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Sustainable Industry and Innovation in the Industrial IoT Era
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Sustainable Industry and Innovation in the Industrial IoT Era

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2021) | Viewed by 12368

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Bernardino Quattrociocchi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Management, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Interests: management; digital transformation; business; strategic alignment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Alessandro Corsini

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Eudossiana 118, I-00184 Rome, Italy
Interests: numerical methods for turbomachinery flow simulation and particle laden flows and erosion in turbomachinery; advanced design concepts in industrial fans and blowers, axial and radial pumps; RES: ocean energy and innovative design of air turbines for OWC system, development of co-powered small-scale CSP unit; rotating machinery: diagnosis and control of stall in industrial fans; rotating machinery: passive noise control in industrial fan

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [1] is setting technology as one of the key ingredients in achieving sustainable development by decoupling societal wellbeing and progress from environmental impacts (An Eco-modernist Manifesto, 2015) [2]. Accordingly, for each unit of economic output, a smaller environmental footprint will result. Among the recognized drivers to such a decoupling, technological factors are universally indicated as those able to mitigate the energy intensity of the industrial sector, i.e., still accounting for a 40% share of the consumption of electricity around the world [3,4].

In this vein, UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 9 focusing on infrastructure, industrial development, and innovation, in target 4, highlights the need to “upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound (environmentally friendly) technologies and industrial processes”. [5–10]

Under this umbrella, the Industrial Internet of Things, merging IT and OT components, may be seen as a key ingredient to enable several economic benefits boosting sustainability, for example, reduction of O&M costs in industrial processes, increase of overall process efficiencies, exploitation of predictivity in operations, and creation of new user-oriented services. Thus, the existing relation between sustainability and innovation in terms of enterprise benefits should be investigated.

Therefore, the current Special Issue intends to play a critical role in the development of new theories and models that investigate the variables that influence the mentioned relation through a collection of new contributions in which researchers will be called to grasp the more complex aspects through in-depth study of the topics indicated below.

Submissions related to the following topics are welcome:

      Smart factories

      Business intelligence methodologies

      Data analytics and AI solutions for industry and energy systems

      Business models and sustainable innovation

      Action and models to promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization

      SDG performance—the SDG index: evaluating the Performance of the SDGs on Sustainability

      Sustainability-oriented innovations

      Stakeholder relations and sustainable business models: cases

      Sustainability manager for resilient business strategies, governance, and management

      SDG performance—the SDG index: evaluating the Performance of the SDGs on Sustainability

References

[1] UNITED NATIONS (UN). Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; A/RES/70/1. UNITED NATIONS: New York, NY, USA, 2015.

[2] An Eco-modernist Manifesto, www.ecomodernism.org, 2015.

[3] IEA. Key World Energy Statistics; IEA: Paris, France, 2016.

[4] IEA. Electricity Information 2017; IEA Publications: Paris, France, 2017.

[5] AtKisson Group. (2016). The SDG Indicators: What Are We Measuring? Available at: https://t.co/Ii59erwKf2

[6] United Nations E/2019/68 Economic and Social Council https://undocs.org/E/2019/68 - Special edition: progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals - Report of the Secretary-General.

[7] Sachs, J., Schmidt-Traub, G., Kroll, C., Durand-Delacre, D., and Teksoz, K. (2016). SDG Index and Dashboards – Global Report. New York: Bertelsmann Stiftung and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). Available at: http://www.sdgindex.org/

[8] Wackernagel M, Hanscom L and Lin D (2017) Making the Sustainable Development Goals Consistent with Sustainability. Front. Energy Res. 5:18. doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2017.00018

[9] Transforming sustainability challenges into competitive advantage: multiple case studies kaleidoscope converging into sustainable business models, Journal of Cleaner Production.

[10] K. Sullivan, S. Thomas, M. Rosano (2018) Using industrial ecology and strategic management concepts to pursue the Sustainable Development Goals.

