ITS Campus, ITS News – The world community is increasingly aware of the importance of using renewable energy sources to prevent global warming. Likewise with five students of Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) initiated an innovation to produce cleaner and more environmentally friendly hydrogen by utilizing thorium as an energy source.

Michael Adrian Subagio as team leader, Abdul Quddus Al Kahfi, Bernadus Krisna Brata, and Muhammad Rafli Revansyah from Department of Chemical Engineering, and Wahyu Febianto from Department of Electrical Engineering. They brought innovation to combine clean energy sources, namely nuclear and hydrogen technology.

Portrait of team members representing ITS Spektronics at the AISEEF 2021 event

Muhammad Rafli Revansyah, one of the team members said, the current hydrogen production process still uses conventional methods of steam reforming methane gas from fossil fuels, so it is not environmentally friendly. This hydrogen can be used for hydrogen-fueled cars or used on an industrial scale.

Based on these problems, said the student who is usually called Rafli, his team made an innovation to make hydrogen that is greener and environmentally friendly. The hydrogen is processed in a Molten Salt Reactor nuclear reactor using thorium as fuel.

The equipment design scheme for more environmentally friendly Hydrogen production by utilizing the Thorium Small Molten Salt Reactor

A Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), which usually uses uranium, could be one solution. However, the limited uranium reserves make this Uranium nuclear power plant not suitable to be built in Indonesia. “Meanwhile, there are quite a lot of thorium in Indonesia and have not been used,” added this bespectacled student.

Rafli added, one of the hydrogen production processes is by electrolyzing water, where this electrolysis requires electricity. In this innovation, the electricity used comes from a nuclear power plant that uses thorium. “Whereas in the conventional method, electricity comes from burning fossil fuels,” he said.

Through an innovation entitled Utilization of Thorium Small Molten Salt Reactor for Nuclear Hydrogen Production as a Green Renewable Energy Solution for Indonesia, the team that is the representative of the ITS Spektronics team won a bronze in the ASEAN Innovative Science Environmental and Entrepreneur Fair (AISEEF) international competition. 2021, last month.

The ITS Spektronics Team is presenting its innovation at the AISEEF 2021 event

Rafli also admitted that in the process of working on the paper for the competition, his team had experienced problems. “Because there is no commercial thorium-fueled nuclear reactor, we have difficulty in finding complete safety and effectiveness data,” he explained.

In the future, Rafli and the team hope to develop their innovation with more innovative ideas. They also hope that the innovations they have made can be useful for the progress of Indonesia. (pan/ITS Public Relations)

Reporter: ion28