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Indonesia to make biomethane from palm oil in 2025

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.
Indonesia to make biomethane from palm oil in 2025 ảnh 1A farmer harvests oil palm fruit at a plantation in Kuta Makmur, Aceh. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Jakarta (VNA) – PGN, a Pertamina subsidiary, andthree Japanese companies are looking to produce biomethane from palm oil milleffluent (POME) to meet rising natural gas demand and reduce methane emissions,reported the Jakarta Post.

The consortium of PGN, JGC Holdings Corporation, Osaka Gas andInpex Corporation is currently working on a study for the commercialisation ofsuch a product in Indonesia in 2025, using PGN’s natural gas distributionnetwork.

The raw material will come from oil palm plantations in SouthSumatra.

The project aims to recover methane gas released into theatmosphere from POME, refine it into biomethane and supply it to customers vianatural 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 ascarbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

The biomethane produced from this project is expectedto not only meet industrial gas and consumer demand but also serve as proof thatPertamina Group and its partners, in this case, JGC, Inpex and Osaka Gas, arecommitted to encouraging renewable energy development, said Harry BudiSidharta, PGN director of strategy and business development.

The world’s largest palm oil exporter, Indonesia produced 46.72million 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 toproduce biodiesel for use in road fuels domestically, the association said inits annual report published earlier this year.

The use of palm oil for making biodiesel is expected to rise in2023 after the government raised the national ratio of biodiesel to gasoil mixto 35% from 30% in February./.

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