Tim Smart Car MCS UGM Siap Berlaga di London
Tim Smart Car MCS UGM Siap Berlaga di London
UGM’s Smart Car MCS Team managed to qualify for the final of the Shell Ideas360 Competition in London in July 2018 after proposing the idea to build a smart car that converts plastic wastes into low emission fuel.
The team that consists of three students from Department of Chemical Engineering UGM, Herman Amrullah, Sholahuddin Alayyubi, and Thya Laurencia Benedita Araujo are set to compete in the final after passing a series of selection organized by a multinational corporation Shell.
Previously, they had to compete in several stages with 3,336 teams of university students from 140 countries. Each team was challenged to invent new innovations to cope with global challenges in the future.
Herman said they had to pass three rounds in the competition, including idea formulation, idea development, and stage Pitch to present their innovation and intensive training from Shell London.
“UGM’s Smart Car MCS Team made it into the five best teams that qualify for the final stage of the competition in London to present their innovation in front of the judges,” he said on Tuesday (5/2) on the UGM compound.
Guided by Hanifrahmawan Sudibyo, S.T., M.Eng., and Yano Surya Pradana, S.T., M.Eng., the UGM team will compete with four other strong competitors from American University of Sharjah (UAE), University of Texas at Austin (USA), University of Bordeaux (France) and University of Melbourne (Australia).
“In the meantime, we are finalizing our preparation to present the innovation and will be trained in London, the UK, in July.”
Conversion of Plastic Wastes with Car Exhaust Gases
UGM Team’s triumph into the final was realized by the idea of inventing a car that is able to convert plastic wastes into fuel for vehicles by utilizing exhaust gases. The idea originated from their concern on the amount of plastic waste around them. Plastic wastes continue to build up over time and have become a world problem.
“Each individual can produce plastic waste up to 2.5 kg per day and approximately 90% of the waste overflow the dumpsters and pollute the environment,” explained Herman.
Herman noted plastic wastes can be converted into fuels. However, the conversion requires considerable energy.
“We came up with the concept of utilizing heat from vehicle exhaust gases to convert plastic wastes into fuels.”
The heat of exhaust gases, he explained, can reach 500°C so it can be utilized in the process. The smart car has a pyrolysis reactor that can hold as much as 2 kg of plastic wastes. Even more, the car is also equipped with Microalgae Cultivation Support (MCS) technology that is used to reduce the amount of CO2 emissions from vehicles.
The development of Smart Car produces fuels and biofuels for clean energy from plastic wastes. In addition, the conversion of plastic wastes into fuels can be the solution of waste problems in the environment and create a better environment. Moreover, it also contributes in the reduction of CO2 to diminish the impact of climate change.