp
127,800 per ton for the first 10 years of operation, Tietz said.

He said that, currently, the total cost of collection,
transportation and disposal at Bantar Gebang is about Rp 23.6 per
kilogram of waste, or Rp 80 million a day. Between 3,000 and
3,500 tons of waste are collected each day.

"These costs are only partly covered by fees which are paid by
households and enterprises for the waste disposal," Tietz added.
(pwn)