(471d) Spatially-Explicit Techno-Ecological Design for Sustainable Manufacturing Applied to a Power Plant

Far too often, fields of study are kept separated and can result in many unintentional impacts, specifically environmental concerns. These impacts affect ecosystems that provide the services on which we rely for survival and well-being. Ironically, in search for technology to improve mankind’s livelihood, we risk the health and well-being provided by the natural world. Therefore, to make better, holistic decisions, there is a need for bridging engineering and ecology to design systems that include both technology and ecology. Along with decreasing negative environmental impacts, including ecosystems in sustainable design can lead to innovative solutions which utilize the functions and co-benefits of nature as we search for sustainable solutions amid increasing population and demand for these services.

Previous work in techno-ecological process design has lacked inclusion of spatial heterogeneity of ecosystem service supply and demand. It is important to understand how, where, and when mass and energy flow across components of techno-ecological systems to inform design opportunities and impacts. This work will focus on gaseous pollutants and air quality regulation. To understand the atmospheric dispersion of the flue gas contaminants and the capacity of local ecosystems to uptake those chemicals, through dry deposition, we incorporate a detailed geophysical, meteorological, and dispersion model into the design framework. This research will introduce a spatially-explicit techno-ecological design framework and present an application of the framework to a coal-fired power station in Eastern Ohio.

In the case study, we focus on the SO₂, NO₂, and PM₁₀ emissions of the power station and the adsorption of these chemicals onto the leaf surfaces of nearby land cover. Our framework will compare the pollution removal between technological equipment and land-use change in the region, optimizing minimum-cost solutions that meet the pollution removal requirements. To show the applicability and practicality of the framework, we will demonstrate a few different scenarios including: models at two different scales of land area, multiple technological scales of the power station, a deforestation (or natural disaster) simulation, inclusion of carbon sequestration, and different ecological budgets. The results yield both long-term operating conditions of the technology and maps or animations of the land changes over time. Further, we will discuss critical variables in determining each solution and conduct a sensitivity analysis on the price of land afforestation.

Initial results suggest that land management can provide limited air pollution removal of toxins like SO₂, NO₂, and PM_10, however, the land management can still be economically-competitive options on a “per ton” basis. Including the valuation of other ecosystem services, like carbon sequestration, can heavily favor land management projects for industries. Bringing a balance of both technological and ecological solutions can bridge the gap between the amount of pollutant emitted from a manufacturing site and the uptake of local ecosystems. This introduces an absolute sustainability metric rather than a relative one, comparing emissions to ecological capacity. However, it is also recognized that only focusing on air quality regulation can shift environmental impacts onto other ecosystem services. We will discuss initial insights into land use competition and inclusion of other ecosystem services into this spatially-explicit design framework. Exploring spatially-explicit design options for techno-ecological systems enables smarter industrial site design and is one step closer towards bridging ecological knowledge with engineering practice.