THINK TALK: Bangsamoro Inventor Gets Nod of the Intellectual Property Office

MATALAM, North Cotabato (MindaNews / 27 October) — The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOP) has granted patent registration to an energy prototype for renewable energy conversion developed by Nash Maulana, a columnist of The Mindanao Cross in Cotabato City and a news correspondent for the Manila Standard.

The Philippine patent regulatory agency granted the Certificate of Registration (COR) to Maulana’s Tri-Mode Power Generation (T-MPG) which is basically an electricity conversion project or model for renewable energy development.

Asked how he came up with the idea, Maulana said the T-MPG system has been conceptualized in decades of “formation of thoughts” on transferring the marine electricity for conversion (to renewable energy) which would take the diesel prime-mover off the system to a stationary land utilization to develop a source of renewable energy.

Instead of a diesel prime-mover, Maulana uses heavy duty customized brushless direct current (DC) motor which he ordered from China. The prototype driving motor is mechanically enhanced in terms of torque (to overcome friction) in driving a transmission, which is running a set of mechanical loads composed of one marine dynamo-type generator and another device each turning on a technically required speed.

Maulana said the model can be expanded with a gearbox mechanism designed for a hydropower turbine as established in a Research and Development (R&D) program on Marine Electricity Conversion Program (MECP) for renewable energy developed in Sweden in 2007.

The model is now under further study by a private research group composed of three experts in various fields: a chemical engineer, electrical engineer, and mechanical engineer. Chemical Engineer McErschad Pabillan from the University of the Philippines in Diliman will study the sizing, rating, chemical make-up and reactions in an energy storage when using Maulana’s T-MPG on an industrial scale. The two other engineers (Electrical & Mechanical) will do the same on their respective fields of specialization.

Pabillan said he and his peers of science and technology (S&T) researchers will be working under the auspices of the Institute of Bangsamoro Studies (IBS) using the S&T research grant earlier sourced out by the institute.

The IBS plans to connect the researchers with academic institutions to effectuate the conduct of studies on three known electricity conversion program (ECP) models here and abroad including Maulana’s 8.66 KVA T-MPG.

A source privy to the team’s preparatory activities said the studies will be up to respond to a “Call for Proposal” which the government had earlier posted for procurement in the sector of industrial, energy, and emerging technology research and development in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Maulana, however, added that any R&D efforts should not extend the design to external community looping distribution to avoid creating an early conflict with power utilities on issues like “islanding”.

Maulana further expressed that his invention could be pursued to support the education aspect of the “Normalization Track” of the peace process. “The T-MPG model can be an instrument of change in the landscape of social preference in war-torn areas of the BARMM,” he added.

Mr. Nash Maulana has been tagged as a “man of letters and numbers.” Aside from being a journalist, he is also a mathematician. He hails from Dulawan (now Datu Piang), one of the oldest towns in Maguindanao.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Maugan P. Mosaid holds a doctorate degree in rural development. He is a planning consultant and teaches Statistics and Methods of Research in the graduate school. He can be contacted at mauganmosaid6@gmail.com).