In the town of Aipir, Colombia, the temperature can often get as high as 45ºC (113ºF), yet few of the residents have a reliable source of electricity. So, pulling an ice-cold beverage out of the fridge isn't really an option. Coca Cola and the Leo Burnett Colombia advertising agency therefore devised a "Bio Cooler" for the town – it reportedly chills cans of Coke, without using electricity.
The cooler was developed in collaboration with the International Physics Centre in Bogota, and is described solely in a short video released by Leo Burnett. It reportedly works by two methods ...
![A rendering of the Bio Cooler](https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/21228cf/2147483647/strip/true/crop/958x538+0+0/resize/958x538!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Farchive%2Fbiocooler-0.jpg)
First, a compartment in the top of the cooler contains plants and soil, while the cans of Coke sit in a chamber below. When the plants are watered and much of that water subsequently evaporates, it has a cooling effect on the chamber.
Second, a mirror in the cooler focuses heat from the sun, which is somehow used to convert an unnamed gas to a liquid state, creating a cooling effect as that liquid is circulated around the Coke chamber. This could conceivably be something like a thermal-powered version of the CryoEnergy System, in which energy is stored by converting ambient-temperature gaseous air into cold liquid air.
Whatever's going on, you can see the Coca Cola Bio Cooler in use, in the video below.
Source: Leo Burnett Colombia (Vimeo) via Fast Company