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

本项目通过“国家自然科学基金（NSF）/国家自然科学基金（NSFC）环境可持续性挑战联合研究”的机会获得资助。从全球角度来看，粮食-能源-水（FEW）关系可以被描述为粮食、能源和水的相互关联和相互依赖的资源系统。越来越多的和有据可查的关注与相互依赖的少数几个系统的能力，以适应压力所造成的人口增长，气候变化，土地利用的变化，和环境污染。开发创新和可持续的技术解决方案，在所有3个系统组件中工作，以克服与预期需求相关的影响，对于确保满足未来社会的粮食，能源和水需求至关重要。从废物中回收资源将在这些解决方案中发挥重要作用，但这种回收需要改变目前对废物流的管理方式。废物管理做法必须从目前实行的“取-制-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食品生产相关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-哥伦比亚大学、犹他州大学、加州州立大学弗雷斯诺分校和中国南京农业大学之间的一个合作项目，将进行研究，以确定是否提取、再利用资源，并利用一种称为水热碳化（HTC）的工艺，是一种比传统工艺更可持续和经济可行的方法。这项工作将推动所需的科学和技术，以便：（1）改进与废物性质、高温合成工艺条件和高温合成产品特性之间的联系相关的基础知识，以促进在FEW系统内的可持续和成功整合，（2）系统地评估如何回收高温合成产品，以最大限度地减少FEW系统中的预期挑战，包括土壤健康，微生物种群动态，能源和水资源短缺，（3）制定实施战略，在全球范围内应用CE模型在各种情况下，通过使用生命周期评估（LCA）和技术经济分析（TEA）建模。这个项目与中国有很强的国际成分。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过程，并了解所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。将在美国进行实验室规模的测试和建模，并在中国进行碳化产品的温室和小型现场规模测试。这项工作的结果将确定废物转化技术在减少对不断减少的原始资源消费的依赖方面产生重大影响的能力。 此外，该项目还可提供必要的科学依据，以启动当前废物处理/管理模式的转变，促进可持续的材料回收和管理，而不仅仅是注重废物处置。预计将通过社区参与，为工程学中代表性不足的人群提供本科研究经验，本科教育，研究生指导，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进行评估，被认为值得支持和更广泛的影响审查标准。

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.