Approximately two years ago I first heard about this bio premium. Premium is a brand of Pertamina. It represents gasoline with RON number of 88. Premium is subsidized by the government. Bio premium is first sold in Malang area where the ethanol producer is located. According to the user bio premium performs very well. Engine runs smoother, there is no knocking, acceleration is better etc. In short people are satisfied both with the performance and the price.
Bio premium is one of Pertamina’s contributions to the national target to increase the use of bio fuel in the total energy consumption. Beside bio premium, Pertamina also sells bio pertamax. Bio pertamax is easily found in many Pertamina’s gas station all over Indonesia. Pertamax is higher grade fuel with RON number of 92. Bio premium suppose to have 2% ethanol content in it. I am actually expecting higher percentage of ethanol in it, but the standard says differently. This type of fuel has very good characteristics such as: lower air emission, better combustion, no need to modify engine, longer engine lifetime, somehow partly renewable energy (gggg…), and it has cleaning characteristic.
I had once used my own mixture of normal premium grade fuel and ethanol. I got the ethanol during the auto show in July. The price for 1.5 liter of ethanol is IDR 15.000 and the seller says that maximum, one can mix 10% ethanol 90% premium. My first impression when using “self mixed fuel” was that the car consumed more fuel (I calculated 1 liter for more or less 10 kilometers that for a 1000 cc car is just too much) than usual consumption. I drove the car in a mixture traffic condition that mostly congested. Sometimes the car ran not very smooth maybe this was because of the cleaning characteristic of the ethanol. Acceleration was also a bit slow. I suspected that the cause of this slow acceleration was because of the wrong ignition timing. Using approximately 10% ethanol means the fuel mixture might have RON number above 88 and that means one need to retard a bit the ignition timing. Since that experience, I did not buy more ethanol (I still have small amount of ethanol at home).
However, in the last two weeks I always fill my tank full with bio premium. I accidentally saw this gas station in Kuningan street sells bio premium. Let’s try, I said to my self and then I filled the tank full at IDR 5.500 per liter. Use it to Bandung and surprisingly the fuel consumption is much better than usual. I drove for more than 300 kilometers and the fuel indicator just point the middle section of it. It means, if I fill the tank full again, it will just need more or less 19 liters to 20 liters of fuel. That means 1 liter for approximately 15 kilometers (cipularang toll road plus traffic congestion in alun-alun area in Bandung). The engine runs smoothly and acceleration is good. I did not make any changes in the ignition timing. The engine is as it is. This condition really gives me very good impression and since then I always fill my tank with bio premium unless there is no gas station selling it. So far in Jakarta there are only 4 gas station currently selling bio premium and the plan is to add 9 more gas stations.
I say, bio premium rocks. It is a good quality fuel. It helps the engine run smoothly and improve fuel economy and somehow helps to reduce gas pollutant. I hope pertamina can increase the percentage of ethanol in the mixture so that less fossil fuel is used. I have heard that there are cars that run with 100% ethanol. Maybe one day the government will make an obligation to all car manufacturers in Indonesia to improve the engine system so that it can take at least 10% ethanol in the fuel.
But…please improve the traffic system. In case there is mass rapid transport available from my home area, I might change my mode of transport. My car is so far much cheaper to operate than using public transport.
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