Introducing Local Fuel
This country which has almost 17,500 islands is very rich in what is called local wisdom. Unfortunately, this wisdom has not been utilized for our two main needs, namely food and energy.
In food we force ourselves to eat the same food, especially rice. We even import 100% of the food that we don’t grow, namely wheat.
In the energy sector, especially fuels, we are still too focused on fossils, even though we know they will run out, even though we have to drain foreign exchange to import about half of our needs.
It’s time for us to return to our local wisdom to solve this problem. In terms of fuel solutions, for example, the guardians of the past 6 centuries have campaigned for the planting of nyamplung or tamanu. A shade tree that can live even on salty beaches, the fruit of this tree contains very high energy — that is, oil that can reach more than 70% of its kernel weight.
In this day and age, tamanu oil can be easily converted into renewable diesel fuel, gasoline and even LPG. The main technology is very mature because it is also used in the processing of fossil-based oil industries.
Only in the era of biofuels, this technology called Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) does not have to be made in the form of a very large oil refinery, it can be made on a micro scale, so that it can be operated by Village Owned Enterprises even in very remote villages.
In Indonesia today, according to government data, there are already more than 480,000 hectares of this plant spread to almost all provinces. If we just process this, we already have new oil — or what we call Nu Oil — from Tamanu Oil — which is equivalent to around 40,000 Barrels Per Day (BPD).
This is certainly enough to start the learning process, the rest we have to plant again in 14 million hectares of critical and very critical land which is now spread in 33 provinces. If we do this, God willing, by 2030 we will have a production of around 1.2 million BPD Nu Oil.
More than just a new oil discovery, Nu Oil also carries the concept of Local Fuel — that is, fuel that is produced and used in the same area. Thus Nu Oil will be a very effective solution in the era of Net Zero, where every CO2 emission we emit must be balanced with a commensurate absorption.
Nu Oil reduces CO2 emissions in two ways, firstly, it is carbon neutral because its combustion emissions are offset by CO2 absorbed by its plant growth. Second, it is produced with the concept of Local Fuel, namely with very low carbon tracing in transportation and logistics, because it is produced and used in the same area.
We’ve identified a remote island for the pilot project, but if your area is also interested in getting started early, you can also learn together with us.
