Date: 2008-11-07

Indonesia is to develop biofuel from seaweed, with the assistance of South Korea. Indonesia will be represented by the ministry of fishery and marine resources, and will cooperate with the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) to generate energy from this renewable resource.

The spokesman of the Indonesian fishery and marine resources, Soen`an Hadi Poernomo, said Indonesia had chosen South Korea as a partner in the scheme because the latter has the technology for processing seaweed into an energy source.

Indonesia has a generous supply of seaweed with which to make biofuel. However, the country lacks the technology to convert the seaweed into biofuel, and therefore needs assistance from abroad to make the most of the country’s natural resources.

He went on to explain that the type of seaweed harvested will be the Geladine variety, which is currently being cultivated in Maluku, East Belitung and Lombok.

He added the price of biodiesel is still quite high at around 2 US dollars per litre but over the next three years, following the exploitation of the seaweed, the price was predicted to fall to 1 US dollar per litre.

Soen`an did not divulge when the project would commence but stated that at the end of this year the South Korean president would come to the country. “We hope the president of KITECH would also come here to further discuss the cooperation,” he said.

Indonesia harvested 1,079,850 tons of seaweed in 2006 but is expected to reach 1.9 million tons in 2009. In September, South Korea's government signed a deal to lease 25,000 hectares (61,750 acres) of Indonesian coastal waters to grow seaweed for bioethanol fuel.


Further Reading
http://www.biofuels-news.com/news/skorea_raise.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7690973.stm