INFEWS: US-China: Collaborative Research: Investigating the role of wet wastes in the global circular economy: sustainable conversion to products using hydrothermal carbonization

INFEWS：中美：合作研究：调查湿废物在全球循环经济中的作用：利用水热碳化可持续转化为产品

• 批准号: 1902234
• 负责人: Ramesh Goel
• 金额: $ 14.98万
• 依托单位: University of Utah
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-08-15 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1902234&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: INFEWS; US; China; Collaborative; Research

This project was awarded through the "National Science Foundation (NSF) / National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Joint Research on Environmental Sustainability Challenges" opportunity. The Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus, from a global perspective, can be described as the interconnected and interdependent resource systems of food, energy, and water. Growing and well-documented concerns are associated with the ability of interdependent FEW systems to adapt to stresses resulting from population growth, climate variability, land use changes, and environmental pollution. Developing innovative and sustainable technological solutions that work across all 3 system components to overcome implications associated with anticipated demands is critical to ensure future societal food, energy, and water needs are met. Resource recovery from wastes will play an important role in such solutions, but this recovery will require a change in how waste streams are currently managed. Waste management practices must transition from the "take-make-consume and dispose" model currently practiced, to that of a circular economy (CE) model, during which wastes are reduced and resources from the wastes are efficiently extracted and reused. This reuse will minimize reliance on natural resources, reduce environmental impacts, and promote a sustainable economy. This project focuses on exploring the role food production-related wastes may play in a circular economy. This work, a collaborative project between the University of South Carolina-Columbia, the University of Utah, California State University Fresno, and Nanjing Agricultural University in China, will be conducted to determine whether extracting, reusing resources, and creating products of value from wet food-production wastes using a process called hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is a more sustainable and economically viable approach than traditionally used processes. This work will advance the science and technology needed to: (1) improve fundamental knowledge associated with the link between waste properties, HTC process conditions, and HTC-generated product characteristics to promote sustainable and successful integration within the FEW systems, (2) systematically evaluate how HTC-generated products can be recycled to minimize anticipated challenges in FEW systems, including soil health, microbial population dynamics, and energy and water scarcity, and (3) develop implementation strategies for global application of the CE model under various scenarios by using life cycle assessment (LCA) and technoeconomic analysis (TEA) modeling. This project has a strong international component with China. A series of laboratory and greenhouse-scale experiments will be conducted to understand how changes in food, agricultural, and livestock wastes influence the HTC process, and to understand the ability of the generated solid and liquid products to impact FEW systems. In addition, data-driven models describing the resource recovery and subsequent recycling processes will be generated and integrated into LCA and TEA models to detail how FEW system water footprints, energy balances, and nutrient requirements are influenced by HTC product introduction to the environment. Laboratory-scale testing and modeling will be conducted in the United States, and greenhouse and small field-scale testing of carbonization products will be performed in China. Results from this work will determine the ability of a waste conversion technique to make a significant impact in reducing reliance on dwindling virgin resource consumption. Additionally, the project could provide the scientific basis needed to initiate shifts in the current waste treatment/management paradigm to promote sustainable material recovery and management, rather than focusing only on waste disposal. It is anticipated that a large population of potential future engineers and scientists and community members and leaders will be reached through community engagement, undergraduate research experiences for underrepresented populations in engineering, undergraduate education, graduate student mentoring, and international research experiences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目通过“美国国家科学基金会（NSF）/国家自然科学基金会（NSFC）环境可持续挑战联合研究”机会获得资助。从全球角度来看，粮食-能源-水（FEW）关系可以描述为粮食、能源和水相互关联、相互依存的资源系统。人们日益关注的问题与相互依赖的 FEW 系统适应人口增长、气候变化、土地利用变化和环境污染造成的压力的能力有关。开发适用于所有 3 个系统组件的创新和可持续技术解决方案，以克服与预期需求相关的影响，对于确保满足未来社会粮食、能源和水需求至关重要。废物资源回收将在此类解决方案中发挥重要作用，但这种回收需要改变目前废物流的管理方式。废物管理实践必须从目前实行的“获取-制造-消费和处置”模式转变为循环经济（CE）模式，在此过程中减少废物，并有效地提取和再利用废物中的资源。这种再利用将最大限度地减少对自然资源的依赖，减少对环境的影响，并促进可持续经济。该项目的重点是探索与食品生产相关的废物在循环经济中可能发挥的作用。这项工作是南卡罗来纳大学哥伦比亚分校、犹他大学、加州州立大学弗雷斯诺分校和中国南京农业大学之间的合作项目，旨在确定是否可以从湿法中提取、再利用资源并创造有价值的产品。使用水热碳化（HTC）工艺处理食品生产废物是比传统工艺更可持续、更经济可行的方法。这项工作将推进所需的科学和技术：(1) 提高与废物特性、HTC 工艺条件和 HTC 生成的产品特性之间联系相关的基础知识，以促进 FEW 系统内可持续和成功的集成，(2) 系统地评估如何回收 HTC 生成的产品，以最大程度地减少 FEW 系统中的预期挑战，包括土壤健康、微生物种群动态以及能源和水资源短缺，以及 (3) 通过使用生命周期评估（LCA）和技术经济分析（TEA）建模。该项目与中国有着很强的国际成分。将进行一系列实验室和温室规模的实验，以了解食品、农业和牲畜废物的变化如何影响 HTC 工艺，并了解产生的固体和液体产品影响 FEW 系统的能力。此外，将生成描述资源回收和后续回收过程的数据驱动模型，并将其集成到 LCA 和 TEA 模型中，以详细说明 HTC 产品引入环境对 FEW 系统水足迹、能量平衡和营养需求的影响。实验室规模的测试和建模将在美国进行，碳化产品的温室和小田间测试将在中国进行。这项工作的结果将决定废物转化技术是否能够对减少对日益减少的原始资源消耗的依赖产生重大影响。 此外，该项目可以提供启动当前废物处理/管理范式转变所需的科学依据，以促进可持续的材料回收和管理，而不是仅仅关注废物处理。预计通过社区参与、工程领域代表性不足人群的本科研究经验、本科教育、研究生指导和国际研究经验，将接触到大量潜在的未来工程师、科学家以及社区成员和领导者。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。