The CAFEO32 was held at Sedona Hotel, Yangon, Myanmar, 9th to 13th of November 2014. This is the annual event conducted by Southeast Asian Countries under the umbrella of ASEAN Federations of Engineering Organization (AFEO). For more details regarding AFEO please click www.afeo.org. Every year each country host brought up the unique theme which are actually relevant to their main focus to develop their countries and what sort of engineering contributions of each country engineering organization could perform. Integrated Solutions for Energy, transport and Infrastructure was the main topic of this conference. The event was not only attended by ASEAN delegates but Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australian were participating at this year’s event.

Each subtheme was presented and discussed at technical paper sessions and most of the delegates of each country deliver and present their technical papers. I was the one of 4 Indonesian delegates who delivered and presented it in front of the technical sessions. My technical paper titled “The Key Factors Considered as Part of Feasibility Study on Development of Coal Gasification to Ammonia and Urea Project” I came up with with some backgrounds of why we need to raise this issue for Indonesian energy development.

The subthemes of the conference consist of:

• Infrastructure Development in Transportation & Energy.
• ASEAN Connectivity, Infrastructure Development, ICT.
• Urban Transport for Competitive City.
• Energy Cooperation ASEAN Power Grid, Trans-ASEAN Gas Pipeline.
• Renewable Energy Sources: Solar, Wind, Biomass, Bioenergy, etc.
• Rural Electrification Development.
• Engineering and Technology for Infrastructure Development.
• Engineering Education, Research and Innovation

Here is the abstract the paper“Indonesia is the second largest coal exporter in the world after Australia. Coal is abundant spreading over major islands such as Sumatera, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua. Indonesian coal deposit is more than 21 Billion Ton (2011; Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources). Total coal resources is 105 Billion Tons throughout Indonesia (2011; Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources). It is estimated over 50% of total coal deposit are categorized as low-rank coal. Coal types are low rank coal called lignite. Since this low rank coal is not economical for exports due to the low CV and high water content, this is now emphasized by Indonesian government to be utilized locally. The solution for utilizing this low rank coal is coal gasification. One of the government programs through Indonesian Fertilizer State-Owned Company is trying to utilize the coal as the raw materials to produce Ammonia & Urea. Currently, the price of natural gas from the well is over 10 Dollars/MMBTU and tend to be in short supply in the near future due to the decrease of oil and gas lifting capacity in Indonesia. Due to the price and lack of supply, they start doing Feasibility Study on Coal Gasification to Ammonia & Urea”

 
The paper concluded some bullet points were presented at the end of my session:

• The coal reserves in Indonesia are abundant and more than 50 percent of those are categorized as low rank coals. The best solution to utilize these low rank coals is to go with gasification process.
• There are three major types of gasification technology in the world, fixed bed, fluidized bed and entrained-flow technology.
• The company and I could help perfoming feasibility studies (FS), front-end and engineering design (FEED), and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services to clients throughout the world.
• The company has performed studies on Indonesian coal gasification. The company expertise and know-how is available to serve Indonesian clients and their future coal gasification and coal to chemical projects.

This was my first time visiting Yangon (previosly Rangon). The country is one of the ASEAN member and located at the north west side of Thailand. Myanmar is still a least developed country in the region, their infrastructures and urban city development is far behnind compared to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. They are trying to open and create investment climates and start inviting foreign direct investors to participate in building the country infrastructures and energy sectors.
Just for your info, if your country is Indonesia or any ASEAN countries, you can now travel to Myanmar by only using your passport, long before that, their governments really restricted the foreigners coming in to the country. Indonesia under former minister foreign affair, Mr. Marty Natalegawa had signed the agreement with U Wunna Maung Lwin, foreign affair minister of Myanmar in May 2014. Click the link http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2014/05/11/118576944/Indonesia-Myanmar-Sepakat-Bebas-Visa-Paspor-Biasa for more details info.

I traveled to Myanmar at 10th of November early morning from Terminal 2 Cengkareng Airport departed to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA1) for 1.5 Hours flight. After 5 hours transit at KLIA2 I continued the trip to Yangon using Air Asia Airlines for another 3.5 Hours. I arrived at Yangon International Airport around 20.00. The organizing committee of the CAFEO32 picked us up at the arrival gate and took us directly to Sedona Hotel to attend the CAFEO welcoming dinner. Other than me, there were 2 delegates also presenting originally coming from Makassar, South Sulawesi: Ir. Rahmat Muallim, Mine Engineer and Dr. Ir. Ayuddin, Lecturer of Gorontalo University and a Civil Engineer.
CAFEO33 has been decided to be held in Penang Malaysia. Be there and don’t forget to bring your paper and present. It’s gonna be awesome to contribute for ASEAN and also for PII & Indonesia. Salam Insinyur.