Reject (Non-Standard) Coconut Fruit for Bioavtur / SAF Production

The international civil aviation organization (ICAO) has included non-standard coconuts on the ICAO positive list – ICAO document – ​​CORSIA Default Life Cycle Emissions Values ​​for CORSIA Eligible Fuels, 6th Edition on October 28 2024. Non-standard coconuts include very small old coconuts, already sprouted, starting to rot or mold and those that are broken. Based on data from a number of research studies, the number of non-standard coconuts in Indonesia is estimated to reach 30% of Indonesia's coconut production. Non-standard coconut is also a potential raw material for the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

Basically the raw materials sought for SAF bioavtur are pure triglycerides and long chain carbon chains. This is due to the volatility of jet fuel, the preferred components are hydrocarbons in the C10 to C15 paraffin range. Furthermore, to meet the freezing point specifications (-47oC), this paraffin must have many branches to reach this low freezing point. This means that bio-avtur or SAF must have carbon atom bonds or C bonds in the C10-C15 range, and in this range palm kernel oil and coconut oil are most suitable because of the high composition of lauric acid which consists of 12 C atoms.

With the high laurate content in palm kernel oil and coconut oil, the yield will be high because the oil content is in the bio-avtur range, namely C10 - C15. This is different if you use vegetable oil with a longer carbon chain, for example CPO, nyamplung oil or canola / rapeseed oil. If you use long chain vegetable oil, the yield will be small and an extra cracking process is needed to increase the bioavtur or SAF yield.

And because the raw material used for bioavtur / SAF is oil from coconut flesh, the coconut water can be used to produce nata de coco or bottled coconut water, then coconut shells for the production of charcoal, charcoal briquettes or activated charcoal, husk for fuel to produce energy and potassium-rich ash for fertilizer or for planting media (cocopeat) and cocofiber. Meanwhile, coconut cake are used for animal feed.

Palm Kernel Oil (PKO) and Coconut Oil (CCO) for Bio-Avtur (SAF)

Bio-avtur or SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) will be the only decarbonization scenario in the aviation sector for the next few decades. The three leading production processes for SAF production are HEFA, FT and ATJ. And of the three processes, the HEFA process is the most efficient and most competitive at present, predicted to survive until 2030. The raw materials or feedstock for the HEFA process are mainly vegetable oil, used cooking oil, animal fat and so on. The HEFA process has also been approved by ASTM for use as aviation fuel (bio-jet fuel) based on ASTM D7566-14. In 2011 the latest version of the standard was published that allows up to 50% of HEFA aviation fuel products to be added to conventional jet fuel or petroleum-based fuel (avtur). ASTM itself, as an entity, does not have the authority or drive the development or qualification process of a new SAF technology, but only creates a framework, process, and repository that is the basis for the industry to create test methods, specifications, classifications, guidelines, and practices for their own needs.

Bio-avtur or SAF must have characteristics similar to conventional jet fuel so that it can be used anywhere in the world. Jet A fuel is primarily used in the US and jet A1 fuel is used in the rest of the world. The fuels are interchangeable. The main difference between the two types is that Jet A1 has a lower freeze point (-47oC, vs. -40oC) and usually has a static quenching additive (SDA) added to help reduce static buildup in the fuel during flight. Jet A1 is the fuel of choice for intercontinental flights. Given the volatility of jet fuel, the preferred components are hydrocarbons in the C10 to C15 paraffin range. Furthermore, to meet the freeze point specification (-47oC), these paraffins must be highly branched to achieve such a low freeze point. This means that bio-avtur or SAF must have carbon atom bonds or C bonds in the C10-C15 range, and in this range palm kernel oil (PKO) and coconut oil (CCO) are most suitable due to their high lauric acid composition which consists of 12 C atoms.

HVO / HEFA - SPK (Hydro-processed Esters and Fatty Acids-Synthesized paraffinic kerosene) is a renewable paraffin with combustion properties similar to other renewable paraffins such as Fischer-Tropsch fluids, produced by biomass gasification and chemical synthesis. HVO / HEFA can be produced in dedicated facilities producing 100% HVO, or it can be co-processed with fossil fuels in petroleum oil refineries. In co-processing, a bio-based feedstock of typically 5-10% is blended with the fossil feedstock. The HVO / HEFA process in addition to renewable diesel (which is different from biodiesel – FAME) can also be modified to produce bio-avtur / SAF for jet fuel applications. AltAir Fuels supplies HVO / HEFA based SAF and produces approximately 13 million liters per year.

