Revision of Perpres 35/2018 Facilitates Commercialization of Energy from Waste

The government is currently revising Regulation of the President No. 35 Tahun 2018 on Acceleration of Development of Waste Processing Installations into Electrical Energy Based on Environmentally Friendly Technology (“Perpres 35/2018”). This revision not only focuses on electricity from waste, but also facilitates the commercialization of energy derived from waste utilization.

Director General of New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (Energi Baru Terbarukan dan Konservasi Energi/EBTKE) of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (Energi dan Sumber Daya Mineral – “ESDM”) Eniya Listiani Dewi gave an example of the government providing more space for business actors who want to develop and sell biogas in packaged form. Through the integrated Online Single Submission (OSS) licensing system, EBTKE has granted permits to three companies to sell packaged biogas commercially.

According to Eniya, in this revision the government expands the definition of waste management into energy. In addition to electricity, Final Disposal Sites (Tempat Pembuangan Akhir – “TPA”) can now be used to produce biomass, biogas, and fuel from pyrolysis.

“Usually, waste piles produce methane gas. It can be covered and collected into biogas. If this biogas is bottled, there is already an online permit for its commercialization," said Eniya.

In this revised Perpres, waste management is directed at three main approaches. First, processing biogas from organic waste piles that produce methane gas to be packaged as an alternative fuel. Second, the use of dry organic waste as biomass for direct combustion or co-firing in power plants. Third, the application of pyrolysis technology to process plastic waste into fuel oil (BBM).