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

本项目获国家科学基金/国家自然科学基金中国(国家自然科学基金委员会)环境可持续性挑战联合研究项目资助。从全球角度来看，粮食-能源-水(少数)联系可以被描述为相互联系和相互依赖的粮食、能源和水的资源系统。日益增长的和有充分记录的关切与相互依存的少数几个系统适应人口增长、气候多变、土地利用变化和环境污染造成的压力的能力有关。开发创新和可持续的技术解决方案，在所有三个系统组成部分之间发挥作用，以克服与预期需求相关的影响，对于确保未来社会对粮食、能源和水的需求至关重要。从废物中回收资源将在这些解决方案中发挥重要作用，但这种回收将需要改变目前管理废物流的方式。废物管理做法必须从目前实行的“取得-制造-消费-处置”模式过渡到循环经济模式，在循环经济模式下减少废物，并有效地从废物中提取和再利用资源。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与食品生产相关的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大学哥伦比亚分校、犹他大学、加州州立大学弗雷斯诺分校和南京农业大学中国分校的合作项目，旨在确定使用一种名为水热碳化的方法从湿食品生产废物中提取、再利用资源并创造有价值的产品是否比传统方法更可持续、更经济可行。这项工作将促进所需的科学和技术：(1)提高与废物性质、HTC工艺条件和HTC产生的产品特性之间的联系的基础知识，以促进在少数系统中的可持续和成功的整合；(2)系统地评估HTC产生的产品如何被回收，以最大限度地减少少数系统中预期的挑战，包括土壤健康、微生物种群动态、能源和水资源短缺；以及(3)通过使用生命周期评估(LCA)和技术经济分析(TEA)建模，制定在各种情景下全球应用CE模型的实施战略。这个项目与中国有很强的国际化成分。将进行一系列实验室和温室规模的实验，以了解食品、农业和牲畜废弃物的变化如何影响HTC过程，并了解产生的固体和液体产品对少数系统的影响能力。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产品引入环境影响的系统水足迹、能量平衡和营养需求是多么少。实验室规模的测试和建模将在美国进行，温室和小规模的碳化产品测试将在中国进行。这项工作的结果将确定废物转化技术在减少对日益减少的原始资源消耗的依赖方面产生重大影响的能力。此外，该项目可以提供所需的科学基础，以启动当前废物处理/管理模式的转变，以促进可持续的材料回收和管理，而不是只侧重于废物处理。预计未来将有一大批潜在的工程师和科学家以及社区成员和领导人，他们将通过社区参与、工程学中未被充分代表的人群的本科研究经验、本科教育、研究生指导和国际研究经验来接触到。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.