Water is a significant resource for human. Daily activities require humans to drink and use water. However, water overconsumption accross the regions has caused the resource to be insufficient to fulfill the needs of the population. Despite the high intensity of rainfall, Indonesia’s suburban dense population have only used insignificant amount of it for their daily needs.
The growing population will use more water and supply of clean water needs to be increased. This encouraged a number of stduents at YSU Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences to produce a tool called Hybrid Energy System to filter saltwater into drinking water to provide sufficient supply of water for the population. They are Arif Dwi Hantoro (Mathematics Education Study Program, Doni Bowo Nugroho and Cucu Cahyaningsih (Physics Education) and Rizki Junianto (Mechatronics Engineering Education).
Arif Dwi Hantoro said that by using green technology to supply the energy for the filtering tool. Then distillation technique is used to process the saltwater into fresh, drinking water. The technology is clean, afforadable and easy to use. “Wind turbine generators and solar cells will supply the electricity needed for the tool to heat the saltwater till it vapors. The vapor then collected in a big tube. It’s the drinking water,” he said.
The students tested the tool in Purwodadi Village, Tepus, Gunung Kidul Regency, Yogyakarta. This project receives funds by the Directorate of Higher Education for Student Research Grant.