PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – Biodiesel expert from Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), Tatang Hernas Soerawidjaja, stated that Indonesia has significant potential to develop vegetable oil, particularly from palm oil.
Palm oil, with its balanced composition of saturated and unsaturated fats, stands out as a primary product with the possibility of leveraging advanced technology in its processing. As the world’s leading producer of palm oil, Indonesia has a unique opportunity to expand its palm oil industries. However, Tatang emphasized the necessity of utilizing advanced technology to fully optimize this potential.
He noted that the global community is increasingly recognizing fatty acids as a viable alternative to crude oil in the fuel industry. These fatty acids can also be derived from other vegetable sources, such as rubber seeds.
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Tatang concluded that by harnessing the potential of palm oil and other vegetable oils, Indonesia could position itself as a leading source of vegetable oil-based energy, providing a sustainable substitute for crude oil.
Solving the Increasing Oil Losses without Miko
Palm oil consultant, Bonar Saragih said that palm oil industries namely the mill faced the complex challenges to solve the increasing oil extraction rate (OER). He thought, it would not be easy thing to discuss how to solve decrease oil loses.
70 percent of the income in mills derived from oil production. The other incomes could be from the shell, but in few numbers. Saragih said, oil losses could be about 1,3 to 1,7 percent.
“It would not be easy thing to directly see oil loses but this would be the parameter of mill managers to get key performance indicator (KPI),” Saragih said in the second TPOMI discussion and press conference with the theme “Updating Technology Palm Oil Mill Indonesia” that Palmoilmagazine.com attended, Saturday (1/6/2024) in Jakarta.
Saragih continued, the average losses in every mill would not be always accurate. From 125 mills where he monitored, 35 percent were the government’s mills and the rests were the private sectors.
This raised question if taking sample procedure and report it was done right or not. But every mill would hardly conduct their own method. Saragih reminded that Miko could be a risk if oil content would be more than 1 percent. (T2)
