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​​品供应链中的提取-制造-使用-处置模式具有巨大的环境和社会经济影响，包括气候变化、生物多样性丧失、自然资源枯竭和污染。政策制定者和行业从业者支持向循环经济（CE）转型以解决问题。这些挑战旨在重新设计当前的加工消费实践，以消除废物和污染，破坏产品和材料的最高价值，并再生自然，尽管概念简单，但由于缺乏科学指导，CE网络的发展受到阻碍。实施该 CAREER 项目旨在通过开发建模、优化和提出的平衡公式来分析和设计 CE 计划和网络，从而推进设计和评估 CE 的最新技术。加速发展消耗更少新资源和产生更少污染的CE战略。这项研究还推进了博弈论在过程系统工程中的应用。卡内基梅隆大学的流程设计课程大学计划针对 K-12 受众开展宣传活动，以促进未来科学家和工程师的循环性和可持续发展思维，其中包括 (i) 为专门的 STEM 儿童期刊撰写文章和 (ii) 两个重点关注这些概念的实践研讨会。工艺设计中的循环性和可持续性以及使用计算机进行化学工艺设计和优化 为了开发和测试创建循环经济（CE）所需的数学工具，该项目分为三个研究目标。不同的数学模型将开发 CE 举措，例如可用于延长商品和材料寿命的举措以及利用后使用流程的举措。这些模型将用于构建原型多代理 CE 网络，其中每个代理都采用一种策略。这些网络的传统（数学编程）优化将从多智能体的角度进行，以找到其策略之间的权衡，这些结果将用于设计循环指标，以便智能体从每个智能体中受益。别人的策略。第二个目标，个体代理将被视为以分散方式进行决策的自主实体，博弈论为这些代理网络的正式分析提供了框架，将在非网络下研究原型网络的纳什均衡。合作同时和顺序博弈。纳什均衡解和网络最优解之间的差异将通过比较两者的相对循环效率来量化。第三个目标涉及应用前两个目标下开发的理论来设计两个目标。 CE网络，一聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯 (PET) 塑料瓶废料的回收和再利用，以及第二次审查与从报废产品中回收稀土（关键）矿物相关的 CE。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并被认为值得支持通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估。