Abstract
The relationship between energy, agriculture, and technological systems is rarely confined to single, predictable outcomes. Instead, it reflects a pattern in which changing one part of a system can reshape much larger networks. My capstone project focuses on the industrial design of a 3,000 metric ton per day urea production facility using natural gas as a feedstock to explore how new technology can help large-scale chemical engineering can meet global agricultural demand efficiently and profitably. The project emphasizes process integration, emissions reduction, and utilities optimization within modern industrial constraints. In parallel, my STS research paper examines the socio-economic impacts of bioethanol expansion in the American Midwest at national and local scales, motivated by a desire to understand how energy policy reshapes agricultural identity and economic stability. This paper investigates how bioethanol, promoted as a renewable fuel, transformed corn production and regional livelihoods. These two projects are connected through their shared focus on agricultural inputs and how, as technological systems, they redistribute economic risk and environmental consequences. Together, they highlight that engineering decisions are not isolated technical choices but interventions in complex socio-technical systems.
The capstone project addresses a central global challenge of producing while minimizing environmental and economic costs. Urea is one of the most widely used nitrogen fertilizers, and its production is heavily energy intensive. The capstone design attempts to remedy this problem by integrating hydrogen production, ammonia synthesis, and urea formation into a continuous, optimized process, and by incorporating new, modern catalysts.
The project ultimately concludes that a large-scale, integrated urea plant can be both economically viable and environmentally improved compared to conventional designs. The incorporation of carbon recycling demonstrates potential for a partial mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Economic analysis indicates strong profitability driven by high production capacity and efficient recycling systems. However, the design implicitly reinforces reliance on natural gas. While technically sound, the design still exists within the same system of trade-offs that characterize modern industrial agriculture.
My STS research paper asks how the expansion of corn-based ethanol reshaped the economic and cultural identity of the Midwest This question is significant because ethanol policy is often framed as environmentally beneficial, yet its local impacts are uneven and contested by many academic papers. Using a sociotechnical framework, the research analyzes how market incentives, federal subsidies, and technological infrastructure create agricultural and economic change. The methodology combines policy analysis and economic data.
The evidence shows that ethanol expansion increased demand for corn, reinforcing monoculture practices and tying farmers more closely to volatile global markets. The findings suggest that returns on investment remained modest when accounting for risk, slimmed by heavy industrial subsidies. The results indicate that ethanol’s benefits are unevenly distributed, with large agribusinesses often capturing more value than individual farmers. Ethically, this raises concerns about who bears the risks of “green” energy transitions. The paper concludes that while ethanol represents a technological solution to energy concerns, it also exemplifies how market-driven environmental policies can obscure deeper structural inequalities. When viewed alongside my capstone, it becomes clear that both fertilizer production and biofuel expansion are part systems that seek efficiency but often have potential to shift social and environmental costs in less visible ways.
