InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA -Batik has become part of culture in Indonesia for hundreds of years. it develops through the evolution and interaction among the culture itself. As a product of culture which grows to be industries and relies on the aspect of creativity to fulfill the dynamic of civilization development/culture and consumers, batik has now become the creative industry in Indonesia.

As the creative industry, batik has significantly contributed to the economy by involving the massive workers more than 916 thousand men in 2010 which were dominated by micro and small business (99,39%) and 55.000 were batik.

Batik as one identity of Indonesia has become a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO on 28 September 2009. The day when giving the charter, on 2 October 2008 has become the National Batik Day.

Making batik is series of motive closing process in piece of cloth with the candle (in Javanese batik industries, it is famously known as night) to prevent the coloring penetration so that the original color of the cloth will remain still as the motive which had been created/drawn after the coloring process. Then the candle is released by boiling the cloth which has the motive.

The night candle used in making batik is the mixture of kinds of formulation, such as fat, wax, and resin which derived from nature because of limited needs and the nature still provides those.

Some night candle formulations have characteristic. The usage will be adjusted to the application when making batik. The arrangements of the night candle are ‘kote’ or bee candle, ‘gondorekum’, ‘damarmatakucing’, and ‘kendal’. All of them derives from plantation, animal, and paraffin from the crude oil. Each ingredient has specific character which is needed to make batik, namely the melting point, freezing point, ‘viscosity’ and elongity.

Crude oil is the limited natural resource. Within the stock in Indonesia (2016) about 2.933 MMSTB (Million Stock Tank Barrel), the numbers keep decreasing. In 2013, it reached 3.692,5 MMSTB. So if there is no significant additional backup, in about 15 years to go, the stock will come to an end.

The dependence to fulfill crude oil needs will threaten, not only the dependence of liquid energy but also kinds of industry using it as the material. So the search and the procurement of alternative material are urgent to do to continue the activity of economy and industry.

The formulation of palm oil derivative product is the potential substitution of paraffin batik for the creative industries. The successful formulation will be giving opportunity for the dependence of guarantee to provide the material for this industry in the long term within the renewable material – base.

Meanwhile Indonesia has abundant material from palm oil which has been the pillar of economy and as the primer commodity. Palm oil industries might become the source of living for more than 4 million families (more than 15 million men), the source of budget which might reach US% 18,1 billion in 2016 and the massive investment within about 11,91 million hectares of areas nowadays.

Palm oil has solid stearin fraction which in general it is separated in the fractionation refinery industries. The product is the material for margarine, shortening and other specialty fat industries and for the industries of oleochemical fatty acid, especially palmitic acid and stearic acid, or the mixture of both.

The physical characteristic of stearin, stearic acid, and palmitic acid is close to the characteristic of paraffin batik of crude oil. So the derivative palm oil product could substitute it. The melting point of batik paraffin, based on SNI 06-6319-2000 might be about 50 – 600 C (celius) though batik paraffin in the markets might make typical variation of melting points, which is more than 46 – 680 C, while the slip point stearin could be more than 440 C, and the melting points in stearic acid might reach 69,60C and palmitic acid might be reaching 62,90 C.

But the liquid fat in palm oil still needs some phases to modify the molecule structure to be compatible with the other arrangement components to have right candle night formula.(Wiwik Handayani, ST, MT, Pusat Teknologi Agroindustri – BPPT)