A User Friendly Biogas Socket for the BoP: A case study for TNO in Rwanda

A User Friendly Biogas Socket for the BoP: A case study for TNO in Rwanda

Jansen, A.M.

Diehl, J.C. (mentor)
Ruiter, I. (mentor)
Van Sandick, E. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Design Engineering

Master of Science Design for Interaction

2012-09-21

This master thesis is carried out for independent research organisation TNO, who initiated the Biogas Socket project in 2008. The Biogas Socket project is part of TNO’s ‘Innovation for Development programme’, wherein high tech development and low-tech innovations contribute to stimulate economic growth and prosperity in BoP countries. This project targets the upper part of the BoP; subsistence farmers that own at least two cows and have a small additional income. They own a domestic biogas digester and are not connected to the grid. The combination of having a surplus of biogas and a lack of electricity in rural areas is where TNO identified room for innovation. Rather then letting the methane being released into the atmosphere, TNO started a product development project wherein the left over biogas is used to generate electricity; The Biogas Socket. The Biogas Socket is a sustainable, robust and inexpensive device that uses the heat of a biogas flame to transform the gas into electricity; enough to provide rural villagers with basic lighting and to power their low energy household appliances. Having the possibility to charge a phone at home saves a family recurring costs for charging and hours of traveling towards the charging station in the village. Owning a good lighting solution and having more time gives a family the possibility to undertake income generating or social activities at night and enables children to study. Goal of the graduation project is to elaborat¬e on the user perspective of the Biogas Socket and define the user-product interactions. By involving the end users, a technical prototype developed by TNO, is taken a step further towards a user-friendly product. One part of the graduation assignment is a research on the needs, wishes and concerns of rural families in Rwanda. These findings lead to a list of product requirements and a design proposal for a user friendly Biogas Socket, covering design improvements in the field of human-product interaction. The user insights and design ideas are to be used by a design company who will further develop the product. A one-to-one model of the design proposal and a user scenario are made. The relatively long local presence during this graduation project makes it possible to gain insights on the process from both the Dutch as the Rwandan point of view. Observations of the current co-creation process lead to a suggestion for a new process approach. Part of the graduation assignment is to develop a protocol that facilitates field research, similar to that what is conducted for the graduation project. The protocol can help TNO and partners to do similar research in other countries. For the next step in the Biogas Socket project, wherein prototypes will be tested with end-users, two test protocols are needed; one protocol to guide the first testing phase wherein a functioning prototype is tested in rural households, and a second protocol for the testing phase wherein 10 optimised prototypes are placed and tested in context.

biogas
electricity
Rwanda
Africa
Base of the Pyramid
BoP
contextmapping
design
interaction
co-creation

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d21f0af3-824e-4916-8471-0c3525e1b76a

2013-09-21

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2012 Jansen, A.M.