B40 Power-Plant Trial Launched in Balikpapan, With Gunung Malang as Test Site

Balikpapan — A trial of B40 biodiesel in diesel power generation was launched in Balikpapan on Tuesday, 27 August 2024. Local outlet Kaltim Today identified the Gunung Malang diesel power plant as the test site. The launch did not mean every power plant had switched to B40: engineers still needed to assess engine performance, fuel quality and user acceptance before making technical recommendations.

B40 contains 40% biodiesel and 60% conventional diesel. As the government considered raising the blend from B35, a power-plant trial mattered because road tests on vehicles could not, by themselves, settle questions about generating equipment. Kaltimkita reported a launch ceremony for the power-generation trial in Balikpapan; Kaltim Today named the Gunung Malang plant as the test location. Another local report, by Seputar Kotaku, placed the launch event at Hotel Neo Balikpapan and said testing at Gunung Malang would follow. The ceremony and the operational test therefore should not be treated as the same thing.

A power-plant trial, not merely another vehicle test

According to Kaltimkita, the trial was intended to produce technical recommendations for using B40 in diesel power plants and to gauge acceptance among fuel users. The oil and gas testing agency LEMIGAS was carrying out the technical work with other stakeholders, coordinated by the Directorate General of New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (EBTKE) and funded by the Plantation Fund Management Agency, then known as BPDPKS. Representatives of PLN, Pertamina Patra Niaga and the Indonesian Biofuel Producers Association (APROBI) attended the launch.

The programme went beyond starting an engine. Kaltimkita listed tests of fuel and lubricant characteristics, limited performance tests on both power-plant engines and building generators, filter testing, and generator startability. Technical operating instructions for B40 in the power-generation sector were also to be prepared. These were the tests announced at the launch, not final findings or evidence that every parameter had already passed.

Andreas Arthur Napitupulu, a manager at PLN Nusantara Power's East Kalimantan unit, told Kaltim Today that the Gunung Malang trial was being conducted with LEMIGAS. He hoped the results would support broader use of the blend. His expectation should be distinguished from a test conclusion: at the time of the launch, the available reports did not present final engine performance or durability findings.

Fuel supply and the wider non-automotive programme

Kaltimkita described the basic test blend as 60% unblended diesel, known as B0, and 40% neat biodiesel, known as B100. Across the non-automotive tests, Pertamina Patra Niaga represented the diesel supplier while APROBI supplied biodiesel. The same report said the wider B40 programme covered agricultural machinery, mining equipment, marine transport and trains as well as electricity generation. A blend containing hydrotreated diesel, or D100/HVO, was specifically mentioned for heavy equipment; that does not establish that the Gunung Malang plant was tested on that formulation.

In a press release dated 5 August 2024, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) had named power generation in Balikpapan among the sectors due for testing. That earlier statement places the 27 August launch in context: it was a specific step for generating equipment, not a relaunch of the train trial in Yogyakarta or the earlier startability work on building generators.

Any mandate still depended on evaluation

As of 27 August 2024, B35 remained the broadly applicable blend. Kaltimkita said the non-automotive tests were expected to finish in December 2024 so that technical recommendations could inform B40 policy. Earlier in August, ESDM said it hoped B40 could be introduced in 2025. Those were targets stated at the time, not proof on launch day that a new mandate was already in force or that the power plant had passed all its tests.

The Balikpapan trial extended scrutiny from transport to generating equipment. If the results proved satisfactory, the recommendations could inform operators and policymakers; if filters, lubricants or performance posed problems, testing was precisely how to identify them before wider use. Until findings were available, anticipated economic or environmental benefits from B40 at diesel plants remained expectations voiced by participants, rather than measured outcomes of this trial.