A group of UGM students succeeded in making a breakthrough in developing product innovations that could absorb heavy metal waste. This innovation to absorb heavy metal waste was developed by utilizing chicken egg shift waste. The product, named Eggshell Adsorbent or Ellbent, successfully obtained research grant funds from the Directorate of Higher Education through the Student Creativity Program in the exact field of 2018 Research.
The idea of developing this product stems from concerns about the pollution of heavy metal waste, namely cadmium in the batik industry. In the production of batik-making which is predominantly using synthetic dyes, there is a risk of contamination of cadmium which in small amounts can cause health problems. Meanwhile, the processing of the batik industry wastes with adsorbents, such as activated carbon, zeolites, and synthetic adsorbents require quite expensive costs. This makes it rarely used in the batik industry WWTP system, especially in the final stages.
The making of this product is done by processing eggshells in several processes, such as mashed, roasted and activated. Furthermore, the final result is chicken eggshell powder packed in a teabag to make it more practical. Research shows positive results, namely adsorbents from eggshell waste has an effectiveness of up to 90.25 percent. The presence of this product is expected to be a solution for cadmium waste pollution in the batik industry. Besides, it is also expected to reduce the cost of wastewater treatment expenses.
