[Project 1 Draft] Explaining a Complex Energy Process

My information design attempts to explain a technological energy process known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). The core idea is burning trees or other plants for energy while pulling in the resulting carbon dioxide and storing it below ground.  Since the plants pull more carbon dioxide from the air, the process results in a net removal of the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.

I’ve kept the color scheme simple, using the darker blue for the main process and other colors for the following concepts.

A second concept I’ve attempted to flush out is how BECCS fits into global goals of reducing greenhouse gas emission. I do this through breaking down the various components of the 2015 Paris Agreement using easily recognizable icons and short descriptions for each.

A third component is its application and potential application—how widely the technology is currently being used and its future deployment capacity. I’ve used a world map, which I plan on dotting with the location of BECCS facilities, to provide a visual of the global usage of the technology.

The “costs” section introduces a level of tension that is important to the story—that although promising, the technology comes with a sleet of requirements and potential drawbacks for the environments.

I’ve chosen a vertical design to accommodate the main story — the step by step process which involves gases from the air and storage underground.

Currently, I have the following four hierarchies, though I plan on better delineating them moving forward:

1. The title, “What is BECCS and How Can it Limit Global Warming. I put the title in large cloud to provide the viewer a clear entry point in. The cloud is meant to represent the CO2 being drawn into the plants as part of the first step of the process.
2. The process itself which stretches from the top left hand side of the design to the mid-bottom right side. This is inclusive of both the visual elements and the words “Bioenergy” “Carbon Capture” and “Storage.” The first letter of each word is bolded to emphasize the acronymic nature of BECCS though I plan on spelling it out in the title moving forward.
3. The bolded subtitles for all of the other components: “How does it fit into the bigger picture” “19 BECCS facilities worldwide” “The Costs of BECCS” and “What’s its potential?”
4. The body of the above sub-stories including the visuals.

My design process started out with reading two scientific papers that outline the process, an exercise that made clear the importance of providing a clear explanation of how this complex energy process works. Further research equipped me with a general understanding of this three-part process, and I began brainstorming a design on an 8.5 X 11 plain sheet of paper (shown here):

Once I had a rough skeleton down, I moved to a gridded 11 X 17 sheet, per Sheila’s suggestion, which led to the following. Doing so made clear that simply explaining the process was not enough—I needed to be more intentional about filling the white space surrounding and below with relevant sub-stories. Before finishing this rendition, I dove directly into drafting digitally, and as it turns out, the issue of organizing the bottom of the portion remains.

For the revision, I plan on focusing more on graphic forms to explain key concepts, and critically examining all my visuals to ensure they are functional and not decorative. I plan on adding an introduction below the title and a timeline at the bottom. I also plan on resolving the triangle issue toward the bottom, perhaps by replacing it with a simpler shape to divide space.

I look forward to your constructive feedback!