BATAM, April 15 (Bernama) -- Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said here he hoped several regions in Indonesia would be able to start producing biodiesel fuel from castor kernel as an alternative fossil fuel next year, ANTARA news agency reported Saturday.

Hopefully commercial production of biodiesel fuel could begin next year as a long-term profitable business potential, he was quoted as saying.

Castor planting technology has already been developed in the regions which have the potential for castor plantation development.

He said the government and the people already started raising castor plants to produce biodiesel to reduce dependency on conventional fuels.

He said the government planned to build a castor oil industry if castor plantations had been developed in a large scale.

"Not only castor, oilpalm kernel can also be used to produce biodiesel," he said.

-- BERNAMA