HEFA is produced by hydrogenation and hydrocracking of vegetable oils and animal fats using hydrogen and catalysts at high temperature and pressure. In this hydrotreating process, oxygen is released from the feedstock consisting of triglycerides and / or fatty acids. This will produce straight chain hydrocarbons (paraffins) with various properties and molecular sizes depending on the characteristics of the raw materials and the operating conditions of the process being carried out. With the high lauric content in palm kernel oil (PKO) and coconut oil (CCO), the yield will be high because the oil content is in the bio-avtur range, namely C10 - C15. This is different if you use vegetable oil with a longer carbon chain, such as CPO, calophyllum inophyllum oil or canola oil. If you use vegetable oil with a long chain, the yield will be small and an extra cracking process is needed to increase the yield of bioavtur or SAF.

This conversion usually goes through two stages, namely hydrotreatment followed by hydrocracking/isomerization. This hydrotreatment process is usually carried out at a temperature of 300 -390 C and for triglyceride treatment, propane is usually produced as a by-product. The more hydrogen is added, the less propane is produced. The final product of the straight-chain hydrocarbon can be adjusted according to the type of fuel, for example for bio-avtur or bio jet fuel or SAF, namely by isomerization and the cracking process. The hydrogen used in HEFA production currently mostly comes from fossil sources or blue hydrogen. The catalyst for this can be a simple refinery hydro-processing catalyst. This catalyst can be adjusted to isomerize the paraffin chain to lower the melting point of the product. If necessary, a second isomerization stage is used to carry out this task in order to achieve the required jet fuel cold flow properties, namely Jet A or Jet A-1.

Currently, Pertamina (Indonesia's state-owned oil company) has succeeded in producing bio-avtur or SAF from palm kernel oil or PKO processing, namely refined bleached deodorized palm kernel oil (RBDPKO) called bioavtur J2.4 or containing vegetable oil ingredients in the form of RBDPKO 2.4%. The production of this bioavtur is carried out through the Hydrotreated Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) co-processing method and has a capacity of 9,000 barrels per day. The J.24 bioavtur has successfully undergone commercial flight tests on a Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft owned by PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk. (GIAA) on October 4, 2023. And for the future, apart from the quantity aspect, namely the portion of vegetable oil (PKO) is larger, even the use of other vegetable oils such as coconut oil (CCO), CPO oil, calophyllum inophyllum oil and so on, it is also hoped that the quality of bioavtur will also improve. In addition, there are also plans from other institutions, namely the production of biovatur or SAF from coconut oil in collaboration with Japan.

In the aviation fuel industry, ASTM serves as the international standard for jet fuel quality, and plays a critical role in ensuring the safety, quality, and reliability of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF). ASTM establishes requirements for criteria such as composition, volatility, fluidity, combustion, corrosion, thermal stability, contaminants, and additives, among others, to ensure that fuels are compatible when blended. ASTM International (American Society for Testing and Materials) is an international organization that develops technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, processes, systems, and services. Jet fuels must meet stringent quality specifications to be eligible for use in the aviation industry.

There are several ASTM standards related to this jet fuel, namely first, ASTM D1655: This is a conventional jet fuel specification that establishes requirements for Jet A and Jet A-1 produced from petroleum. This specification has been used globally by the aviation industry since 1959 to ensure the availability of safe and consistent jet fuel for all aircraft. Second, ASTM D4054: This ASTM standard practice defines the scope of fuel, rig, and engine property testing that should be considered when evaluating new synthetic jet fuels. This practice also describes the overall evaluation process and the important role of engine and aircraft manufacturers in ensuring a good jet fuel safety record is maintained with these new fuels. Third, ASTM D7566 Pathway: As per ASTM D4054, the pathway includes definitions of synthetic jet fuel blending components as defined by: permitted feedstocks; conversion processes and their attributes; and the final characteristics of the pure components. All of this is detailed in both the body of D7655 and its Appendices. The pathway will also define blending requirements.

