Under the sub-theme of “Food Resilience and Sustainability”, they presented a scientific paper detailing an effective method of incorporating vanillic acid in developing a biopesticide derived from rice husks.

Melvin and his other two teammates – enrolled in Biological Engineering and Agricultural Engineering study programs – chose to innovate in creating biopesticides from rice husk waste.

“The concept that we used is the concept of biorefinery. We explored how to add a novelty into it. Rice husk contains a compound called ferulic acid, which, when it is deoxygenated, can transform into vanillic acid. This compound is beneficial for plant growth and development,” said Melvin during the interview on Saturday (07/10/2023).

Melvin realized that there are plenty of challenges that the team faced during the preparation for the competition. The team had limited experience in writing competitions except for Christopher. Prolonged discussions due to arguments amongst the group members, and there was shortage of existing research on the relevant topics.

“We had to delve into old articles. For this oxygenation reaction, the exact mechanism has not been discovered. The only thing that has been determined is the fact that ferulic acid serves as the reactant. Therefore, by adding oxygen as a catalyst and reactant, it can be converted into vanillic acid,” he explained.

However, the competition’s focus was on increasing the production rate rather than the technical reactions. Thus, despite their lack of confidence due to the ideas presented were still limited to literature studies and there was no product prototype yet, they were able to compete and win the competition.

"Moreover, we coordinated quite well, enabling us to present the paper clearly and comprehensively from multiple perspectives," said Melvin.

He expressed his hope that he can participate in the future competition even better. The team aspires that the ideas can be subject to further studies and realization.

Reporter: Muh. Umar Thoriq (Food Engineering, 2019)

Translator: Sherina Wijaya (Geological Engineering, 2019)

Editor: Anggi Nurdiani (Manajemen, 2021)