PENANG, August 2014 – Three Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) students from the School of Chemical Engineering have been honoured with the best innovation award in the recently concluded Research and Innovation Competition (NRIC) 2014 through their unique innovation of water treatment from natural resources.

Leslie Ewe Fang Jun, Muhammad Zamani Zakaria and Vjayan Thrumakunasagran came up with an innovation known as the Natural Biodegradable and Non-toxic Coagulant Derived from G. Hylocereus plant, or a form of water treatment using natural substances extracted from dragon fruit trees.

Vjayan said that most water treatment processing industries normally use chemicals such as aluminum sulphate (alum) and polyaluminium chloride (PAC) to treat dirty and contaminated wastewater.

He said that the massive scale and long-term usage of the chemicals will contribute to health problems, for example, it may cause Alzheimer or neuron diseases such as a pre-senile dementia.

“Therefore, we have conducted a study and found that dragon fruit trees can be used as a natural alternative for the contaminated wastewater treatment. It has as enough water treatment capacity as chemicals without causing harmful effects on health.

“This product has potential to be commercialised and dragon fruit trees can be grown in large scale plantations in this country. The fruit can be eaten and at the same time the waste from the plant can be commercialised for other useful purposes as well,” he said.

This innovation, turning waste materials into a product of greater value, was among the 47 innovations that competed in the Engineering and Technology category and enabled the three young researchers to take home a cash prize of RM5,000, a trophy and a certificate of appreciation.

Earlier, USM Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Industry and Community Network), Professor Dato’ Dr. See Ching Mey gave away the prizes to all the gold award winners at the NRIC 2014 prize-giving ceremony. Also present were the Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), Dato’ Seri Professor Mashkuri Yaacob and representative of the Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI), Professor Dato' Dr Noraini Idris.

As at now, NRIC is the country's largest research competition organised and managed completely by students.

USM, through its Student Representative Council (SRC), is a pioneer in organising NRIC which was first held in 2007 with the major awards including the Best NRIC Research Project 2014, Social Impact Policy Award, Industrial Design and Best Design & Innovation Award. – Translation: Siti Faizah Abd Halim/Text: Marziana Mohamed Alias​/Photo: Mohamad Danial Shahri