Lasallians bag P1-M in First Gen tilt for climate solutions

For their innovative solutions to curb campus emissions, a team of students from De La Salle University bagged the P1-million grant grand prize of the “Code Green for Campuses”, a competition sponsored by Lopez-owned First Gen Corporation. The team also received P100,000.

The final leg of the innovation tilt was held last March 16 at the Novotel Manila Araneta City in Cubao, Quezon City, with five teams chosen from more than 50 teams from 29 schools nationwide that submitted their concepts.  

DLSU’s team, composed of manufacturing engineering student Fernando N. Magallanes Jr. , organizational communication student Alexia Roman, and economics student Ralph Stephen Saavedra, designed a compact anaerobic digester system that can convert cafeteria food waste to biogas.

Inspired by existing anaerobic digestion tanks used in large farms, the team created a scaled-down, modified version that would allow the system to fit indoor facilities.  

According to the team, the grant will be used to install a digester that can accommodate all food waste generated in the three cafeterias of the Manila campus. Another digester is also planned to be implemented on the Laguna campus. They also plan to create a variant of the design that can be used in hospitality establishments and restaurants.

First Gen opened the tilt as a way of encouraging students to contribute to the campaign against adverse climate change—a problem being aggravated by the continued buildup in the atmosphere of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases.