This project is jointly funded by the INFEWS Initiative and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). The Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus, from a global perspective, includes the closely interconnected resource systems of food, energy, and water. As the world's population expands to an expected 9 billion by 2050, there will be an urgent demand to balance different resources, such as hydrocarbon and/or renewable energy sources, agricultural products, and fresh water, across these three systems to achieve different user goals without putting undue strain on the ecosystems that provide these resources. Agricultural regions across the U.S. face challenges such as low agricultural prices, high energy and fertilizer costs, pollution from agricultural runoff and waste, and depleting water supplies that threaten the existence of local communities. For these mainly Small Town and Rural (STAR) communities, adaptation pathways to a resilient future are unclear, and delayed action is reducing possible alternatives and increasing eventual adaptation costs. However, these STAR communities also represent an entry point to revitalize the sustainability of the U.S. agriculture system, providing unique opportunities for technological advancement to stabilize the FEW Nexus. The FEWtures project will develop a decision-support system based on engineering and economic research and design and stakeholder-driven analysis of conditions needed for system change. The decision-support system will be used to evaluate the viability of new, integrated, renewable-energy-powered solutions. Fortunately, many of these regions also have large renewable energy resources, and the solutions considered will leverage existing and emerging technologies in water treatment, ammonia synthesis, and electric microgrid planning. Goals include increasing usable water resource availability, mitigating agricultural runoff and waste, and promoting resilience in agricultural systems, while diversifying and stimulating STAR-community economies. The decision support system will be developed and tested in the Central Arkansas River Basin (CARB), a region that covers the middle third of the Arkansas River Basin (ARB). The CARB includes the arid agricultural center of this basin, covering parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. The project will engage farming, livestock, water, and energy organizations in the region, such as the Future Farmers of America, the Kansas Livestock Association Environmental Services Inc, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Ogallala Program, and electric cooperatives. The FEWtures project will educate 5 PhD students and at least 10 undergraduate students. A 3-credit, on-line, active learning course on food, energy, and water will be developed and taught, and materials will be made freely available.
Recent advances in energy efficient small-scale and modular water-treatment systems, ammonia synthesis adaptation to intermittent renewable energy supplies, and synergies between renewable energy supply variability and load flexibility provide opportunities to balance the FEW Nexus. These advances suggest that renewable-energy powered local-scale water treatment and ammonia production can offer transformative opportunities to drive environmental and economic resilience in STAR communities. Four key scientific challenges are addressed in this collaborative research project that involves the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, Washington State University, and Western New England University. The first challenge is the use of water treatment to reduce salinization of water and soils, making poor quality sources like saline and produced waters usable, and managing nitrates to protect human and ecological health. However, the economic viability of small-scale water treatment facilities depends on membrane separation selectivities and productivities for source and product water characteristics. This research will identify viability thresholds for typical water sources and uses and identify the characteristics needed to meet them. The second challenge is to evaluate the viability thresholds of small-scale ammonia production adapted to intermittent energy availability. The goal is to identify how provided energy storage and vectoring and produced nitrogen fertilizer could benefit agricultural economies using conceptual and quantitative models. The third challenge is to develop an electric microgrid planning process suitable for such renewably powered local-scale water treatment and ammonia production. The fourth challenge will be to integrate the advances in the first three challenges with decision and exogenous variables to evaluate effects on local and global systems' resilience. New metrics, conceptualizations, and a techno-economic model will be developed and implemented with scientific and stakeholder advisory group participation.
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.
