A Group of Students of IPB Successfully Won Inotek
A group of students of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Biosystem, of the Faculty of Agricultural Technology, of Bogor Agricultural University (FATETA IPB), namely: Qouamunas Tsani Nuargimah, M Rivan Goishy, M Nurul Aazim Al-Fauri and Indrie Noerlianti had successfully won the Best Innovation for Lomba Inovasi Teknologi Tepat Guna, “Inotek” (Competition on Appropriate Technology Innovation), held in Jakarta some time ago.
“Inotek” is a business incubators that are geared toward speeding up the growth and success of startup and early stage companies. The event aimed at supporting the development of innovative technologies that will provide economic benefits and important impacts on our societies. "This activity is to collect the appropriate innovations from various sectors and general public. How will the company capture a share of the value its innovations generate? Participants are categorized as two types, namely general and student groups. The group of IPB students was classified to be student group, there were a lot of students from all over Indonesia participated in this event, "said Qouamunas.
Munas, the familiar name used by his friends instead of Qouamunas created an appropriate technology applicable for processing tofu. The tofu processing industry is very energy intensive, and in many cases improvements can be made for low or no cost processing. "Because competition was for appropriate technology, so we submitted the technology we have created. We created the machine to assist tofu entrepreneurs in Cibanteng Village, Bogor, to improve their products. Then we went there to observe the process of making tofu. After auditing the process we managed to identify wasteful practices, reduce costs, and increase quality, "explained Munas.
Apparently energy that is 'wasted', like the heat energy from the stove. A blower can reduce heat concentrated in the stove area though. Thus, the stove needs a blower to move air to stove, otherwise lower flame will be generated. So to move the needed air, a blower is required. Based on such situation, they took initiative to encourage tofu entrepreneur to use the wasted heat to generate blower movement. Up to now, they use electricity as the source of power for their blowers.
"Seeing the possibility, the group tried some methods, and they found out the best way is stirling engine. A Stirling engine is a heat engine that operates by cyclic compression and expansion of air or other gas (the working fluid) at different temperatures, such that there is a net conversion of heat energy to mechanical work. More specifically, the Stirling engine is a closed-cycle regenerative heat engine with a permanently gaseous working fluid. After implementing their research program on the appropriate equipment needed, the we created the tool. Our equipment can save 10-30 percent of energy. Our creation is based on its special mechanism, it utilizes heat concentrated in the stove as its source of power, not using gasoline or diesel, "said Munas.
Furthermore Munas explained, Stirling engine is like a motor block, but the system is closed and vacuum. A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine (although there are also pneumatic and hydraulic reciprocating engines) that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert pressure into a rotating motion. With this Stirling engine cycle mechanism the engine will move on as long as there is a temperature difference. When the hot part of temperature reached 600 degrees and the cold part of the temperature reached 40 degrees, the engine will generate 30 to 50 watts electrical energy.
The team participated in the competition started from the beginning, from the file selection, the exhibition, and presentation stage. The work of Munas and his team on “Desain Pemanfaatan Panas Buang Tungku untuk Menghasilkan Gerakan Blower dari Stirling Engine” (Stirling Engine for the Utilization of Exhausted Heat of the Stove to Generate Power for Blower Movement)' was finally elected as the Best Innovation category. (Wied)
