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The 6th International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management: NAXOS 2018

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A: Sustainable Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2019) | Viewed by 52325

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Mejdi Jeguirim

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Guest Editor

Institut de Science des Matériaux de Mulhouse (IS2M), Université de Haute-Alsace, CNRS, UMR 7361, 68093 Mulhouse, France
Interests: biomass valorization: pyrolysis, gasification, and combustion of different biomasses, including agriculture residues and agro-industrial by-products; thermal degradation mechanisms and kinetics; gas emission analysis; exhaust gas treatment: exhaust gas treatment in fixed and mobile sources; NOx and soot abatement; volatile organic compound elimination
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Dr. Lionel Limousy

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Université de Haute-Alsace, Université de Strasbourg, IS2M, CNRS, UMR7361, 3b rue Alfred Werner, F68100 Mulhouse, France
Interests: Biomass conversion and valorization; carbon materials; biological and physicochemical wastewater treatments; adsorption of pollutants; chemical engineering and processing; batch and continuous reactors; design synthesis and characterization of carbon adsorbents (chars, activated carbons, composite materials)
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Dr. Konstantinos Moustakas

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Guest Editor

Unit of Environmental Science & Technology, School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Heroon Polytechniou Street, Zographou Campus, 15780 Athens, Greece
Interests: environmental chemistry; sustainability; renewable energy; waste-to-energy; integrated solid waste management; circular economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The conference aims to address the significant issue of sustainable solid waste management through the promotion of safe practices and effective technologies. The conference focuses mainly on modern solid waste technologies. It aims to stimulate the interest of scientists and citizens and inform them about the latest developments in the field of municipal solid waste management. Separation at source, biological treatment, the treatment at central facilities, waste prevention, biowaste utilization, recycling promotion, sludge management, agricultural and livestock waste, management of specific waste streams (construction and demolition waste, waste from electrical and electronic equipment, etc.) constitute main conference subjects. Special attention will be drawn to the valorization prospects and the products from solid waste, such as biofuels, compost, materials, etc. The new concept of this conference is that it hopes to strengthen the link of the applied research with industry. Emphasis will be placed on waste management issues in islands and generally isolated areas. Biotechnology, circular economy, best available techniques, symbiosis networks, energy consumption and saving, carbon footprint and water footprint, zero-waste initiatives, marine litter constitute new target areas of the conference. The conference will provide an opportunity to bring together scientists and professionals from government departments, industries, Municipalities, private institutions, research and education institutions, being a forum for the exchange of the most recent ideas, techniques and experiences in all areas of solid waste management. A special workshop will also focus on the industrial operation and the support to the industries in order to improve their performance with parallel environmental and financial benefits.

Prof. Mejdi Jeguirim
Prof. Lionel Limousy
Dr. Konstantinos Moustakas
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 5161 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Biomass Potential from Agricultural Waste for Energetic Utilization in Greece

by Spyridon Alatzas, Konstantinos Moustakas, Dimitrios Malamis and Stergios Vakalis

Energies 2019, 12(6), 1095; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12061095 - 21 Mar 2019

Cited by 71 | Viewed by 7037

Abstract

The alignment of the Greek national legislation with the corresponding EU legislation has enhanced the national efforts to pursue renewable Combined Heat and Power (CHP) projects. The scope of the present study has been the identification of the available biomass resources and the assessment of their potential. In this paper, we present the results from the administrative regions of Crete, Thessaly, and Peloponnese. The levels of lignocellulosic biomass in Greece are estimated to be 2,132,286 tonnes on an annual basis, values that are very close to the cases of other Mediterranean countries like Italy and Portugal. In respect to the total agricultural residues, Crete produces 1,959,124 tonnes/year and Thessaly produces 1,759,457 tonnes/year. The most significant streams are identified to be olive pits, olive pruning, and cotton ginning remnants, with more than 100,000 tonnes/year each. In the latter part of this manuscript, a case study is presented for the development of a CHP gasification facility in Messenia. The biomass energy potential of the area is very promising, with about 3,800,000 GJ/year. The proposed small-scale gasification technology is expected to utilize 7956 tonnes of biomass per year and to produce 6630 MWh of electricity and 8580 MWh of thermal energy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 6th International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management: NAXOS 2018)

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11 pages, 1623 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Applications of the 3T Method and the R1 Formula as Efficiency Assessment Tools for Comparing Waste-to-Energy and Landfilling

by Stergios Vakalis and Konstantinos Moustakas

Energies 2019, 12(6), 1066; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12061066 - 20 Mar 2019

