Biofuel or Electric Vehicle First?

The decarbonization trend continues and has penetrated almost all lines, including the transportation sector. In the transportation sector, there are 2 things that can be done, namely the use of fuel from renewable energy or biofuel and the use of emission-free vehicles such as electric vehicles. In vehicles with 100% renewable energy or biofuel, the emissions produced are carbon neutral (even though the emissions contain CO2) while electric vehicles produce no emissions at all because there is no combustion process in the operation of the electric vehicle.

Currently, the majority of vehicles are vehicles with internal combustion engine technology, so they use fuel for their operations and the most widely used fuel is fossil fuel, especially in liquid form or liquid fuel. To achieve carbon neutral conditions, this fuel must be replaced with 100% biofuel. But currently, even though the use of biofuel has been carried out, the portion is not yet 100%. Indeed, technically there are restrictions on the use of biofuel so that it cannot be 100% like bioethanol, so this is also a concern. However, of course efforts to use 100% biofuel will also be the main target, apart from the emissions factor to achieve carbon neutral conditions, internal combustion engine technology is also the majority so it only needs minor modifications or even no modifications at all.

Another fact is that currently most electric vehicles still use electrical energy sources from fossil fuel power plants, especially coal. Even though these electric vehicles are non-emissions, basically the energy source is fossil energy, only the locations are far apart. Electric cars as a new product are also generally more expensive, even double or more than cars in general. This condition also affects the amount of use of the cars or electric vehicles themselves.

Indonesia as a tropical country has enormous potential as a biofuel producer because various plants or trees can grow well. Even though palm oil is currently the largest vegetable oil producing crop and Indonesia is ranked first in the world with an area of palm oil plantations reaching around 15 million hectares, the oil from palm oil competes with edible oil and the maintenance costs are high. not cheap. Meanwhile, vegetable oil from energy trees such as nyamplung (calophyllum inophyllum), apart from its oil productivity, is not inferior to palm oil, and the oil does not compete with edible oil, read more details here. Apart from that, the nyamplung tree, which grows well in areas near the coast, also provides its own advantages, namely because Indonesia has the second longest coastline in the world after Canada, namely 99,093 km and the nyamplung tree is also a multi-purpose tree. Meanwhile, biofuel from biomass waste can also be done, but because production costs are still expensive, it still requires a number of stages for implementation.

Under these conditions, the development of biofuel, especially from trees such as nyamplung, should be prioritized. Meanwhile, even though electric vehicles are emission free, their electricity source still uses fossil fuels. Efforts to reduce fossil fuels in power plants by cofiring have been carried out but the portion is still very small, so the climate benefits are not yet significant. If the source of electrical energy can be 100% renewable energy, then the use of electric vehicles can also be said to be like the use of 100% biofuel in internal combustion engines.

Calophyllum Inophyllum Plantation Don't Lose With Palm Oil Plantation

Calophyllum inophyllum has high commercial value wood. Forests in Indonesia contain around 4000 species of trees, with 267 of them being traded. Wood from trees of the family Dipterocarpaceae is the most important group such as meranti, keruing, kapur and mersawa. In addition, a number of tree species are also quite important, namely koompasia, palaquium, dyera, callophyllum inophyllum, octomeles sumatrana and gonystylus bancanus (ramin). Callophyllum inophyllum wood is rather light to medium and soft, but dense, wrinkled, to the point of not being able to split. Callophyllum inophyllum wood has two colors, namely gray or pseudo-yellow and brick red with finer veins and straighter fibers. Callophyllum inophyllum wood is classified as durable class II and very durable in sea water. Callophyllum inophyllum wood including commercial wood is often used as boards, beams, poles, flooring, boats, canoes, crates and tables, shipbuilding, railway sleepers, household furniture and so on. Fishing communities on the coast usually use the wood to make boats.

Until now, the potential for callophyllum inophyllum in Indonesia is still not known with certainty, but from the interpretation of Landsat7 ETM satellite imagery in 2003 on all coasts in Indonesia it is estimated that the natural stands of callophyllum inophyllum reach a total area of 480,000 hectares and most of it (about 60%) is in forest areas. Callophyllum inophyllum stands generally grow in mixed forest types, in natural forests with types of ketapang, malapari, waru laut, keben, pandan laut and others. While in planted forests, callophyllum inophyllum grows with acacia, mahogany, eucalyptus, melinjo, jackfruit, duku, durian and others. Callophyllum inophyllum grows closest at a position of 50-1000 meters from the shoreline with very variable tree densities. Nyamplung tree height can reach 25 meters and a trunk diameter of 1.5 meters.

