TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government welcomes investments in the coal-gas conversion (gasification) industry. The Industry Ministry's director general of chemical, textile and various industries (IKTA) Achmad Sigit Dwiwahjono said Indonesia's gasification potential is huge, considering the country's large volume of low-grade coal reserves.
"Low-grade coal can produce dimethyl ether, which can replace liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). It will eliminate our need to imports raw material," Sigit said last weekend.
Sigit said it takes about Rp13 trillion to produce 1,000 metric tons of coal gasification derivatives. During the pilot period, the industry can turn 100,000 tons of coal into 3,600 mmbtu of gas per day.
"This investment will generate substantial added value for the domestic industry. All we need is to build infrastructure," he said.
Industry Minister Airlangga Hartanto had said that the development of coal gasification is vital to obtain raw material supply for the fertilizer and petrochemical industries. "It is also an alternative energy that can be used by the industry," he said.
Minister Airlangga met with Fu Minyan, the CEO of Clean Energy Technology Zemag GmBh - a German company that will run the pilot for Indonesia's coal gasification facility project. "They want to invest in developing derivatives of coal gasification," Airlangga said.
He urged Zemag to cooperate with local companies and offered them plants site in Kalimantan and South Sumatra.
Fu Minyan said Indonesia has large resources of low-grade coal. He said he had discussed with the government about finding local partners. "We are exploring to invest in methanol with low-grade coal as materials."
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