Bioenergy Implementation in Indonesia (Part 2)

Hi again everyone!

I am Indri from THINK-Research Team. I hope you and your family are good!

This week we are busy with a short course program for Tokyo University Students. It's a 5-days online program. 5 hours per day for all activities (lecture, discussion, questions and answers, and ice-breaking session). We give lectures and invite local stakeholders and communities related to climate change, agriculture, waste management, and energy in Bali. I gave a presentation about waste management yesterday.

I plan to write about waste management today, but I remember something else. I read the news and articles, and I discussed new policies and regulations from Joe Biden with my friends a few days ago. There are some new policies if we compare to Trump's era. He issued new policies on coronavirus relief and public health, climate change, infrastructure, immigration, health care, equity, inclusion & unity, and energy. For climate change, he rejoined the Paris climate accords on day one of his presidency and created new roles focused on climate policy within his administration. For the energy sector, he said on the campaign trail that he wants the US to transition to a 100% clean energy economy and reach net-zero emissions no later than 2050. Last month, he said that he will invest more in the renewable energy sector. Then, there are some questions among people and netizen related to palm oil. Will he ban palm oil as well?

Then, I remember three years ago when I did my first presentation for my first project in my master degree program. I presented the 'Implementation of Palm Oil Biodiesel in Indonesia' in the Economy, Social, and Environmental Context for Sustainable Energy course. I learned about Sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals, and SDG Wedding Cake for the first time in this course. This was the final assignment for this course. I presented the project results and submitted the project report. My lecturer gave some feedback. But, his first comment was 'you have to think more about the concept of sustainability. Is palm oil plantation sustainable?'. A few months before that time or at the beginning of 2018, the European Union banned palm oil. I know that this topic will have a long discussion and pros & cons. But, if we look at national regulation and target, as I wrote in my previous blog, the government focuses on bioenergy in industrial sectors. Since there are a lot of palm oil plantations in Indonesia, a large amount of waste produced. The government has some targets to utilise the industrial (palm oil, sugarcane, and others) waste to produce energy (power generation, biogas, and biodiesel. Then, how is the biodiesel implementation in Indonesia?

I remember sending a letter to request the data above since I could not find this data in all MEMR, BAPPENAS, DEN, IEA, IRENA, or World Bank reports. Three years ago, the capacity of biodiesel production from palm oil was from Sumatera, Jawa, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi. But we know that there are some palm oil industries in Papua now. The total biodiesel capacity in 2018 was 12 million kL. Based on my previous post, we know that the MEMR target for biofuel is 13.8 million kL by 2025. The current capacity is 7.08 million kL. So, the government has a reason to focus on bioenergy in industrial sectors. This will accelerate the bioenergy implementation to achieve the national target. I answered a question from a Tokyo Uni student today when he asked how biogas implementation in Indonesia is? Is it a priority compared to other renewable energy options? I answered that the government has targets in bioenergy, biofuel, biogas, and biomass. However, based on our last meeting with MEMR stakeholders, the government is focusing on bioenergy implementation for industrial sectors to achieve the national energy mix target.

Moreover, in biodiesel, if you're familiar with the energy sector, you will know that the Indonesian government change their targets related to B10, B20, B30 or B100 implementation. But what does it mean?

I made the table above when I analysed the policy changes in biodiesel implementation. Indonesian government instructed to develop biodiesel production started in 2006 with The Presidential Instruction in Supply and Utilization. It continued in 2008 through The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, which set a target of biofuel blending from 2008 to 2025 (NREEC, 2014). Generally, there are some key players in the Indonesian Government related to the biodiesel policy, such as the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF), Directorate General of Climate Change, Ministry of Agrarian and Spatial Affairs, Ministry Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR), and Indonesia Oil Palm Estate Fund. Based on the new energy mix objectives, the Indonesian government made the biodiesel mandatory, 30% of biodiesel in fuel-used, which is the highest mandatory usage of biodiesel in the world, is expected to be used in the industry 2021. So, B10, B20, or B30 indicates the percentage of biodiesel in mixed fuel. B30 means: 30% biodiesel and 70% fossil fuel. Then, how about B100? Does it mean 100% of biodiesel without any fossil fuels? B100 is a term for biodiesel, a biofuel for diesel engine/motor applications in fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), which is made from vegetable oil or animal fat through an esterification/transesterification process.

I have another project about biogas to electricity in Berau, Kalimantan. I plan to write it for my next post. But, will see :D

Thank you for reading!

See you in my next post! ^^