The ITS CFD team with their innovation work at the 2019 INIIC Series 2 in Selangor, Malaysia

ITS Campus, ITS News – Innovative and beneficial achievements for the community made by the students of Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS). Achievements made by a team of ITS students named the CO2 Free Air Device (CFD) team won the Bronze award in the 2019 International Invention and Innovative Competition (INIIC) Series 2 at the Palace of The Golden Horses, Selangor, Malaysia, on Saturday (2/11).

The team led by Ferdi Saepulah and the members are Filo Sofia Kamila Mukmin, Ahmad Imam Fatoni, Hafiz Salam, and Naufal Allam Gani Atmojo. The team brought up ideas related to the latest news of forest fire fumes faced by residents of Kalimantan island and Sumatra island. Fire fumes that are harmful to health are the focus of the team. They think that the masks on the market were less effective in filtering dangerous levels of CO2, so the CFD team offered a solutive and innovative work.

Ferdi admitted that his team’s work was different from the usual masks that only held solid particles in the air. Though there are also particles such as carbon dioxide (CO2) which are dangerous if inhaled too much by humans, so the blood will be difficult to transmit oxygen to all parts of the body.

The poster and works by CFD Team at the 2019 INIIC Series 2 in Selangor, Malaysia

According to Ferdi, CFD was raised as a tool that can reduce the content of CO2 substances using the principle of contacting dirty air with lime. Calcium (Ca) will bind with CO2 to be calcium carbonate (CaCO3) sediment. “This CFD tool effectively reduces CO2 by 38 percent in PPM units,” Ferdi claimed.

Not only innovative, but the work of the team is also acknowledged to be affordable and effective. The main advantage of team innovation is low cost with high efficiency. This tool is made by prioritizing CO2 from the air with techniques that can be done in all conditions. “This demands that it is easy to make, easy to understand the use techniques, and the basic materials are easy to find,” he said.

The CFD Team won by defeated several rivals from various other countries even though the preparation fairly short but long, about one and a half months (between 16 September to 28 October). Some scoring points can be conquered by the team, including innovation, creativity, and application to the community and future sales prospects. The assessment was also carried out gradually from the abstract selection, delivery of the tool design, to the tool presentation.

The success did not escape from the maximum team performance and effective division of work. The selection of members with different backgrounds becomes one of the tricks. The team has members from the class of 2019, 2018, to 2017. “The year differences have complementary points, every generation has a different background experience, in which the new generation has more creative thinking and the old generation has more experienced with developing paper and assembly tools,” he said.

The ITS CFD Team received the award at the 2019 INIIC Series 2 event in Selangor, Malaysia

The team guided by Setiyo Gunawan and Pak Fadlilatul Taufani who are the ITS Chemical Engineering lecturers. They have set targets for this CFD work, namely to obtain patent rights of the tool and make scientific journals to be published. In the competition, the team won an award for the University category with the subtheme of Science, Engineering, and Technology.

Optimistic about competing in the following year, in the future, the team has set a higher goal. “We have analyzed the criteria and ways to be done to increase the chances of winning the gold medal later,” he concluded. (ai/gayatri/ITS Public Relation)

The ITS CFD Team received the award at the 2019 INIIC Series 2 event in Selangor, Malaysia