Tire Fire
Place various items into the furnace of your local biofuel power station, and learn about how the things you are burning is affecting your community!
Mechanics
Click and drag the different fuel sources into the fire to generate energy! Mouse over each fuel source to read more about what they are and how burning them affects the community.
We designed a demo where players must run a model furnace by placing combustible biofuels into the furnace. When players do this, the flames and pollution rise depending on the item being burned. As time goes on, the flames and pollutants decrease if nothing is burned. This simulates the way the bioenergy facility works, feeding the furnace with fuel to produce energy, and oftentimes air pollution.
If the flames get too high or low or pollutants get too high, players receive a strike. This system encourages players to time when they put items in to balance the fire. It is currently impossible with the given items to keep pollutants at a safe level. This is by design, as the sources of fuel incoming outlines how the biomass facility burns unsafe materials as a primary fuel source.
If three strikes are received, players receive a stern warning and their strikes are wiped. This is a reference to the continued inaction of agencies on these issues.
More information on the fuel
Railroad ties are the pieces of wood that go in between the two metal tracks in railroads. They are often treated with either of two chemicals; creosote or pentachlorophenol.
Coal tar creosote is used as a wood preservative in the US and appears to be commonly used in common materials like roofing and road paving. Creosote can affect various organ systems including the respiratory system and cause neurological effects. It appears that long-term low-level environmental exposure to creosote may have a higher rate of respiratory diseases. There is a possibility that creosote can be carcinogenic, but the studies regarding this may be shaky. The public is most likely to be exposed to creosote by burning wood treated with creosote, or handling wood structures that were treated with it.
The chemical used to treat these railroad ties, pentachlorophenol, is harmful and carcinogenic to humans. These are most often discarded in landfills rather than burned by biomass facilities to avoid releasing harmful chemicals into the air.
Chipped tires are one of the most common materials that are burned at this facility, although it is labeled as a bioenergy facility. The smoke from these tires can pollute the air in the surrounding area.
Wood derived fuels are generally a good choice environmentally and economically, but have a lower energy yield, meaning you have to burn more to get the same output as another biofuel. They can often be derived from waste materials such as logging slash (the tree tops and branches that can't be processed into any product) or broken wood pallets.
Vision
Due to our limited time and resources, this game is a demonstration of the premise of the game. There are several ideas we would like to implement given unlimited time. This includes allowing players to choose more carefully what items they put in the furnace and other energy methods so they can be more carefully compared. A story to the game, like dialog from co-workers and special items would also enhance this game. There were concepts regarding dialogue establishing community opinion on the state of the biomass facility, comments from management, and conditions for the workers in the plant that were created, but ultimately not implemented into the game due to time constraints. The burnable newspaper item in the demo implies this concept, as it gives some information on how the "outside world" of this facility reacts to it.
By taking a social science perspective to the application of science and technology to contribute to the understanding of energy transitions, or even just energy applications in general, we decided that we would reach our audience most directly through a game. Taking inspiration from the simulation provided by Playspent.org, we tried to make the situation regarding the L’Anse Warden Electric Cooperative more accessible. While we initially intended to simply compile all the information surrounding biomass energy generation and the plight of Baraga county and present it in a single, concise website, we quickly realized that we were already gathering information from the exact solution we were proposing. It became apparent that the issue wasn’t so much the lack of available information, but the way the information was being presented. By utilizing some of the methods of social science learned in class, we put together a solution that went beyond the application of science and technology and instead focused on how we could integrate science and technology with the human beings that have a stake in the situation.
During our investigation of the local community and throughout conversations with others involved in the project, it became quickly apparent that the disdain for L’Anse Warden was far less uniform than what we were expecting. The difference between some of the most vocal dissidents and those who were completely ambivalent was sometimes the difference in neighborhood. While it was obvious that air quality was something the community valued, the means by which they sought to achieve it was as varied as it could be. We took this to be a sign that the issue wasn’t just a matter of access to information, but how that information was being consumed. In this regard we are confident that a simulation that demonstrates the various implications of burning certain biofuels will have a greater impact than just another white paper.
For more information on the research behind this game, sources, and more explanation on our vision, see the linked document here.
