REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Technology Application and Study Center (BPPT)has succeeded in developing green petroleum that could serve as a substitute for fossil fuel.

"Green petroleum could 80 percent up to 100 percent substitute oil fuels (BBM) as its chemical structure is similar. Similar not the same," director of Center for Enwergy Resources Technology and Cemical Industry of BBPT Adiarso said.

Unlike bio-fuel, which could be used not as a substitute but only as a part in a mixture with BBM, green petroleum, which is produced from biomass of oil palm waste could be used in place of BBM, Adiarso told Antara news agency here on Wednesday.

Bio-fuel including bio-diesel or bio-ethanol could be used in a mixture of BBM in a ratio of up to 20 percent, he added.

Currently green petroleum, developed in cooperation with the Banding Institute of Technology and the energy and mineral resources ministry, is still in the phase of laboratory test , he said.

It will need two and three years to reach the phase of 'pilot plant', he added.

"Studies until the application of the technology from the start to the end could take 5 to 10 years , and the cost of development up to the phase of 'pilot plant' would be at least Rp5 billion," he said.

He said utilization of the biomass potentials should be expanded immediately as the country is already a net importer of oil and would son a net importer of gas.

The country's coal reserves also are expected to last only until 2030, he said, adding reserves of good quality coal are already depleted for exports.

"By 2031, Indonesia would be net importers for all types of fossil fuel," he said.

Biomass could be the right choice as it could play a double role - as a solid fuel for power plants, and liquid fuel to replace BBM, gas and LPG, he said.

He said green petroleum is a strategic choice for Indonesia, which is the world's largest producer if palm oil with annual production of crude palm oil at 32 million tons.

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