ITS Carbonize team finally won the third place at Greenovator 2022

ITS Campus News – The students of Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) added one more line of achievements this year through the Greenovator 2022 competition which was held by PT. Bukit Asam on the last Sunday (27/11). ITS Carbonize team won third place in making innovative ideas to reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuels.

The innovation proposed by the team which consists of Delta Adi Satyana, Kavitaningrum, and Nurul Bunga Kurnia comes from the coal problem in Indonesia. Coal is one of the largest sources of energy in Indonesia, which is around 182.53 billion tons of coal owned.

However, according to Delta Adi Satyana as the team leader, the use of coal energy as a power plant actually causes significant carbon emissions. About 45 percent of carbon emissions in the air basically come from burning coal.

To overcome this, the team supervised by Dr. Triyanda Gunawan SSi proposed an innovation in the form of Mixed Matrix Membranes (MMMs) based on Zeolite Templated Carbon (KTZ) for Direct Air Capture applications and Post-Combustion CO2 Removal. “These MMMs can reduce carbon dioxide gas produced by fossil fuels,” Delta explained.

These MMMs will later be operated in a gas separation reactor together with a cooler in post combustion and a large air suction fan in em>direct air capture. In its use, this gas separation reactor can use single or multiple modules. The potential of the proposed innovation can reduce CO2 gas by up to 96.5 percent.

This innovation succeeded in delivering the team from Chemistry Department ITS in winning the third place of the national scale competition. The competition category that Delta and her friends participated in was Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS).

ITS Carbonize team together with their supervisor Dr. Triyanda Gunawan SSi while showing off the flow chart of the innovation which was initiated by them

Delta explained that CCUS itself is a process of capturing and storing carbon dioxide during the preparation of fossil fuels as well as from the waste products of their combustion. “This carbon activity and storage is carried out in power plants and natural gas processing,” he concluded

The struggle of ITS Carbonize Team in winning this competition was quite long. The ITS team has started doing research and submitting innovation proposals since the last August. After the innovation proposal has passed, it will be followed by a laboratory visit to the final assessment level. (ITS PR)