Dr. Hanifrahmawan Sudibyo, a Chemical Engineering lecturer from the Faculty of Engineering at Universitas Gadjah Mada (FT UGM), has been awarded the eAsia Grant for 2025–2027.
The grant, offered by the e-ASIA Joint Research Program (JRP), supports his research on implementing integrated biorefineries.
The e-ASIA JRP is a multilateral international initiative among public funding organizations from East Asia Summit (EAS) member countries.
EAS includes 10 ASEAN member states and eight additional countries: Australia, Japan, New Zealand, China, India, South Korea, Russia, and the United States. This year, the 13th e-ASIA JRP focuses on alternative energy.
Dr. Sudibyo and his team proposed a project titled “Improving the Sustainability of Resource Recovery from Wet Biomass Waste: Experimentally-validated GIS-based Integrated Biorefineries for Cleaner Mobility.”
He explained that the research aims to enhance the economic and technical feasibility of wet biomass waste biorefineries in Southeast Asia.
The project integrates geospatial modeling, biochemical and thermochemical conversion experiments, process simulations, and econometrics to evaluate and improve the socio-techno-economic viability of the developed integrated biorefineries.
“This project aligns with Indonesia’s vision for sustainable waste management, realizing a circular bioeconomy, and transitioning to cleaner energy to support sustainable mobility,” Dr. Sudibyo stated in a press release on Thursday (Dec. 19).
The project is a collaborative effort among researchers from four countries: Hiroshi Onoda (Professor and Dean, Graduate School of Environment and Energy Engineering, Waseda University, Japan), Rovick Tarife (Instructor, Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology, Philippines), and Apanee Luengnaruemitchai (Professor, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand).
Out of 29 proposals reflecting diverse interests in alternative energy, this project successfully secured funding after being evaluated by five funding agencies from five participating countries.
Through this project, Dr. Sudibyo aims to broaden his scientific contributions to a larger scale. The research incorporates the development of decision-making tools based on experimentally validated geospatial data (GIS).
These tools optimize the efficiency of biorefineries in converting solid waste and urban residues from the food, agricultural, and tourism sectors into valuable, environmentally friendly products such as biofuels, soil amendments, and liquid fertilizers.
Reporter: FT UGM/Purwoko
Author: Leony
Editor: Gusti Grehenson