The Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister is mulling the reactivation of a project to process UCO into biodiesel, as it is an ideal ingredient that produces very low emissions.

“We’ve found that UCO is a very effective feedstock for developing renewable energy, but our country has yet to try it. Actually we can do it, by using household UCO,” said Willistra Danny, an official with the Coordinating Economic Ministry, during a recent visit to Singapore and California, the United States. The visit was aimed at getting an insight into biofuel policies and production mechanisms. Singapore and California use UCO as one of their main feedstocks to produce their biofuel in an attempt to reduce carbon intensity.

Willistra added that the UCO would not only meet the energy demand but also show Indonesia’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“On one hand, we can provide more energy [for transportation]. On the other hand, we can also contribute to a clean environment. We’re considering issuing a policy on this,” he told The Jakarta Post.

The visit to Singapore and California was part of a learning-exchange program held by the Koaksi Indonesia in cooperation with the International Council for Clean Transportation (ICCT). The participants were senior officials from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and other ministries, state-owned oil and gas holding company Pertamina and several NGOs.

California is a leading initiator of this clean-energy policy, through enforcement of its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).

The LCFS is a system where the California Air Resources Board tracks and scores each fuel’s carbon intensity by checking the whole life cycle of the fuel.

The biodiesel produced by the UCO, for example, contains 26 grams of carbon dioxide, which is good. Gasoline and diesel can reach as high as 100.

“It’s fascinating,” the board’s transportation fuels branch chief, Sam Wade, said in a recent meeting in San Francisco.

Nowadays, Indonesia‘s biodiesel raw materials are mostly derived from palm oil.

Since Sept. 1, the government has officially implemented the use of 20 percent blended biodiesel (B20) for all vehicles in the transportation sector, including buses, ships and locomotives.

Currently, however, Indonesia, the world’s largest palm oil producer, is facing a ban by the European Union Parliament on the import of palm oil in biofuels by 2021 because of environmental concerns. Sam said many states preferred not to use palm oil as a biofuel feedstock, because it caused land-use change.

“Using palm oil means you have to clear forest and peatlands, then you release significant carbon dioxide,” he said.

“Ahead, we should lead to the use of waste as an alternative feedstock,” Willistra said.

Indonesian Biofuel Producers Association (Aprobi) deputy chairman, Bernard A. Riedo, expressed concerns about the mechanism, such as the process of collecting the UCO.

“We can do that. But still, we need support from the government, while the government itself has yet to start going down that road. In addition, we still have a lot of supplies of CPO [crude palm oil],” Bernard said.

Another issue to anticipate if the country started to use UCO as a raw material for biofuel would be an increase in the price of cooking oil.

“If the demand for UCO increases, the cooking oil price will go up, even more than the CPO price. At the end, it’s the market that will determine it,” Bernard said.

Singapore’s energy giant Nestle uses UCO as one of its main feedstocks, in addition to animal fat and fish fat from fish-processing waste.

However, this has led to increased prices for UCO collected from hotels and restaurants.

“Waste is never free. The collection price is very expensive. And the price of cooking oil can be higher,” Nestle’s Kenneth Lim said during a visit by a government official to the company’s headquarters in Singapore.

Over half of the United Kingdom’s biodiesel is derived from waste, with UCO contributing almost 40 percent of the total raw material, followed by wheat, sugar beef and corn.

“It’s mostly used cooking oil, because it contributes a significant reduction to greenhouse gas [emissions],” deputy head of the low-carbon fuels division of the UK Department for Transport, Aaron Berry, said in a recent video conference from San Francisco, California.

As a consequence, however, the price of cooking oil has increased since the policy was implemented, he said.

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