Nutrisi dan Teknologi Pangan Universitas Surya

 The Village Hub; Sustainable Solution

            A sugar palm factory is currently managed and held by Dr. Wille Smits, the founder of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation and the Masrang Foundation. In this case the sugar palm factory located in a village in South Sulawesi is supported by Masrang Foundation, leading into zero waste manufacturing and preserving the nature around it. This factory produces 60 different products and their main product as natural palm sugar. Dr. Smits explained that having zero waste out of the total production is an important thing to ensure the sustainability and benefits received by the local workers and citizens. Local workers are trained to collect liters of fresh palm sugar juice each day and distributing it to the main factory where it is finally processed into finishing products. 15-50 L of palm sugar juice is harvested form one palm tree a day with the sugar percentage of 10-17%. After it is collected, the sugar juice goes through a boiling process until sugar is concentrated as much as 20%. Else than palm sugar, other product produced are bioethanol and palm sugar syrup. Palm sugar juice is put through a fermenting tank where microorganism such as yeast is added to react and produce ethanol. The juice is then left fermenting until the concentration of ethanol reaches 90%. The finishing product as bioethanol is used as motorbike fuels and clean cooking fuel in local areas of South Sulawesi.  Carbon dioxide produced as an excess while processing bioethanol is then leaded and brought to a pool of algae, where it is fully consumed by the algae. Carbon dioxide is not released into the atmosphere in which decreases air pollution, on the other side algae are used for animal food. Finally, waste from processing bioethanol are fully utilized resulting as zero waste and sustainable for years ahead.