Collaborating with April Group, IChEC 2025 raised the theme "Initiate Material and Process Technology Improvement to Create the Future of Green Industry." Using provided data and predetermined targets, participants were asked to formulate a creative solution to reduce the amount of solid waste disposed of by the company to landfill.

To address such a problem, the Tebink team proposed a solution called "Sustainable Valorization of the Pulp and Paper Waste into Value-added Products: Paper Fillers and Biochar." This solution converts waste using waste-to-value and waste-to-energy principles. The former is realized through a precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) product, while the latter is through a pyrolysis-derived biochar product. As such, the resulting waste can be reused and is of economic value.

The Engineering Case Study Competition (ECSC) of IChEC 2025 took place from January to February 2025 and was divided into two stages: preliminary and final. The preliminary stage required participants to submit a proposal for their solution. Next, the final stage involved presenting the solution in front of the judges, which was held offline at the Labtek X Building, ITB Chemical Engineering, on February 8, 2025. After going through all of these events, the Tebink team was declared the first-place winner of IChEC 2025 ECSC.

Throughout the course of the competition, the Tebink team faced several challenges. According to one team member, Carmel, the biggest challenge was to maintain motivation. She said that since the competition overlapped with academic holidays, the team had to put extra effort into their work. These supposed "holidays," which were somehow filled with exams and projects, did not exactly ease their burden either, so they had to manage their time effectively. Nevertheless, they capitalized on the cases given in the competition: "The case studies are quite comprehensive, allowing us to tackle them with enjoyment and clarity," revealed Carmel.

The Tebink team left a message for fellow students currently undertaking competitions: "Create an optimal work pace and mutual understanding among team members because it keeps the team motivated to give its best," stated Yesha. "In a case study competition, make sure to fully understand the case and come up with a creative, useful, and feasible solution," said Reynard.

Reporter: Margareta Vidya Riswanti (Chemical Engineering '21)
Translator: Ariq Ramadhan Teruna (Chemical Engineering '21)