KIVI Engineering Student Team Award 2022
Student team MSP-Maastricht wins KIVI Engineering Student Team Award 2022
Maastricht University's student team MSP-Maastricht has won the first KIVI Engineering Student Team Award for their innovation Methagone, a bacterially made nutritional supplement that makes cows emit less methane (greenhouse gas).
On Wednesday 16 March 2022, during Engineering Day, the team officially received their award in the digital presence of Princess Beatrix and Prinsel Mabel. The prestigious Prince Friso Engineer Award was also presented.
'Methagone'
Recently, reducing emissions of methane, a major greenhouse gas, has received enormous attention. Cows make a significant contribution to these methane emissions. Some time ago, it was discovered that mixing red seaweed with cows' feed drastically reduces methane gas generation and emissions. However, it is difficult to produce seaweed in large quantities. MSP-Maastricht, a team of 12 undergraduate students from Maastricht University's Faculty of Science and Engineering is working on a solution through synthetic biology. They are doing this by transferring the genetic instructions that give this trait to seaweed into bacteria to develop a food supplement that can achieve the necessary scale-up. This could be an important contribution to reducing global climate warming. The expert jury praised their innovation: 'Methagone has the potential to ensure a major global impact'.
The student teams
The battle was further between TU/e's InMotion, with its project 'the Revolution' and Team CORE with their project 'TITAN', also from TE/e.
InMotion is developing a new fast-charging technology called 'Electric Refueling'. Their aim is, among other things, to accelerate the energy transition in the automotive industry. No more long queues in front of a charging station and no more obligatory cup of coffee, just charge and move on.
Team CORE introduces, a shredder that works with a special salt solution. This allows electronic products and batteries to be safely converted into plastic metal mixes without causing fires. And higher recycling rates can be achieved under safer conditions.
