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Soelaiman Budi Sunarto: Biofuel pioneer

JP/Ganug Nugroho AdiQuite a few residents of Doplang village in Karangpandan district, Karanganyar regency, Central Java, see Soelaiman Budi Sunarto as an “angel”

Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post)
Surakarta, Central Java
Tue, December 21, 2010

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Soelaiman Budi Sunarto: Biofuel pioneer

JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi

Quite a few residents of Doplang village in Karangpandan district, Karanganyar regency, Central Java, see Soelaiman Budi Sunarto as an “angel”.

Why? Because he has come up with fascinating innovations converting waste into gas and electricity for free, as well as developed alternative gasoline for motorcycles.
Commonly called Budi Soelaiman, this man has in effect made bioethanol meet the energy needs of Doplang people.
“Bioethanol can be used as alternative energy. It’s easier to produce and a cheaper fuel substitute,” he said in his office and lab, Agro Makmur, on Jalan Joko Songo 33, Doplang.
He began his waste engineering operation in 1998, after quitting his job as manager of a leading company in Semarang, the capital of Central Java. Why focus on waste? Budi was concerned about the rubbish piling up around his home.  
“Littered with garbage, the environment became unhealthy. So I was thinking of turning it into alternative energy, as I was aware of the gas content of garbage,” recalled Budi.
He made locals collect the trash around the village to process it
into an energy source. Drawing
from his physics lessons in high school, he designed by trial and error a garbage biogas-making device called albakos, which finally worked.
The installation, almost one meter high, can process 6 kilograms of dry waste like coconut fiber, leaves, wood and paddy stalks. The organic waste is transformed into methane gas through a purification process to produce bioethanol, which is channeled to stoves for cooking and generators for electricity.
Budi also designed special bioethanol stoves to replace kerosene ones, which locals welcomed as they ended up being cheaper. These stoves are called bahenol (literally meaning sexy), an acronym for bahan bakar hemat etanol (economical ethanol fuel).
Budi’s innovations have now met Doplang villagers’ fuel demand, enabling them to avoid shifting from kerosene to liquefied natural gas (LPG) — earning him the moniker of “angel”.
“Bioethanol is very safe, cheap, and not likely to blow up. So people needn’t be scared,” he assured.
His latest albakos this year is a ciu (a local alcoholic drink) converter into fuel for motorcycles. It comes from the distillation of molasses to produce alcohol for medical purposes.
According to Budi, ciu contains between 60 to 80 percent bioethanol. It is said a liquid containing 20 percent of bioethanol alone is powerful enough to operate automotive engines. Now his medium-rate bioethanol solution has served as fuel for motorcycles under the local brand MAK (Mega Andalan Kalasan), produced by a factory in Kalasan village, Yogyakarta.
Budi is also known as Bapak Biofuel (pioneer) because of the many awards he has received for his innovations. He has earned 12 innovation certificates from state agencies especially the Office of the Research and Technology Minister. But he has never registered his creations for patents.
“Requesting patents takes a lot of time. I can’t stand the red tape and illegal fees for the rights. I’d rather focus on devising new solutions, which is even more exciting,” Budi pointed out.
In 2009, Budi found a way to make LPG an alternative gasoline for motorcycles. His secret lies in an iron tube membrane that accommodates LPG before entering the combustion chamber through the carburetor.
“The carburetor float is replaced by the membrane so LPG doesn’t go directly to the chamber,” he explained.
At the moment, 3-kilogram LPG canisters are tied to the back part of motorcycle seats. Budi is now thinking of another part of the vehicle where LPG cylinders can be more neatly fixed, such as on the tank or luggage part.
Meanwhile, Budi is making Doplang self-sufficient for its power needs by converting cow dung
into bioethanol. He has built cow barns as “power generators” and asked fellow residents to keep their cows there.
“It takes time for enough cattle waste matter to accumulate. When the albakos is ready, electricity can be distributed to all village homes,” said the man born in Semarang
in 1963.
The Central Java Bio Energy Community Association Chairman indicated that at the rate of 20 kilograms of dung per cow a day, only six cows would be needed to produce 2,500 watts of electricity, besides methane gas totaling 650 grams per hour, equivalent to 3 kilograms of LPG.
“The flame produced by the
gas is not blue but white. So this country actually needn’t panic over any crisis of electricity and LPG,” he remarked.
Sadly, added Budi, the government is not supporting his innovations yet.
So he has been forced to run a special class for bioethanol training and alternative energy research in Agro Makmur independently. He now teaches hundreds of students including youths from Malaysia and Singapore.
Outside his workshop, Budi is an extraordinary lecturer at several universities, who regularly speaks
as a biofuel expert at home and abroad.
“I spent the income generated from training and lecturing on research. My biggest dream is to make Doplang independent in power supply,” said the winner of Entrepreneur and Small/Medium Enterprise Award 2006.


Budi is making Doplang self-sufficient for its power needs by converting cow dung into bioethanol.

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