Arif Pawoko, an ITS student, initiated the idea of ​​processing bagasse waste to optimize bioelectricity

ITS Campus News – Students from Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) initiated the idea of ​​using sugar industry waste to optimize bioelectric performance. This innovation initiated by students from Chemical Engineering Department ITS is expected to be able to provide solutions to reduce industrial waste pollution.

He is Arif Pawoko, an ITS student class of 2022, who utilizes bagasse which is often used as waste from the sugar industry to optimize bioelectric performance. This idea originated from his concern about the underutilization of the sugar industry waste and the dwindling energy stocks in Indonesia. “The issue of renewable energy itself is also being intensively developed, so the outline of the idea also comes from there,” he explained.

The waste treatment effort carried out by Arif is to make bagasse as an anode substrate in the Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) system. MFC itself is a system that utilizes bioelectrochemical principles to produce new sources of electricity from natural materials.

The bagasse substrate itself with the help of the fungus Aspergillus niger is considered capable of replacing Saccharomyces, a microorganism commonly used in the working process of the MFC system. “If you use it (Saccharomyces, ed) the cost is more expensive, if you use sugarcane bagasse it’s cheaper,” added the student who is originally from Ngawi.

Arif Pawoko during the process of making salt membranes for electron diffusion in the MFC process

Arif revealed that after going through the testing process, the bioelectrical performance produced by his findings showed improvement. He believes these results prove that the use of bagasse substrate is superior and worthy of consideration compared to the previous use of microorganisms.

Thanks to this innovation, Arif managed to win third place in the 2022 Environmental Competition organized by the Vocational School of the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB), last August. He also believes that his findings are still a first step, so it is hoped that there will be further developments in the future. “Especially to answer the problem of waste from the sugar industry and renewable energy,” he said.

The alumnus of SMAN1 Kendal 1 also expects that the results of this research can be used as a reference by other researchers and energy companies to be developed on a larger scale. “As a result, this research will not only be an archive, but also a real contribution to society and Indonesia,” he concluded. (ITS PR)