Following the inauguration last month of the use of the B30 biodiesel fuel that has a 30 percent mixture of palm-oil based biofuel, Indonesia is planning to soon begin tests for biodiesel fuels with higher biofuel mixtures, B40 and B50, an official of the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said on Monday (6/1).
Dadan Kusdiana, who heads the ministry’s Research and Development Agency, said that after President Joko Widodo in December launched the B30 mandatory program that took effect on January 1, 2020, the head of state asked for immediate preparations to be made to raise the use of biofuel mixture to B40 by end of 2020 and B50 in 2021.
“The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry is immediately following this up with the implementation of testing of B40-B50 that is scheduled to be conducted in the first quarter of this year,” Dadan told The Scribe in a short telephone message.
Dadan did not give further details other than that as in past similar testing, ”the tests are being done by involving stakeholders such as the producers of vehicles, heavy machinery, agricultural machinery, shipping operators as well as those of railways and power generations.”
Meanwhile, Director of Bionergy at the same ministry, Andriah Feby Misna, was quoted Kontan.co.id as saying that the B40 and B50 will continue to be based on Fatty Acid Methil Ester (FAME), but may also be combined with a mixture of green diesel, or Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO).
HVOs do not have the detrimental effects of ester-type biodiesel fuels, like increased NOx emission, deposit formation, storage stability problems, more rapid aging of engine oil or poor cold properties. HVOs are also free of aromatics, oxygen and sulfur and have high cetane numbers.
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