| NSF Org: |
CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | July 13, 2018 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | June 18, 2020 |
| Award Number: | 1805741 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Bruce Hamilton
CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | August 1, 2018 |
| End Date: | July 31, 2023 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $292,378.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $326,974.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2020 = $34,596.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
2550 NORTHWESTERN AVE # 1100 WEST LAFAYETTE IN US 47906-1332 (765)494-1055 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
225 S. University Street West Lafayette IN US 47907-2093 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
GOALI-Grnt Opp Acad Lia wIndus, EnvS-Environmtl Sustainability |
| Primary Program Source: |
01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
Only 30% of waste generated in the US was recycled in 2013 and globally only 14% of plastics are recycled today. Realization of the environmental consequences of waste disposal and the economic cost of lost resources has mobilized global efforts to close material loops by recycling and recovery. This system is termed the "Circular Economy". However, to build a robust and resilient circular economy, it is necessary to identify hidden vulnerabilities that can occur due to increased mutual interdependence of sectors in the economy with increasing use of waste as feedstock. To achieve this goal, a full physical map of current industrial interactions must be known, which can be captured by Physical Input-Output Tables (PIOTs) that account for inter-industry interactions in physical units. But, PIOTs are rarely developed, with only very few PIOTs developed across the world since 1990s. This is attributed both to lack of data and a standardized approach for building PIOTs. Thus, the physical structure of existing economy cannot be mapped. The aim of this research is to address this critical missing piece of transitioning to a robust circular economy. The overall goal is to develop and establish a "Process to PIOT (P2P)" approach that integrates process engineering based models with an Input-Output framework for generating PIOTs for a regional economy.
Specific tasks of this project are: 1) Establish a new P2P approach for developing PIOTs; 2) Compare PIOTs developed against exisiting Monetary Input-Output Tables (MIOT) for validation; 3) Develop an Open source database of Process Models that can be adapted for developing PIOTs along with an open platform for collaborative PIOT development. This project is targeted to enable transition to a robust circular economy by developing and standardizing a Process to PIOT (P2P) approach that utilizes the strength of process modeling to develop regional PIOTs. Establishing the P2P approach will provide a standardized approach for fast, reproducible and transparent PIOT development in any region of choice. A key feature of the approach is to utilize the strength of process engineering models in a modular approach to build PIOTs, and combining with an interregional trade model for improved accuracy in capturing inter-sectoral flows in a region. This research will provide an open-source collaborative platform for developing PIOTs on a regional scale (PIOTHub) using Purdue's HubZero platform. The collaborative platform will allow multiple researchers to develop PIOTs for many regions and enhance collaboration to solve sustainable resource and consumption challenges. Further, the process engineering approach will allow interested industries to use the platform for making strategic decisions in forming alliances that will be economically and environmentally beneficial without the concern of disclosing proprietary information. This is critical for industry engagement into spurring regional environmental sustainability. Undergraduate and graduate education modules developed as case studies in this project will be disseminated for teaching the concepts of the circular economy.
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.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
A circular economy is a system in which resource inputs, wastes and emissions are minimized by closing material loops through recycling. The transition towards circular economy replaces the traditional linear economy of ``take-make-dispose", thus helping the society to meet the UN goal of sustainable resource use and consumption. However, a key challenge for transitioning our current economies towards a circular system is the lack of visibility in current material flows between different interdependent industries in an economy. As the current system is unknown, any changes made do not necessarily move the system towards the desired ``zero-waste" systems. Hence, it is critical to elucidate these material flows between interdependent industries in any regional economy that will provide a clear picture of existing material flows, resource utilization and waste generation. This project addressed this critical challenge for sustainable transition towards ``zero-waste" systems through two key outcomes.
1) First key outcome of this project is an automated algorithm called ``Process to PIOT" which creates a Physical Input-Output Table (PIOT) model of the economy by integrating mechanistic process engineering models of different economic sectors with the macroeconomic Input-Output framework. The PIOT model captures the flows of material from one industry to another in a simple to read matrix format, thus providing a clear picture of the structural dependence of different industries (sectors) on material flows. The PIOT model also includes detailed flows of wastes from each modeled sector, thus providing insights into opportunities for implementing circular economy strategies in an economy. We utilized this algorithm to develop PIOTs for the biobased sectors for Illinois, USA and Indiana, USA that details the flows of materials related to agricultural commodities and bio-energy sectors. This information will provide key insights into transitioning these economies towards circular economy as demonstrated by the case studies in the project and published for public dissemination. This also provided a comparative analysis of material flows between different industries in the region of Illinois and Indiana.
2) The second key outcome of the project is development of a computational tool called PIOT-Hub that allows for generation of PIOTs automatically by uploading the mechanistic models in Python or ASPEN format, depending on the appropriate model for the sector. This has been tested for reproducibility of PIOT generation for different regions which has helped in standardizing the approach for PIOT modeling. This tool also has a collaborative development feature that will help industrial users to develop models collaboratively, thus bringing concerted efforts to transition to circular economy.The tool is currently hosted on Purdue server and a US Patent has been filed for this technology.
Thus, this project has truly pushed the boundary forward for sustainable management of resources by providing first ever integrated algorithm between process systems engineering and macroeconomic model along with a computational tool to automate this analysis. As the models can be readapted and scaled, the model generation process is scalable as we have demonstrated in published papers. The applications of this tool include mapping material flows at regional and national economies, material flows in supply chains, simulating the impact of implementing circular economy scenarios on material flows/waste elimination and comparison of different regional economies for efficient material utilization. The PIOT-Hub tool is also ready for technology commercialization and is currently being considered for scaling to help industries map their material flows specific to their own production system. This will have long term societal impact of eliminating waste from manufacturing systems, evaluating material footprints of supply chains for re-shoring manufacturing in US etc., thus enhancing sustainability of our manufacturing systems. This project has also provided significant educational opportunities to graduate and undergraduate students for incorporating sustainability assessment in their traditional engineering degrees.
Last Modified: 01/04/2024
Modified by: Shweta Singh
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