(FEB NEWS) Surabaya, Friday, September 12, 2025 Students of the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga (FEB UNAIR) have once again achieved a proud achievement in the international arena. On Wednesday, September 3, 2025, the UNAIR student team was officially announced as the winner of the 2025 Chemical Industrial Downstream Challenge (CIDC) organized by PT Petrokimia Gresik. They won two awards at once, namely 1st Place (Gold Winner) through their gypsum-based fertilizer innovation called SynBio, and 3rd Place (Bronze Winner) with their eco-friendly brick innovation EcoGypcrete.
The CIDC 2025 competition itself has been running since Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in a hybrid format. All stages, from registration to in-depth clarification sessions, were conducted online. Meanwhile, the Awarding Winner session was held in-person at the PT Petrokimia Gresik Business Transformation Management Department Building in Gresik, on September 3, 2025.
CIDC 2025 was attended by 168 teams from various universities worldwide, including South Korea, Australia, Iran, Taiwan, Ireland, and Indonesia. The competition featured a panel of judges consisting of leaders of PT Petrokimia Gresik, academics, and international practitioners from countries such as India and Australia. In this prestigious event, the UNAIR student team consisting of Ir. Deny Aditya Pratama, ST (Master of Management, FEB UNAIR) and Muhammad Taufiq Hidayat (Bachelor of Economics, FEB UNAIR) achieved extraordinary success.
The competition process went through long and rigorous stages, starting from the preparation of the Executive Summary , business proposal, pitch deck , presentation, to an in-depth clarification session. In this event, the UNAIR Team raised the issue of utilizing gypsum waste from PT Petrokimia Gresik, which amounts to 1.9 million tons per year. Through creative and innovative ideas, they created the SynBio Plant, a modular fertilizer based on CO₂ fermentation, gypsum carrier, and ammonia enhancer with a production capacity of 30,000 tons per year. This innovation then succeeded in bringing the UNAIR team as the Gold Winner – Postgraduate Category.
Additionally, the second project, EcoGypcrete, also earned a Bronze Winner in the Postgraduate Category. This innovation presents lightweight bricks made from pure, environmentally friendly gypsum to support sustainable development toward the 2060 Net Zero Emissions target.
This achievement is not only a source of pride for FEB UNAIR but also aligns with the university's vision of producing superior graduates capable of global competitiveness. This competition provided a valuable experience because it combined technical, economic, and industrial aspects, as well as the concept of sustainable business innovation. In fact, the UNAIR team's idea received high praise for being considered not only innovative but also applicable, to the point that it entered the trial scale-up preparation by PT Petrokimia Gresik.
Going forward, the team hopes that the SynBio and EcoGypcrete innovations can be implemented in collaboration with PT Petrokimia Gresik and various related parties as part of the national chemical industry downstreaming roadmap. Furthermore, these two innovations will also contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) points 9, 11, 12, and 13, particularly those related to industry, innovation, sustainable development, and climate change mitigation.