Biodiesel

Did you know that Indonesia is the largest country that produces vegetable oil, besides crude palm oil and copra oil. The vegetable oils stored a potential raw materials to produce an alternative fuel energy replace the fossil fuels looks like coal and petroleum. As we know, that the fossil fuel will be exhausted within a few decades more which promotes the alternative energy to be developed. The existence of biodiesel could be the best option for Indonesia to overcome this problem considering that Indonesia is a huge agrarian country that has a fertile soil.

The idea of making vegetable oil as an alternative fuel started by the scientist Rudolph Diesel. The research and development about it continues and reached its peak in the mid 80s with the discovery of biodiesel. Biodiesel is an alternative fuel produced by the seeds of Jatropha tree that

are used in the production of it.

We needed to know about the potency of biodiesel to reduce or even replace the consumption of fossil fuels in Indonesia. Is it an effective way to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels considering the geographical condition in Indonesia? Or, is it just an imaginary plan which hasn’t a huge effect to this problem? Is it succeed or not? Let us see.

The research will start by review life characteristic of jatropha tree. Is it possible to plant this tree in all of geographical conditions? Then, when we have already know about the life characteristic, we can go to next step by evaluate the effectiveness of biodiesel as an alternative fuels besides fossil fuels considering the good and bad of this fuels. Finally, we can conclude the worthiness of biodiesel replacing the fossil fuels in Indonesia.

Jatropha is a genus of flowering plants in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. Plants produce separate male and female flowers. As with many members of the family Euphorbiaceae, Jatropha contains compounds that are highly toxic. Jatropha tree origin from the central of America and usually live in the tropical. The cultivation of this plant must comply the requirements of the altitude 0 – 800m above seal level. Besides that, the environmental temperature must be about 20 – 30 o C for an optimize growth.

There are many species of Jatropha tree that has been cultivated. Reviewed from the effectiveness, it contains about 40% - 60% of oil in each seed. The blooming period occurs after 60-70 days old plants and the fruits can be harvested when the plant about 100-110 days, which usually falls in the summer, August and September. The fruits that late to harvest will bouncy and tumbled, so, the harvest of this fruits must be on time. Production can be achieved approximately 1-3 tons/ha.

From the explanation above, it can be inferred that Jatropha tree can’t be planted in all Indonesia regions. It required a specific conditions as we told before. The ratio of fruits and oil produced relatively low. However, there are many advantages of the consumption of biodiesel which are very environmentally friendly. It produce a lower emissions (CO2, SO2, CO, and hydrocarbon) which is almost the same amount of energy compared with petroleum fuel. Then, it

also has the biodegradable characteristic which is more easily decomposed by microorganism compared to mineral oil. Though it can’t be planted in every Indonesia regions, but the potential of lowland area in Indonesia is still huge enough to cultivate this plant.

Answering the questions submitted before, so, the plan to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels to overcome those nearly extinction, looks like the best option for Indonesia. We can’t immediately replace the consumption of fossil fuels considering the difficulty of cultivation of the Jatropha tree and the habitual consumption of fossil fuels by the Indonesian society. Also, the lower ratio of seeds production compared with the oils produced could be the other reason for us though this alternative fuels has many advantages.

References

http://www.langkahbisnis.com/budidaya-jarak/