Environmentally friendly innovator

Environmentally friendly innovator

Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

Many Indonesians are still stunned by the sharp increase in fuel
prices that the government introduced on Oct. 1.

I Nyoman Sutantra, chairman of the Institute for Research and
Community Services of Surabaya Technological Institute (ITS) has,
meanwhile, introduced a prototype of an ignition system that uses
a condenser to improve the quality of fuel.

Every guest arriving at his office will catch sight of
brochures explaining the specifications of his invention, neatly
piled up on his desk.

Nyoman is now promoting his Condenser Discharge Ignition
(CDI), named Stanly, from "Stan" (taken from his family name of
Sutantra) and another syllable taken from Harly, the name of one
of his students now studying for his doctorate.

Harly helped him produce and distribute the CDI, which has now
been patented.

"Please take one. I'm promoting my CDI," he told The Jakarta
Post last Wednesday.

Nyoman has not allocated a special budget for the promotion of
the CDI. The product was introduced to users by word of mouth
only. He received financial support amounting to Rp 500 million
from the government but this was just enough for the research and
production of the CDI.

Nyoman is therefore not allowed to sell the patent rights for
his CDI to any automotive company. He has agreed that he will
manage everything related to sales and distribution of the CDI
himself.

"This is not a profit-seeking undertaking. In this way, I'm
helping the public, which is still trying to cope with high fuel
prices, and, at the same time, empower small-scale community
business units in the automotive field," he noted.

Selling CDIs difficult

CDI is not new. Imported CDIs are available at Rp 800,000 to
Rp 1.2 million a piece.

Nyoman's CDI replaces the distributor contact in automobiles
manufactured before the 1980s or uses it in place of the
transistor coil ignition (TCI) in cars made subsequently.

The Stanly CDI's advantage lies in its oscillator, which
enables perfect ignition because the resulting flame can reach a
length of 12 millimeters. The optimal ignition boosts efficiency
in the use of gasoline by 10 percent to 15 percent.

Despite this, the speed of the automobile is not affected.
Instead, it increases the power of the car from 12 kilograms per
meter per 3,500 rpm to 13 kg per meter per 3,500 rpm.

In addition, the Stanly CDI is 50 percent larger than a German
CDI. Measuring 10 centimeters by 5 cm, the Stanly CDI, which is 2
cm thick, can also reduce the exhaust emissions. It can cut the
carbon monoxide content from 1.5 percent to 0.98 percent.

"Before this CDI was mass-produced, we conducted a trial on 55
public minivans on the Singosari to Malang route. We found that
the pollution emitted by the vehicles was reduced by 40 percent,"
said Nyoman, who was born in Celuk, Sukawati, Gianyar regency,
Bali, on June 5, 1951.

At present, Stanly CDIs are produced in Malang. With five
local workers, Nyoman can produce about 300 CDIs a month. The
device is sold in Surabaya, Malang and Jakarta. Since he began to
sell his CDIs to the public early last month, Nyoman has sold 80
of them. A taxi company in Surabaya plans to use the CDI in all
its cars.

Selling CDIs, Nyoman said, was fairly difficult due to lack of
public awareness about the need for a clean environment.

Three years before he invented the CDI, Nyoman, a graduate of
the mechanical engineering school of the University of Wisconsin,
Madison, U.S,, hoped that he could one day invent something that
would reduce the level of pollution in Indonesia's major cities
like Jakarta, Surabaya and Malang.

"I was deeply concerned every time I found traffic policemen
in Surabaya complain of breathing difficulties or saw school
children and women cover their noses to avoid inhaling the smoke
emitted by motorized vehicles," he said.

About fifteen years ago, it was still pleasant to drive or
walk in Surabaya. There were not so many motorized vehicles then
and the pollution level was still very low.

In his birthplace in Bali, the environment is still relatively
undamaged. Whenever he returns to his hometown, he said, he
bathed in the river.

"The water is clean and refreshing. I stay in the river for a
long time, reminiscing about my childhood and remembering the
time when I was close to nature," he said.

Degraded environment

When he decided to move to Surabaya Nyoman had to give up
photography, a hobby he had developed at Wisconsin. While in the
U.S., Nyoman took a lot of photos of scenes of nature.

"Unfortunately, the natural environment in East Java was in a
sorry state: deforested and heavily polluted by motorized
vehicles. So, what photos could I take? he asked pointedly.

While some people concerned with the environment have become
members of environmental non-governmental organizations,
Nyoman, with his deep concern about environmental pollution, has
kept himself busy in creating environmentally friendly automotive
innovations.

In the near future, he will introduce a similar CDI for
motorcycles. For this, he has received full financial support for
his research from a company manufacturing motorcycle spare parts
in Indonesia.

The CDI will also be fuel-efficient and environmentally
friendly. To this new CDI, however, Nyoman has added an anti-
theft security system.

"I added the security system because of the frequency of
motorcycle thefts in Indonesia," said Nyoman, who, in October
2004, was honored with an award from the minister of industry.