Biotechnology for Waste Treatment and Resource Recovery
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Waste and Recycling".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2023) | Viewed by 3353
Special Issue Editors
Interests: green chemistry; food waste; waste valorisation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: sustainable materials and renewable fibres; waste processing; microwave-assisted extraction; protein extraction
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
For nearly a century, crude oil has been the core feedstock for our society, representing the prime source of chemicals for fuels, solvents, polymers, dyes, adhesives, coatings, LCDs and many more. However, as the population grows, so too does the demand for these products—to the point where it is clear that the demand for oil far outstrips the rate at which its reserves can be replenished. At the same time, as the production of materials and products increases, so too does the generation of waste side-streams and by-products which, combined with the standard practice of disposal of products at the end of life, creates a similar problem in terms of demand for landfill space and environmental issues associated with other disposal means (e.g., incineration).
The achievement of a society and economy which are sustainable in the long term requires a model that make use of and recovers waste streams and products generated through the supply chain, as opposed to finding ways to dispose of this waste safely in order to reduce the demand for both resources and disposal routes. Similarly, we must also look away from crude oil and towards the bio-based economy to supply us with the methods and chemicals needed to recover and convert waste streams into useful products. The purpose of this Special Issue therefore is to bring these two challenges together to examine how biotechnology can provide solutions for the problems of waste management, particularly with respect to resource recovery or the transformation of waste streams into useful chemicals, materials and products.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Use of biological agents (enzymes, bacteria, plants etc.) to process or carry out chemical conversions on waste streams;
- Conversion of waste biomass to chemicals and materials;
- Improvements of fermentation or anaerobic digestion techniques;
- Development of new enzymes or bacterial strains to produce novel metabolites for use in the chemical industry;
- Recycling of biomass;
- Emerging biotechnologies for waste treatment and resource technologies;
- Routes to scale up, process development or commercialisation of research in the above fields.
If you are unable to commit to writing at this time, please feel free to pass this on to others in your group or network who may be interested.
I look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Tom Dugmore
Dr. Joseph Houghton
Dr. Eduardo Macedo De Melo
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. Sustainability 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 2400 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.
Keywords
- biotechnology
- bioeconomy
- biobased materials
- waste valorisation
- waste treatment
- circular economy
- environmental remediation
- resource recovery
