Alternative Fuels

The increase in fuel oil by the government since

18 November 2014, verifying it will add the number of
poor people about 6 million people in Indonesia. Fuel oil
for a long time had serious discussion. In addition to
having the limited mineral resources, an expensive price,
and the issue of the fossil fuel will be exhausted within a
few decades, make the fuel problem must be resolved.
One of the way that can be do is replace the fuel oil with
the alternative fuels. The vegetable oils stored a potential
raw materials to produce an alternative fuel energy
replace the fossil fuels looks like coal and petroleum. The
existence of biodiesel could be the best option for
Indonesia to overcome this problem considering that
Indonesia is a huge agrarian country that has a fertile
soil.
The idea of making vegetable oil as an alternative fuel started by the scientist Rudolph
Diesel. The research and development about it continues and reached its peak in the mid 80s
with the discovery of biodiesel. Biodiesel is the source of energy produced by processing
various kinds of plants. The research results issued by the ministry of higher education and
indonesian ristek said that there are 60 kind of food crops, and plantation potential to be
Biodisel. In addition to come from renewable resources , the application of biodiesel as fuel
also environmentally friendly. Biodiesel is an alternative fuel produced by the seeds of
Jatropha tree that are used in the production of biodiesel.
We needed to know about alternative fuels and the potency of biodiesel to reduce or
even replace the consumption of fossil fuels in Indonesia.
1. What is alternative fuels ?
2. Is biodisel an effective way to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels
considering the geographical condition in Indonesia?
3. Is biodisel just an imaginary plan which hasnt a huge effect to this problem?
Is it succeed or not?
The research will start by review the meaning of alternative fuels. Alternative fuels is
fuel that can be used as a substitute for conventional fuels derived from fossil fuels. Then, we
search about life characteristic of jatropha tree. Is it possible to plant this tree in all of
geographical conditions. Then, when we have already know about the life characteristic, we
can go to next step by evaluate the effectiveness of biodiesel as an alternative fuels besides
fossil fuels considering the good and bad of this fuels. Finally, we can conclude the
worthiness of biodiesel replacing the fossil fuels in Indonesia.
Jatropha is a genus of flowering plants in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. Plants
produce separate male and female flowers. As with many members of the family
Euphorbiaceae, Jatropha contains compounds that are highly toxic. Jatropha tree origin from
the central of America and usually live in the tropical. The cultivation of this plant must

comply the requirements of the altitude 0 800m above seal level. Besides that, the
environmental temperature must be about 20 30 o C for an optimize growth.
There are many species of Jatropha tree that has been cultivated. Reviewed from the
effectiveness, it contains about 40% - 60% of oil in each seed. The blooming period occurs
after 60-70 days old plants and the fruits can be harvested when the plant about 100-110 days,
which usually falls in the summer, August and September. The fruits that late to harvest will
bouncy and tumbled, so, the harvest of this fruits must be on time. Production can be
achieved approximately 1-3 tons/ha.
From the explanation above, it can be inferred that Jatropha tree cant be planted in all
Indonesia regions. It required a specific conditions as we told before. The ratio of fruits and
oil produced relatively low. However, there are many advantages of the consumption of
biodiesel which are very environmentally friendly. It produce a lower emissions (CO 2, SO2,
CO, and hydrocarbon) which is almost the same amount of energy compared with petroleum
fuel. Then, it also has the biodegradable characteristic which is more easily decomposed by
microorganism compared to mineral oil. Though it cant be planted in every Indonesia
regions, but the potential of lowland area in Indonesia is still huge enough to cultivate this
plant.
Answering the questions submitted before, so, the plan to reduce the consumption of
fossil fuels to overcome those nearly extinction, looks like the best option for Indonesia. We
cant immediately replace the consumption of fossil fuels considering the difficulty of
cultivation of the Jatropha tree and the habitual consumption of fossil fuels by the Indonesian
society. Also, the lower ratio of seeds production compared with the oils produced could be
the other reason for us though this alternative fuels has many advantages.

References
http://www.langkahbisnis.com/budidaya-jarak/
http://www.amazine.co/21892/pengganti-bbm-ketahui-6-sumber-bahan-bakaralternatif/
http://beranda-miti.com/5-bahan-bakar-alternatif-pengganti-bbm/