The award with the theme ‘Icon of Appreciating the Achievements of State Children in a Pandemic Period’ was given by GATRA Media Group to a number of institutions and inspirational figures who were considered to have contributed in various fields for the progress of Indonesia. In the event which was held in a hybrid manner on Wednesday (1/12) in Jakarta, the Red and White Catalyst Team of the Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) in collaboration with Research and Technology Innovation (RTI) Pertamina won the ‘GATRA Awards 2021’ for the technology sector. This Cooperation Team succeeded in creating a catalyst that can convert palm oil into biofuels.
It is known that the catalyst is the trigger for various feed raw materials to be refined into various fuels as needed. Research related to catalysts for converting palm oil has been carried out since 1982. At that time, research was carried out on palm oil waste disposed of in Medan. Due to the difficulty of finding partners, new research can be resumed in 2009. In the last five years, the Laboratory of Chemical Reaction and Catalysis Technology -ITB together with RTI Pertamina has developed a red and white catalyst to convert palm oil into biofuel , vegetable diesel, vegetable avtur, and vegetable gasoline. The red and white catalyst product has been tested and works well.