Malang univ students awarded for creating deodorant from processed aluminium waste

Aluminium recycling has long become mainstream, at least in those parts of the globe, where the consumption rate of aluminium packaging solutions has been reasonably high for some time now. Secondary aluminium extracted from packaging solutions has made its way into a number of economically viable products. But what the students of Engineering Faculty of Brawijaya University, Malang came up with recently with aluminium waste is totally unheard of. They made a deodorant from processed aluminium waste which won them an international award at the 2nd International Art Creativity and Engineering Exhibition.

Surya Diki, head of the team who made the deodorant from aluminium waste, said that their work was inspired by the difficulty of aluminium waste to be degraded in the environment. However, at the same time, aluminium is one of the alum element that becomes a basic ingredient to produce deodorant, Surya said.



"Aluminium waste can be obtained from cans or aluminium foil found in medicine and instant beverage packages,” Surya said in Malang recently.

The product was developed for two months at the Chemical Engineering Laboratory at Brawijaya University, he added.

The aluminium was initially extracted from packaging waste by potassium hydroxide (KOH), and was then reacted with sulfuric acid (H2SO4). The process produced potassium aluminium sulphate.

Cost of production of the deodorant, which is called Aluminium Cans Antiperspirant Deodorant (ALCANDEON), is around Rp 10,000 per piece.

"The advantage of this product is that is does not contain chlorine (CI) that can cause skin irritation,” Surya said, adding that aluminium can also constrict skin pores so that perspiration can be reduced.

The 2nd International Art Creativity & Engineering Exhibition was held in Banda Aceh between 20-21 July 2016. The event, organized by Ubudiyah Indonesia, is endorsed by the World Invention Intellectual Property Associations (WIPA).