Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita opened up opportunities for the development of downstream industries and new and renewable energy (EBT) with German companies. This is because, he said, downstreaming could increase the added value of commodities, such as palm oil. "We see that the technology used by Ecogreen Oleochemical can support the downstream industry in Indonesia. Therefore, we have a dialogue with Ecogreen Oleochemical to open up this opportunity," he said, Monday (30/5).
Agus conveyed this during a series of working visits to Europe, namely during a meeting with two industrial companies in Germany.
The first visit was made to Ecogreen Oleochemicals, which is an industry that produces fatty acids and other downstream products from palm oil.
The products produced through the company's cutting-edge technology are used by other industries as raw materials for detergent products, skin care and cosmetic components, agricultural chemicals, textile industry, printing industry, food industry, and medicine.
Agus said that in the last 10 years, exports of palm oil derivative products from Indonesia increased significantly, from 20 percent in 2010 to 80 percent in 2020.
Currently, 168 downstream CPO products are produced in Indonesia. In 2011, there were only 54 types of downstream CPO products.
In addition, the export value of palm products in 2021 will also increase by 56.63 percent compared to the previous year.
On the other hand, Agus claimed that the B30 program, which is one of the products of the palm oil downstream policy, has been able to reduce diesel imports by 9.02 million kiloliters in 2021.
This means that there are foreign exchange savings of US $ 4.54 billion or equivalent to Rp. 64.45 trillion. This program is also able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around 24.4 million tons of CO2 equivalent.
Agus also held a meeting with the APUS Group, which has the APUS Zero Emission initiative. As the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) design agency, APUS Group researches how hydrogen can be used safely and economically.
"Research results and experience from various projects and collaborations are applied to the APUS i-2 and APUS i-5 products to build a hydrogen fuel cell hybrid-electric aircraft with excellent performance," he explained.
Agus explained that hydrogen is an alternative energy source for fuel that can be applied to the industrial sector, transportation, power generation, portable power, and other sectors.
The government through the Ministry of Industry has begun to initiate the application of hydrogen utilization in Indonesia, both as a source of power for electricity generation and as fuel for land, air and sea transportation modes.
Hydrogen as a substitute for fossil energy is currently still being developed in the power generation sector. Now, the technology is a hybrid with a combination of hydrogen and natural gas (grey hydrogen), which still produces carbon emissions.
"We hope to be able to include blue hydrogen at a later stage," said Agus.
In the national automotive industry roadmap, the Ministry of Industry has set a target of 20 percent of the use of electric battery-based vehicles by 2025. Hydrogen-based fuel cell technology for industrial production of environmentally friendly vehicles is also included.
