Proper Handling and Storage is a Must to Maintain B20 Quality

BIOENERGY experts and researchers suggested biofuel producers and fuel companies to give more attention to B20 handling and storage, especially for long term use. Good handling and storage will maintain the quality of B20, the fuel with 20% biodiesel content. They shared their opinions on how to handle and store B20 in a socialization forum organized by the Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDPKS) in Palembang, South Sumatera (10/10/2018). Attendees of the “Biodiesel for People and Country” themed forum included officials from regulator, biofuel and fuel companies, consumers, scholars, academician, etc. Tatang Hernas, Chairman of Bioenergy Experts Association (IKABI) suggested to give more attention to proper handling and storage system to maintain quality of B20. “A good storage and handling are needed to avoid decline in B20 quality, environmental pollution, as well as incidents or work accidents,” Tatang said. B20 contains special characteristic that is different to diesel fuel (B0).  “Palm oil-based biodiesel is superior to other vegetable oil-based biodiesel. Nevertheless, it tends to have high pour point  and cloud point. That’s why it needs a good handing and storage,” Tatang said. To store B20, Tatang explained, we need to pay more attention to environment condition in order to avoid B20 contaminated by mud, water, dust, and other materials that are able to cause a damage.  “It should be noted, however, that it is important for us to know that handling and storing biodiesel is entirely different from diesel fuel,” Tatang said. Speaking at the same forum, Cahyo Setyo Wibowo, Researcher at the Research and Development Centre For Oil and Gas Technology (Lemigas) said that a research is being conducted to see the possibility for B20 to be stored for more than six months. “Indeed, it is not recommended to store B20 for more than three months. However, we’ve got a feedback from miners that they need to store B20 more than six months. We have to make it possible,” Cahyo said. According to him, storing time period may influence chemical physical characteristic of biodiesel. The longer it is stored, the more free fatty acid in biodiesel be degraded by oxidation process. Increasing free fatty acid can cause biodiesel more condensed and increase viscosity. A further research needs also to be done on the use of B20 under very low temperature environments.  “We have conducted research on the B20 endurance under low temperature environments and it proved B20 is still fine. But we have got a feed back that in Freeport mining site, the temperature can drop rapidly and reach minus level. That’s why the research need to be done,” Cahyo said. With regard to the discussion about storage and handling B20, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has published a manual book that can be downloaded from http://ebtke.esdm.go.id/. ***