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Pertamina and Toyota Collaborate on E100 Trials at GIIAS 2024
Front Row (The Jakarta Post) August 5, 2024
Pertamina Technology and Innovation SVP Oki Muraza is seen on July 24, 2024, at the Pertamina and Toyota Sorghum Bioethanol Prime Filling event held at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition in Tangerang City, Banten.
Pertamina continues to hone its competencies and expand collaboration to encourage the development and usage of bioenergy in various sectors. Pertamina collaborated with Toyota at the Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers Association (Gaikindo) Indonesia International Auto Show (GIIAS) 2024 to showcase bioethanol sourced from sorghum plant stems in a test drive.
In the test drive, 100 percent Bioethanol (E100) produced from sorghum plants was used as an alternative fuel for Toyota’s Fortuner Flexy Fuel Vehicle (FFV).
Pertamina Technology & Innovation Senior Vice President Oki Muraza explained that Pertamina had produced 150 liters of Bioethanol produced from biomass waste, namely sorghum plant stems, for the test drive. The biofuel production process uses distillation and dehydration equipment located in Pertamina's Technology Innovation Laboratory facility.
"Sorghum sap is obtained through collaboration with universities that have conducted planting tests in several areas. Afterwards, the resulting sap is fermented into bioethanol and then purified," Oki said on the sidelines of the bioethanol trial at GIIAS 2024.
Oki added that the bioethanol produced by Pertamina has been tested in the Toyota Fortuner FFV, showing increased performance with improved combustion and lower emissions compared to fossil fuels.
Pertamina's next step, Oki noted, is to increase bioethanol production from the current laboratory scale to a larger scale. In addition, Pertamina is exploring partnerships to obtain supplies of sorghum and other vegetable materials.
"Bioethanol produced from sorghum is not only a new renewable energy source for Indonesia, but the innovation also produces fuel without competing with food produce for supply, as well as opens up new jobs and space for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the sorghum plantation, sorghum sap processing and bioethanol processing industries," Oki added.
Pertamina Corporate Communication Vice President Fadjar Djoko Santoso revealed that, as a leader in sustainable energy transition, Pertamina encourages the use of bioethanol as a transportation fuel. Pertamina displayed its latest innovation, namely 100 percent E100, on July 24, 2024, and at the same time is gradually implementing bioethanol in Indonesia starting from Pertamax Green 95, a fuel product with a 5 percent bioethanol content (E5).
Fadjar said that the implementation of E5 in its upstream and downstream industries can provide benefits in the form of reducing national gasoline imports, opening new jobs and increasing gross domestic product, and is estimated to contribute to reducing emissions by 2.8 million tonnes of CO2 or about 1.9 percent of Indonesia’s emissions per year.
"The use of Bioethanol will strengthen Pertamina's road map in developing new renewable energy. Pertamina will do this in stages to support the government's program to achieve the Net Zero Emission target in 2060," Fadjar said.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
