Systems engineering opportunities for agricultural and organic waste management in the food–water–energy nexus

Garcia, Daniel J.; You, Fengqi

doi:10.1016/j.coche.2017.08.004

“…Garcia and You identified systems engineering, which applies system thinking in designing and managing complex systems, as an efficient tool for waste management under FEW2 nexus [26]. This is in line with Bieber et al's conclusion that a FEW2 system approach can improve the benefits across all the underlying sectors [27].…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Planning of Food-Energy-Water-Waste (FEW2) nexus for sustainable development

Feng

¹

,

Dam

²

,

Guo

³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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It is critical for reliable infrastructure planning to address the Food-Energy-Water-Waste (FEW2) nexus at system level. This paper presents the applicability of resilience.io platform across water, energy and waste sectors (including food and agricultural waste) with focus on waste-to-energy pathway, aiming to establish the optimal FEW2 nexus based on economic and environmental indicators. A rich array of technology options, including water production facilities, clean energy technologies and waste-to-energy conversions are evaluated to meet the demand of water and energy (mainly gas and electricity), and the treatment requirement of waste and wastewater. A case study of Hunter Region, the largest region in Australia, is presented in this study, featuring the supply and demand context of developed countries. A full set of scenarios, including business-as-usual (BAU), water and wastewater, power plant decommission, waste-to-energy and policy intervention, is created to present FEW2 nexus from the perspective of individual nodes and the whole system. The results signal the benefits of biogas and syngas generation from anaerobic digestion and gasification for waste-to-energy pathway, alongside findings in water and energy sectors. The outcome of this analysis can then form the foundation of regional planning involving relevant stakeholders, with the modelling tools supporting scenario evaluation and collaborative learning to reach consensus in view of different performance indicators including financial and environmental metrics.

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“…Nonetheless, an emerging trend is observed to model the system by connecting all the nodes to exploit potential synergies [24,25]. Garcia and You identified systems engineering, which applies system thinking in designing and managing complex systems, as an efficient tool for waste management under FEW2 nexus [26]. This is in line with Bieber et al's conclusion that a FEW2 system Fig.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 60%

Planning of Food-Energy-Water-Waste (FEW2) nexus for sustainable development

Feng

¹

,

Dam

²

,

Guo

³

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It is critical for reliable infrastructure planning to address the Food-Energy-Water-Waste (FEW2) nexus at system level. This paper presents the applicability of resilience.io platform across water, energy and waste sectors (including food and agricultural waste) with focus on waste-to-energy pathway, aiming to establish the optimal FEW2 nexus based on economic and environmental indicators. A rich array of technology options, including water production facilities, clean energy technologies and waste-to-energy conversions are evaluated to meet the demand of water and energy (mainly gas and electricity), and the treatment requirement of waste and wastewater. A case study of Hunter Region, the largest region in Australia, is presented in this study, featuring the supply and demand context of developed countries. A full set of scenarios, including business-as-usual (BAU), water and wastewater, power plant decommission, waste-to-energy and policy intervention, is created to present FEW2 nexus from the perspective of individual nodes and the whole system. The results signal the benefits of biogas and syngas generation from anaerobic digestion and gasification for waste-to-energy pathway, alongside findings in water and energy sectors. The outcome of this analysis can then form the foundation of regional planning involving relevant stakeholders, with the modelling tools supporting scenario evaluation and collaborative learning to reach consensus in view of different performance indicators including financial and environmental metrics.

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“…In recent years, the problems associated with waste management have become very relevant in the frame of a more sustainable model of development and consumption of new resources and energy [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. The construction industry is one of the activities with the greatest consumption of raw materials together with large production of waste [8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recycled Expanded Polystyrene as Lightweight Aggregate for Environmentally Sustainable Cement Conglomerates

Petrella

¹

,

Mundo

²

,

Notarnicola

³

2020

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In the present work the rheological, thermo-mechanical, microstructural, and wetting characteristics of cement mortars with recycled expanded polystyrene (EPS) were analyzed. The samples were prepared after partial/total replacement of the conventional sand aggregate with EPS having different grain size and size distribution. Lightness and thermal insulation were relevant features for all the bare EPS composites, despite the mechanical strengths. Specifically, EPS based mortars were characterized by higher thermal insulation with respect to the sand reference due to the lower specific mass of the specimens mainly associated with the low density of the aggregates and also to the spaces at the EPS/cement paste interfaces. Interesting results in terms of low thermal conductivity and high mechanical resistances were obtained in the case of sand-EPS mixtures although characterized by only 50% in volume of the organic aggregate. Moreover, sand-based mortars showed hydrophilicity (low WCA) and high water penetration, whereas the presence of EPS in the cement composites led to a reduction of the absorption of water especially on the bulk of the composites. Specifically, mortars with EPS in the 2–4 mm and 4–6 mm bead size range showed the best results in term of hydrophobicity (high WCA) and no water penetration in the inner surface, due to low surface energy of the organic aggregate together with a good particle distribution. This was indicative of cohesion between the ligand and the polystyrene as observed in the microstructural detections. Such a property is likely to be correlated to the observed good workability of this type of mortar and to its low tendency to segregation compared to the other EPS containing specimens. These lightweight thermo-insulating composites can be considered environmentally sustainable materials because they are prepared with no pre-treated secondary raw materials and can be used for indoor applications.

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Systems engineering opportunities for agricultural and organic waste management in the food–water–energy nexus

Cited by 63 publications

References 79 publications

Planning of Food-Energy-Water-Waste (FEW2) nexus for sustainable development

Planning of Food-Energy-Water-Waste (FEW2) nexus for sustainable development

Planning of Food-Energy-Water-Waste (FEW2) nexus for sustainable development

Recycled Expanded Polystyrene as Lightweight Aggregate for Environmentally Sustainable Cement Conglomerates

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