UPLB student bags DOST-BPI science prize

MANILA, Philippines - A fifth year chemical engineering student of the University of the Philippines in Los Baños has won the Department of Science and Technology-Bank of the Philippine Islands (DOST-BPI) “Best Project of the Year” for developing a low-cost wastewater treatment for local tanneries.

Maria Ivy de la Cruz’s study seeks to meet the need for a cost effective wastewater treatment method for tanneries in the Philippines.

De la Cruz said she used sodium sulfite and sodium hydroxide, which are cheaper chemical agents that can transform the tannery’s toxic chromium compound into a less harmful substance.

“To provide an option for local tanneries, this research aimed to determine the technical feasibility of sodium sulfite reduction and sodium hydroxide precipitation as the end-of-pipe treatment for the removal of chromium from typical tannery wastewater,” she said.

To remove chromium from the wastewater, De la Cruz used a combination of reduction and precipitation chemical reactions using sodium sulfite and sodium hydroxide, respectively.

Sodium sulfite is a white crystalline compound used in preserving food, silvering mirrors, developing photographs and making dyes. 

On the other hand, sodium hydroxide, commonly called lye or caustic soda, is used as a cleaning agent for clearing clogged drains. 

De la Cruz noted that lye is a “less expensive, convenient and safe alternative” compared to other metal removal treatment methods like alkali precipitation.

De la Cruz won a P50,000 cash prize, a P200,000 research grant from the DOST-BPI and a trophy.

Winning the second prize is John Carlo Malabad, a fourth year Biology student also from UPLB, for his project “Genetic Diversity in Representative Accessions of Cultivated Rice Species using Grain Quality Candidate Genes through Ecotilling (Targetting Induced Local Lesions in Genomes).” He won a P30,000 cash prize and a trophy.

Coming in third place is Michael Casas, a fourth year Chemistry student from Ateneo de Davao University for his   research, “Optimization of Pectin Extraction from the Peels of Citrus microcarpa (Kalamansi) and Proximate Analysis of the Residue for Selected Parameters.” He won P10, 000 and a trophy.

The DOST-BPI Best Project of the Year is an annual research competition aimed at giving recognition and incentives to students who excel in specialized fields of science namely: mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, computer science, biology and environmental science. – Helen M. Flores