UNS — The SS-02 MINION team from Diploma in Civil Engineering Study Program Vocational School (SV) Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta succeeded to win 2nd place in the National Concrete Championship “Optimization of Environmentally Friendly Cement Substitute in Normal Concrete,” as part of Civil Engineering Festival 2021 hosted by Civil Engineering Study Program Politeknik Negeri Jakarta (PNJ). Supervised by Widi Hartono S.T., M.T., the team consisted of three Diploma in Civil Engineering students class of 2020 UNS, namely Muhammad Abid, Yelsa Hanifah Ardin, and Haidar Putra Firdaus. The announcement of the team victory is published on Civil Engineering Festival 2021 Instagram account on Monday (9/8/2021).
This accomplishment is achieved for their innovation in using rice husk and eggshells as cement replacement. According to Muhammad Abid, when contacted by the uns.ac.id team, the use of rice husk and eggshell is considered still lacking even though these materials are very easy to find. Another reason to choose this waste material is because of its similar content with cement. The rice husk contains silicon dioxide, and the eggshells contain magnesium oxide. This innovation is claimed to be able to help reduce cement production, which has an adverse impact on the carbon dioxide produced. “Before the two materials are used as cement replacement, we process it to eliminate the organic content in it,” explains Muhammad Abid on Friday (20/8/2021).
From the economic aspect, this concrete innovation can reduce costs by 8.94% compared to normal concrete. As for the application, this type of concrete can be used for road construction and precast concrete. This innovation delivers favorable outcomes. The SS-02 MINION team concrete reaches a compressive strength of 30 megapascals (Mpa), which was tested for seven days. In this competition, the three students must go through certain stages until announced as 2nd winner. After being selected through internal community selection by the Semar Solid (SS) Diploma in Civil Engineering Study Program UNS, the team immediately register for the competition. The competition starts with sample concrete creation, scientific paper, and video.
One of the videos created is about the concrete compressive strength tested on seven days old concrete. The competing teams’ video must be published through Civil Engineering Festival 2021 Youtube Channel. This video publication is part of the assessment done by the public, measuring the number of views and like. The SS-02 MINION team succeeded in going to the next stage as one of the finalists competing against the teams from other universities such as ITS and PNJ.
According to Muhammad Abid, in the future, they wish to conduct research on concrete innovation using rice husk and eggshells. The team hopes that the innovation can be implemented in sustainable construction. Humas UNS
Reporter: Rangga Pangestu Adji
Editor: Dwi Hastuti