The hot mudflow in Sidoarjo Regency, the Lapindo mud, which has been flowing since 2006 until now has yet to find its function and use values.

In January 2022, several Geological Researchers of the Sepuluh November Institute of Technology Surabaya (ITS) stated that the Lapindo mud contains very abundant rare earth elements, including metal elements such as Cerium (Ce), Lithium (Li), Strontium (Sr), and so on.

This provokes new innovations in order to increase the use value of the rare earth metals in the Lapindo mud, one of which is cerium. The use of cerium as a catalyst has been recognized to act as strong catalyst support.

In addition, cerium has many advantages in electronic properties, redox properties, highly porous, effective, and thermal stability. In its role as catalyst support, this Ce metal will be formulated with oxygen and reacted with Ru which acts as the active ingredient of the catalyst.

The active ingredient Ru will enter the cracks of cerium to bind and formulate to form Ru/CeO2 which has been proven to be effective against other formulations of active ingredients that bind to Ce.

Therefore, five students from Chemical Engineering Universitas Brawijaya consisting of Bagas Gilang Prayoga, Arini Nur Fauziah, Bidayatul Khoiriyah, Febriyanti Solichatu Afiyah, and Umar Khalid Zaki Abdullah, under the guidance of Aji Hendra Sarosa, S.T., M.T., offers the innovation of refining cerium from Lapindo and using it as catalyst support which is formulated with Ru to form a Ru/CeO2 catalyst.

“Cerium oxide will be synthesized from Lapindo mud by going through a synthetic purification method and several tests to determine its suitability as a catalyst,” said Bagas, the team leader.

The synthesis of cerium is carried out by a series of chemical procedures to purify cerium from other materials that are not needed. And it will be continued with tests that have predetermined results targets such as characteristics, appearance, and range of effectiveness tests.

“Seeing its potential which is considered to increase the use value of the Lapindo mudflow itself, the innovation in its utilization looks like something auspicious, therefore we decided to apply this idea.” continued the Chairman of the Exact Research PKM team.

In the future, this team will fight with all their might in order to be able to go and win awards at the PIMNAS 35 in 2022.