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View all search resultsRI to establish methanol, ethanol factories to curb imports
The government has announced that "several projects" are in the pipeline to produce the two alcohols for its biofuel programs, as part of the broader national aim to achieve energy and food security.
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Sunlight filters through a distillation tower at the bioethanol plant of PT Molindo Raya Industrial in Malang, East Java, the country’s largest such facility with an installed capacity of up to 80,000 kiloliters a year, in this undated photo. (courtesy/Molindo)
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ndonesia is set to establish methanol and ethanol production facilities as part of government efforts to reduce the country’s reliance on imports.
“There are several projects that will break ground soon, namely manufacturing facilities for methanol and ethanol, which we have been importing,” State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi said on Sunday as quoted by state news agency Antara, though he did not provide additional details.
“We hope that within the next two years, we can reduce reliance on methanol and ethanol imports,” he added, speaking to journalists after President Prabowo Subianto’s meeting with several ministers, where Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia reported on the plan as well as ministry’s oil lifting targets.
In May, the energy ministry projected that construction on a US$1.16-billion ethanol and methanol plant in Bojonegoro, East Java, would finish in the next two years to boost domestic biodiesel production.
“We hope that, with efforts to accelerate [construction], the methanol industry in Bojonegoro will be completed by the end of 2027,” deputy energy minister Yuliot Tanjung said at the time of the plant, which has been designated a national strategic project (PSN).
The country had been largely dependent on both ethanol and methanol imports amid limited national supply, he said, citing annual methanol demand of 2.3 million tonnes compared to estimated domestic production of just 300,000 tonnes.
Read also: Ministry expects $1.2b ethanol, methanol factory project to be complete in 2027
