Brenda Cansino-Loeza

University of Wisconsin–Madison | UW · Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Water, energy, and food are essential resources for meeting basic human needs and for socio-economic development. The water-energy-food nexus studies the interconnections between energy, water, and food resources to improve their security and achieve sustainable development. In recent years, optimization models have been developed around systems th...

The effects of climate change, such as droughts and decreased rainfall, as well as population growth and globalization are aggravating the availability of water, energy and food. As a result, meeting the population's demand will be a major challenge in the near future. For this reason, assessing the situation of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus is...

Assessing the security of the water-energy-food nexus is a topic of great importance, which allows determining the situation of each resource to implement actions for sustainable management of these resources in today's society. For this reason, a systematic procedure is proposed to evaluate the synergies of the water-energy-food nexus in a large r...

Due to the unsustainable consumption of resources and climate change, it is increasingly difficult to maintain the security of the water–energy–food nexus, especially in regions with low availability. Thus, the need to design more resilient systems is key to sustainable development. Quantifying resilience in integrated systems such as the water–ene...

Urbanization, increasing demands, and climate change are critical challenges to ensure water, energy, and food security. The water-energy-food nexus requires integrating tools to guide the allocation of resources and promote sustainability. This work presents a mathematical formulation for the optimal design and management of resources to enhance t...

Energy is an essential element for human development and economic growth. Rapid population growth, rising living standards, and technological development are the main factors behind the increased energy demand in the last decades. Consequently, the alarming trends in increasing energy consumption have shown serious implications for the environment,...

Increasing demands and climate change are critical challenges to ensure water, energy, and food security. The water-energy-food nexus requires integrating tools to guide the allocation of resources and promote sustainability. This work presents a mathematical formulation for the optimal design and management of resources to enhance the water-energy...

The analysis of social aspects, such as occupational health, is as important as economic and environmental criteria in the design of sustainable chemical processes. Occupational health analyzes the relationship between work and health while enabling the identification of hazards that can cause injuries due to chronic exposure of the workers. This p...

The proper planning of the water-energy-food nexus is key for urban sustainability. However, the security of water, energy, and food is posed at risk due to uncertain events such as natural disasters. The quantification of resilience in water-energy-food systems has gained relevance in recent years and has served as a key tool to identify vulnerabl...

The 2030 agenda for sustainable development sets goals to strengthen the economic, environmental, and social sectors of the world. Among the main objectives are to eradicate poverty in the world, guarantee food security and human well-being, as well as the sustainable production of resources. The most important challenges are in rural areas where i...

Security of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus has become a global concern, threatened by the rapid urbanization, unsustainable consumption of resources, population growth and climate change that exert pressure on resources to meet the socioeconomic demands. Water-Energy-Food Nexus is central for sustainable development and promoting efficient management...

Currently, the security of basic resources such as water, energy, and food is regarded essential for the sustainable development. Nonetheless, population growth, economic development and changing consumption patterns have caused stress on these resources. It is expected that in the near future, in many parts of the world, it will be challenging to...

Solar energy has become one of the most developed renewable energy sources in recent years. As with any energy source or product, there are health risks associated with the manufacturing of solar cells. And even though the photovoltaic industry uses far lesser amounts of toxic and flammable substances than many other industries, the use of hazardou...

This paper evaluates the applicability of different multi-objective optimization methods such as goal programming, weighted sum, and epsilon constraint in a polygeneration system. The problem under study aims to meet the water, energy, and food demands in an isolated community. The model includes three fundamental objectives, which are the maximiza...

This work presents a general mathematical programming model for satisfying water, energy and food needs in isolated and low-income communities involving different process integration approaches. The problem consists in determining the optimal and sustainable configuration to satisfy the energy, water and food demands of the inhabitants. Also, the u...

When working on design of intensified processes or develop of a new technology it is very important to have the necessary tools and criteria to select the best option. In this work the environmental impact and occupational health of twelve intensified reactive distillations processes to produce diphenyl carbonate are evaluated and studied, diphenyl...

This work presents a multi-objective optimization model for the design of an integrated residential complex, which incorporates the proper use of available resources and wastes through recycling and reusing networks. The proposed model involves the proper use of water accounting for rainwater harvesting and the reuse of reclaimed water. The model a...