Project Background

The extreme utilization of fossil fuels and the corresponding environmental effects inclusive of global warming and environmental-friendly pollution have become a global problem and urged people to aggressively search for cheap, environmentally friendly and renewable energy. In the ASEAN alone, energy-related carbon emissions are predicted to rise two times in 2035. This increase is commensurate with the increase in the regional energy demand due to improved public welfare, low retail oil prices (due to subsidies), and inadequate mass transport. To improve the situation, a strategic policy can be directed at the transportation sector, which increasingly consumes a large amount of energy every year, and is dominated by fossil fuels. One of the important transport modes that have a specific challenge for decarbonization is airplanes. Not only it is not applicable to electric vehicle strategies like for road transport, but the aviation industry is projected to have a significantly larger market in ASEAN in a near future. Therefore, a progressive development towards a clean energy solution of biomass for the aviation industry that is later known as bio-jet fuel and is becoming more urgent to be realized.

The extreme utilization of fossil fuels and the corresponding environmental effects inclusive of global warming and environmental-friendly pollution have become a global problem and urged people to aggressively search for cheap, environmentally friendly, and renewable energy. In the ASEAN alone, energy-related carbon emissions are predicted to rise two times in 2035. This increase is commensurate with the increase in the regional energy demand due to improved public welfare, low retail oil prices (due to subsidies), and inadequate mass transport. To improve the situation, a strategic policy can be directed at the transportation sector, which increasingly consumes a large amount of energy every year, and is dominated by fossil fuels. One of the important transport modes that have a specific challenge for decarbonization is airplanes.

Not only it is not applicable to electric vehicle strategies like for road transport, but the aviation industry is also projected to have a significantly larger market in ASEAN in the near future. Therefore, a progressive development towards a clean energy solution of biomass for the aviation industry that is later known as bio-jet fuel is becoming more urgent to be realized.

Elisabeth Rianawati (RDI director) together with four multidisciplinary teams of scientists and researchers from Malaysia and Japan managed to secure a grant to conduct collaborative research that focuses on the usage of different biomass in specific ASEAN countries (Malaysia and
Indonesia) as feedstock in the production of renewable energy in the form of high-quality bio-oil for aviation industry. The main aim of this research is to utilize palm oil wastes in the ASEAN region as a feedstock for the upgrading of biofuel to renewable jet fuel.

Project Scope

The scope of this research includes the current status, challenges, and future policies related to upgrading bio-oil to jet fuel in ASEAN regions. Due to the COVID-10 pandemic, the research was conducted through desk review and qualitative analysis.

Furthermore, this research will look at Malaysia and Indonesia as case studies from ASEAN member states (AMS) as well as Japan to stimulate interest in the use of agricultural residue for bioenergy production and mitigate the solid waste disposal problem in ASEAN countries.

Location: Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan

Team Member

• Dr. Armando T. Quitain (Kumamoto University)
  
• Dr. Yiin Chung Loong (Swinburne University of Technology)
  
• Dr. Elisabeth Rianawati (RDI Indonesia)
  
• Prof Suttichai Assabumrungrat (Chulalongkorn University Thailand)