Doctoral Student in Biological Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Gadjah Mada University, Tia Erfianti, received the prestigious Kurita Grant Japan 2024 award after conducting research on waste processing, especially liquid waste from the palm oil industry, or Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) using microalgae.
Kurita Grant, or Kurita Water and Environment Foundation (KWEF) Grant, is a research grant for water management and environmental technology aimed at PhD students, lecturers and academics. This program is funded by Kurita Water Industries Ltd. This program aims to support water resources conservation research in Asia.
This award not only provides financial support for Tia and her team’s research, but also opens up opportunities for collaboration with researchers in Japan. Contacted online, Thursday (3/10), Tia admitted that she was grateful because her proposal was the only one representing UGM and was accepted by KWEF. “I feel very happy and grateful that my research received an award from KWEF,” he said.
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Tia claims to get grant this is not. The process begins with preparing a proposal which must contain a summary of all research ideas on one page as determined by the committee.
After getting approval from the supervisor, he said the proposal was then uploaded to the official Kurita Water and Environment Foundation (KWEF) website to go through a selection process which lasted 3-4 months. “Our proposal was finally selected and received funding of around 400,000 yen, equivalent to IDR 43,000,000, for a research duration of one year,” he said.
On that occasion, Tia said that based on her research, water management in Indonesia still faces many challenges, even though various improvement efforts have been made. There are several main problems that influence this poor management, including high levels of pollution, limited waste processing infrastructure, and huge pressure on water resources due to industrial activities, agriculture and urbanization. “Through this event, I can contribute to waters in Indonesia in an effort to remediate POME waste,” he said.
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His research, he said, focused on the use of nitrogen-rich liquid waste as a medium for growing microalgae. With POME production reaching 28.7 million tonnes per year in Indonesia, Tia sees great potential for managing this waste and turning it into a resource.
“Our research team at the Faculty of Biology has more than 35 superior microalgae strains from Indonesia which are capable of remediating waste, especially aquatic waste. “So, the idea emerged to utilize this liquid waste,” he explained.
As additional information, the research carried out by Tia and the team was guided by the promoter, Dr. Eko Agus Suyono, M.App.Sc (Faculty of Biology), Prof. Budi Setiadi Daryono, M.Agr.Sc. (Faculty of Biology), and Prof. Dr. Eng. Ir. Arief Budiman, MS, IPU. from the Faculty of Engineering.
In this team, Tian was assisted by Brilian Ryan Sadewo from the Faculty of Engineering and Renata Adaranyssa Egistha Putri from the Postgraduate School by proposing a research topic that was very relevant to current environmental challenges, namely “Microalgae-Based Nitrogen-Rich Wastewater Treatment Enhanced by Biorefinery Concept and Omics Technology for Sustainable Waste Management.” (H-2)
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