INFEWS: US-CHINA: Biochar-Enabled Biologically Active Filtration System for Sustainable Water Management in Rice Agriculture

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。随着世界人口到2050年预计将增至90亿，迫切需要平衡农产品、淡水和燃料等相互关联的资源，同时又不对提供这些资源的生态系统造成过度压力。 将粮食-能源-水（FEW）关系视为相互关联的，而不是三个独立的系统，可以推动新的技术进步，从而提高环境的可持续性，并改善采用这些新技术的社区的经济。该项目将侧重于水稻，这是养活地球三分之一以上人口的基本主食来源。水稻生产是惊人的水密集型生产，代表着淡水资源的最高使用量。从稻田排放的灌溉水携带过量的营养物质，农药和其他新出现的关注污染物（CEC），污染河流，溪流和重复使用的灌溉水。为了解决水资源压力，减少水污染，提高稻米质量，来自新泽西理工学院的研究人员与中国浙江大学的研究人员合作，将开发一种生物活性过滤（BAF）系统，该系统利用微生物消耗不需要的有机物污染物。曝气生物滤池可以很容易地部署到现有的排水渠道在稻田处理灌溉水。将在选定的水稻生产点开发和测试该系统，以根据田间条件和社会经济限制，优化其净化灌溉水的效率和成本效益。这项新技术有可能将传统的水稻生产转变为可持续的农业实践，将农业废弃物转化为生物油和生物炭，从而协同使用生物炭和微生物来处理农业污染。生物曝气生物滤池工艺和产品将与循环处理水相结合用于灌溉，生物油可用作可再生能源替代品。美国和中国的研究团队将与当地政府、监管机构、农民和大学合作，开展富有活力的推广活动，向更广泛的水稻种植社区转让和传播这项技术。高效的吸附介质和具有多功能和强大催化潜力的生物膜是BAF系统的重要组成部分。该项目将推进我们对这两个组件的理解，并优化其性能，以减轻水稻生产灌溉水中常见的混合非点源污染物。生物炭的表面化学及其与目标污染物分子的相互作用将被研究，以提高这种材料的吸附能力和选择性。在生物炭热解过程中，生物油的产率将作为可再生能源替代品得到优化。附着在生物炭上的微生物是去除养分和降解CEC的关键因素。一个全面的蓝图，积极表达的生物膜中的代谢将揭示在社区和单细胞水平使用组学和单细胞分析的组合。新的生物转化途径和相关的酶/基因将被发现解开潜在的分子机制，使分子工具的设计，以监测生物膜生物转化的BAF系统的性能。通过利用过滤器尺寸和流速来同步附着生物膜中的硝化和反硝化分层，将实现营养物去除的改善。模型的开发将有助于根据污染物去除机理预测和设计操作性能。在对生命周期影响、成本效益和当地接受程度进行全面社会经济分析的基础上，将在选定的稻田地点建立试点生物放大系数，作为中国、美国和其他水稻生产国可采用的模式系统。这些试点研究的目标是减轻水污染、保证食品安全、生产生物能源和固碳，以及保护人类和环境健康。通过远程学习模块和跨大学培训，该项目将培养具有跨文化技能、观点、和professions联合多学科的经验，并解决复杂的粮食能源，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查进行评估，被认为值得支持的搜索.

This project was awarded through the "National Science Foundation (NSF) / National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Joint Research on Environmental Sustainability Challenges" opportunity. As the world's population expands to an expected 9 billion by 2050, there will be an urgent demand to balance interconnected resources such as agricultural products, fresh water, and fuel without putting undue strain on the ecosystems that provide these resources. Treating Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus as interconnected rather than as three independent systems drives new technological advancements that could increase the environmental sustainability and improve the economies of communities that adopt these new advances. This project will focus on rice, a basic staple food source that feeds over a third of the Earth's population. Rice production is staggeringly water-intensive, representing the highest use of fresh water resources. Irrigation water discharged from rice paddies carries excessive amounts of nutrients, pesticides, and other contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), which pollute rivers, streams and reused irrigation water. To tackle water stress, reduce water pollution, and improve rice quality, researchers from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, in collaboration with researchers at Zhejiang University in China, will develop a biologically active filtration (BAF) system which takes advantage of microbes that consume unwanted organic matter contaminants. The BAF can be easily deployed to the existing water discharge channels at rice paddies to treat irrigated water. It will be developed and tested at select rice production sites to optimize its efficiency and cost-effectiveness in purifying the irrigation water, given the field conditions and social and economic constraints. This novel technology has the potential to transform conventional rice production into a sustainable agricultural practice by turning agricultural wastes into bio-oil and biochar, thereby synergizing the use of biochar and microorganisms to treat agricultural pollution. The BAF process and products will be coupled with recycling treated water for irrigation, and the bio-oil can be used as a renewable energy alternative. In collaboration with local governments, regulatory agencies, farmers, and universities, both the U.S. and Chinese research teams will conduct vibrant outreach activities to transfer and disseminate this technology to broader rice farming communities.Effective adsorbent media and a biofilm with versatile and robust catalytic potentials are essential components for BAF systems. This project will advance our understanding of these two components and optimize their performance to mitigate commingled nonpoint-source contaminants commonly found in the irrigation water for rice production. The surface chemistry of biochar and its interactions with target contaminant molecules will be investigated to improve the adsorption capacity and selectivity of this material. During biochar pyrolysis, yield of bio-oil will be optimized as a renewable energy alternative. Microorganisms attached to the biochar are key players for nutrient removal and CEC degradation. A comprehensive blueprint of actively expressing metabolisms in the biofilm will be revealed at both community and single cellular levels using the combination of omics and single cell analysis. Novel biotransformation pathways and associated enzymes/genes will be discovered to untangle underlying molecular mechanisms, enabling the design of molecular tools to monitor biofilm biotransformation performance in the BAF systems. Improvement of nutrient removal will be achieved by leveraging filter dimension and flow rate to synchronize nitrification and denitrification stratification in the attached biofilm. Development of models will facilitate the prediction and design of operational performance in accordance with contaminant removal mechanisms. Built upon comprehensive socioeconomic analyses of the life-cycle impacts, cost-effectiveness, and local acceptance, pilot-scale BAFs at select rice paddy sites will be established as model systems that are adaptable by China, the United States, and other rice-producing countries. The goal of these pilot studies is to achieve water contamination mitigation, food safety assurance, bioenergy production and carbon sequestration, and protection of human and environmental health. Through distant learning modules and cross-university training, this project will cultivate next-generation leaders with intercultural skillsets, perspectives, and proficiencies to unite multidisciplinary experiences and tackle the complex food-energy-water challenges using sustainable and innovative technologies.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.