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General Sudirman University (Unsoed) students made a proud achievement at the Istanbul International Inventions Fair 21-26 September 2021. They are Putri Ramadani (21), Yasinta Nida Arroyan (21), and Wafa Nur Azizah, (21) from the Faculty of Biology and Febriansyah Dwi Putra (23) from the Faculty of Engineering with Dr Ratna Stia Dewi as a supervisor. In the event, they managed to get the best invention medal and the best International award after making works in the form of processing textile dye waste and batik based on fungal microorganisms.


The tool, which is still in prototype form, is named "MY-ZEO" or Mycoremediation and Zeolite Filter with Sensor for Textile and Batik Wastewater Treatment.
MY-ZEO Team Leader Putri Ramadani said the manufacture of the tools was motivated by a lot of environmental pollution due to textile and batik waste, both on an industrial scale and on a household scale.


"This is a safe tool for processing textile or batik waste. This waste problem is now a concern, because there is pollution everywhere," said Putri when met at the Unsoed Faculty of Biology, Thursday (4/11/2021).


Putri explained that the way the tool works is that the first textile or batik waste water is sucked into a holding tank for the filtration process with zeolite and active sand.
Then the wastewater is flowed to the next reservoir for biological processes. In this process, using fungal enzymes to remove harmful substances in the waste.
"This process takes between 12-24 hours. The sensor will read the level of turbidity of the wastewater, if it is reduced it will be automatically removed from the device, the water visually becomes clean," explained Putri.


In addition to color, said Putri, the tool can recover total suspended solids (TSS), total chromium, free ammonia, genol, and pH, so that they are in accordance with the quality standard values.


Meanwhile, Advisory Lecturer Dr Ratna Stia Dewi said that the tool is expected to reduce environmental pollution from the textile and batik industry, both household and large scale industries.


"We all know that textile waste, especially batik has components that pollute the environment very much. This condition endangers soil and river biota," said Ratna.
Pollution in the river, for example, said Ratna, will cause the fish in it to contain heavy metals. If consumed by humans, it can cause cancer.
"We plan to develop this tool, it has a capacity of only 13.5 lite. We will develop it bigger, so that it can be implemented on a household or industrial scale. We will develop it in the home industry in a portable form," said Ratna.


Ratna added that her party is also applying for a patent for the invention of the tool.