Pertamina Turns CPO into Green Fuel

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Pertamina seeks to develop new, eco-friendly fuels. One way is by turning crude palm oil (CPO) into green fuel types like green gasoline or green diesel.

Pertamina director for refinery, Budi Santoso Syarif, said that CPO refining is done at the Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (RFCCU) facility, located in Pertamina's Plaju refinery. The RFCCU has a capacity of 20 million barrels of steam per day (mbsd).

The unit refines CPO that had been cleaned, its sap and smell removed. This cleansed CPO is called Refined Bleached Deodorized Palm Oil or RBDPO.

According to Budi, the RBDPO is then mixed with fossil resources and processed chemically to produce eco-friendly fuel "with higher quality due to the increased octane," he said in Jakarta, Thursday, Dec. 27. 

The Plaju Refinery Unit has been able to produce green gasoline and green LPG since the beginning of December 2018. The products are the Green Gasoline Octane 90, with 405 million barrels produced each month, which is equal to 64,500 kiloliters.

Meanwhile, green LPG production reaches 11,000 tons per month.  

“This work helps the government in saving forex reserves, while Pertamina can also reduce crude import by 7,360 barrels a day or save up to US$160 million per year," he said.

Budi added that the combined output from Plaju, Balongan, and Cilacap has the potential to save US$500 million of forex reserves per year.  

Muhammad Hendartyo