A farmer harvests oil palm fruit at a plantation in Kuta Makmur, Aceh. (Photo: AFP/VNA) Jakarta (VNA) – PGN, a Pertamina subsidiary, and three Japanese companies are looking to produce biomethane from palm oil mill effluent (POME) to meet rising natural gas demand and reduce methane emissions, reported the Jakarta Post.
The consortium of PGN, JGC Holdings Corporation, Osaka Gas and Inpex Corporation is currently working on a study for the commercialisation of such a product in Indonesia in 2025, using PGN’s natural gas distribution network.
The raw material will come from oil palm plantations in South Sumatra.
The project aims to recover methane gas released into the atmosphere from POME, refine it into biomethane and supply it to customers via natural gas pipelines and other existing infrastructure.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, untreated POME releases methane, which is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.
The biomethane produced from this project is expected to not only meet industrial gas and consumer demand but also serve as proof that Pertamina Group and its partners, in this case, JGC, Inpex and Osaka Gas, are committed to encouraging renewable energy development, said Harry Budi Sidharta, PGN director of strategy and business development.
The world’s largest palm oil exporter, Indonesia produced 46.72 million tonnes of crude palm oil in 2022, Indonesian Palm Oil Association (Gapki) data show.
The country used about 8.84 million tonnes of the output to produce biodiesel for use in road fuels domestically, the association said in its annual report published earlier this year.
The use of palm oil for making biodiesel is expected to rise in 2023 after the government raised the national ratio of biodiesel to gasoil mix to 35% from 30% in February./.
