UNAIR NEWS – Faculty of Advanced Technology and Multidiscipline (FTMM) UNAIR collaborate with the community in its service activities. This time, FTMM went to the fishing communities of Pengudang Village, Teluk Sebong Sub-district, Bintan Regency, Riau Islands. FTMM makes solar-powered fish dryer innovation called Solar Dryer Dome in the Airlangga Community Development Hub (ACDH) activity on Monday-Tuesday, June 20-21, 2022.
This innovation is FTMM’s response to public complaints regarding the quality of the dried fish. If the complaint is ignored, it can potentially incur a loss of value. In addition, the fish-drying process can also be a solution for the time-consuming distribution.
Vice Dean III of FTMM Prof. Dr. Retna Apsari MSi in her presentation emphasized that solar energy will be converted into electricity which can turn on the heating process to dry fish in rainy weather. This idea offers a weather-resistant drying process because it is protected from rain. Thus, the quality of the fish is maintained and the cleanliness will be well protected.
“Slowly and surely, the use of fossil energy must be reduced and we must start maximizing the use of renewable energy (EBT) in Pengudang Village, especially the abundant solar energy on the coast of Pengudang Beach,” said Prof Retna.
She continued that this is an effort to maximize the use of solar energy and minimize the adverse effects of climate change.
For better utilization, fishery products must go through a drying process so that they can be processed into other products. With a more advanced drying process produced from ACDH, the product quality is expected to be well maintained and able to compete in the international market.
“Through this community service, we aim to downstream the solar dryer dome for drying fish. This product is one of the results of lecturer research ready to be used in the community,” said Prof. Retna.
In addition, she also explained that the solar dryer dome manufacturing is a form of SDGs implementation for goals 7 ( Affordable and Clean Energy ), 9 ( Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), and 13 ( climate action).
Meanwhile, according to Rizki Putra Prastio SSi MT, a lecturer in Robotics Engineering and Artificial Intelligence FTMM, the fish drying technique used by Pengudang Village fishermen is still very traditional. So, his party in FTMM through ACDH provide education on fishdrying with the latest technology.
Utilization of new renewable energy
In addition to utilizing technology, the use of new renewable energy, in this case, solar energy, is also a potential in Bintan. It will certainly reduce energy dependence on conventional materials and use natural potential. The communities are expected to switch from fossil energy to new and renewable energy.
“The drying process is often interrupted when it rains. In addition, fish that are dried in the sun are often infested with insects, making them rot easily. So, a solution to solve the problem is needed,” said Tio.
Moreover, fishery products are one of Indonesia’s leading products as a maritime country. Tio and a team of FTMM lecturers and students offered an innovative solar cell-powered fish dryer box called the Solar Dryer Dome. The innovation will be filled with fish and placed in an open place that gets solar heat.
The sun’s heat will be trapped in the box and can help the drying process. The dryer box is equipped with a ventilation fan to help circulate air in the box and a heating element if you want to heat the box at night. In meeting the energy requirements of the ventilation fan and heating element, this box is equipped with a 300 Wp solar panel and its complementary devices.
“This tool that we designed is expected to be a solution for the fishermen of Pengudang Village. Hopefully, this idea will provide a basic idea for the Pengudang Village community to develop similar tools that can be utilized on a larger scale,” added Tio.
Collaboration with UMRAH
The implementation of the tool was fully assisted by the Faculty of Engineering at the Raja Ali Haji Maritime University (FT UMRAH), led by Anton Hexso Yunianto ST MSi and Tonny Suhendra ST MCs with FT UMRAH students.
Therefore, he continued, the challenges for the young generation to find jobs after the pandemic are even more difficult. “Because they have to compete with thousands of people for less and less job opportunities,” he explained. (*)
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh
