📖Program Curriculum
Project details
Anaerobic Digestion (AD) has a great potential to help society transition to renewable energy, especially when deployed at small- and medium-scale where the initial prohibitive investment can be lessened. AD is a process of decomposing biomass material in the absence of oxygen, to produce biogas (renewable energy) and is an effective way to process various types of organic waste. The AD process also creates a digestate slurry that allow for nutrient recovery and can be used as fertilized to improve soil quality.
Despite large numbers of existing biodigesters across the Globe, few of them remain in operation several years after installation. Some documented reasons for the abandonment of biodigesters at the small- and medium-scale include poor monitoring of the biodigester; maintenance cost; insufficient knowledge leading to poor management of the biodigester; prejudice around usage of the outputs of biodigestion; and conflicts around ownership of inputs and outputs of biodigestion.
The goal of this project is to generate insights about the adoption of AD technology and interplay of various stakeholders involved in the adoption of AD technology. This project will investigate the stakeholder experience of installing, operating, maintaining, and using the outputs of small- and medium-scale biodigesters. Being at the intersection of design and engineering disciplines, the project could include the prototyping of a small-scale biogas installation to be studied both through a technical lens (e.g., designed for the local climate and input waste materials) and through a service design lens (e.g., journey mapping of ownership and operations of the biogas)
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