Using microorganisms to fight malnutrition in Indonesia

Using microorganisms to fight malnutrition in Indonesia

Van Koolwijk, T.R.S.

Crul, M.R.M. (mentor)
Van Engelen, J.M.L. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

IDP

2014-09-29

This thesis will function as a graduation project of two departments of the Delft University of technology: Science Communication and Industrial Design Engineering. It is funded and supervised by TNO. Problem description Globally, more than one third of child deaths are attributable to malnutrition. Because malnourished children have a low resistance to infection they are more likely to die from common childhood ailments like diarrhoea and respiratory infections. “Frequent illness saps the nutritional status of those who survive, locking them into a vicious cycle of recurring sickness and faltering growth” (UNICEF, 2013). Malnutrition at a young age also leads to a decreased cognitive development. Because of these factors, malnutrition greatly impedes countries’ socio-economic development and the potential to reduce poverty. Indonesia has the fifth highest number of stunted children in the world—more than 7.8 million children. The number of wasted children is almost 3 million. (UNICEF, 2011). The cyanobacteria Arthrospira Platensis, better known as ‘Spirulina’ is one of the most nutritional and fastest growing organism on earth. With just a teaspoon of this supplement per day, children and pregnant women in developing countries like Indonesia can drastically reduce dietary deficiencies and malnourishment. For these reasons, the initial goal of this thesis is to develop of a product that allows local production of the cyanobacteria “Spirulina” in Indonesia. To be able to develop this product, information about the context of use needs to be gathered. It is difficult to get inspired, learn how Indonesian people think and behave, learn about what make products work, what does not and why that is, from a distance. Therefore, in order to design a product for the Indonesian market, data about this target group needs to be mined locally. However, when gathering this data in an inter-cultural context, the chance for communicational problems caused by cultural differences is high. Therefore, there is a need for a design methodology that integrates tailored, inter-cultural communication guidelines within the design process. Since no such thing exists, it needs to be created during this project as well. Solutions This rapport describes a product concept [PART III] that allows uneducated Indonesian fishermen to cultivate Spirulina in an economical, scalable and ecological manner. This is done by making use of the natural thermo-buffering and kinetic properties of the sea, the abundance of sunlight in Indonesia and by the creation of a modular solution. This allows for a portion of the Spirulina to be harvested every morning and consumed fresh to provide a maximal nutritional content at a minimal cost of resources. The socio-economical system that is presented advocates the plausibility of the concepts and illustrates how it could be integrated into local society. The design methodology that is proposed within this report [PART II] not only provided me with the required structure to be able to develop this product concept, it can also prove to be a very valuable tool for other designers that have to function in similar contexts. By linking guidelines to an existing framework of dimensions that describe culture objectively, future designers can adapt the methodology to the context of their project.

microorganisms
malnutrition
Indonesia
spirulina
micro-algae
micro algae
microalgae
BoP

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9d682875-b43d-471f-9182-c7270fc43217

Campus only

-6.952820, 110.306231

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2014 Van Koolwijk, T.R.S.