Global Centers Track 1: Global Nitrogen Innovation Center for Clean Energy and Environment (NICCEE)

全球中心轨道 1：全球清洁能源与环境氮创新中心 (NICCEE)

• 批准号: 2330502
• 负责人: Xin Zhang
• 金额: $ 500万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-12-01 至 2028-11-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2330502&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Global; Centers; Track; Nitrogen; Innovation

The Global Nitrogen Innovation Center for Clean Energy and the Environment (NICCEE) aims to accelerate social and technological innovation for sustainable, climate-smart nitrogen management in agriculture-food-energy systems, including the urgent need to respond to the challenges and opportunities of “green ammonia.” Ammonia, primarily used in agriculture as a source of nitrogen for fertilizer, has long been produced using carbon-intensive methods, sometimes called "brown ammonia." In contrast, "green ammonia" is produced using water, air, and sunlight or electricity from renewable sources, leading to zero carbon emissions. Green ammonia also shows great promise as a carbon-free fuel and is set to replace at least half of the shipping fuel currently dominated by fossil fuels by 2050. Yet green ammonia presents risks alongside its opportunities; for example, increasing demand for ammonia as shipping fuel could increase fertilizer and food costs, and increased use as fertilizer could exacerbate nitrogen pollution. NICCEE’s research vision is that the pursuit of technologies for improved crop productivity, climate change mitigation, and clean energy needs to be accompanied by socioeconomic innovation and co-design with users to accelerate adoption, maximize social benefits, while minimizing unintended socio-environmental consequences. The center leverages expertise and resources across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom to advance this vision, and works in partnership with international organizations, private businesses, and local stakeholders. The center will support training and professional development for undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral researchers including internships with partners at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fertilizer Association, and The Nature Conservancy. The NICCEE team (1) uses cutting-edge data collection and analysis techniques to quantify and model the nitrogen flows in the agrifood and energy systems for each participating country and on a subnational spatial scale; (2) adopts a co-production, “living labs” framework to ensure the research team’s work and recommendations reflect end users’ views, concerns and experiences in pilot testing the distributed green ammonia production units on farm; and (3) addresses gaps in STEM education through a novel, transdisciplinary graduate education training program that will offer data scientists, engineers, and social innovators the technical and social skills necessary to lead future efforts at the nexus of the climate and nitrogen crises.  This award is funded by the Global Centers program, an innovative partnership with funding agencies in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, to jointly support use-inspired research addressing global challenges in climate change and clean energy. Partnerships with the Commonwealth Science and Innovation Research Organisation (CSIRO), Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) leverage resources to tackle challenges at a larger scale than would be possible for one funding agency alone. This Center is jointly supported by NSF, NSERC and UKRI.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.

全球氮创新清洁能源与环境创新中心（NICCEE）旨在加速社会和技术创新，以实现可持续的，气候智能的氮管理在协议食品 - 能源系统中，包括迫切需要应对“绿色ammonia”的挑战和机会。氨主要用作肥料的氮来源，长期以来使用碳密集型方法（有时称为“棕色氨”）生产。相比之下，“绿色氨”是使用可再生资源的水，空气和阳光或电力产生的，导致碳排放零。绿色的氨气也表现出了无碳燃料的巨大希望，到2050年到2050年，至少要取代当前由化石燃料主导的运输燃料。但是，绿色的氨气带来了风险。例如，由于运输燃料可以增加肥料和食品成本，因此对氨的需求增加，并且由于肥料而增加的使用可能会加剧氮污染。 NICCEE的研究愿景是，需要通过社会经济创新来追求改善农作物生产，缓解气候变化和清洁能源的技术，并与用户共同设计，以加速采用，同时最大程度地提高社会利益，同时最大程度地减少意外的社会环境后果。该中心利用美国，加拿大和英国的专业知识和资源来促进这一愿景，并与国际组织，私人企业和当地利益相关者合作。该中心将支持本科和研究生以及博士后研究人员的培训和专业发展，包括与联合国食品和农业组织，国际肥料协会和自然保护协会的合作伙伴的国际船只。 Niccee Team（1）使用尖端的数据收集和分析技术来量化和建模每个参与国家的农业和能源系统中的氮气流，并以次级的空间量表进行量化和建模； （2）采用共同制作的“生活实验室”框架，以确保研究团队的工作和建议反映了最终用户在试验中的观点，关注和经验，以测试农场分布式的绿色氨生产单元； （3）通过一项小说，跨学科的研究生教育培训计划来解决STEM教育中的差距，该计划将为数据科学家，工程师和社会创新提供必要的技术和社交技能，以实现未来的努力，以在气候和氮危机的联系中进行。该奖项由与澳大利亚，加拿大和英国的资助机构的创新合作伙伴关系全球中心计划资助，共同支持以使用启发的研究来解决气候变化和清洁能源方面的全球挑战。与英联邦科学与创新研究组织（CSIRO），加拿大自然科学和工程研究委员会（NSERC），加拿大社会科学与人文研究委员会（SSHRC）（SSHRC）和英国研究与创新（UKRI）与一家资助机构的合作伙伴关系，加拿大的社会科学与人文研究委员会（SSHRC）和英国研究与创新（UKRI）利用资源利用与单独使用一家资助机构可能更大的规模来应对挑战。该中心由NSF，NSERC和UKRI共同支持。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准来评估诚实的支持。