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2629

Abstract

The assessment of novel waste-to-energy technologies has several drawbacks due to the nature of the R1 formula. The 3T method, which aims to cover this gap, combines thermodynamic parameters in a radar graph and the overall efficiency is calculated from the area of the trapezoid. The present study expands the application of the 3T method in order to make it suitable for utilization in other energy-from-waste technologies. In the framework of this study, a 3T specialized solution is developed for the case of landfilling plus landfill gas recovery, with the potential inclusion of landfill mining. Numerical applications have been performed for waste-to-energy and landfilling by using both the R1 formula and the 3T method. The model Land GEM was used for the calculation of the total landfill gas. The Combined Heat and Power (CHP) efficiency of the landfill gas CHP efficiency was 16.6%–33.1%, and for the waste-to-energy plant, the CHP efficiency was over 70%. The full range of parameters, like metal recovery and quality of CHP, were not fully reflected by the R1 formula, which returned values of 1.07 for waste-to-energy and from 0.37 to 0.63 for different landfilling scenarios. Contrary to that, the 3T method calculated values between 0.091 and 0.307 for the waste-to-energy plant and values between 0.011 and 0.121 for the various landfilling scenarios. The 3T method is able to account for the recovery of materials like metals and assess the quality of the output flows. The 3T method was able to successfully provide a solution for the case of landfilling plus landfill gas recovery, with the potential inclusion of landfill mining, and directly compares the results with the conventional case of waste-to-energy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 6th International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management: NAXOS 2018)

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17 pages, 2115 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

The Application of Analytical Hierarchy Process in Combination with PESTEL-SWOT Analysis to Assess the Hydrocarbons Sector in Cyprus

by Michail Tsangas, Mejdi Jeguirim, Lionel Limousy and Antonis Zorpas

Energies 2019, 12(5), 791; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12050791 - 27 Feb 2019

Cited by 44 | Viewed by 13593

Abstract

Natural gas reserves have been recently found offshore of Cyprus. Hence, a new energy sector is under development, creating potential for raised welfare for the small insular EU member. Several social and economic benefits could be achieved from the resources’ exploitation. However, natural gas is a non-renewable energy source, connected with the major environmental issues of fossil fuels. The research goal of this work was to evaluate the sustainability of the new hydrocarbons sector. This was attained using a set of indicators, developed from the combination of PESTEL (Political, Economic, Technical, Social, Environmental, Legal) and SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analyses. These were quantified using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) weighting method. They were pairwise compared and evaluated, resulting to a size for each one. The judgements of four evaluators, representing diverse interested parties, were used. The strengths and opportunities of the sector were found to be more than the weaknesses and threats. The relevant indicators quantification demonstrates also that the value of the positives is higher than the negatives. Therefore, if the first are enhanced and the latter are mitigated, there is sustainability potential. The sectors environmental issues are evaluated as the most important, followed by the economic. The other takes lower but comparatively significant values, and must be handled accordingly. These results lead to useful conclusions and could be exploited for decision-making and policies formulation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 6th International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management: NAXOS 2018)

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13 pages, 1496 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Novel Yeast Strains for the Efficient Saccharification and Fermentation of Starchy By-Products to Bioethanol

by Nicoletta Gronchi, Lorenzo Favaro, Lorenzo Cagnin, Silvia Brojanigo, Valentino Pizzocchero, Marina Basaglia and Sergio Casella

Energies 2019, 12(4), 714; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12040714 - 22 Feb 2019

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 5474

Abstract

The use of solid starchy waste streams to produce value-added products, such as fuel ethanol, is a priority for the global bio-based economy. Despite technological advances, bioethanol production from starch is still not economically competitive. Large cost-savings can be achieved through process integration (consolidated bioprocessing, CBP) and new amylolytic microbes that are able to directly convert starchy biomass into fuel in a single bioreactor. Firstly, CBP technology requires efficient fermenting yeast strains to be engineered for amylase(s) production. This study addressed the selection of superior yeast strains with high fermentative performances to be used as recipient for future CBP engineering of fungal amylases. Twenty-one newly isolated wild-type Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains were screened at 30 °C in a simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) set up using starchy substrates at high loading (20% w/v) and the commercial amylases cocktail STARGEN™ 002. The industrial yeast Ethanol Red™ was used as benchmark. A cluster of strains produced ethanol levels (up to 118 g/L) significantly higher than those of Ethanol Red™ (about 109 g/L). In particular, S. cerevisiae L20, selected for a scale-up process into a 1-L bioreactor, confirmed the outstanding performance over the industrial benchmark, producing nearly 101 g/L ethanol instead of 94 g/L. As a result, this strain can be a promising CBP host for heterologous expression of fungal amylases towards the design of novel and efficient starch-to-ethanol routes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 6th International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management: NAXOS 2018)