In order for a new SAF production line to be included in D7566, it must undergo extensive testing to determine the maximum blend ratio with conventional jet fuel and demonstrate that the blend is suitable for its intended purpose. This procedure is outlined in ASTM D4054, ‘Standard Practice for Evaluation of New Aviation Turbine Fuels and Fuel Additives’.

Each batch of jet fuel needs to be certified before it can be used. While conventional jet fuel is certified as D1655 fuel (or a derivative), pure SAF is certified to the stringent specification requirements set out in Appendix D7566 which relates to the SAF production line. D7566 certified SAF is blended with conventional jet fuel to the maximum allowable blend ratio. The blended SAF is then certified to the D7566 blend requirements, and thus automatically receives D1655 certification, making it fully Jet A/A-1 compliant (‘drop-in fuel’) and ready for use in existing jet fuel infrastructure and equipment. In short, ASTM is vital to the aviation fuel industry as it is the basis for international standards for the quality of jet fuels, and SAF in particular.

EUDR and Is It Time for the Palm Oil Industry to Consider Biochar ?

Malaysian smallholders cultivate around 27% of the total oil palm plantations or equivalent to 1.54 million hectares, while in Indonesia it reaches 41% or equivalent to 6.72 million hectares. Malaysia chose to increase the yield or productivity of FFB as an effort to increase CPO production, namely by being fostered by large companies with a target increase of 600,000 tons/year without increasing the land area. For Malaysia, opening new plantations is something that is very difficult, even impossible, especially with the implementation of the EUDR on December 30, 2024. Consolidation between palm oil farmers is expected to increase efficiency so that it ultimately increases yield and income. The area of ​​Malaysian palm oil plantations is around 5.7 million hectares or around 1/3 of the area of ​​Indonesian palm oil plantations (currently reaching around 17 million hectares). This is also the main reason why Malaysia chose to intensify its palm oil plantations while Indonesia tends to expand palm oil land, even though both countries face two main issues, namely increasing production and climate resilience.

Biochar application is a solution to overcome the two important issues above. Related to the increasing pressure of environmental issues, climate and sustainability, even renewable energy, it seems that biochar will receive more attention. There are many aspects of land and the environment that can be improved with biochar application which ultimately is a solution to the two main issues. For small plantations, biochar application can be easier to do, but for large plantations managed by various palm oil companies, biochar application requires more complex considerations, especially because of the risk factor of the vast area of ​​palm oil plantations, but this biochar option is still attractive. The use of IoT (Internet of Things) can be used to monitor biochar performance on the land, for more details, read here.

The operational efforts of the palm oil industry to be more environmentally friendly and efficient are a driving force and a challenge in themselves. With the large profits from the palm oil industry business, of course the palm oil industry will not simply ignore demands related to the environment and sustainability, especially the EUDR. Palm oil producers, especially Indonesia and Malaysia, are faced with a standard guideline that applies to countries producing 'edible oil', namely that palm oil to be exported must come from land that has been reforested before 2020. Otherwise, the producing country will be considered a country that does not pay attention to the issue of deforestation and hinders the export of palm oil abroad. Various lobbying and negotiation efforts by Indonesia and Malaysia as the two largest palm oil producing countries in the world to the European Union to be more relaxed in implementing the EUDR include great suspicion as to why rapeseed oil is not treated the same as palm oil. The production of rapeseed oil as a raw material for biofuel in Europe is protected and ignores its environmental impact.

Indonesia as a coconut island seduction country has an experience of coconut oil commodities in the past that can also be a reference for this. The era of the glory of copra or coconut oil was around the transitional decade of the 19th century to the 20th century or more precisely between the 1870s and 1950s and its peak in the 1920s. Why are copra and coconut oil in particular currently slumping and losing out to other vegetable oils? The long history of trade competition is the answer. Several parties, especially the American Soybean Association (ASA) accused coconut oil of being an evil oil containing cholesterol and saturated fat that clogs coronary arteries. The accusation was never proven true, in fact it was proven otherwise, but it became one of the main causes of the destruction of the global copra and coconut trade. The tropical oil campaign and war took about 30 years or in the 1950s to the late 1980s in the United States and so finally the Indonesian coconut industry slumped.

