InfoSAWIT, NUSA DUA – Team of Chemistry Student of University of Jambi successfully created the new innovation - nano-bio-briquet in palm oil waste. The team consists of Vinanta Yulianti, Septia Wulandari, Raden Muhammad Khairul Umam Gibran, and Zaifuddin Zuhro Tholallah and developed by their lecturer, Restina Bemis, S.Si., M.Si. Their success managed them to get fund in national scale palm oil research and development from Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (PO PFMA) in the 2023 – 2024 Palm Oil Research in Student Level.
Chairman of the team, Vinanta Yulianti said that their motivation raised up after knowing that palm oil plantations were vast in the province. “We want to solve the waste issues from palm oil plantation and how to process it. That is why we create nano-bio-briquet as the innovative solution,” Vinanta as InfoSAWIT quoted, Saturday (19/10/2024).
For the increasing energy consumption in this country about 10% every year, the sustainable energy issue would matter. Data from Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resource showed that oil backup in Indonesia just reached 3,95 billion barrels with the prediction that crude oil could come to an end in the next decade. Knowing the energy critical urgency, nano – bio-briquet should be the alternative to replaced fossil fuel.
The innovation used solid liquid waste from palm oil, for instance, midrib, fiber, shel, and empty bunches as the sources to produce coal. While the liquid waste from palm oil mill effluent (POME) would be as the glue. Nano-bio-briquet that the team produced is in high quality as in Indonesia National Standard (SNI 01/6235/2000). Some characteristics are the water content about 7,32%, ash about 2,20%, calories about 7.769 Kcal/Kg, and burning level about 0,087 gram per minute.
Restina Bemis, the lecturer that developed the team said the achievement showed that nano-bio-briquet from palm oil waste has the big potential as the renewable energy to replace fossil energy.
The research itself delivered valuable experiences for the students. They got the chance to join workshop and provision about palm oil research competition in Pekanbaru in February 2024, did monitoring and evaluation in Jakarta in June 2024. Series of activity would en in Bali in October 2024 in the Pekan Riset Sawit Indonesia and the closing ceremony of the competition. (T2)