Calophyllum inophyllum oil production, especially for biofuel production, can be done while waiting for wood production. This biofuel production has even become the main activity of this callophyllum inophyllum cultivation because it can be done for decades until finally the productivity of plants decreases, trees are cut down and replaced by new plants. The yield of calophyllum inophyllum oil, which is almost the same as crude palm oil or CPO, which is 5 tons/hectare and does not compete with edible oil, makes calophyllum inophyllum oil very potential to be developed. Biodiesel from calophyllum inophyllum oil also provides an answer to the failure of the jatropha biodiesel program some time ago, for more details read here. With Indonesia's coastline reaching 99,093 km, the production of biofuel from calophyllum inophyllum will be very large as will wood and its processed products. If we compare it with palm oil plantation, when their productive period is over, logging and utilization of palm oil trunks cause many problems, even many are just left in the plantation. Leaving oil palm trunks in the plantation until they are rotten turns out to also cause its own problems, namely as a place for growing larvae that damage coconut trees, read in more detail here. This is of course very different from the calophyllum inophyllum tree, which when the tree is old, the quality of the wood gets better, as well as the selling price. 

In addition, various agroforestry practices can be carried out on the calophyllum inophyllum plantation because it can be mixed-culture and other functions as wind breaker so that other plants will also be protected. The practice of mixed plantation or mixed culture can hardly be done on palm oil plantations so that the output is only one kind, namely fresh fruit bunches (FFB). Meanwhile, with mixed plantations, the output can also vary from food crops such as fruits, tubers and so on. The maintenance costs, especially fertilization, are also very large in palm oil plantations and this is the highest cost component in palm oil plantation operations. To continue to maintain its level of performance, of course, the need for fertilizer for oil palm plantations is very large, while in calophyllum inophyllum plantations it is smaller. The need for water for palm oil plantations is also very large, while in calophyllum inophyllum plantations it can even remain productive on dry soils. 

Of course all efforts depend on the goals to be achieved. Likewise with this calophyllum inophyllum cultivation. In addition to having many advantages compared to palm oil plantations as described above, the calophyllum inophyllum tree also has a number of advantages compared to other wood-producing trees. For wood-producing trees, such as teak, it takes a minimum of 20 years and during that time there is almost no income, so it is economically difficult. While in calophyllum inophyllum seeds are produced throughout the year as the raw material for the biofuel. Palm oil plantations are currently estimated to have reached around 15 million hectares with one of the oil being allocated for biofuel or especially biodiesel, so that if the calophyllum inophyllum plantation is developed, all biodiesel from calophyllum inophyllum oil can be made so that the palm oil plantation does not need to be expanded anymore. The existing calophyllum inophyllum plantations were developed and intensified so that they were sufficient for the required biodiesel production. In addition, the need for wood for various purposes can also be met from the calophyllum inophyllum plantation.

The Failure of Jatropha Biodiesel and the Opportunity of Calophyllum

Experience is the best teacher as the saying goes. And this also applies to biofuels. Don't let failures in the past happen again, because only fools fall into the same hole twice. The production of biodiesel from Jatropha (jatropha curcas) has been widely campaigned to become a national trending topic at that time, but in fact biodiesel from Jatropha is not economical or is still too expensive so the program stops automatically. One of these factors is the low oil yield from Jatropha seeds which is only around 25%, while calophyllum (Calophyllum inophyllum L) reaches an average of 50%. Moreover, the average productivity per hectare of Jatropha curcas is on average less than 10 tons/hectare, while calophyllum averages 10 tons/hectare. With the 50% yield with a productivity per hectare of more than 10 tons/hectare, the resulting calophyllum oil 5 tons of oil per hectare is more or less the same as crude palm oil CPO, making it more economical to produce. With a yield of about 25% with an average productivity of 20 tons/hectare of fresh fruit bunches (FFB), 5 tons of CPO will be produced, the same as calophyllum. Whereas palm oil is also the largest vegetable oil producing plant, so calophyllum oil is also not far from this condition.

 

Biofuel and especially biofuel from vegetable oils are classified as carbon neutral fuels, because they come from plants as a product of photosynthesis that requires CO2, so when burned it will also return the same amount of CO2 to the atmosphere. The use of carbon neutral fuels is very beneficial for the earth's atmosphere, thereby increasing greenhouse gases that increase the earth's temperature. Judging from the oil composition between jatropha oil, calophyllum oil and palm oil, it is also almost the same as the table above. Indeed, the two sources of biodiesel, both Jatropha and calophyllum, will both be carbon neutral fuels or more correctly carbon neutral liquid fuels, but the economic factor will ultimately determine the commercial production. Meanwhile, from the carbon neutral solid fuel group, we can find for example in wood chips, wood pellets, and palm kernel shells (PKS).

The advantages of calophyllum specifically as biodiesel raw material are first, calophyllum oil does not compete with food oil, secondly, this calophyllum plant grows and spreads evenly naturally in Indonesia, regenerates easily, bears fruit throughout the year and shows high survival power to the environment including with high-salinity soils along the coast. Third, the plant are relatively easy to cultivate, either monoculture or mixed culture, this makes a number of agroforestry practices possible. In palm oil plantation this is very difficult to do, so that we find today almost all palm oil plantations are monoculture or plantation of similar plant. Fourth, almost all parts of the plant can be utilized and have economic value, and fifth, the calophyllum plant stand can be useful as a wind breaker and conservation along the coast. Under these conditions, the opportunity for the development of calophyllum for biofuel is getting bigger.