February 17th, 2010

FACT Intensive Course on Biofuels – Indonesia
From 18 until 31 January 2010, Winfried Rijssenbeek  and Ywe Jan Franken from FACT gave a successful training on biofuels to a selection of lecturers from Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY).

This training was  accommodated by the many demands from the community and small industries in Yogyakarta and Central Java to UMY to help them to reduce their energy cost by replacing fossil fuel by renewable and sustainable energy. UMY so far lacked sufficient knowledge about bio energy subjects to supply this demand. At the end of the course all participants had gained a sound understanding of feedstock, conversion routes, uses of bio energy, socio-economics, sustainability issues and project proposals. Altogether the lectures (including guest lectures from prominent Indonesian biofuel specialists) and several excursions inspired the participants to produce several very promising proposals for bio energy in the region. FACT will continue to give follow-up assistance in the future.

Eindhoven Center for Sustainability (TU/e) and UMY take part in a joint project for Indonesia Facility (INDF) - EVD to build a BIO Energy Center of Excellence which runs from 2009 until 2011. FACT was asked to supply the knowledge on biofuels.