Seven students of the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Study Program, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia (DTMM FEng UI) won the Best Socially Oriented Project award in the international competition “Metal Cup 2021: Sustainable Development.” For the second time in a row, the team from UI made it to the grand final and brought home the award for Indonesia. The UI team is the only Indonesian representative in the Metal Cup 2021 competition. Not only that, this team has the youngest team members out of 5000 participants around the world, the majority of which are dominated by master and doctoral students. The Metal Cup 2020 competition was held virtually in Russia, on September 3-7, 2021.
Metal Cup 2021 – Sustainable Development is one of the largest international competitions in the metallurgical industry. This event is part of the World Young Engineering Summit 2021 organized by the Youth Platform of Professional Metallurgists (YPPM) and the Russian Government.
The seven FEng UI students who participated in the competition were: Maurice Efroza Handi (FEng’19), Muhammad Farhan Firdaus Trouerbach (FEngFT’19), Timothy Tanusondjaja (FEng’19), Gilbert Lesmana (FEng’19), Valleta Jovanka Widodo (FEng’18), Adinda Saraswati Putri (FEng’18), and Gusaimas Matahachiro Hanggoro Himawan Akbar (FEng’20). They were mentored by three FEng UI lecturers: Prof. Dr. Ir. Akhmad Herman Yuwono, Nofrijon Sofyan, Ph.D., and Dr. Ir. Myrna Ariati M. Sc.
The FEng UI team brought an idea titled “Solar Powered Cogeneration System in Steelmaking for Carbon Neutrality in Indonesia” as an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the steelmaking industry in Indonesia. They propose the use of combined heat and power or cogeneration technology with Copper Zinc Tin Sulfide (CZTS) solar panel technology which is fully sustainable power, and no longer uses electricity from coal or other exhaustible energy.
The FEng UI team hopes that Indonesia can take active steps to realize renewable energy-based sustainable practices in the steelmaking industry. One of the FEng UI team representatives, Maurice, said, “During the five years of the Metal Cup competition, only in the last two events the Indonesian team was able to participate and achieve achievements. The format of this year’s competition is slightly different, with more emphasis on discussions between countries by focusing on carbon neutrality, specifically zero carbon movement in the metallurgical industry. Each team is given one month to develop a strategy for company development in metallurgy based on real data from the company.”
The strategies that had been developed in the form of project proposals were then assessed by a panel of judges and the best 20 teams were selected to compete virtually in the final round. In the final round, 20 selected teams did video presentations and the best 10 teams were selected to advance to the grand final round. The FEng UI team made it to the grand final for the second year in a row and this year received the Best Social Project award which is only given to one team out of all participating teams.
CZTS solar panels and cogeneration technology are integrated into the electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking process and are ecologically and economically superior alternative technologies in the development of neutral carbon steelmaking technology. This alternative technology supports Indonesia’s ambition to achieve SDGs 2030 and Carbon Neutrality 2050, where the integration of the CHP-CZTS System to Electric Arc Furnace steelmaking is at the center of Indonesia’s strategic planning.
Prof. Akhmad Herman Yuwono, the team’s supervisor, explained “The Metal Cup 2021 team from the Universitas Indonesia brings pride to the nation and state because they are able to compete in the international arena on an equal footing with other nations. The results achieved with the title of Best Socially Oriented Project also prove that students as academic people are very concerned about the problems faced by Indonesia, now and in the future, which must be able to maintain the sustainability of all its resources.”
