(from left) Ahmad Fahmi Prakoso, Muhammad Wildan Abyan, and Deden Eko Wiyono as representatives of ITS Antasena Team.

ITS Campus, ITS News – The high use of fossil fuel energy in Indonesia causes the availability of fossil energy is also increasingly rare, thus making Indonesia a net importer of crude oil and its derivative products. To that end, the Antasena Team of Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) offers a biomass-based power plant called Antasena Bioelectricity.

Husnul Chotimah, a member of the ITS Antasena Team, said that the product initiate for several reasons. First, The Indonesian government’s target to increase Renewable Energy (EBT) and optimize to use. In addition, energy fulfillment in Indonesia is also based on the number of areas that have not been supplied with electricity, for example, some villages in Pekalongan Regency.

As an Agrarian country, Husnul said, Indonesia produces large amounts of biomass from agricultural waste. On the other hand, Indonesia is also one of the largest tempeh-producing countries in the world that do not yet have waste treatment equipment, thus potentially endangering the environment. “These reasons ultimately prompted us to initiate this Antasena Bioelectricity,” he said.

Antasena Bioelectricity is a technology that can generate electric energy hybrid using fuel cells and microbial fuel cells by utilizing rice husks and tempeh liquid waste. “At first, rice husks will be fermented with a dark fermentation process that will produce biohydrogen gas,” said the student of its Department of Material and Metallurgical Engineering.

Furthermore, added Husnul, biohydrogen will use to generate electrical energy through fuel cells. While the fermentation process of rice husks will later produce liquid waste that is processed in conjunction with tempeh liquid waste in the microbial fuel cell. “This process serves to generate additional electrical energy,” said the girl born in Surabaya, September 13, 1999.

The prototype form of Antasena Bioelectricity technology initiated by ITS Antasena Team

The idea that was compiled since the end of 2020 is targeting villages in Pekalongan Regency, having previously seen the potential of village commodities in the region. “The biggest potential of villages in Pekalongan area is rice husks and tempeh waste. Both biomass is what we use as a source of renewable energy to generate electricity,” she said.

In the preparation, Husnul admitted to finding it difficult to maximize the potential that exists. In addition, to produce as much electrical energy and as efficiently as possible both technically and economically, and overall Design of Antasena Bioelectiricty and mature quantitative analysis are required.

The brilliant idea of Its Antasena Team has won the gold medal and the title of Best Paper in its Paper Competition Expo 2021, early April. Husnul revealed, in the competition, ITS Antasena Team was represented by Ahmad Fahmi Prakoso and Muhammad Wildan Abyan from its Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, as well as Deden Eko Wiyono from ITS Department of Industrial Chemical Engineering.

ITS Antasena team during a presentation in its Paper Competition Expo held virtually

Husnul said that the competition carries the theme of Optimization of Village Resources Through Innovation of Children of the Nation for Sustainable Development. “From the available sub-theme, representatives of Antasena Team chose Clean and Renewable Energy Village as the main sub-theme in the preparation of the paper,” She explained.

According to her, the theme was chosen as an effort to maximize the potential of a village’s natural resources so as to create energy, an independent, clean, and renewable village. “In the future, we hope that Its Antasena Team can continue to produce technological research work for the advancement and welfare of Indonesia,” she said. (pan/ITS PUBLIC RELATIONS)

Repoter: Erchi Ad’ha Loyensya