UDIN HASANUDIN AGRICULTURAL WASTE ENERGY EXPERT
Waste energy can reduce pollution by 90 percent

For more than 20 years, Udin Hasanudin, a lecturer at the Lampung Agricultural Products University, studied the process of converting waste into energy. When renewable energy was not yet popular, he had already invented a machine which could turn tapioca waste into biogas. "When I offered my findings to the tapioca center at Pesawaran, Lampung in 1993, they rejected it," said 50-year-old Udin. At that time, fuel oil was still cheap. "They didn't want the hassle," Udin said.

He resumed his research on tapioca in 2005, after getting his doctorate degree from Toyohasi University of Energy in Japan. This time, Udin received funding from the New Energy Industrial Organization (NEDO), an agency under the Japanese Trade and Industrial Energy Ministry. Udin collaborated with the Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry on the project so the research could be applied in Indonesia. His findings are now being used at the tapioca processing at Pesawaran.

June 17, 2014