Dumai Refinery Successfully Produces Green Diesel from Palm Oil
PT Pertamina Refinery Unit (RU) II Dumai has successfully produced green diesel using co-processing method with homemade catalyst.
PT Pertamina Refinery Unit (RU) II Dumai has successfully produced green diesel using co-processing method with homemade catalyst. The D-10 green diesel contains 97,5% fossil-based diesel fuel and 12.5% CPO. The catalyst used in the process is Katalis Merah Putih which is developed by the Laboratory of Chemical Reaction Engineering and Catalyst (TRK) of Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and is produced by PT Pupuk Kujang.
“No doubt we have capability to produce green diesel and the quality is far better. Pertamina is able to produce 12,000 barel per day for now. If 10% of them is produced with CPO, we can save 1,200 barrel per day. Current CPO content is 12.5% and we need to increase the content up to 20% or 30%,” Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Education Mohamad Nasir said as he visited Pertamina Refinery Unit II Dumai in Riau, Thursday (16/5/2019).
Green diesel produced with Katalis Merah Putih can not only save foreign reserve to import oil but also is far better as it has cetane or cleaner diesel combustion level with less emission.
“The quality is better. If we use pure fossil-based fuel the cetane number is 51% but using Katalis Merah Putih the cetane number is 58%. It is far better and cleaner. This is the first in Indonesia, even in the world,” he added. General Manager of Pertamina Refinery Unit (RU) II Dumai Nandang Kurnaedi explained that Pertamina plans to increase D-10 green diesel production.
“We plan to increase production in a bid to achieve energy self-sufficiency. We haven’t decided the target yet as we have to coordinate with Jakarta. Considering our current achievement, it`s quite likely that the engineering process will start in 2020,” Nandang said. *** (Source: Pertamina/Antaranews.com/Teknologi-Indonesia.com)