The 1 st International Conference on Green Development – University of Jambi - 2016 83 The Potential of Nipah (Nypa Fruticans Wurmb) as Bioenergy Resources Bambang Irawan, Jauhar Khabibi, and Ana Agustina Faculty of Forestry, University of Jambi Jambi, Indonesia email: irawanbam@yahoo.com Abstract—Renewable energy opens up prospects for answer the problem and an eco-friendly solution directed to energy security. Indonesia as a rich country of biodiversity resources, has a high potential for developing new and renewable energy derivates from plants. One of those biodiversity resources that had been investigated is nipah (Nypa fruticans Wurmb). Nipah belongs to family Palmae or Arecaceae. Commonly known as the nipa palm, is a species of palm considered adapted to the mangrove ecosystem. Nipah naturally distributes in Sumatera, Kalimantan, Java, Sulawesi, and New Guinea. Nipah produces high amount of sap that can be converted into bioethanol. Nipah sap was produced by fruit stalks that can be harvested twice a day. One stalk can produce about 0.5 to 2 l sap per day. This nipah sap generates 8.98-14% of ethanol that resulting varied amount of bioethanol from 3,587.92- 22,374.54 l per ha per year. Nipah also contains high amount of lignocellulose that can be converted into bioethanol. Nipah has cellulose and hemicellulose content that ranges from 28.9-45.6 wt% and 21.8-26.4 wt%, respectively. This lignocellulose component can be converted into bioethanol and yielded around 1,169.22 kg per ha. Charcoal production is also potentially made from some parts of nipah tree, such as fruit bunch, fruit shell, leaf midrib, and leaves. Nipah has productivity around 2,858.89 kg per ha to produce charcoal. The nipah charcoal has characteristics close to charcoal characteristics produced from other palm trees. Keywords—bioethanol; nipah; charcoal; green-industry; mangrove I. INTRODUCTION In this decade the uses of unrenewable energy, such as fossil energy have been increased. The increase of unrenewable energy uses occurs every year. It correlates with increased human population and due to rapid growth of industrialization, urbanization, technology, and modern agricultural development [1, 2]. The world faces the energy scarcity due to most of energy resources is un-renewable. Therefore, it is needed to find new sources of renewable energy. The Renewable energy opened up prospects for answer the problem and an eco-friendly solution which directed to energy security [4]. Renewable energy doesn't have a negative impact on the environment. It doesn't emit exhaust gasses which contains sulfur. Sulfur is one of the elements that can accumulate and cause acid rain. In addition, it also can reduce the effect of greenhouse gasses (GHG) [3]. There are some alternatives of renewable energy resources, such as solar energy, geothermal energy, ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC), hydroelectric energy, and biomass energy. Biomass energy is one of the future energy that has potential to be developed in this century. Biomass energy can be produced from all kinds of living things, such as algae, fungi, and lignocellulosic materials [5–10]. Industrial waste, such as agriculture, plantation, forestry, and other sources of nonwood lignocellulosic materials is a potential raw material for biomass energy resources. Therefore, the premises have the opportunity and great potential for the development of biomass energy. Nipah (Nypa fruticans Wurmb) is a non-wood lignocellulosic material. It has potency to be developed as bioenergy resources in Indonesia. Nipah is one of palm in mangrove ecosystem, widely distributed and used in Southeast Asia. The mangrove area in Indonesia is about 3.24 million ha and from it area, 973,205.54 ha is nipah vegetations [11]. It’s distributed in Sumatera, Kalimantan, Java, Sulawesi, and New Guinea. Nipah can be producing high amount of sap, which can be converted into ethanol. It can produce 6,480-10,224 L ethanol in 1 ha per year [12]. Nipah sap is a potential material to convert into bioethanol. It chemical composition is 19.5 wt% consisting of sucrose, glucose, and fructose [13]. It shows that nipah has a chance and potency to be developed as next-generation fuel. This review is trying to evaluate nipah as bioenergy resources in Indonesia, includes: (1) botany of nipah, (2) the distribution of nipah resources, (3) nipah productivity for bioenergy resources. II. Nipah (Nypa fruticans Wurmb) A. Botany of Nipah Nipah belongs to family Palmae or Arecaceae [14, 15]. Commonly known as the nipah palm, is a species of palm considered adapted to the mangrove ecosystem. This species is the only member of the genus Nypa and the subfamily Nypoideae [16]. Unlike most palms, nipah is structurally unique, lacking an upright trunk and instead having a horizontal stem with dichotomous branching that grows underground [17]. Leaf of nipah can produce an inflorescence consisting of monopodial axis, the male and female reproductive parts are found in separate flowers on the same plant [18].