The success will be a milestone in the effort to increase bioavtur contribution in air transportation
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia has successfully conducted test flights on the Bandung-Jakarta route using bioavtur, a jet fuel derived partially from palm oil, Energy and Mineral Resource Minister Arifin Tasrif said in a statement released here on Wednesday.

Indonesia has made history with the test flights, which were conducted from Bandung in West Java to Jakarta on bioavtur-powered CN-235-220 Flying Test Bed (FTB) aircraft, the minister remarked.

"The success will be a milestone in the effort to increase bioavtur contribution in air transportation, to improve national energy resilience and security," he said.

The Energy and Mineral Resource Minister's Regulation No.12/2015 stipulated the mandatory use of 3-percent biofuel in bioavtur in 2020.

The proportion will be increased to 5 percent by 2025, the minister noted.

However, bioavtur mixing is yet to run optimally due to several problems regarding bioavtur availability, technology, and economic value, Tasrif explained.

"Until today, we have passed a long road involving various parties," the minister said.

The co-processing of bioavtur has begun at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) using refined bleached deodorized palm kernel oil (RBDPKO) as raw material and the Red and White catalyst, he informed.

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An industrial-scale co-processing test was conducted at the Refinery Unit IV Cilacap, owned by state-run oil firm PT Pertamina (Persero), to produce J2.0 in 2020 and J2.4 in early 2021, he said.

A series of tests conducted in September this year showed that J2.4 meets the specifications for avtur, which means that the product can be used as an alternative to pure avtur, he added.

Meanwhile, a series of flight tests were conducted from September 8 to October 6, 2021 to test the biofuel, Tasrif informed.

"Further research and development are still conducted to produce J100; hence, bioavtur can be used by all Indonesian as well as foreign airlines," he claimed.

J2.4 bioavtur contains 2.4 percent refined bleached deodorized palm kernel oil and is produced using a catalyst, he informed.

In 2020, Pertamina's refinery in Dumai, Riau produced 100-percent biohydrocarbon diesel from refined bleached deodorized palm oil (RBDPO), he noted.

RBDPO is a palm oil product that has been refined to eliminate free fatty acid and purified to remove its color and odor.

This early production would become a key point in the development of green products, including biodiesel and bioavtur, the minister said.

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Translator: Sugiharto Purnama, Sri Haryati
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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