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Ship operators object to palm oil-based fuel for fear of poor performance
“Most of the ships in Indonesia have old engines, which are not suitable for biodiesel fuel,” Gapasdap secretary-general Aminuddin Rifai said in Jakarta on Friday.
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Illustration of clean fuel (Shutterstock/petrmalinak)
T
he River, Lake and Water Transportation Operators Association (Gapasdap) has expressed its disapproval of next year's mandatory use of diesel mixed with 30 percent palm oil-based fuel, known as B30, after finding the poor performance of its ships after using the biofuel.
Gapasdap secretary-general Aminuddin Rifai said that ships registered under the association would suffer significant losses if they had to use B30.
“Most of the ships in Indonesia have old engines, which are not suitable for biodiesel fuel,” he said in Jakarta on Friday.
Even the use of B20, which has been mandatory since last September, has had a negative impact on ship operations such as by polluting the engines’ combustion rooms, he added.
“Compared to pure diesel fuel, B20 has a higher rate of viscosity, which results in the slowing of the combustion process in the engines and leaves more unburnt leftovers,” he said.
In addition, the lower calorie content and higher water content in B20 speeds up the life expectancy of the nozzle injector and fuel injection pump of a ship engine.
“It eventually leads to an increase in maintenance costs for spare parts by 9 percent to 10 percent,” he said, adding that B20 also increased fuel consumption.
