Pertamina Supports UGM Innovation in the Energy & Health Sector

As a form of company support for the world of education, Pertamina appreciates the research and innovation carried out by Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM). It is part of Pertamina's commitment at its 63rd anniversary to encourage the world of education, create innovation, and provide more benefits to society.

It also received appreciation from the Minister of the State Secretariat of the Republic of Indonesia and the Chairman of the UGM Board of Trustees Pratikno. He expressed his hope that this cooperation could run well in the future.

On the same occasion, President Director of Pertamina, Nicke Widyawati, explained that Pertamina's support this time was especially in research on developing renewable energy made from microalgae. Support is realized through a collaboration signed by Pertamina's Refinery & Petrochemical sub-holding, namely PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional with UGM, held in Jakarta, Friday (4/12).

According to her, this microalgae material is one of the potential renewable energy resources in Indonesia. It is because Indonesia is an archipelago with a vast ocean. This material is also an independent raw material that is not related to food needs and extensive land needs.

"As we all know, the world is currently in an energy transition period. Pertamina is not standing still, but we are also taking concrete steps to be actively involved in the development of renewable energy, and one of them is energy made from microalgae," she said.

In line with this, the President Director of PT Pertamina International Refinery Ignatius Tallulembang said that his party fully supports Indonesians' innovations, especially related to energy sustainability.

"Innovation is a necessity so that we can survive and progress along with the changing times. "Microalgae have great potential to become one of the bio-sources for commercially producing environmentally friendly fuels," he said.

Apart from developing renewable energy, Pertamina also appreciates UGM's innovation in creating a testing facility for Covid-19 called GeNose. This innovation is expected to help the government and Indonesia's people in dealing with the current Covid-19 pandemic.

UGM Chancellor Panut Mulyono also explained about GeNose. "Testing GeNose uses breath to detect Covid-19, and by using this tool, the Covid-19 test results are obtained within 5 minutes. Hopefully, this will be a form of a contribution to the country amid the conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic," he said.**