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Controversial 'Blue Energy' was just diesel: BPPT chairman

The Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) says it has concluded the "blue energy" reportedly invented by Joko Suprapto was just diesel

Abdul Khalik (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, June 3, 2008

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Controversial 'Blue Energy' was just diesel: BPPT chairman

The Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) says it has concluded the "blue energy" reportedly invented by Joko Suprapto was just diesel.

The technology authority told a press briefing Monday that the real blue energy, or fuel developed from water, was being studied and currently considered too expensive to replace fossil fuels.

State Minister of Research and Technology Kusmayanto Kadiman, who also heads the BPPT, said the agency's research discovered that the chemical contents of Joko's fuel were no different from those of Pertamina's diesel sold on the market.

"The 'blue energy' is nothing extraordinary, as it is just a form of hydrocarbon or fossil fuel," he said.

The research, conducted between January and February, also said that separating hydrogen from oxygen in water, through electrolysis, and then turning hydrogen to synthetic fuel required a great deal of energy.

It concluded that fuel from the real blue energy process was far more expensive than fossil fuel.

BPPT, however, said it was still in the dark about how Joko and his colleagues could invent their fuel, which was named and endorsed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last year, as the group had never disclosed the process.

Kusmayanto said he would report the BPPT's findings to the President.

Joko, who has been labeled a charlatan by some observers, had been granted a rare opportunity to meet the President, who is open to innovations in renewable energy.

Sources have said that Kusmayanto had cautioned the President at the outset, but the project then continued without the involvement of BPPT.

After exhibiting his work at the UN climate change conference in Bali last December, nothing had been heard of Joko or his fuel until his family reported his disappearance. He was found at a hospital in Madiun, East Java, almost two weeks after he was declared missing.

Many scientists and lawmakers have criticized Yudhoyono for looking an for easy way to cope with the energy crisis by trusting the untested fuel and neglecting to develop renewable energy sources, such as geothermal and micro-hydro, to fire power plants in place of depleting fossil fuels.

Kusmayanto said the government lacked the political will to support the development of renewable energy sources, which the country possesses in abundance.

"The new and renewable energy programs, such as biofuel, have failed because all have been linked to economic calculations. I think the government needs to consider other aspects, such as pollution-free benefits and energy renewability as we run out of fossil fuels," he said.

Responding to the controversy, Yudhoyono told a gathering of energy experts at the State Secretariat later in the day that he was "not a scientist himself".

"What I possess is responsibility and curiosity," the President told the scientists from various universities and institutions.

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