A brilliant achievement was made by Diponegoro University (Undip) students. This time, students from the Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Diponegoro University (FT Undip) won a silver medal at the prestigious international event, the 2023 Bangkok International Intellectual Property, Invention, Innovation and Technology Exposition (IPITEx).
The 2023 Bangkok International Intellectual Property, Invention, Innovation and Technology Exposition (IPITEx) is a series of events from the 2023 Thailand Inventors’ Day, an international competition organized by the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation on February 2-6, 2023 at the Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Centre (BITEC).
The silver medal award was won in the Green Technology, Biofuels, Textile and Chemical Industry category which was attended by 24 countries with 456 innovations, where Indonesia sent 92 of its best innovations.
“Our innovation in this competition is to make biodiesel made from used cooking oil using CaO/Fe2O3 bifunctional heterogeneous catalysts. This research has indeed been carried out before, but we utilized chicken eggshell wastes to obtain CaO catalysts. Then the process of making biodiesel is carried out using the simultaneous esterification-transesterification method, which means the process takes place in 1 reactor so it is more efficient in terms of time and cost,” said Silvia Ariyani (Undergraduate student of Chemical Engineering 2019) as team leader.
Silvia with her 5 team mates, namely Muhammad Thariq Thirafi (Undergraduate student of Chemical Engineering 2019), Intan Permatasari Abriyanto (Undergraduate student of Chemical Engineering 2019), Raga Bimantoro (Undergraduate student of Chemical Engineering 2019), Devintya Wu Meyli (Undergraduate student of Chemical Engineering 2020), and Lutfi Lubihanto (Undergraduate student of Chemical Engineering 2019), together with team supervisor, Prof. Dr. Ir. Luqman Buchori S.T. M.T. IPM has made various preparations before the competition begins.
“We have conducted research for approximately 4-6 months at the Integrated Laboratory Unit at Undip, then analyzed and processed the results obtained. Then we prepared the files and requirements needed to take part in this competition, starting from finding sponsors, preparing prototypes, taking care of departure requirements and others,” explained Silvia.
“Alhamdulillah, I am happy to be able to represent the Faculty of Engineering Undip to take part in this prestigious international scale event. The preparation process that has been going through for several months has paid off. Thank you to Undip for providing assistance and making it easier for us to take care of the required documents,” said Silvia.
With these achievements, Silvia conveyed a message to Undip young generations to continue to be enthusiastic about making achievements, gaining new knowledge, and seeking experience by participating in various competitions.
“Don’t be shy and afraid to ask seniors who first entered the competition. For final year students, use the time you have before regretting not taking advantage of the opportunity while you were a student. Let’s make Undip proud on the international level,” said Silvia.
