The Ask
Bio-digester today is like a black box to most of us. We don't know what is happening in it and don't want to get involved into the process. It provides "clean" energy yet meanwhile it is consider "dirty" in the environment around us. What a contradiction!
I want to reshape the image of bio energy by designing a fun experience for people to interact with a working bio-digester. Zoos are perfect locations for this project.
Exploration
This is a path which every visitor has to go through. Elephants live on one side of the path while the zoo cafeteria is located on the other side. There is also an interesting data: there are 3 elephants at the zoo, each produces 35kg of waste per day. And 80 kg of waste in bio-digester can support 8 hours of cooking.
This bio-digester use the waste generated by the elephants to produce methane to support the cooking in the cafeteria across the road. It will be buried under the road so that every visitor passing by will notice it and take part in the interaction. After going through the whole experience, visitors will have a better understanding of how a bio-digester functions and how valuable it is, both to humans and the environment.
Visitors can see the temperature inside the bio-digester on the huge thermometer. The colorful boards on the ground transfer pressure from visitors into heat to keep the bio-digester warm.
Methane is stored in an inflatable container which is half buried underground. Flame on the top visually tells visitors this is flammable gas. When the container collapses, people will know that the methane level is currently low.
