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Indonesia’s untapped potential for geothermal by-products

Indonesia’s untapped potential for geothermal by-products Well of Pertamina at Kamojang, Indonesia (source: ThinkGeoEnergy, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 29 Oct 2016

Indonesia has a large untapped potential for utilising minerals and other by-products from geothermal wells across the country for a variety of applications, such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

At the recently held international workshop “Geothermal Technology and Business 2016”, held at the University of Indonesia in Depok earlier this week, a presentation focused on the opportunities for mineral by-products from geothermal wells in the country.

In her presentation, Joshita Djadjadisastra elaborated on the potential using minerals from geothermal brine for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.

This is reported in the Jakarta Post this week. Geothermal brine contains an abundant amount of minerals, which are increasingly seen as an additional business opportunity of sizeable scale.

There are several examples of mineral use from geothermal brine, among them Lithium for battery production, silica for cosmetics, salt and much much more.

Joshita Djadjadisastra, a pharmaceutical expert, said the hot water from 2,000-meter deep geothermal wells was proven to cure scabies and contain useful minerals, such as silica, kaolin, bentonite, paraffin wax and micro algae.

“This is a chance for Indonesia, which has many geothermal fields. We can harvest those minerals from the geothermal wells,” she said.

Silica or silicon dioxide is the main ingredient for eye shadow, make-up foundation and hair straightening products. It could be used for deodorant, lipstick and antiperspirant. Kaolin (clay), bentonite, and paraffin wax are widely used in the cosmetic industry as thickener.

Meanwhile, the chlorella in micro algae has a very solid and stable structure and is rich in chlorophylls pigments, which contain protein, lipid, carbohydrate, cellulose, vitamins and minerals for healthy food and cosmetics.

“Our pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries are importing those ingredients while we actually can explore and exploit them in geothermal sites,” Joshita said, adding that the exploitation should be well managed to not disrupt a geothermal well’s main function of generating power.

Source: The Jakarta Post