Climate factors in the form of efforts to reject deforestation with its EUDR and economic factors in the form of palm oil production will be a fierce feud but sooner or later it will definitely reach a meeting point that can be accepted by both parties because they need each other. Diverting CPO products to markets that do not require environmental requirements such as the EUDR also seems to be untimely. Furthermore, in the form of addressing two important issues in the palm oil industry, namely increasing production and climate resilience and in line with the EUDR, biochar is the right solution. The question is, will this biochar be an important consideration and even find its momentum to be applied in oil palm plantations, especially for Indonesia and Malaysia? And the implementation of the EUDR as its driving force. Let’s see.

VCO as an Immune Booster for Corona Virus (nCoV-19)

Indonesia is predicted to be an epicenter of corona cases, due to the slow and incomplete handling, lack of health facilities including laboratories, large population, wide area and poor transparancy distribution of cases. This is a concern for a number of scientists and countries in the world, so many have drawn their ambassadors from Indonesia.One thing that is very alarming is that it is very minimal of the population of the population tested by the corona, it makes the reports that appear to be inaccurate so that it cannot be used as a reference. The sadder thing from the minimal report of being infected with the corona is the high death rate detected i.e. a range of 9% or a very high category (higher than the international average). At present it is estimated that only around 0.001% (2,700 individuals) (3/24/2020) of the population are added and complaints are added about the accuracy and duration of the corona test process, so massive tests must be carried out immediately.

A number of simulations and models have been carried out to predict the spread of the corona viris infection. Here are some simulations and modelings that we can make reference. The professor of applied mathematics at the University of Essex in the UK estimates that 50% of Jakarta's population will be infected within 50 days of the first case being confirmed on March 2, or that means on April 21, 2020. Another model from LSHTM (London of School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) estimates there will be more than 35,000 cases recorded at the end of March 2020, where the number of infected people reaches more than 960,000 people. Meanwhile, from a joint research of a number of universities in Indonesia, it is stated that the death of Covid 19 in Indonesia could reach 2.6 million people (very much or almost 1% of the population). According to them the peak cases of infection reached 55 million people in May 2020, and the peak ICU requirement was around 6 million people. And of those treated in the ICU it is estimated that 1% will need a ventilator or means that it needs 60,000 ventilators. Basically, the modeling curve is to effectively reduce the number of infected people or make the curve flatter so that it is below the capacity of the hospital, which makes the expected percentage of the population helped is greater.

Prediction of corona outbreaks in Indonesia

Based on the above conditions, it is predicted that the corona virus outbreak will take a long time to overcome (and if no systematic radical steps are taken such as tight lockdown), it will take more than 1 year to predict. Of course this will be very hard for people's lives, especially from the economic and social-security sector. Moreover, tens of thousands of prisoners have also been released from prisons in Indonesia. This should encourage the population to be increasingly vigilant and anticipatory, including by taking various preventive measures to increase the body's immunity against virus attacks, especially the corona virus by consuming food supplements that support it.

VCO is different from coconut cooking oil because VCO is made without heating to produce medium saturated chain fatty acids or Medium Chain Fatty Acids (MCFA), vitamin E, anti-oxidants and enzymes in coconut fruit. Lauric acid in VCO is easily absorbed to the mitochondria so it will increase the body's metabolism. Saturated fatty acid, lauric acid consists of 12 carbon atoms, which are bound saturated (no double bonds) by hydrogen atoms. This makes it not easy to rancid and can last up to 2 years. With these 12 carbon atoms, lauric acid is called medium chain fatty acid (MCFA). While other fatty acids or oils in general such as palm cooking oil, peanut oil and so on are long chain fatty acids (LCFA) and their chemical bonds are not saturated (double bonds). Lauric acid will be converted into monolaurin or a monoglyceride compound obtained by babies from breast milk which has anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-protozoa properties.

