By 2025, biogas is estimated to become a larger part of Indonesia’s energy mix. Biogas is a renewable energy source that also has economic and environmental advantages. Domestic biogas generation has been embraced in Indonesia as a response to the country’s energy security concerns in rural areas. Since the 1970s, 48,038 biogas plants have been built in the region. To fully develop this technology, Indonesia must discontinue relying on fossil fuels and substitute current fossil-fuel-based energy. This article provides an overview of renewable technology in Indonesia, as well as addressing domestic energy demands and referring to existing literature on the socio-technical and socio-economic barriers to biogas adoption in Indonesia. Based on a rigorous review of 71 publications published in Web of Science (WoS) between 2010 and 2021, this study explores existing barriers for biogas adoption by summarizing the current literature from technical, economic, social and environmental perspectives. Biogas adoption is a complex process with many interwoven components. Therefore, this research addresses a gap in the strategic planning and implementation process, providing policymakers with pathways to eliminate bottlenecks in renewable energy planning. Recommendations for future research are also proposed.

Within developing countries, there is an appeal to use waste biomass for energy generation in the form of bio-briquettes. This study investigated the potential use of bio-briquettes that are produced from the waste biomass of the following tropical fruits: durian (Durio zibethinus), coconut (Cocos nucifera), coffee (Coffea arabica), cacao (Theobroma cacao), banana (Musa acuminata) and rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum). All fruit waste biomass samples exhibited an extremely high level of initial moisture content (78.22% in average). Fruit samples with the highest proportion of fruit waste biomass (of total unprocessed fruit mass) were represented by cacao (83.82%), durian (62.56%) and coconut (56.83%). Highest energy potentials (calorific value) of fruit waste biomass were observed in case of coconut (18.22 MJ∙kg⁻¹), banana (17.79 MJ∙kg⁻¹) and durian (17.60 MJ∙kg⁻¹) fruit samples, whereas fruit waste biomass with the lowest level of ash content originated from the rambutan (3.67%), coconut (4.52%), and durian (5.05%) fruit samples. When investigating the energy demands to produce bio-briquettes from such feedstock materials, the best results (lowest amount of required deformation energy in combination with highest level of bio-briquette bulk density) were achieved by the rambutan, durian and banana fruit waste biomass samples. Finally, all investigated bio-briquette samples presented satisfactory levels of bulk density (>1050 kg∙m⁻³). In conclusion, our results indicated the practicability and viability of such bio-briquette fuel production, as well as supporting the fact that bio-briquettes from tropical fruit waste biomass can offer a potentially attractive energy source with many benefits, especially in rural areas.

Production of bioenergy by the fermentation reaction is gaining attraction due to its easy operation and the wide feedstock selection. Anaerobic fermentation of organic waste materials is generally considered a cost-effective and proven technology, allowing simultaneous waste management and energy production. Small-scale biogas plants are widely and increasingly used to transform waste into gas through anaerobic fermentation of organic materials in the developing world. In this research, the quality of biogas produced in small-scale biogas plants was evaluated, as it has a direct effect on its use (as fuel for biogas cookers), as well as being able to influence a decision making process over purchasing such technology. Biogas composition was measured with a multifunctional portable gas analyser at 107 small-scale biogas plants. Complementary data at household level were collected via the questionnaire survey with the owners of biogas plants (n = 107). The average daily biogas production equals 0.499 m³, not covering the demand of rural households which are using other sources of energy as well. Related to the biogas composition, the mean content of methane (CH₄) was 65.44% and carbon dioxide (CO₂) was 29.31% in the case of biogas plants younger than five years; and CH₄ was 64.57% and CO₂ was 29.93% for biogas plants older than five years. Focusing on the age of small-scale biogas plants there are no, or only minor, differences among tested values. In conclusion, the small-scale biogas plants are sustaining a stable level of biogas quality during their life-span.