Pertamina?s refineries to produce green diesel

State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina has prepared three oil refineries to produce green diesel.

Green diesel is a mixture of diesel oil and vegetable oil. In the initial stage, the composition of vegetable oil will be only 1 percent.

Pertamina?s director of processing Suroso Atmomartoyo said that the three refineries are Processing Unit (UP) II in Dumai, UP V in Balikpapan and UP VI in Balongan.

With a mixture of only 1 percent of vegetable oil, there is no need for modification of refineries to produce green diesel, he added.

Though it?s just 1 percent, the vegetable oil, which consists of castor oil and palm oil, is needed relatively in large quantity to produce green diesel. Suroso mentioned an example. If the Dumai refinery can produce 55,000 barrels of diesel oil per day, it needs 5,500 barrels of vegetable oil.

Green diesel is not only meant for transportation but also for industries. The price of green diesel will depend on the price of diesel oil and vegetable oil. (godang)