SEP: Sustainable Housing through Holistic Waste Stream Management and Algal Cultivation

在NSF科学、工程和教育促进可持续发展(SEES)倡议的框架下，NSF可持续能源路径(SEP)计划将支持本·斯图尔特教授及其俄亥俄大学和佐治亚理工学院同事的研究计划。该项目将导致知识基础的转变，以满足国家对下一代可持续建筑的替代能源的重大需求。它将提供设计、建造、优化和扩大藻类电力系统所需的基本信息，该系统将大大有助于满足房屋或居民区的能源需求。该项目提出了以下目标：a)通过对各种生活垃圾进行成分分析，测定生化甲烷潜力，计算当地藻类菌株的特定生长率和生物量产量，并将栽培的生物质加工成生物燃料，来评估该技术的小规模可行性。过程建模软件将使用全面的质量和能量平衡来发展对系统参数的描述性和预测性理解，以在开环和闭环系统模式下设计、建造和运行试点规模的系统；b)利用设计工作室和地理信息系统来测试假设和开发新的场景，确定农村、郊区和城市尺度上藻类发电房屋的建筑设计和规划参数的相互关系；C)通过全面的经济风险和可行性评估，评估在住宅结构中使用藻类技术的整合性、可施工性、可靠性、安全性和环境影响的要素，以调查安装、培训、操作、材料转移、维护和评估选定技术的成本。上述目标3所述的经济分析包括全面调查，这将引起公众对综合物质和能量流动的可持续住房相关成本的看法和容忍。调查这些社区的整体发展将在建筑、建筑、工程、可持续/可再生能源、环境管理、多尺度经济学和教育等领域产生积极影响，并将为这些领域的跨学科研究方法的重大转变奠定基础。这项工作将吸引来自其中几个学科的学生，并将制作教育材料，这些材料将被纳入学术指导，以及为年轻学生和成年人制作信息丰富的视频。在失业率处于历史高位的阿巴拉契亚地区的农村社区开发中，可以为制造拟议的基于藻类的系统创造就业机会。尽管生物燃料有可能对全球能源需求做出重大贡献，但迄今为止大多数藻类生物燃料研究都是针对满足交通需求。拟议的研究将评估藻类培养和加工在液体和固体废物流管理中的潜力，利用产生的藻类来补充用于住宅应用的能源生产中的废物生物质。包括具有粮食生产和生物燃料生产潜力的水和废物管理，将加强现有的离网发电技术(如太阳能光伏、太阳能热能、风能)，为许多房主提供所需的能源安全，并将延长住宅社区的可持续性和资源独立性。

The NSF Sustainable Energy pathways (SEP) Program, under the umbrella of the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) initiative, will support the research program of Prof. Ben Stuart and co-workers at Ohio University and Georgia Institute of Technology. This project will lead to a shift in the knowledge base required to address a significant national need for alternative energy for the next generation of sustainable buildings. It will provide the fundamental information required for designing, constructing, optimizing, and scaling up of an algae-based power system that will significantly contribute to the energy requirements of houses or residential communities. The project proposes the following aims: a) Evaluate the bench-scale feasibility of the technology through compositional analysis of various residential waste streams, determining biochemical methane potentials, calculating specific growth rates and biomass yields of local algae strains, and processing the cultivated biomass into biofuels. Process modeling software will employ comprehensive mass and energy balances to develop the descriptive and predictive understanding of system parameters necessary to design, construct and operate a pilot-scale system in both open- and closed-loop modes; b) Determine the interrelationships of architectural design and planning parameters for the algae-powered house at the rural, suburban, and urban scales using the design studio and GIS to test hypotheses and develop novel scenarios; and c) Evaluate elements of integration, constructability, reliability, safety and environmental impact on the use of the algae-based technology in residential structures using a comprehensive economic risk and feasibility assessment to investigate the costs of installation, training, operation, material transfer, maintenance, and evaluation of selected technologies.The economic analysis described in aim 3 above includes comprehensive surveys that will elicit public perceptions and tolerance for the costs associated with sustainable housing incorporating integrated material and energy flows. Investigating the holistic development of these communities will have positive impacts in the fields of architecture, building construction, engineering, sustainable/renewable energy, environmental stewardship, multi-scale economics, and education, and will lay the foundation for a significant shift in the approach to cross-disciplinary research in these fields. This effort will engage students from several of these disciplines, and will produce educational materials that will be incorporated into academic instruction as well as informative videos for younger students and adults. Jobs could be created for manufacturing the proposed algae-based systems in rural community developments of Appalachian counties with historically high unemployment rates.While biofuels hold the potential to contribute significantly to global energy demands, the majority of algal biofuel research to date has been directed towards meeting transportation needs. The proposed research will assess the potential of algal cultivation and processing in the management of liquid and solid waste streams, using the algae produced to supplement waste biomass in the production of energy for use in residential applications. Including water and waste management with the potential for food production and generation of biofuels will augment existing off-grid power technologies (e.g. solar PV, solar thermal, wind) that provide many homeowners with desired energy security, and will extend the sustainability and resource independence of residential communities.