A final year student project from the Diploma in Environmental Management & Water Technology was awarded a Gold Award in the 6th Green Challenge Competition (Technology Challenge Category). The project entitled “MFC Development for Bioelectricity Generation from Sewage Sludge” was carried out by Daniel Choong Zhi Yi and Ong Jiejun. The final judging was held at Singapore Polytechnic, during the annual SP Engineering Show 2017, and the award consisted of a $1000 cheque and certificates for the team.
The Green Challenge Competition is an annual event organized by SP Green Committee to award final year projects which tackle green issues.
Continuing the work of their seniors, the two students were able to conceive and develop MFC cell and harness energy from sewage sludge from a local water reclamation plant. Use of sewage sludge will prolong the life-span of the dumping ground at Semakau Island. Eventually bioelectrical energy can be used to power electrical devices such as watches and calculators. As the project work was of an interdisciplinary nature, the students benefited from working at SP- FabLab in making MFC and the co- supervision from experts from NTU, LKC School of Medicine in isolating bacteria responsible for generating electricity. The key success factors in winning the award were value of research, good teamwork, aspiration, resilience, trust and good time-management between students and staff.
The project team was supervised by Dr Handojo Djati Utomo (ABE) with co-supervision from A/P Yap Peng Huat Eric and Dr Suppiah Paramalingam Sivalingam. from NTU, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.
Receiving the Gold Award of $1000 under Technology Category (from right), Dr Handojo Djati Utomo, Donovan Tan, Yu Jiajia, Daniel Choong Zhi Yi and Ong Jiejun. Photo taken at SP Campus on 4 Jan 2017
