AN ARTLETS junior made his mark on the international stage after winning a regional business pitch competition in Thailand with a sealant crafted from improperly discarded motor oil.
Third-year Asian Studies student Sean Matthew Parra and his three teammates pitched their winning project to industry experts on Nov. 27, which capped a week-long regional camp that trains 50 ASEAN students in sustainability-driven innovation and cross-cultural collaboration.
Parra joined a multinational team to develop “OLIOLI,” a household sealant derived from used motor oil, a type of waste often dumped on streets and into waterways due to limited disposal options.
Apart from Parra, the winning team consisted of Lourdes Isabella Corpuz of Cebu Normal University, Lathdavanh Phimmavong of the National University of Laos and Thin Sandi Kyaw of the University of Forestry and Environmental Science in Myanmar.
According to the Thomasian, the idea grew from the oil stains often seen on Philippine roads — a consequence of motorists performing at-home oil changes without proper disposal methods.
“If you look at the streets, especially here in the [Philippines], you’ll see a lot of oil stains. This is because many people are opting to do oil changes by themselves. Understandably, it’s a lot cheaper, but the problem comes from when they don’t have any way of discarding it,” Parra told The Flame.
OLIOLI refines discarded oil and blends it with acrylic polymers to produce an adhesive comparable to commercial sealants.
The product also draws inspiration from rural practices, Parra said, noting that fisherfolk use unrefined motor oil as a makeshift varnish and waterproofer for wooden boats.
The team developed the pitch overnight but anchored their proposal on the existing waste-to-fuel technologies of PTT Oil and Retail Business Public Company Limited (OR), the Thai state-owned petroleum company that hosted the competition.
Parra said aligning the product with OR’s infrastructure, including systems capable of converting used oil into aviation fuel, strengthened its feasibility and business potential.
The judges offered only minor packaging suggestions before naming OLIOLI the winning entry and awarding the group 12,000 Baht or about P22,100.
Parra said further development of OLIOLI now depends on whether PTT OR decides to pursue the idea, adding that establishing a reliable community-based supply chain for used oil would be essential should the company move forward.
The OR Seeding the Future ASEAN Camp 2025, which ran from Nov. 23 to 28, marked the ninth edition of the training camp. F
