Plant fuel - Indonesia's energy future

Not long ago, the first Indonesian car to operate with 100% biofuels made from jatropha completed a 3,200 km test run in West Timor province. The success of the Mitsubishi Strada is expected by many to open the era of sustainable energy use in this island nation.

Professor Manurung next to Jatropha oil sample. (Photo: baocantho) In the context of rising world crude oil prices in the past few months, although many cuts have been made, the Indonesian government still shoulder the energy subsidy, which is estimated to reach this year. nearly 7 billion USD. Nature gives this country a rich but limited source of fossil fuels. Currently Indonesia's oil reserves are only enough to last for 25 years, gas for 60 years and coal for 150 years - according to Al Hilal Hamdi, head of the National Commission on Biofuel Research and Development . "Biofuels will ensure energy security for our country," Hamdi said.

Indonesia aims to 2010, biofuels will meet 10% of energy demand in the electricity and transportation sectors . Currently most of the buses and trucks in the country run on biodiesel - a mixture of palm oil (a biofuel) with fossil fuels supplied by state-owned oil company Pertamina. In Lampung Province in Sumatra Island, the state-owned power corporation PLN is using palm oil in a pilot project aimed at moving all power plants across the country to use biodiesel in 2010.

Apart from oil palm, Indonesia also noticed other oil-bearing plants, jatropha . Due to growing on fertile soils, palm plantations are taking up a significant part of agricultural land, while jatropha can grow on arid lands. That is not to say the cost of setting up a jatropha plantation is only 1/10 of the palm plantations.

Mitsubishi Strada cars in the test run in West Timor. (Photo: baocantho) Due to the increase in palm oil prices due to strong demand, many European bio-fuel companies are showing interest in jatropha oil. Scientist Robert Manurung, director of the Biotechnology Research Center of Bandung Institute of Technology, said some foreign companies are promoting a project to spend 1 million hectares of jatropha with farmers in Papua, Kalimantan and Nusa Tenggara. Recently, a Dutch company ordered 1 million tons of pure jatropha oil.

Although demand may skyrocket in the coming time, biofuels are hard to overthrow the key energy position of petroleum in Indonesia in particular and the world in general. David Chang, researcher of UOBKay Hian Securities forecasted. The production of palm oil in Malaysia and Indonesia meets about 90% of world demand, but only about 3% of global demand for fossil fuels today. And because it is necessary to allocate land for food crops while palm oil plantations take up to four years to be harvested, it is difficult for Indonesia to increase production of palm oil.

Manurung and many other researchers in Indonesia believe that before this fact jatropha will soon usurp palm oil - becoming an alternative energy source for fossil fuels and palm oil, and can help poor farmers in the provinces east of the land all year round, enriched. According to the Indonesian National Biofuel Research and Development Committee, the government plans to spend at least 5 million hectares of bare hills to establish plantations for jatropha, sugarcane and cassava to produce biofuel.

NGOC DUNG