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17 pages, 2867 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Recovery of Low-Grade Heat (Heat Waste) from a Cogeneration Unit for Woodchips Drying: Energy and Economic Analyses

by Tilia Dahou, Patrick Dutournié, Lionel Limousy, Simona Bennici and Nicolas Perea

Energies 2019, 12(3), 501; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12030501 - 05 Feb 2019

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3123

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to improve the operating share of a biomass cogeneration unit by using unavoidable heat waste heat recovered from a district network heating used for drying woody biomass’ return water (law-grade temperature heat). The optimal operating conditions of a drying unit added to the system were estimated from an energy and a financial point of view, applying four objective functions (drying time, energy consumption, energy balance, and financial performance of the cogeneration unit). An experimental design methodology used heat for the implementation of these functions and to obtain an operating chart. Numerical modelling was performed to develop a simulation tool able to illustrate the unsteady operations able to take into account the available waste heat. Surprisingly, the model shows that the right strategy to increase the financial gain is to produce more warm water than necessary and to consequently dispose higher quantities of unavoidable heat in the network’s return water, which heat up the drying air at a higher temperature. This result contrasts with the current approaches of setting-up cogeneration units that are based on the minimization of the heat production. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 6th International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management: NAXOS 2018)

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12 pages, 624 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Energy Efficiency of Biorefinery Schemes Using Sugarcane Bagasse as Raw Material

by Daissy Lorena Restrepo-Serna, Jimmy Anderson Martínez-Ruano and Carlos Ariel Cardona-Alzate

Energies 2018, 11(12), 3474; https://doi.org/10.3390/en11123474 - 13 Dec 2018

Cited by 30 | Viewed by 4375

Abstract

The use of biomass to obtain value-added products has been a good alternative for reducing their environmental impacts. For this purpose, different studies have been carried out focused on the use of agro-industrial waste. One of the most commonly used raw materials has been bagasse obtained from the processing of sugarcane in high quantities in countries like Brazil, India, China, Thailand, Pakistan, Mexico, Colombia, Indonesia, Philippines, and the United States. From 1 ton of sugarcane, 280 kg of bagasse can be obtained. Sugarcane bagasse (SCB) is a waste that is rich in polysaccharides, which makes it a promising raw material for obtaining products under biorefinery concept. The objective of this work was to analyze from the energetic point of view, different biorefinery schemes in which SCB is employed as a raw material. The design and simulation of the different biorefinery schemes is performed in Aspen Plus software. From this software, it was possible to obtain the different mass and energy balances, which are used in the technical and energetic analysis. Exergy is used as a comparison tool for the energy analysis. These analyses allowed for the selection of the best biorefinery configuration from SCB. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 6th International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management: NAXOS 2018)

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Review

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38 pages, 4085 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Review of Sludge-to-Energy Recovery Methods

by Jumoke Oladejo, Kaiqi Shi, Xiang Luo, Gang Yang and Tao Wu

Energies 2019, 12(1), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12010060 - 25 Dec 2018

Cited by 205 | Viewed by 15024

Abstract

The increasing volume of sewage sludge from wastewater treatment facilities is becoming a prominent concern globally. The disposal of this sludge is particularly challenging and poses severe environmental hazards due to the high content of organic, toxic and heavy metal pollutants among its constituents. This study presents a simple review of four sewage to energy recovery routes (anaerobic digestion, combustion, pyrolysis and gasification) with emphasis on recent developments in research, as well as benefits and limitations of the technology for ensuring cost and environmentally viable sewage to energy pathway. This study focusses on the review of various commercially viable sludge conversion processes and technologies used for energy recovery from sewage sludge. This was done via in-depth process descriptions gathered from literatures and simplified schematic depiction of such energy recovery processes when utilised for sludge. Specifically, the impact of fuel properties and its effect on the recovery process were discussed to indicate the current challenges and recent scientific research undertaken to resolve these challenges and improve the operational, environmental and cost competitiveness of these technologies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 6th International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management: NAXOS 2018)

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