Universitas Indonesia (UI) lecturer has once again made the campus proud through her achievements. This time, Aulia Qisthi, lecturer in the Environmental Engineering Study Program, Faculty of Engineering (FT) UI, won the Best Paper Award at the event “The Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society’s (TMS) Light Metals and Extraction and Processing Divisions 2024”. The awarding of awards for achievements announced in early November (8/11) will be carried out directly at “The TMS 2024 Annual Meeting and Exhibition” in Orlando, Florida, United States, next March 2024.
Aulia received this award thanks to her research entitled “Carbon Footprint Assessment of the PCB Waste Recycling Process via the Copper Smelting Route in Australia”. She examined the current state of printed circuit board (PCB) e-waste management in Australia, as well as the potential for reducing carbon emissions from renewable energy sources during the recycling process. This research began while she was still undergoing a doctoral program at Swinburne University of Technology.
Through collaboration with experts from various scientific disciplines, Aulia’s research reflects multidisciplinary research between academia and industry. Several experts involved, including Dr. Agung Yoga Sembada (Swinburne’s School of Business), Professor M. Akbar Rhamdani and Dr. Kwong Ming Tse (Swinburne’s School of Engineering), and Nawshad Haque (Head of Research, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia Minerals Division).
According to Aulia, electronic waste is one of the largest wastes in Australia. The high potential value of precious metals in electronic waste is a driving factor in the growth of electronic waste recycling facilities in Australia.
“A preliminary environmental impact analysis using carbon footprint as the main indicator to analyze comprehensive PCB waste processing facilities in Australia was carried out and presented in this research. We assessed the PCB waste management situation based on three different scenarios, namely PCB waste recycling in small-scale facilities, PCB waste recycling integrated with industry, and PCB waste recycling in large, centralized recycling facilities,” said Aulia.
She added that the total carbon footprint in this scenario is estimated to be in the range of 1.96–3.76 (kg CO2-eq/kg Cu). A reduction in carbon emissions of 18–31% is estimated to occur when renewable energy sources are used to supply electricity for the process. Aulia hoped that her research can be developed for carbon footprint analysis in developing PCB waste recycling process facilities in Indonesia.
In regards to Aulia’s achievements, the Dean of FTUI, Prof. Dr. Heri Hermansyah, S.T., M.Eng., IPU, said, “This cross-disciplinary collaboration is proof that various existing problems need to be handled together in order to be resolved quickly. The various problems that exist today are increasingly complex, so they require cross-disciplinary collaboration to produce superior solutions and have a positive impact on society.”
The TMS Awards are annual awards organized by leading professional associations connecting mineral, metals and materials scientists and engineers working in industry, academia and government around the world. This association is the largest and oldest for all areas of materials engineering, from mineral processing and primary metal production, to basic research and advanced materials applications. This TMS exhibition will bring together more than 4,000 engineers, scientists, business people and professionals in the fields of minerals, metals and materials.