Medium chain fatty acids (MCFA) can be directly absorbed through the intestinal wall when they reach the digestive tract, this process is faster because without going through the hydrolysis and enzymatic processes. Furthermore, it is directly supplied into the bloodstream and immediately brought into the liver to be metabolized. In the liver, VCO is processed into energy only, not LDL cholesterol and not fat deposits, the energy is used to improve the function of all endocrine glands, organs and body tissues. Medium chain fatty acids (MCFA) have small molecular sizes, so they are easily digested and can be directly absorbed by the body (absorbed by the intestinal wall) because MCFA easily penetrates the mitochondria (an organ that is in every cell of our body that functions to produce energy for the body), So that the pancreas, digestive tract, and liver can work more easily. The ease of MCFA penetrates the mitochondria, making VCO acts as an instant energy source or quickly produces energy for the body. VCO can also be a halal health food supplement. The Philippine coconut authority has even recommended VCO to overcome the corona virus problem. A Doctor from Ateneo De Manila University, Dr. Fabian M. Dayrit is one of a number of experts who have published the results of his research on the potential of VCO with its anti-virus capability to fight the corona virus (nCoV-2019), the publications can be read here.

VCO production with plastic jars

VCO filtration

VCO products

The small VCO producers especially, those who were once constrained to market their VCO, especially for export markets that require organic certification, then the current conditions become a momentum to market it especially for the domestic market. Most of the VCO producers are also home industries scale so that activities can still be carried out and in line with appeals or orders to work from home (WFH = work from home). Conducting VCO production activities amidst quarantine / lockdown at home can also be a fun, productive activity and eliminate boredom. For the VCO producer, it is also possible to process coconut water waste for nata de coco production and coconut shell for charcoal production and more macro to revive the integrated coconut industry. VCO for immune booster means that as a food supplement in order to increase endurance, it is very important especially for those identified as ODP (Insider Monitoring) and more specifically for PDP (Patient Under Supervision) status and positive confirmed corona virus infection. While for those who are healthy it is important to always maintain health and maintain endurance, especially during this pandemic.

Reviving the Integrated Coconut Industry Part 4: Analysis and Projection

Basically the campaign to save the coconut plantation (tree of life) is to revive the integrated coconut industry. Damaged and not maintained of coconut plantations due to lack of funding to maintain and develop it in a sustainable manner.

Bioeconomy is defined as knowledge-based production and uses biological resources or living things to produce products, processes, and services in the economic sector within the framework of a sustainable economic system.

 The Monas monument in Jakarta is so monumental and so famous that almost all Indonesians know it, even the Jakarta province uses the monument as its government logo or icon. But very few know that the 32 kg gold which is the top of the Monas monument, 28 kg or 87.5% (say almost 90%) comes from the contribution of coconut entrepreneurs, namely from the copra trade. Coconut has indeed experienced the glory of even having a large role in Indonesia's independence. A number of ammunition of wars to various important events in the framework of Indonesia's independence were financed by the copra trade. Copra is the raw material for coconut oil which later becomes a number of derivative products that are highly needed by humans. The era of the triumph of copra or coconut oil revolves around the transition period of the 19th century to the 20th century or more precisely between the 1870s to the 1950s and its heyday in the 1920s.

Why now copra and coconut oil are especially sinking and unable to compete with palm oil? The long history of trade competition is the answer. Some parties, especially the American Soybean Association (ASA) accuse coconut oil as an evil oil that contains cholesterol and saturated fat clogging coronary arteries. The accusation has never been proven right, in fact it proved to be the opposite, but it is one of the main reasons for the destruction of the global copra and coconut trade. The campaign and the tropical oil war took about 30 years or in the 1950s to the end of the 1980s in the United States and eventually the Indonesian coconut industry collapsed.

If we look at palm oil, it turns out the same thing happened. For some time Indonesian palm oil has also received a negative campaign due to environmental destruction so that Europeans do not want to buy palm oil from Indonesia. It could be and it is probable that this is also an effort to weaken and make the palm oil industry will also be dropped later. But because it has only been running for a few years, it seems that the effect is not very visible at this time. And if it is done massively and continuously and there is no significant resistance, then it is not impossible that the fate of the palm oil industry is also similar to the coconut industry. The statement that 'only donkeys fall into the same hole twice' is something that needs to be pondered deeply to analyze this.

