PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – PT. Garuda Indonesia, the Indonesian airline, has made a groundbreaking achievement in the aviation industry by successfully completing a series of tests for bio-aviation turbine fuel (bio-avtur) derived from vegetable oil. This milestone also includes the classification of this fuel as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The bio-avtur is sourced from palm kernel oil (J2.4) and underwent successful testing in the commercial aviation context of Garuda Indonesia’s B737-800NG aircraft with the CFM56-7B engine.
The testing process encompassed several key phases, including engine ground run tests and a successful flight test conducted at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, extending to the Pelabuhan Ratu Airspace area on Wednesday, the 4th of October. Earlier on the same day, the bio-avtur variant, J2.4, underwent engine ground run testing procedures at Garuda Maintenance Facility (GMF) AeroAsia.
Research team of PT Lembaga Afiliasi Penelitian dan Industri, Institut Teknologi Bandung (PT LAPI ITB) and related instances, successfully told the positive result that SAF with bio-avtur J2.4 in Boeing 737-800 showed good control response in the machine. The success would be the way for PT Garuda Indonesia to follow up SAF use in its commercial aviation.
Also Read : MUTU International Ready to Support Bursa Karbon Indonesia
Director of PT Garuda Indonesia, Irfan Setiaputra said that the successful test is part of the company’s commitment to support decarbonization initiative. “This is the milestone that we have been waiting for. This, of course, would be optimism for us together to realize our big dream to realize green ecosystem in aviation world in Indonesia to realize net zero emission that the project would be realized in 2060,” Irfan said, as in the official statement on Tuesday (10/10/2023).
PT Garuda Indonesia and PT Pertamina planned to follow up the synergy to the next level by using SAF in commercial aviation widely. “By the result, PT Garuda Indonesia is ready to use SAF in commercial aviation,” he said.
The success is the collaboration among Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resource, Ministry of Transportation, Oi and Gas Institute, Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency, ITB researcher team, Indonesian Biofuel Producer Association, and others. (T2)
