YiWen Tseng: Digestive Car

Royal College of Art graduate Yi-Wen Tseng turns a cow’s digestive process into a fuel system for her Digestive Car, presented at the London Design Festival.

“There is a new way to produce methane? In this speculative world, if biotechnology could spark a new revolution, would a new hybrid industrial product that revolutionize also our environment?” wondered YiWen Tseng.

The world will change dramatically when industrial design will be used to create bodily organs. Taking the cow’s digestive system as inspiration, an augmented bio printed organ is used to produce methane to power a vehicle.

The Digestive Car explores a new aesthetic of bio-products, to open discussion about the issues surrounding global warming. This speculative, self-sufficient fuel source will provide a new energy future and a cleaner environment while you feed this living vehicle with grass.

Since the Industrial Revolution, vehicles have gradually become the most common mode of transportation. However, ironically, this convenient industrial innovation has also become a symbol of air pollution that accelerates global warming.

Nowadays, cows, compared with other animals, are known to expel a large amount of methane from their bodies. The amount of methane emitted by this ruminant has already significantly contributed towards global warming.

“The idea for Digestive Car is to reflect on the circularity of nature. Imagine driving a car powered by grass. In this way, taking care of the car is more akin to taking care of a pet. Of course, Digestive Car is visionary project. My aim is not to offer a solution, but to raise awareness of the interconnectedness and extent of global warming, greenhouse gases, and climate change caused by the human activities of raising livestock and having fossil fuel powered transport.” YiWen Tseng explains.