Pertamina - ITB Green Diesel Catalyst Research Enters Next Phase

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President of Pertamina’s planning, and commercial RTC (research and technology center), Andianto Hidayat, announced that the state-owned energy firm - and in conjunction with ITB - has entered a crucial phase in the research of the use of catalysts in producing “green diesel.”

“This tech is truly designed in Indonesia, ITB (Bandung Institute of Technology) and Pertamina conjured up the designs from the ground up without imported equipment or licensing,” said Andianto at the ITB campus on Wednesday. “This is 100 percent a product of the nation.”

He further elaborates that the catalyst technology that is jointly-developed by Pertamina and ITB has entered its “demo phase” via small-scale refinery in processing CPO to green diesel. The facility is set to be built in the fertilizer production facility located in Sumatera owned by PT Pupuk Sriwijaya.

This fertilizer company was chosen, according to Pertamina, as the facility already produces hydrogen gas that is needed and will supply the CPO processing. 

“Pusri (Pupuk Sriwijaya) has access to hydrogen, which we need in this phase. The aspects needed are palm oil up to fatty acid which will then turn to chemical solutions that will later be converted into hydrocarbon,” said Andianto.

The demo-scale refinery is slated to be operable in 2021 that will conduct trial runs for 6-months. The construction of this Pertamina project will be handled by Pupuk Sriwijaya’s subsidiary, PT Rekayasa Industri (Rekind). A future Pertamina stand-alone refinery capable of producing 20,000 barrels daily will depend on the success of this demo phase.

AHMAD FIKRI