Philippine State College of Aeronautics graduate Mark Kennedy Bantugon has been named this year’s national winner of the James Dyson Award for his Pili Seal innovation, a sustainable sealant made from the waste of Pili Tree Resin.
Bantugon won the national level of the global tilt for young design engineers in August with the Pili Seal, a sealant he designed for the aircraft industry derived from Pili Tree Resin, commonly known as “spent resin” or “de-oiled resin.”
The 22-year-old Filipino innovator from Mabini, Batangas said he came up with the award-winning sustainable, two-component sealant during his internship for an aviation company.
“This invention can be used on a fuel tank of an airplane or areas that are exposed to aircraft fuel, lubricants, water, and weathering,” Mark Kennedy Bantugon explained in Filipino.
According to Bantugon, the Pili Seal is a non-toxic and more environmentally sustainable alternative to commercial Polysulfide-based sealants available in the market.
“It was found that Pili Seal exceeded the standard test results compared to commercial sealants,” Bantugon added. “Pili Seal’s physical, mechanical, thermal, and rheological properties are found to be more effective as an integral aircraft fuel tank sealant as compared to commercial sealants.”
The aeronautics engineering graduate said that he hopes more people will be inspired to recycle waste materials to benefit the environment and local communities across the Philippines.
Bantugon’s Pili Seal bested national runner-up ReCONNECT, an innovation that restores internet connectivity in disaster-affected areas. Coming in third place for the James Dyson Award in the Philippines is the Non-Invasive Bacteria Detector on Wounds, a sensor-based device that detects gas emitted by an open wound through electrochemical signals.
The James Dyson Award received over 2,000 entries submitted by young inventors across 28 countries and regions this year.
The international stage of the competition is slated for October 13, 2021.
The Pili Seal was earlier named the grand champion of this year’s Mapua Design and Innovation Competition.
Mapua’s Carvey Ehren Maigue, whose solar device won the first global sustainability James Dyson Award, was one of the judges in the competition.
Another Filipino James Dyson awardee, Maria Yzabell Angel Palma, invented an air conditioner that runs without ozone-depleting refrigerant.
SEND CONGRATULATIONS in the comments below to Mark Kennedy Bantugon, this year’s national winner of the James Dyson Award for his Pili Seal innovation, a sustainable sealant made from the waste of Pili Tree Resin.
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