Waste has always been a very serious global problem and has often become a hot topic, especially in recent years, including in Indonesia.
It is recorded that waste production in Indonesia always increases every year. Reporting from the DPR RI website, in 2021 the volume of waste recorded in Indonesia will reach 68.5 million tons.
This figure continues to increase until in 2022, the volume of waste recorded has increased to reach 70 million tons.
This is certainly very worrying that only 7% of waste is successfully recycled.
One type of waste that has not been managed properly and maximally is plastic waste.
The community’s habit of relying on single-use plastics, as well as the lack of adequate waste management infrastructure, is a significant problem of plastic waste accumulation.
Piles of plastic waste not only threaten the environment and public health, but also disrupt the sustainability of the rich marine ecosystem in Indonesia, because most of the plastic waste ends up polluting the waters, damaging underwater ecosystems, and threatening the sustainability of the fishing industry.
By utilizing the Pyrolysis and Condensation method, five Brawijaya University students collaborate to serve the community through “PIKO” Team Student Creativity Program.
The five students are Abdul Hafiz Harmizi (Electrical Engineering), Zaidan Muhammad Rafi (Electrical Engineering), Rachmadi Azhar Fathoni (Chemistry), Mohammad Ardian Syafillah (Electrical Engineering), and Khaviv Wahid Rafli (Mechanical Engineering), who were accompanied by Eka Maulana, S.T., M.T., M.Eng.
Rachmadi said that he and his team had implemented a tool that could convert piles of residual plastic waste that were harmful to the environment into various types of fuel.
“This method involves a combustion process without air or pyrolysis to decompose or break down the polymers that make up the plastic to produce smoke. The smoke then flows to the condenser so that the smoke resulting from the pyrolysis process is condensed into fuel oil. “These results will certainly support the availability of alternative energy in Indonesia,” said Rachmadi.
Zaidan added that this not only reduces the amount of plastic waste that ends up in landfills, but also produces a clean and renewable energy source.
“The residue generated in this process can still be reprocessed into briquettes, thereby increasing the use value,” said Zaidan.
The implementation of this tool was carried out at TPS 3R Tumpang Lestari, Malang Regency with Mr. Adi Gopar as head of TPS.
“Processing plastic residue into fuel is a very good step to overcome environmental problems, especially at Tumpang Lestari TPS because so far plastic waste cannot be processed and is only landfilled so it can have a bad impact on the surrounding environment,” explained Mr Gopar.
Abdul Hafiz said that by using this tool in the future it can be developed again on a larger scale so that it can convert plastic waste into fuel even more massively and can reduce the pile of plastic waste in Indonesia.
This service succeeded in obtaining funding from the Directorate General of Education and Technology, Ministry of Education and Culture. (*/OKY/UB PR/ Trans. Iir).
