Ascon design, a tool that reduces carbon dioxide (CO2) at household-scale emissions directed by ITS Antasena Team

ITS Campus, ITS News – The concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) are increasing in the atmosphere, causing global warming that impacts the balance of the Earth’s climate. Facing this problem, Antasena Team from Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) created a solution by designing tools to reduce CO2 emissions called Adsorption, Separation of CO2, O2 and N2 (ASCON) and Utilization CO2 to Methane (UCM).

Antasena’s own team is a team created by ITS that focuses on researching and developing hydrogen cars. But this time not only about car research, the team that became the champion in various national and international competitions also successfully proved their ability through scientific research.

Head of ITS Nano Material and Technology Research Center and supervisory lecturer of Antasena Team, Dr Agung Purniawan ST M Eng explained that as the earth ages, CO2 gas levels also increase. “CO2 is usually found in exhaust gases of motor vehicles to household emissions gases,” said Agung.

To reduce CO2 on household-scale emissions, ASCON’s Antasena Team has a separator system to convert CO2 into gases that have selling values such as oxygen (O2), nitrogen (N2) and also methane (CH4). “ASCON was born from the development of the initial idea of the results of the supervisory discussion with Tim Antasena class of 2017,” Agung said.

(from left) Gilang Maulana Alif, Ahmad Fahmi Prakoso, Ario Bhismo Nugroho, Rikza Oktavian Pratama, and Risa Wahyu Widyastuti as representatives of ITS Antasena Team

According to Agung, the tool that successfully took home the gold medal at the World Invention and Technology Expo (WINTEX) 2020 is working by absorbing household emissions through exhaust fan. The absorbed emissions are then stored in the storage tank.

Furthermore, Agung added, gas emissions in storage tanks are sucked by compressors into ASCON separator engines that can separate the gases into N2, H2O and CO2. “Co2 gas that has been separated will be processed by the reactor producing CH4,” explained the lecturer born in 1976.

To reduce CO2 pollution produced by motor vehicle exhaust gases, Antasena Team designed a tool called UCM that utilizes chemical reactions to convert CO2 into methane gas that has economic value, “UCM can also improve the combustion efficiency of vehicles,” explained the lecturer of ITS Department of Materials and Metallurgy Engineering.

For the way it works itself, continued Agung, the tool that also managed to pocket a bronze medal in WINTEX 2020 is channeling gas from the combustion of motor vehicle engines to catalytic converters. Catalytic converters convert pollutants in exhaust gases into less toxic pollutants through oxidation and reduction reactions.

UCM design, a CO2 pollution reduction tool produced by the exhaust gas of motor vehicles made by ITS Antasena Team

After that, the converted gas will be reacted to obtain methane. “Some of the gas that has been converted is injected back into the combustion engine while the useless gas is released through the exhaust,” Agung explained further.

In the process of making tools, Antasena Team initiated with literature studies from previous researches which then continued with the design of three-dimensional forms. At its peak, the tool was tested in a software simulation to see its feasibility. Many challenges arise, especially in pandemic conditions. “To overcome this, teams must improve their coordination and discipline,” Agung said.

As a future energy source, hydrogen has great potential in the future. Agung hopes that the ideas and design tools of the Antasena Team can be realized and continue to be developed in a wider scope. “Hopefully, our innovation can be a solution to reduce the level of global warming in Indonesia,” concluded this man from Tulungagung.

(rys/Anjani/ITS Public Relation Officer)