Indonesia’s national airline, Garuda Indonesia has announced their plan of mixing palm oil-based biofuel with its jet fuel as part of an initiative to reduce carbon emissions, reports The Jakarta Post.
Starting from 2016, crude palm oil would be mixed into avtur, aviation turbine fuel, said, Novianto Herupratomo, operational director, Garuda.
It is expected that the biofuel can be produced on a large scale so the price will be relatively the same as avtur, Herupratomo was quoted as saying.
Garuda claimed that this step is taken for preventing environmental pollution and for promoting clean energy resources.
Currently, Garuda uses 1.8 billion liters of avtur a year and the consumption is expected to reach 2 billion liters in 2016.
Last year, the Indonesian government established a target of 2 percent biofuel in aviation fuel by 2016.
The official sources expect that Garuda’s palm oil consumption may reach 36 million liters of palm oil if it meets that goal.
Recently, the Indonesian government has been pushing palm oil use for biofuels to counter break the demand.
However, the palm oil target may face criticism from environmentalists, who claim that palm oil-based biofuel is no greener than fossil fuels as they are produced at the expense of carbon dense rainforests and peat lands.
That argument is supported by academic research that has measured the carbon debt of palm oil-based biofuels.