Hydro-Fuel Inventions: Yogyakarta, Central Java

By Barrie | February 20th, 2008 | 6 Comments »

Long lines of people queuing for kerosene — a common sight in Indonesia due to low supply — could disappear in the near future thanks to the invention of hydro-fuel, a water-based alternative energy, by a team of researchers at Yogyakarta’s Muhammadiyah University (UMY).
Patented under the trade name Banyugeni, hydro-fuel was officially soft-launched at the university campus on Jl. Ringroad Barat in Bantul, Yogyakarta, recently by Rector Khoiruddin Bashori.

“We have produced the fuel on a laboratory scale but we plan to start mass production soon,” said Khoiruddin.

“UMY wants to present the invention to all Indonesians … that is why we won’t initially produce for industrial supply but instead for the poor people in need, starting in Bantul,” he said.

Khoiruddin said by mass producing Banyugeni, Indonesia would be able to allocate its annual fuel subsidy of Rp 50 trillion (US$5.50 billion) to pay off foreign debts.

“That way we create a good synergy between the people and the government for the prosperity of all, and not just for particular groups or parties,” he said.

Khoiruddin said the invention was the result of about a year of research, involving five researchers at the university’s Center for Regional Energy Development Studies, tasked with researching and developing alternatives to fossil fuels.

The researchers were Purwanto, Bledug Kusuma Prasadja, Tony K Haryadi, Lilik Utari and Nike Triwahyuningsih.

Banyugeni, according to Khoiruddin, currently has four different product variants — hydro-kerosene, hydro-diesel, hydro-premium and hydro-avtur. He said these were equivalent to their fossil-fuel counterparts kerosene, diesel, gasoline and airplane fuel.

“In the future, we will also develop other product variants that are superior to existing variants,” Khoiruddin said.

He said the newly invented fuel had been tested by PT CoreLab Indonesia, an independent international laboratory, and had been subsequently declared to meet the standards of the Directorate General of Oil and Gas at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry.

The test result, he said, was convincing. Hydro-premium, for example, proved to be non-corrosive, non-residual and to show low-emission rates.

The hydro-avtur is similarly non-corrosive, low in emission rates and has a low freezing temperature of minus 45 degrees Celcius.

“The test on aero-modeling crafts shows that hydro-fuel can be categorized as jet fuel,” said Purwanto, adding that this particular variant ran cool with an initial boiling point of 164 degrees Celcius.

Similar results were shown from tests on hydro-diesel and hydro-kerosene variants, Khoiruddin said.

An experiment at the Surakarta aviation education and training institute Tutuko using an ultra-light Jora aircraft with a Rotax 582 engine on Feb. 11, 2008, according to Khoiruddin, confirmed Banyugeni’s variant of hydro-avtur could satisfactorily start the craft’s engine and achieve maximum take-off power.

Purwanto said hydro-fuel was produced using so-called “mechano-thermal-electro-chemical” technology involving four processes: mechanical, thermal, electrical and chemical, all using water as the raw material.

“Water is basically flame. It comprises explosive hydrogen and flammable oxygen,” said Purwanto.

The process of turning the water into hydro-fuel, he said, was basically keeping the two atoms in the water in such a position where the water could revert to its constituent elements, hydrogen and oxygen.

“The results are fuel products that are not polluting and are environmentally friendly,” said Purwanto, adding that the products’ elements and characteristics had made it possible for them to be directly applied on machines without any modification to the machines’ components.
Hydro-kerosene, for example, can be directly used in kerosene stoves or lamps. Hydro-diesel, similarly, can be directly used to start a diesel engine while the hydro-premium can be used to run motorcycles or cars.

The hydro-avtur, according to Purwanto, has also been tested on jet-fuel machines such as the ones propelling aero-modeling aircraft.

Researcher Nike Triwahyuningsih said for further processing of hydro-fuel, the water needed to be purified.

Once processed, Nike said, a liter of pure water could produce about the same volume either of hydro-premium, hydro-kerosene or hydro-diesel, according to the desired results.

“We used seawater for the research, but basically any water including liquid waste can be processed into hydro-fuel,” said Nike.

Nike said the decision to use seawater was mainly made with a consideration that ground water was for human consumption. Thus, mass production of hydro-fuels would not disturb clean water supplies for humans, he said.

Sri Wahyuni