Developing PCMs Innovations, IPB Students Won First Place in the Innovation Challenge Competition
Students of the Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Bogor Agricultural University (FMIPA IPB), 2016, Sri Ambar Wulan and colleagues from the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences (FPIK) IPB won 1st place and received a prize of 30 million rupiah at the Innovation Competition Challenge. This competition was organized by Innovation Factory and NTUitive. “This competition aims to find innovations to overcome the losses of postharvest fresh fish in Indonesia. Because post-harvest fish problems have an impact on the food supply chain. This is one of the big problems facing developing countries in the world, including in Indonesia. To overcome the postharvest problem of fresh fish in Indonesia, GAIN (Global Alliance for Nutrition) through the I-PLAN program (Indonesia-Postharvest Loss Alliance for Nutrition), in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia and fully supported by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries held a program “National level competition entitled” Innovation Challenge”,” said Sri.
IPLAN is looking for ten finalists who have new technology ideas or innovations that can be adopted by local supply chain actors in order to reduce Post-Harvest Loss (PHL) of fresh marine fish along the supply chain. Some critical points such as along the supply chain include: fish landings, transportation and distribution (including fish and vegetable traders), retailers in the market including roadside sellers, small storage systems and alternative ice substitute materials.
Sri Ambar Wulan and his colleagues proposed a method for storing fish using advanced materials called PCMs (Phase Change Materials). Materials require large amounts of energy or heat (heat) to change phase, so that when placed in a storage container the fish will absorb a lot of heat and function as an air conditioner or fish storage container. “The prizes that we get will be used to initiate PCMs research for fish storage systems,” Sri said. (RYS)
