Thursday, May 15, 2008

PERSPECTIVE OF GASOHOL AS GREEN ENERGY FOR TRANSPORTATION

Yahya Kurniawan dan Simping Yuliatun

Indonesian Sugar Research Institute
Jalan Pahlawan Nomor 25
Pasuruan 67126

E-mail : isri@telkom.net

ABSTRACT

The exhaustion of fossil oil resources in Indonesia and the increasing price of petroleum oil in the world about 60 dollars per barrel make the alternative energy important. There are some alternative energy such as hydrothermal, cool, solar, natural gas, hydro, wind and green energy. Among those alternatives, green energy as a renewable energy the promising energy for transportation. Gasohol as a renewable energy is the most competitive alternative energy for transportation. ethanol is one of the more feasible for transportation. Gasohol is a mixture of 10 to 25 percent ethanol with gasoline can be used in any gasoline engine without modification. Ethanol has good oxygenating properties, improving gasoline combustion and reducing emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter and other pollutants. Ethanol is made by fermentation process, distillation and dehydration. The raw materials are from sugar materials such as sugarcane, molasses, sweet sorghum and starch materials such as corn, cassava etc. Sugarcane produces 6000 liters- 9000 liters ethanol per hectare. Corn produces 2400 liters ethanol per hectare and cassava produces 2600 liters ethanol per hectare. In Indonesia, the growth consumption of the gasoline is relatively high, the gasoline consumption is estimated around 23 billion liters in 2010. If ten percents of the gasoline demand are substituted by ethanol, it will open the market about 2.3 billion liters ethanol. The use of gasohol as green energy for transportation has beneficial impact to the growth of national agro industry and increasing the income of farmers, reducing dependency on fossil fuels, lowering pollutant emission and the green house effect.

Key words: gasohol, ethanol, bio energy, bio fuel

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