TEMPO.CO, Yogyakarta - The research by post-graduate students at Universitas Gajah Mada (UGM), led by Professor Arief Budiman has resulted in an interesting technology finding. The researchers have found a way to produce gasoline and kerosene using biomass that came from the farming process and forest leftovers.
"We are improving the research to make it applicable in the renewable industry," said Arief to Tempo at the Engineering Faculty of UGM yesterday. Arief estimated that Indonesia is producing around 9.8 million tons of palm stem and wood wastes per year.
"Using 98 million tons of biomass, we can make 9.8 million tons or 235,000 barrel of oil per day. It is 20 percent of national fuel requirement," the professor added.
Although the fuel produced by the research has a chemical structure similar to that of fossil fuel, Arief said he had yet to test the affectivity of his finding. He said to further improving the production using wasteless integrated system. Dani, one of the team members said such method for producing oil is a common thing done in Brazil.
ADDI MAWAHIBUN IDHOM
