TY - JOUR
T1 - Towards the optimization of sustainable food-energy-water systems
T2 - A stochastic approach
AU - Karan, Ebrahim
AU - Asadi, Somayeh
AU - Mohtar, Rabi
AU - Baawain, Mahad
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2018/1/10
Y1 - 2018/1/10
N2 - The interlinkage between the food, energy and water (FEW) supply systems, known as the nexus, has received considerable attention in recent years. Despite this intense interest, there is little work focusing on how to design a sustainable FEW system that can consistently meet its food, energy, and water demands. In an effort to better understand the dynamics among the nexus, the scope of the study is limited to a small-scale FEW system that can consistently yield food for a family of four (two adults and two children) and collect or recycle its own water and supply its own energy needs through solar panels (electricity demand). In order to determine the influence of each component (i.e. food, water, or energy) on the system's output and identify the weakest link of the system (e.g. water scarcity, energy shortage, inconsistent supply of food, etc.), a quantitative modeling is used to calculate the total cost of sustainable FEW systems. The impact of each design decision variable (e.g. size of the system, water recycling capacity, solar system) on the system's output is formulated and then optimized. The model is analyzed for two different climate scenarios; a cloudy and humid scenario and sunny and arid scenario. In both scenarios, the energy component represents a large portion of the system's total cost (around 86% in the humid climate and 73% in the arid climate). This shows that innovative energy production technologies are needed to improve the sustainability of FEW systems at a reasonable cost.
AB - The interlinkage between the food, energy and water (FEW) supply systems, known as the nexus, has received considerable attention in recent years. Despite this intense interest, there is little work focusing on how to design a sustainable FEW system that can consistently meet its food, energy, and water demands. In an effort to better understand the dynamics among the nexus, the scope of the study is limited to a small-scale FEW system that can consistently yield food for a family of four (two adults and two children) and collect or recycle its own water and supply its own energy needs through solar panels (electricity demand). In order to determine the influence of each component (i.e. food, water, or energy) on the system's output and identify the weakest link of the system (e.g. water scarcity, energy shortage, inconsistent supply of food, etc.), a quantitative modeling is used to calculate the total cost of sustainable FEW systems. The impact of each design decision variable (e.g. size of the system, water recycling capacity, solar system) on the system's output is formulated and then optimized. The model is analyzed for two different climate scenarios; a cloudy and humid scenario and sunny and arid scenario. In both scenarios, the energy component represents a large portion of the system's total cost (around 86% in the humid climate and 73% in the arid climate). This shows that innovative energy production technologies are needed to improve the sustainability of FEW systems at a reasonable cost.
KW - Energy
KW - Food
KW - Greenhouse
KW - Quantitative modeling
KW - Sustainability
KW - Water
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.10.051
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.10.051
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85034619475
SN - 0959-6526
VL - 171
SP - 662
EP - 674
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
ER -