CAREER: Modeling, Optimization, and Equilibrium Formulations for the Analysis and Design of Circular Economy Networks

职业：循环经济网络分析和设计的建模、优化和平衡公式

• 批准号: 2339068
• 负责人: Ana Torres
• 金额: $ 51.8万
• 依托单位: Carnegie-Mellon University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-09-01 至 2029-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2339068&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Modeling; Optimization; Equilibrium; Formulations

The current extract-make-use-dispose paradigm throughout product supply chains has enormous environmental and socioeconomic impacts, including climate change, biodiversity loss, depletion of natural resources, and pollution. Policymakers and industry practitioners support transitioning to Circular Economies (CEs) to solve these challenges. CEs aim to re-design current processing consumption practices to eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials at their highest value, and regenerate nature. Although conceptually simple, the development of CE networks is hindered by the lack of scientific guidance on implementing and evaluating the effectiveness of CE initiatives. This CAREER project aims to advance the state of the art in designing and assessing CEs by developing modeling, optimization, and equilibrium formulations to analyze and design CE initiatives and networks. The proposed research will allow researchers to engineer CE strategies to accelerate the development of value chains that consume fewer new resources and produce less pollution. The proposed study also advances the use of game theory in process systems engineering. The results of this research will be incorporated into undergraduate and graduate-level project-based process design courses at Carnegie Mellon University to promote circularity and sustainability thinking in future scientists and engineers. Outreach activities are planned for a K-12 audience and include (i) writing articles for specialized STEM-oriented children’s journals and (ii) two hands-on workshops focusing on the concepts of circularity and sustainability in process design as well as the use of computers for chemical process design and optimization. To develop and test the mathematical tools needed to create Circular Economies (CEs), this project is divided into three Research Objectives. In the first, mathematical models for different CE initiatives will be developed, such as those that can be used to extend the life of goods and materials and those that exploit post-use processes. These models will be used to construct prototypical multi-agent CE networks, where each agent adopts a strategy consisting of one or more CE initiatives. Traditional (mathematical programming) optimization of these networks will be pursued from a multi-agent perspective to find trade-offs between their strategies. These results will be used to engineer circularity indicators so that agents benefit from each other’s strategies. In the second objective, individual agents will be treated as autonomous entities that base their decision-making in a decentralized manner. Game theory provides the framework for the formal analysis of these networks of agents. The Nash equilibria of the prototypical networks will be studied under non-cooperative simultaneous and sequential games. The difference between the Nash equilibrium solutions and the network-optimal solutions will be quantified by comparing the relative circularity efficiency of the two. The third objective involves the application of the theory developed under the first two objectives to design two CE networks, one involving the recovery and reuse of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottle waste and the second examining CEs relevant to the recovery of rare earth (critical) minerals from end-of-life products.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.

当前整个产​​品供应链中的当前提取物用途范式都增强了环境和社会经济的影响，包括气候变化，生物多样性损失，自然资源部署和污染。决策者和行业实践者支持向循环经济体（CES）过渡以解决这些挑战。 CES旨在重新设计当前的加工消费实践，以消除废物和污染，以最高价值散发产品和材料以及再生性质。尽管在概念上很简单，但由于缺乏实施和评估CE计划有效性的科学指南，CE网络的发展受到阻碍。这个职业项目旨在通过开发建模，优化和平衡公式来分析和设计CE计划和网络，以推动最新技术的现状设计和评估CE。拟议的研究将使研究人员能够设计策略，以加快消耗新资源并减少污染的价值链的发展。拟议的研究还推动了在过程系统工程中使用游戏理论的方法。这项研究的结果将纳入卡内基·梅隆大学的本科和研究生级的过程设计课程中，以促进未来科学家和工程师的循环和可持续性思维。计划向K-12受众开展外展活动，包括（i）为专门的面向茎的儿童期刊撰写文章，以及（ii）两个动手的研讨会，重点介绍了过程设计中循环和可持续性的概念，以及用于化学过程设计和优化的计算机使用计算机。为了开发和测试创建循环经济体（CES）所需的数学工具，该项目分为三个研究目标。首先，将开发针对不同CE计划的数学模型，例如可用于延长商品和材料的寿命以及利用后使用后过程的数学模型。这些模型将用于构建典型的多代理CE网络，在该网络中，每个代理都采用由一个或多个CE计划组成的策略。这些网络的传统（数学编程）优化将从多机构的角度进行，以在其策略之间找到权衡。这些结果将用于设计循环指标，以便代理人从彼此的策略中受益。在第二个目标中，个人代理人将被视为以分散方式决定其决策的自治实体。游戏理论为这些代理网络的形式分析提供了框架。 NASH等效的原型网络将在非合作的同时和顺序游戏下进行研究。 NASH平衡溶液与网络最佳解决方案之间的差异将通过比较两者的相对圆效效率来量化。第三个目标涉及在前两个目标下开发的理论的应用，以设计两个CE网络，一个涉及恢复和重复使用聚对苯二甲酸酯（PET）塑料瓶废物以及第二个与稀有地球（关键地球（关键）矿物（关键）矿物相关的CES的研究，这些奖项是从终止生命中的生命产物中的授权和诚实的授权，这表明了NSF的稳定范围。 标准。