Coconut fruit

As an additional reference, Indonesia, which in the colonial era as one of the main producers and exporters of cane sugar, is currently also having a misfortune because besides being no longer an exporter, it has become one of the largest sugar importers. In 2016 Indonesia became the largest sugar importer in the world with a value of $ 2.1 billion or around Rp.28.4 trillion. The value of Indonesia's imports was greater than the three other importing countries whose populations were actually greater than those of Indonesia, namely America ($ 1.9 billion), China ($ 1.2 billion) and India ($ 922 million). There are quite a lot of sugar factories in Indonesia, namely more than 180 units, but most of them are currently not actively producing and most are on Java. The total national sugar production is 2.2 million tons with a sugar cane plantation area of around 0.5 million hectares and an estimated need of 5.7 million tons so that production still needs to be increased.

Indonesia, the majority of which still exports raw materials for industries in other countries, also indicates that it is a developing country, so this condition should also be improved. Export of a variety of finished products or a minimum of intermediate products must be sought. Export of whole coconut is one thing that must be avoided and replaced with exports of processed products. When we talk about reviving the integrated coconut industry, but on the other hand, whole coconuts as raw materials are directly exported without processing it is a lie or it's useless. Industries without raw materials will surely die. Exporting whole coconut with an estimated number of four billion items annually is a setback. How not, in the history of the glory of the coconut, Indonesia exports in the form of a minimum of copra, while today it even exports whole coconuts. Industry era 4.0 also has no meaning with conditions like this.

Of course it needs good regulation and cooperation between various parties to overcome this. Indeed, there are also policies from developed countries to limit the development of developing countries' industries, for example during the heyday of coconut in Philippines many exported copra to the United States and the United States gave some import taxes to the Philippines on condition that the Philippines not develop its coconut industry. And indeed in that era many copra processing industries located in Europe and the United States.

Palm oil fruit

Even in the current era of bioeconomy all commodities of agriculture, forestry, fisheries and animal husbandry should support each other to make a strong economy, for example with agro-forestry will be able to optimize the potential of land and environmental balance. Don't let the dichotomy and contradiction occur so that between bioeconomy-based products weaken each other, for example coconut oil and palm oil should be able to have their own segments or even from the beginning it has been designed that coconut for mainly non-oil food products and palm oil for oil products because the productivity of oil per hectare is the largest of all plants. Coconut oil and palm oil (CPO) have different qualities, because coconut oil has a medium chain bond or MCFA (Medium Chain Fatty Acid) while palm oil (CPO) has a long chain bond or LCFA (Long Chain Fatty Acid). Coconut oil which is rich in lauric acid is similar to palm kernel oil (PKO). Besides being found in coconut oil and palm kernel oil (PKO), lauric acid is also found in mother breast milk.

When the European Union for example with its bioeconomy makes various efforts to obtain various sources of energy, food, chemicals and so on from living things or biomass, then we should realize that Indonesia's position in the tropics is the best position to lead the bioeconomy era on condition that managed properly. Do not let the great potential just be useless and even bring disaster like some time ago, namely natural wealth invites the invaders and the Indonesian people were colonized due to the devide et impera politic. As a result, instead became a slave in their own country. Indonesia should be the largest producer of biomass, the biomass country.

As palmae plant groups there are many similarities between palm oil and coconut. And specifically the case in Indonesia, for example the productivity of coconut and palm oil is also still less than other countries like Malaysia, so this needs to be improved. But the number of palm oil processing industries starting from the production of CPO and its derivatives is currently more than coconut, which is estimated to be around 1000 pieces while the area of palm oil plantations is also almost 4 times that of coconut plantations. Palm oil production is currently reaching 38.17 million tons for CPO or 41.98 tons in total with palm kernel oil (PKO) in 2017 or the largest in the world. With CPO production of 38.17 million tons, the use in the food sector, especially cooking oil, is 3-5% (equivalent to approximately 2 million tons). In other sectors, CPO derivative products such as oleochemical 3.8 million tons / year ago, the energy sector, biodiesel 2 , 5 million tons, and the rest export around 70%.

