Environmental Implications of Emerging Technologies Program

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NSF Directorate for Engineering Division
of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and
Transport Systems (CBET) Environmental
Engineering and Sustainability Cluster Environmen
tal Sustainability (7643) Program Director -
Bruce Hamilton - bhamilto_at_nsf.gov

• ? Trends
• ? Program
• ? Research

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Environmental Sustainability Program
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This program funds engineering research with
the goal of advancing sustainable engineered
systems that support human well-being and that
are also compatible with sustaining natural
(environmental) systems.
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Environmental Sustainability Program
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• ? All proposed research should be driven by
• engineering principles, and be presented
  explicitly
• in an environmental sustainability
  context. 
• ? Proposals should include involvement in
• engineering research of at least one
  graduate student,
• as well as undergraduates. 
• ? Proposals emphasizing enhancement of
• American Competitiveness are encouraged.
• ? Incorporation of aspects of social,
  behavioral, and
• economic sciences is welcomed.
• ? The duration of unsolicited awards is generally
  one to
• three years.  The average annual award size
  for the
• program is 100,000

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Short-term Priority Areas

• ? Biofuels Sustainability
• ? The Water-Energy Nexus
• ? Dynamic LCA (including direct and
• indirect land use factors)
• ? Electronics Component Materials
• Recycle-Reuse-Sustainability
• ? Sustainable IT (Green IT)

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Long-term Priority Areas

• ? Complex Systems and Global
• Environmental Environmental Problems
• (includes climate change)
• ? Scale Effects in the Analysis of
• Sustainability of Complex Environmental
• Systems (Earth Systems Engineering)
• ? Sustainable Water Resources in a
• Changing Environment (includes
• the water-energy nexus)

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Current Areas of Support

• ? Industrial Ecology  
• ? Green Engineering
• ? Ecological Engineering
• ? Earth Systems Engineering

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Industrial Ecology . . .

• includes advancements in modeling
• such as
• ? life cycle assessment (LCA)
• ? materials flow analysis (MFA)
• ? economic input/output (I/O) models
• ? novel metrics for measuring
• sustainable systems.

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Industrial Ecology Research Example 1
Biofuels and the Hydrologic Cycle
Robert Anex, PI (Environmental Engineer)
Raymond Arritt, co-PI (Hydrometeorologist)
Phillip Gassman, co-PI (Environmental
Scientist) Brian Gelder,
co-PI (Agricultural Engineer) Manoj
Jha, co-PI (Environmental Engineer) Iowa State
University 300,000 over 2 years (co-funded
with 100K by Energy for Sustainability)
? Understanding the role of biofuels in the
water cycle is key to understanding
many of the environmental impacts of biofuels.
? This research is addressing impacts of
alterations in the hydrologic cycle
driven by biomass feedstock production.
? Water-driven environmental impacts of biofuel
production scenarios will be assessed
using a set of interconnected models.
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Industrial Ecology Research Example 2

• CAREER Creation of a Predictive and
• Dynamic Life Cycle Assessment Tool
• Shelie Miller (Environmental Engineer)
• Clemson University
• 400,000 over 5 years
• ? Anticipate transformational advances in
  
• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), including
  the ability to forecast
• the stochastic nature of developing
  systems, incorporating
• spatial (e.g., land use) and temporal
  (non-stationary)
• considerations currently lacking in
  LCA.
• ? Case study lignocellulosic biofuel
  from switchgrass in
• Tennessee area

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Green Engineering . . .

• research is encouraged to advance the
• sustainability of chemical processes,
• manufacturing processes,
• green buildings, and
• infrastructure.

