The Green Technovation Challenge 2019 held on 18 September saw a team of XMUM School of Energy and Chemical Engineering students raised as the champion. 

Comprised of 5 students from New Energy Science and Technology Programme (Douglas Yeo Jing Zhi, Hoy Zheng Xuan, Lim Jin Yang, Phuang Zhen Lim and Tan Khai Yang), the team named TITAN defeated 13 teams from 8 other universities and won the 1st prize in the challenge.

They received a prize of RM5,000 while UKM and Quest University achieved 2nd and 3rd place respectively. 

Organized by KDU University College (Utropolis Glenmarie), the Green Technovation Challenge 2019 is a competition aims to inspire the spirit of innovation and green entrepreneurship among youth, and to engage them in the development of best practices, effective and sustainable green technologies/solutions so as to ensure a better environment and community. 

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The Team TITAN, wowed the judges by developing an effective and practical solution to remove the marine oil spill with kenaf core fibers and turning it into fuel briquettes, which will help reduce the marine pollution and develop new applications for Malaysian Kenaf core fibers.

Mentored by Assoc. Prof. Ir. Dr. Parthiban Siwayanan, the team obtained seawater, crude oil and kenaf core fibers from National Kenaf and Tobacco Board (LKTN) and ran experiments in XMUM Chemical Engineering laboratories to validate their ideas. The developed briquettes have equivalent calorific value with commercial coal (lignite), with potential to be used as fuel for electricity generation.

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Briquettes made of Oil Absorbed Kenaf Fibers