Petrochemical industries have faced growing pressure to decrease their carbon emission from direct and indirect sources. This work aims to demonstrate a carbon tax’s introduction to a feasibility study on the heat exchanger (HE) replacement project at PT Kaltim Methanol Industri, Indonesia. The project was aimed to avoid methanol release as much as 48.88 MT/year. The release of methanol can also be associated with CO2 emission with an emission factor of 0.6 ton CO2e/ton methanol. Here, we investigated the influence of inclusion and exclusion of carbon tax to monetize the CO2 release. From the project investment point of view, carbon tax inclusion is expected to increase the cost-saving. Introduction of the carbon tax as high as 10 USD/ton CO2e with 5% annual increase gives IRR value of 7.06% with Payout Time (PoT) of ca. 11 years. The IRR value without carbon tax scenario is 6.68 % with the same range of PoT. Hence, the inclusion of carbon tax may increase the feasibility of the project. This work has demonstrated the positive role of the carbon tax to increase the feasibility of a project which inlines with the national initiatives to curb the CO2 emission from chemical industries. It is also worth noting that introduction of carbon tax should be accompanied by a reorganization of government incentives, including several financial policies to create a conducive atmosphere for investors in Indonesia.

Methanol is one of the important intermediate chemicals which is used widely in many processes to produce final products such as formaldehyde, dimethyl ether (DME), dimethyl terephthalate (DMT), and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). As a pioneer of methanol producer in Indonesia, PT. Kaltim Methanol Industri (KMI) has a strong commitment for sustainability and saving natural resources including enhancement of energy efficiency during production activities. Since mid-2018, to fulfill the electricity needs, PT. KMI has two main sources of electricity namely internal source using steam turbine generator and tie-in from PT. Kaltim Daya Mandiri (KDM). The modification of electricity sources promotes PT. KMI to evaluate the efficiency of internal electricity production. This has been conducted by performing optimization of blow down rate or cycle steam in boiler operation. Based on the data logbook, this work aims to evaluate the effect of blowdown rate on the energy saving and natural gas consumption. When the number of cycle steam boilers is altered from around 10 to 24, the company could get the potential energy saving around 300 MMBTU/day or 7.14% of total based energy consumption. In the boiler operation, decreasing blowdown rate would raise the cycle steam boiler and give final consequences to reduce energy losses from the release of BFW. The optimization of this cycle steam also cut the boiler specific energy consumption into around 3.0 MMBTU/ton steam. Based on the average heating value, this innovation could decline the natural gas consumption of PT. KMI around 122.91 MMSCF in the period of July 2018 – July 2019. Based on the result above, the modification of the cycle steam boiler would enhance energy efficiency, saving the natural resources and promote the application of sustainable development concept in the chemical industry.Keywords: blowdown rate; boiler energy; cycle steam; energy efficiency; PT. KMIA B S T R A KMetanol merupakan bahan kimia antara yang dipergunakan secara luas sebagai bahan baku untuk menghasilkan produk akhir berupa formaldehyde, dimetil eter (DME), asam dimetil tereftalat (DMT), dan methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). Sebagai satu-satunya produsen metanol di Indonesia, PT. Kaltim Methanol Industri (KMI) senantiasa berkomitmen untuk selalu melakukan penghematan sumber daya alam, salah satunya meningkatkan efisiensi energi. Untuk memenuhi kebutuhan listriknya, perusahaan ini memiliki dua sumber yaitu internal perusahaan menggunakan steam turbine generator dan sambungan (tie-in) dari PT. Kaltim Daya Mandiri (KDM) sejak pertengahan 2018. Adanya perubahan konfigurasi tersebut mendorong PT. KMI melakukan inovasi berupa optimasi laju blowdown atau cycle steam pada boiler untuk meningkatkan efisiensi energi. Berdasarkan data logbook operasi pabrik akan dievaluasi besarnya penghematan energi yang didapatkan dari optimasi tersebut. Peningkatan efisiensi energi dapat diperoleh dengan mengurangi laju blowdown atau peningkatan cycle steam boiler. Perubahan cycle steam pada boiler dari kisaran 10 menjadi 24 akan memberikan penghematan energi sebesar 300 MMBTU/hari atau sekitar 7,14% dari kebutuhan energi mula-mula. Penurunan laju blowdown akan mengakibatkan energi buangan melalui BFW yang dikeluarkan dari boiler berkurang, sehingga dapat menghemat energi yang dibutuhkan oleh boiler. Optimasi cycle steam boiler ini juga membuat konsumsi energi yang dinyatakan dalam energy specific boiler berhasil diturunkan pada kisaran 3,0 MMBTU/ton steam. Berdasarkan tabulasi data, inovasi ini dapat menghemat sumber daya gas alam sebesar 122,91 MMSCF pada kurun waktu Juli 2018 hingga Juli 2019. Dengan demikian, perubahan cycle steam melalui penurunan laju blowdown pada boiler terkonfirmasi dapat meningkatkan efisiensi energi dan menghemat pemakaian sumber daya alam, yang pada akhirnya mendorong aplikasi nyata sustainable development concept di dunia industri.                                                                                           Kata kunci: cycle steam, energi boiler, energi efisiensi, laju blowdown, PT. KMI