INFEWS/T2: Organic Waste Lifecycles at the interface of Food, Energy, Water Systems (OWL-FEWs)

由于人口增长和经济增长，相互关联的粮食-能源-水需求正在增加。这些需求增加的主要原因之一是产生未利用的废物流。美国每年产生约2.54亿吨垃圾，其中只有34%被回收或堆肥。 对垃圾出口的限制越来越多，给废物系统的管理带来了挑战和机遇。废料为材料回收、新产品和工艺的产生以及对食品、能源和水系统产生积极影响的潜力提供了机会。 鉴于国际消费率不断上升，开发下一代废物回收具有全球意义。 然而，重塑废物流需要更好地了解废物目前是如何治理的，重新思考和重新设计废物回收生产系统以更好地捕捉材料的价值，开发用于监测材料成分的系统，与新的网络基础设施集成以进行废物监测，并整合影响复杂的多尺度系统行动的行为和政策结构。 该项目的目标是开发一个系统级框架，用于有机废物生命周期的比较分析，将行为科学与物质流分析相结合，以重新思考废物系统和有机废物新副产品的开发。该提案的重点是在“食品、能源和水系统界面的有机废物生命周期”（OWL-FEW）框架内的系统级互动。“该项目需要开发下一代网络基础设施，用于测量，监测和捕获有机废物流的数据;分析有机废物处置行为背后的社会和机构驱动因素;以及实验，开发和测试有机废物流的新副产品。利用现有的中试规模厌氧消化器，生物/水热炭工程设施，用于真实的时间跟踪废物流的开源射频识别标签，以及一系列行为实验和人类行为的比较制度分析，研究团队将专注于五个目标：1）在区域层面上开发有机废物生命周期的动态模型; 2）开发和测试有机食物垃圾副产品用于能源，土壤改良剂，水修复和其他用途; 3）开发智能有机食物垃圾网络基础设施; 4）在动态模型，网络基础设施和废物/资源产品的开发中整合社会科学; 5）利益相关者参与研究和教育工作。这项研究的结果将提供有意义的途径，以减少浪费在美国，并提供水处理，能源和农业资源的废物，导致更好的食品，能源和水安全在美国这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

Interconnected food-energy-water (FEW) demands are increasing due to increasing population and economic growth. One of the major reasons for these increased demands is the generation of non-utilized waste streams. The U.S. generates approximately 254 million tons of trash each year, with only 34% of this waste recycled or composted. Increasing restrictions on the export of garbage has generated both challenges and opportunities for the management of waste systems. Waste material provides and opportunity for materials recovery, the generation of new products and processes, and the potential to positively impact food, energy, and water systems. Given the increasing rates of consumption internationally, developing the next generation of waste recovery is of global significance. However, reinventing waste streams requires a better understanding of how waste is currently governed, rethinking and redesigning waste recovery production systems to better capture the value of material, developing systems for monitoring material composition, integration with new cyber infrastructure for waste monitoring, and incorporating the behavioral and policy structures that influence action across complex multi-scaled systems. The objectives of the project are to develop a systems-level framework for comparative analysis of organic waste lifecycles that combines behavior sciences with material flows analysis to rethink waste systems and the development of new co-products from organic wastes. This proposal focuses on systems-level interactions in the framework of "Organic Waste Lifecycles at the Interface of Food, Energy and Water Systems (OWL-FEWs)." The project entails the development of the next generation of cyber-infrastructure for measuring, monitoring, and capturing data on organic waste streams; analysis of social and institutional drivers behind organic waste disposal behavior; and experimentation, development, and testing of new co-products from organic waste streams. Utilizing an existing pilot-scale anaerobic digester, bio/hydrochar engineering facilities, open source radio frequency identification tagging for real time tracking of waste flows, and a series of behavior experiments and comparative institutional analysis of human behavior, the research team will focus on five goals: 1) The development of a dynamic model of organic waste lifecycles at a regional level; 2) The development and testing of organic food waste co-products for energy, soil amendments, water remediation, and other uses; 3) The development of a smart organic food waste cyber infrastructure; 4) The integration of social sciences across the development of the dynamic model, cyberinfrastructure, and waste/resource products; and 5) The engagement of stakeholders across the research and educational efforts. The results of this research will provide meaningful pathways to reducing waste in the U.S. and provide water treatment, energy, and agricultural resources from waste, leading to better food, energy, and water security in the U.S.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.