PALMOILMAGAZINE. BANDUNG – Spirit of innovation keeps developing. There have been many collaborations to escalate catalyst application to encourage sovereignty in chemical reaction nationally. It is hoped that catalyst would play bigger roles and deliver positivity for many sectors in Indonesia.
Since 1982, the researchers from Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) have been developing Katalis Merah Putih. This becomes the prestige for Indonesia in chemical reaction. The innovative works have been operating in many locations to encourage chemical applications, deliver positivity to develop many industries in Indonesia.
In 2017, the laboratory – Teknik Reaksi Kimia dan Katalisis (TRKK) ITB got fund support from Research and Technology of High Education (Department) to create Catalyst Teaching Industry which was officially established on 11 October 2018. The industry successfully created catalyst that substituted palm oil (fresh fruit bunch) to be biodiesel, bio-aviation turbine (bio-avtur), and bio-gasoline. It was the event that the commercial Katalis PK 230 TD was managed by Kilang RU-IV, Cilacap.
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The prestige got acknowledgement. In Hari Kebangkitan Teknologi Nasional (Hakteknas) 2018 in Pekanbaru, Riau, Prof. Subagjo, one of researchers got Adibrata Award as the innovator researcher. CaRE ITB also actively participated in the exhibition and showed catalyst innovations and the results.
The positive impacts got more when 10 ministers got interested in research and innovations that ITB developed. This triggered the spirit to get more collaborations with potential partners, including the private sectors and Enterprises to expand catalyst production in national scale.
As Palmoilmagazine.com quoted from the official page of ITB, as time went by, innovations keep running. Catalysts produced by ITB researcher team and Research and Technology Centre (RTC) PT Pertamina which were tested in December 2014, were re-tested in commercial scale. The tests were in Kilang Pertamina RU II Dumai to get LCGO (light cycle gas oil) from fossil and palm oil to be diesel and vegetable diesel (biodiesel) through co-processing.
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In 2019, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resource, Arifin Tasrif knew the roles of industrial catalysts in Indonesia. In January 2020, CaRE ITB was invited to meet President Joko Widodo in person in National Meeting Coordination of Ministry of Research and Technology/National Research and Innovation Agency in 2020. In the meeting, Prof. Subagjo explained that catalysts would be very important for energy sovereignty in this country.
2020 would be the new history. On 15 July 2020, RU2 Dumai, PT Pertamina (Persero) successfully conversed palm oil to be bio-hydrocarbon with 100 percent bait from refined, bleached, deodorized (RDB) palm oil. It was successfully be turned to be diesel 100% (D100) by applying catalyst produced by laboratory TRKK ITB and PT Pertamina.
As the evidence of success, Katalis Merah Putih stories become the inspiration to develop chemical industries in Indonesia. They managed that it is important to get collaboration and innovation to face energy challenges globally. (T2)