Prof. Bernardino Quattrociocchi
Prof. Alessandro Corsini
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.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 1478 KiB  
Article
Blockchain Technology and Sustainable Business Models: A Case Study of Devoleum
by Francesco Mercuri, Gaetano della Corte and Federica Ricci
Sustainability 2021, 13(10), 5619; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105619 - 18 May 2021
Cited by 38 | Viewed by 5441
Abstract
The lack of transparency along global supply chains poses challenges in the areas of fraud, pollution, human rights abuses, and inefficiencies. In this context, the blockchain has the potential to offer an unprecedented level of transparency, with a shared and decentralized database in [...] Read more.
The lack of transparency along global supply chains poses challenges in the areas of fraud, pollution, human rights abuses, and inefficiencies. In this context, the blockchain has the potential to offer an unprecedented level of transparency, with a shared and decentralized database in which immutable and encrypted copies of information are stored on every node of the network. Using a single case study methodology, this paper investigates how blockchain technology can improve and facilitate sustainable business models. The aim of this paper is to understand how blockchain technology can drive the development of sustainable business models. Recent studies show the importance of sustainability perspectives for business models. The study was conducted by applying the CAOS (“Characteristic, Ambience, Organization, Start-up”) model to a start-up operating in the agri-food sector, not yet institutionalized, called Devoleum. The results indicate that blockchain technology can increase sustainability through realizing the traceability, security, and non-manipulability of information, which are particularly useful in the agri-food sector. Furthermore, the absence of intermediaries in blockchain technology contributes to reducing transaction costs and the time required to consolidate relations between the company and the environment. The limitations of this study must be identified in that the company is operational but not yet incorporated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Industry and Innovation in the Industrial IoT Era)
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14 pages, 7648 KiB  
Article
Bluetooth Beacon-Based Mine Production Management Application to Support Ore Haulage Operations in Underground Mines
by Sebeom Park and Yosoon Choi
Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 2281; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042281 - 20 Feb 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2801
Abstract
In this study, a mine production management application (app) using a Bluetooth beacon and tablet PC was developed to support the efficient operation of an underground mine loading-transport system. The app receives signals from the Bluetooth beacons attached to major loading points and [...] Read more.
In this study, a mine production management application (app) using a Bluetooth beacon and tablet PC was developed to support the efficient operation of an underground mine loading-transport system. The app receives signals from the Bluetooth beacons attached to major loading points and crushing sites through the tablet PC mounted on the truck and records the time the signals were received as well as the location of the truck. In addition, when the tablet PC receives the signal from the Bluetooth beacon, the truck driver can select and input information such as loading point, ore type, and dumping method on the tablet PC screen. Data recorded on the tablet PC during the haulage operation are automatically transmitted to the cloud server when the truck arrives in a wireless communication area. The cloud server continuously stores and manages data transmitted from multiple trucks equipped with tablet PCs. The performance test was conducted by using the system developed for a limestone underground mine located in Jeongseon, Korea. Results confirmed that the information related to ore production in the field could be effectively collected and managed, and the efficiency of production management could be improved. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Industry and Innovation in the Industrial IoT Era)
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Review

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21 pages, 9115 KiB  
Review
Analysis of the EU Secondary Biomass Availability and Conversion Processes to Produce Advanced Biofuels: Use of Existing Databases for Assessing a Metric Evaluation for the 2025 Perspective
by Francesca Di Gruttola and Domenico Borello
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7882; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147882 - 14 Jul 2021
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 3348
Abstract
Nowadays in Europe, the production of advanced biofuels represents a very important objective, given the strong interest in increasing sustainability throughout the transport sector. Production and availability of advanced biofuels are cited as a relevant issue in the most important international actions, such [...] Read more.
Nowadays in Europe, the production of advanced biofuels represents a very important objective, given the strong interest in increasing sustainability throughout the transport sector. Production and availability of advanced biofuels are cited as a relevant issue in the most important international actions, such as the Sustainable Development Goals in UN Agenda 2030, EU RED II, and EU Mission Innovation 4, to cite a few of them. However, an important aspect to be considered is the prediction of feedstocks availability to produce advanced biofuel. The first aim of this paper is to assess the availability of European agricultural residues, forestry residues, and biogenic wastes in 2025. The data were collected through a deep review on open FAOSTAT and EUROSTAT databases and then elaborated by the authors. The analysis focuses on the fraction of feedstocks that can be used for advanced biofuels production, i.e., incorporating specific information on sustainable management practices, competitive uses, and environmental risks to preserve soil quality. An autoregressive model is developed to predict future availability, while also considering corrections due to the current pandemic. The results suggest that several European countries could produce enough sustainable advanced feedstocks to meet the European binding target. In particular, France, Germany, and Romania will have high production of agricultural feedstocks; while Austria, Finland, and Sweden will be rich of forestry residues; finally, Italy, France, and United Kingdom will have the highest availability of wastes. To complete the picture, a proper metric is introduced, aiming at generating a technology ranking of the examined alternative fuels, in terms of several relevant parameters such as biomass availability, Technology Readiness Level (TRL), quality of the biofuel, and costs. This analysis allows us to compare advanced biofuels and first-generation biofuels, whose utilization can impact the food market, while also contributing to the increase in the indirect land use change (ILUC). Although the first-generation biofuels remain the most common choice, the renewable (or green) diesel, pyrolysis bio-oil, green jet fuel, and the second-generation bioethanol are promising for different applications in the transport sector. Hydrotreated Vegetable Oils (HVO), Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA), Anaerobic Digestion (AD), and transesterification from vegetable oil represent the most widespread and mature technologies. Thus, it seems mandatory that the transport sector will rely more and more on such fuels in the future. For such reason, a specific support for advanced biomass collection, as well as specific programs for conversion technologies development, are strongly suggested. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Industry and Innovation in the Industrial IoT Era)
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