There is an analysis that indicates that the coconut industry will rise with a number of products starting to demand the market, including the most striking coconut water, followed by coconut milk, dessicated coconut and VCO. But unfortunately most of the success is not in Indonesia but in other countries such as the Philippines, Sri Lanka and India. In fact, there are even products whose raw materials from Indonesia after being ready to sell products are sold back to Indonesia, namely coconut milk which is the source of coconut from Indonesia. Thus the actual analysis that the coconut industry began to stretch has a point especially at the global level, while for the domestic indicators there are almost no indications, only small spots are still too early to be said to rise. With an estimated 14 billion nuts produced annually in Indonesia, there are around 3 billion liters of coconut water, or when converted to VCO to 1.4 million tons, dessicated coconut to 1.7 million tons while coconut shells are 2.5 million tons and coir/fiber of 5.6 million tons.

Indeed, in the current era of bioeconomy, it is a natural thing that in the past it became trash and discarded, and now it is a commodity that is sought and even competed, for example coconut water that was once thrown away, is now accommodated as raw material for nata de coco and bottled coconut water, coconut shells and coconut husks, then palm kernel shells which were originally only thrown away as a road hardener/ improvement are now widely sought after and used as fuel for power plants with very large demand, more details can be read here. Some coconut products that are starting to be in demand, there is already demand and it is projected to continue to increase is coconut water. The Philippines exported 484 thousand liters of coconut water in 2009 to 17.9 million liters in 2012 and in 71.7 million liters in 2015 or there was a 141-fold increase in 8 years. To produce 71.7 million liters of coconut water, 261 million coconuts are needed per year. And it is estimated that the bottled coconut water market currently reaches 13 trillion rupiah. Unfortunately there is no information for Indonesia. Almost all of the coconut water products are exported to the United States and usually a close relationship with the buyer's country which is closely related to historical factors will facilitate business transactions. Maybe that's why the no. 2 coconut producing country in the world can export more their coconut products to the United States.

Coconut milk packaging is used not only for cooking but also for vegetable milk, such as soy milk. China is a country that consumes a lot of coconut milk to replace animal milk, with China as its biggest consumer. Whereas dessicated coconut, there are currently 3 main producers namely the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. At present it is estimated that more than 20 dessicated coconut plants in Indonesia. The demand for dessicated coconut was quite large at 151 thousand tons in 1990 to 248 thousand tons in 2008.

Will the Indonesian coconut industry be able to rise? Of course it can, but there are a number of conditions that must be met. The rise of the coconut industry must be led by people who have adequate capability so as to understand the core problems and be able to map problems accurately in this sector and provide solutions. A leader is a person who has a vision and lives or implements his vision until the goal is reached. Leaders who do not have the strong driving force to implement their vision will not have the drive to be moved to create the solutions needed. With the efforts of various parties and always praying to Allah SWT, God willing, will be realized.

Coconut is very close to people's lives, so the community can actively participate in advancing the integrated coconut industry. Integrated coconut industries can be made in centers of coconut plantations, even in remote locations as long as there is access to market their products. Market access and control are important. When the market has been acquired and controlled, production activities can be easily carried out. It's useless to build a factory or industry if you don't have a market. The pattern of mutually beneficial cooperation (non-usury) such as syirkah with profit sharing will make the industry stronger. Insha Allah. That is because from coconut can produce a lot of products that can be commercialized and will bring blessings. Large companies have also been prepared to take this opportunity, so do not miss it. Things that need to be pursued so that assets do not only revolve in certain circles as is currently the case with the application of capitalist economy. With the current economic model it takes 800 years for the bottom billion people to reach 10% of global income. As a result of the current liberalism and capitalism, the richest 10% control 85% of global wealth. The three richest people in the world have assets of more than 47 countries GDP, the lowest gross GDP. 1% of the richest people own more than 50% of the world's wealth. This huge inequality should be overcome immediately with a fair and prosperous economy.

Will coconut be back victorious and become a locomotive in the current bioeconomy era? Can coconut be able to move the economic sector back heroically as an important commodity that has a role in Indonesia's independence? Or is it even in the 'lullabies' with the many potentials of this country but is unable to exploit it and instead invites new 'invaders'? Wallahu 'alam