Commisioning Demo Plant Industrial Vegetable Oil (IVO)

PT. Berkat Sawit Sukamaju (PT. BSS) is a palm oil mill located in Musi Banyuasin Regency, South Sumatra. This palm oil mill is engaged in upstream palm oil processing. This factory has been operating since 2018. PT. Berkat Sawit Sukamaju (PT. BSS) is one of the places for Department of Bioenergy Engineering and Chemurgy students to do practical work in 2021 (Novin Isra Herdian (14518009), Regina Maria (14518012), Putri Anggreyani S. ( 14518022), Lathifuddin Siddiq (14518031)) with supervisor Jenny Rizkiana, ST, MT, Ph.D.

This year, Practical Work activities are part of the MBKM (Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka) Program which is directed by the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) RI. This Practical Work Program was carried out for 2 months and was divided into 2 periods, namely April-May and last June-July 2021. Practical work participants get a very interesting experience to be able to go directly to the field and see the processes that occur at each processing unit station at the palm oil mill, starting from the loading ramp station of Mustard Fruit Bunches (FFB) to the production of the main product Crude Palm Oil ( CPO) and other by-products such as kernels, fiber, palm shells, Empty Palm Oil Bunches (TKS), and waste. The practical work participants also learned about CPO quality testing and IVO in the factory’s laboratory. Samples of CPO produced by the factory are taken periodically for quality tests such as water content, impurities and free fatty acids in the laboratory. The methods used for testing CPO are various such as moisture analytic, extraction, and distillation.

In addition to studying the process at the Palm Oil Mill, practical work participants also had the opportunity to observe and assist in the commissioning process of a demo plant for Industrial Vegetable Oil (IVO) products. Not only that, participants also had the opportunity to practice problem solving skills to solve problems that occurred at the demo plant. In this factory trial, the IVO products produced at the demo plant are then sent to Kudus (PT Pura Barutama) for further processing into palm gasoline. The development of IVO production is certainly an innovation that has a big impact on the development of palm gasoline in Indonesia.