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Unej students win gold medal in AISEEF 2022 international event

Students of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jember (Unej), East Java won a gold medal in the international scientific paper event in the environmental field Asean Innovative Science Environmental and Entrepreneur Fair (AISEEF) 2022.

The international competition organized by the Indonesia Young Scientist Association (IYSA) with Diponegoro University on February 2-4, 2022 was attended by 447 teams from 20 countries. "Our paper was raised from concerns in the management of liquid waste produced by the textile industry because the liquid waste if not managed properly can damage the soil and water environment," said the Head of the Student Team who won the gold medal, Danil Eka Fahrudin in a media briefing received by ANTARA in Jember, Friday.

Danil and his friends, namely Nur Laila Magvira, Ahmad Burhanudin, Reza Maulana, and Safira Ummah submitted a scientific paper entitled "Textile Wastewater Bioremediation Using Bacterial Enzyme for Free Pollutant Industrial Environment". "Waste is toxic and when released carelessly into the environment or into the soil, it will damage the physical soil because the good bacteria that make up the soil will die. Similarly, if it is released into the water, for example into the river, it is even more dangerous," he said.

He said liquid waste from the textile industry cannot decompose by itself and if disposed of carelessly, the impact will leave deposits or residues that will continue to poison soil and water because they cannot be decomposed. "Therefore, we conducted research on how to decompose liquid waste produced by the textile industry by itself. We added liquid waste samples from the textile industry to the bacterium 'pseudomonas aeruginosa' as a decomposer," said the Agrotechnology Study Program student.

He explained that pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria can decompose water that has been contaminated with fabric dyes, so that after textile wastewater is decomposed from fabric dyes and toxins, the waste can be safely released into the environment. "In our study, it showed that liquid textile waste supplemented with pseudomonas aeruginosa slowly faded in color. It takes about a month for the water to become clean which indicates all the colors and toxins have decomposed," he said.

Although his scientific work is still limited to the results of research in the laboratory, he hopes that it can be implemented soon to help manage textile industry liquid waste that has the potential to damage the environment. "The price of bacterial isolate is still fairly expensive, but it can still be propagated independently. The price per 100 milli liters ranges from Rp300 to 400 thousand, but the bacteria can be cultured, so it can save costs because once purchased it can be used forever by multiplying it yourself,"said Danil Eka Fahrudin.

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