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Green Engineering includes . . .
Green manufacturing processes Green buildings
(with CMMI, SBE) Green IT (with CISE, SBE,
HP) Sustainable infrastructure (with CMMI,
SBE)
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Green Engineering Research Example 1
SGER The Production of Fuel Hydrocarbons by
Gliocladium sp. Gary Strobel, PI, Biologist
Montana State University 229,248 over 2 years
co-funded by CBET Catalysis and Biocatalysis
program and follow-up project awarded by
EFRI/HyBi SGER Results published in
peer-reviewed Microbiology, November
2008. NSF Press Release November 6,
2008 Strobel has teamed with engineers (for
HyBi) 35K GRS-like supplement to SGER for a
woman engineering Ph.D. student to do
engineering laboratory research on creating
a process
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Green Engineering Research Example 2
Sustainability and Capital Project Portfolios
Modeling the Emergent Properties of Total Cost of
Ownership Annie Pearce (Virginia
Tech) Kristen Bernhardt (Lafayette
College) 305,000 over 3 years First round IDR
grant CBET Environmental Sustainability program
and 5 CMMI programs
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Green Engineering Research Example 3
Integrating Green Roofs and Photovoltaic Arrays
for Energy Management and Optimization of
Multiple Functionalities Carl Wamser
(Chemistry) Todd Rosenstiel (Biology) David
Sailor (Engineering) Portland State
University 300,000 over 3 years Co-funded by 8
programs in CBET CMMI
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Ecological Engineering . . .

• Includes
• ? Sustainable water resources
• ? Sustainable engineered ecosystems
• Topics should focus on the engineering aspects of
• restoring ecological function to natural systems,
• including stream restoration, revitalization of
• urban rivers, and wetlands rehabilitation. 
• What is the fundamental engineering knowledge
• that is necessary for ecological engineering to
• function in a sustainable way?

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Ecological Engineering Research Example 1
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Collaborative Research Evaluating Nutrient
Reductions to Control Cyanobacteria and Ensure
Large Lake Sustainability Lake Taihu (China)
as a Model for North American Systems Hans
Paerl, PI (UNC-Chapel Hill) Steven Wilhelm
(University of Tennessee - Knoxville) 288,000
over 3 years (co-funded by OISE) (IREE-like REU
supplements recently added)
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Ecological Engineering Research Example 1
Slide 2 of 2
Photographs are of blue-green algal
(cyanobacterial) blooms on Lake Taihu, China
being sampled and examined (using bioassays) for
nutrient limitation. This sampling is part of a
project designed to quantify nutrient input
reductions that will be needed to control
cyanobacterial blooms that adversely affect water
quality and safe use of lake water for drinking
and irrigational purposes.
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Ecological Engineering Research Example 2
Toward Integration of Industrial Ecology and
Ecological Engineering Bhavik Bakshi (Chemical
Engineering) William Mitsch (Environmental
Biology) Ohio State University 300,000 over 3
years Co-funded by CNH (SBE/BIO/GEO) ? Will
expand LCA to include the role of ecosystems ?
Will create a software tool ECO-LCA ? Includes
economic input-output analysis at the national
level ? Includes industrial partners (e.g.,
Owens-Corning)
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Earth Systems Engineering . . .

• ? includes
• ? Electronics global reverse supply chain
• ? Mitigating global warming (with GEO)
• ? considers aspects of large scale
• engineering research that involve
• ? mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions
• ? adaptation to climate change
• ? other global scale concerns

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Earth Systems Engineering Research Example 1
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• Assessing and Managing the Sustainability of
  Global Reverse Supply Chains The Case of
  Personal Computers
• Eric Williams, PI Brad Allenby, co-PI
  Yongsheng Chen, co-PI
• Arizona State University
• 300,000 over 3 years
• (initial publication in EST 2008 - see next
  slide)
• The main goal for this work is to develop the
  intellectual framework necessary for
• engineering and managing an international reverse
  supply chain from a sustainability perspective.
  A case study approach using the reverse supply
  chain for personal computers in the U.S. is
  employed. The research consists of three
  components
• ? A material flows analysis to understand the
  global reach of the end-of-life
• computers from the U.S.
• ? An analysis of the environmental and
  developmental aspects of different
• paths for this reverse supply chain.
• ? Articulation of an earth systems engineering
  perspective of technology
• systems incorporating both engineering and
  social/policy contexts.

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Earth Systems Engineering Research Example 1
(continued)
Slide 2 of 2
Environmental Science Technology 2008, 42,
6446-6454
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Earth Systems Engineering Research Example 2
CDI-Type II Understanding Water-Human Dynamics
with Intelligent Digital Watersheds Jerry
Schnoor, PI (Environmental
Engineering) Andrew Kusiak, co-PI
(Industrial Engineering) David Bennett, co-PI
(Geography) Marian Muste, co-PI
(Hydrology) Silvia Secchi, co-PI
(Economics) University of Iowa 900,000 over 3
years (co-funded by CBET, CMMI, and GEO)
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