Opportunities for waste fats and oils as feedstocks for biodiesel and renewable diesel in Indonesia

(Versi bahasa Indonesia di sini.)

Today, virtually all biodiesel in Indonesia is produced from palm oil. But as the government is seeking to increase biodiesel blending rates in the years ahead, this single feedstock might not be adequate to support those ambitions. Indonesia is also seeking opportunities to produce renewable diesel, a more advanced biofuel that can be made from the same oil and fat feedstocks as biodiesel, but which possesses superior compatibility properties as a drop-in fuel. This paper therefore evaluates the potential for Indonesia to diversify its biofuel industry by including waste feedstocks.

The authors assess the likely availability of four different waste biodiesel and renewable diesel feedstocks in Indonesia: inedible animal fats, waste fish oil, sludge palm oil (SPO), and tall oil. While other countries have been using these feedstocks in biodiesel and renewable diesel production, Indonesia is generally throwing away inedible animal fats and fish wastes and not collecting SPO. Tall oil is not extracted to its full technical potential and most of what is produced is exported.

Results of the analysis show that approximately 1.4 billion liters of biodiesel or 1.35 billion liters of renewable diesel can be produced from these four waste oil and fat feedstocks annually in Indonesia. This would be in addition to the 3.2 billion (biodiesel) or 3 billion (renewable diesel) liters from used cooking oil that is technically available, as estimated in a 2018 ICCT study. As illustrated in the figure below, this means that in total, 4.6 billion liters of biodiesel or 4.35 billion liters of renewable diesel could be produced from waste oils and fats each year, and waste biodiesel can provide almost 60% of Indonesia’s B30 volumetric blending target.

Attachments
Indonesia waste oil infographic-EN-mar2021

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