Date and Time
Location
312 Ag. Eng. Buildin
Indonesia is recorded as the second biggest producer country in the world of plastic waste dumped to the soil and sea. The total production of Indonesian plastic waste is 263 million tons/year. Only small part of plastic wastes produced in Indonesia is recycled. Therefore a solution of using renewable materials that are more environmentally friendly is needed. One potential raw material in Indonesia to be utilized as an environmentally friendly bio-plastic material is Crude Palm Oil (CPO).
Indonesia's CPO production in 2020 would be 40 million tons and in 2050 it is predicted to reach 50 million tons per year. Meanwhile the demand of palm oil for food and oleo-chemicals in Indonesia is only around 5.5 million tons and for biodiesel is about 12 million tons, still much lower than the total production of palm oil in Indonesia. Therefore, the new CPO market can be generated and the balance can be absorbed by the market.
Besides being used for the bio-plastic granular raw materials, the remaining CPO could also be used to produce bio-lubricant for automotive. The automotive lubricant is used for fishing boat engine. Indonesia as an archipelago country has around 17,504 islands with the second longest coastline in the world. The length of Coastal line of Indonesia is around 108,000 km. Most local people living in coastal areas are fishermen. According to the statistics issued by the government, the number of small fishing vessels in Indonesia is as much as 362,000 unit in 2016. The large number of fishing vessels require demand of bio-lubricant of about 29.534 KL /year.
Based on the above conditions, IPB University has 2 research programs on developing bio-plastic and bio-lubricant from the CPO. Research collaborations with other universities will be needed to strengthen the research program.