LEMIGAS Starts B40 Startability Test on Four Building Generators

Jakarta — Indonesia's oil and gas testing centre BBPMGB LEMIGAS began a B40 generator startability test on 20 May 2024, using four building generators of different brands at its office complex. An announcement by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources' Directorate General of Oil and Gas, published on 21 May, said the test was scheduled to continue until 16 October 2024. That is a planned end date, not a reported outcome.

B40 is a blend of diesel fuel and 40 percent biodiesel. The new test extends LEMIGAS's B40 work beyond its earlier vehicle trials to generators supplying buildings. At the time of the announcement, the available reports described the test setup and the quantities to be monitored, rather than the generators' performance or a verdict on using B40 in them.

Four generator brands at the LEMIGAS complex

According to the directorate general, four generators, each from a different brand, are included at the BBPMGB LEMIGAS premises. Its report does not identify the manufacturers or give the machines' technical specifications. The confirmed scope is therefore four units from four brands, rather than a named comparison of particular models.

The opening was conducted on behalf of the head of LEMIGAS by Cahyo Widodo, coordinator of its Product Application Testing Group. A presentation on preparations for the startability test was followed by a visit to generators prepared in the office complex. Representatives of several organisations attended, including the renewable-energy directorate, the Indonesian Biofuel Producers Association (APROBI), the Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS), PLN and BRIN. Their presence at the opening should not be mistaken for an endorsement of test results that had not yet been reported.

ANTARA, in its 21 May report published at 12:33 WIB, said BPDPKS funded the B40 testing activities. The ministry's report lists BPDPKS among attendees but does not provide the funding detail in its account. The funding attribution here is therefore specifically to ANTARA.

What the startability test monitors

LEMIGAS head Mustafid Gunawan listed five monitored parameters in the ministry's account: ambient temperature around the generator, ambient humidity, B40 fuel temperature, generator oil temperature and battery voltage. The readings cover both conditions surrounding the equipment and conditions relevant to its operation. No measurements or pass-fail criteria were published in the two reports available on 21 May.

Ambient temperature and humidity describe the environment in which a generator is tested. Fuel and oil temperatures, along with battery voltage, provide other observations during testing. Without recorded values and an assessment method, the announcement alone cannot establish whether all four generators start reliably with B40, how their behaviour compares, or whether the fuel is suitable for broader deployment.

The planned period from 20 May to 16 October sets out a timetable for the work. It does not show that the trial was completed on that date. This article, dated 21 May, makes no claim about subsequent findings.

Earlier B40 work on vehicles

Mustafid also referred to a 2022 B40 trial involving 12 vehicles. The ministry's account says six of them were in a vehicle group below 3.5 tonnes, with a daily distance target of 560 kilometres and a total target of 50,000 kilometres. Those distance figures describe the earlier vehicle testing targets, not generator performance.

LEMIGAS described work on generators and heavy industrial vehicles as a further phase of B40 testing. The two reports cited here do not provide details of the industrial-vehicle component. Nor can vehicle trials stand in for measurements on generators, which are different equipment operating in different settings. As of 21 May, the reported facts are the launch, the four generator brands, the monitored parameters and the intended timetable; the reports contain no startability result.