Assessing Durability Properties and Economic Potential of Shellfish Aquaculture Waste in the Construction Industry: A Circular Economy Perspective
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This manuscript is a good start to better understanding of how to integrate the aquaculture and construction industries by using shell waste in construction materials. However, the author needs to make improvements to the manuscript in order for this to be suitable for publication in MDPI Sustainability. I would be willing to continue to review this manuscript for continuous improvement after the author has made the following TEN substantive edits as well as minor line-number specific edits:
1) Please make sure there are NO blank row(s) separating paragraphs and that a paragraph by definition has at least 3 sentences. Please consolidate paragraphs under three sentences long if the theme is the same, or write more to expand the paragraph and support the topic sentence. All paragraphs must be indented.
2) All section, sub-section, and sub-sub-section headers should NOT be indented.
3) Please use the formatting option where words are automatically spaced to allow full-left and full-right justification. You have broken up words with hyphens and the problem with this is that it requires constant updating as you edit the manuscript.
4) Since MDPI journals use the [#] format for citation, you only need to state the lead author’s last name (et al.) if it is absolutely critical for the reader to know who this researcher is, so please re-write where this is done as just statements summarizing the research (e.g., L113-118).
5) Please add a paragraph in the end of the Introduction section where you go over the goals and objectives of the research.
6) What is the statistical significance of the differences in numbers presented in Table 2 columns on L266-267?
7) For Figures 5 though Figure 8, please add error bars.
8) In Figure 1, label the left map of Chile with the regions so the reader understands where the regions you list in Table 5 are.
9) For all Tables and Figures please make sure the headers end with a period (most do not).
10) The References formatting is not correct for MDPI journals, particularly the need to abbreviate journal names (e.g., J. Cleaner Prod.) which you can find via web search or journal web site. The year is in bold and follows the journal name. The volume (issue) are in italics with no comma after the year. You also need to include the DOI link for cross referencing.
Specific Line Number of Manuscript Figure/Table comments (note that requested change of word(s) in quotations where NO edits need to be made for writing before/after each “…”):
L54 – Sub-script the “2”
L55 – Sub-script the “3”
L81-82 & L89 – All equations need to be indented
L83-86 & L148 – The temperature degree symbols are not underlined
L131-133 – In Figure 1, it is not clear what “Demand of resources” exactly are. Is that in metric tons (t) as well? In the figure caption, you need to specify what t stands for so change to “…and raw material production in metric tons (t) versus resource demand in ??? by the construction industry.” Also, for the scallop production, I assume that is the actual scallop including the shell? Is it shelled scallops? Or is it just the shell weight? If shell weight, then it should be labeled as “Scallop shell waste” or something like that.
L140 – Change to “from scallop (Argopecten purpuratus) aquaculture.”
L144 – Similar edit as on L140
L153 – What does “ASTM D3682” stand for? Also put a space after the “[62]”
L155 – Same question as for L153 on what the acronyms stand for
L163 – Font size of table not the same as the rest of the manuscript. What does “N.D.” stand for? Also, the S and G need to be written out with units in parentheses.
L185-186 – Same question as for L153 on what the acronyms stand for
L192 – Make the font size similar to the rest of the manuscript and do NOT bold and capitalize the first letter in the first word for both (a) and (b)
L195-196 – Make font size consistent
L197-198 – No bold should be used and write this out in sentences
L200 – Same question as for L153 on what the acronyms stand for and make sure to sub-script the numbers for chemical compositions
L201-202 – Subscript the numbers
L207 – What does “EN” stand for? What is the significance of the number and where is the citation for this standard?
L212 – Use “e.g.,” and not “i.e.” and note there is always a comma after this. Note “e.g.,” means for example and “i.e.” is saying this in another way.
L216 – Change to “ration was 40% sulfur and…” and change to “…compositions at 50% sulfur, which were…”
L221 – What is “CLP” stand for in terms of Chilean currency?
L227- Change to “…benefits (i.e., savings) were…”
L237-238 – Adjectives so use hyphens so change to “…producers (large-, medium-, and small-scale), the…”
L240 – Change to “…concentrated (Figure 1).”
L243 – Add a comma so change to “i.e.,”
L254 – Change to “…of 40% sulfur and 50% sulfur seashell…”
L262-264 – What does “EN” stand for? What is the significance of the numbers?
L266-267 – Write out “d” and “Sc” and super-script the “3”
L270 – Change to “…the 40% sulfur and 50% sulfur samples,”
L272 – Superscript the “2+” cation and clarify what SO42- is
L273 – Subscript the “4”
L274 – Remind the reader so change to “However after week 3, resistance to acid attack (Ra) begins to decrease”
L277-278 – The y-axis numbers should have periods and not commas (Brazilian and South American style)
L278 – Add a blank row after to separate the figures
L280 – Do not bold and make font size consistent and write out for sulfur instead of using “S”
L281-288 – Write out instead of using “S”
L297 – Write out instead of using “S”
L313-314 – Is Table 3 please write out “S” and in table header write (US$) so this is clear what the units are
L327 – Write out instead of using “S” and write (US$) in table header so this is clear what the units are
L327-328 – The graph needs x-axis and y-axis lines in black and change to color from grey to black for all writing and numbers
L346-347 – For Table 5, this is in what units of measure?
L355 – Change to “…of US$ 30.30 per ton.”
L361 & L364 – Write out instead of using “S”
L366-367 – The graph needs x-axis and y-axis lines in black and change to color from grey to black for all writing and numbers and change to “Shells 50% sulfur” and “Shells 40% sulfur” and make x-axis increments 500 and not 1000
L390-391 – The graphs needs x-axis and y-axis lines in black and change to color from grey to black for all writing and numbers and make x-axis increments 500 and not 1000 for both graphs and change to “(a) 40% sulfur” and “(b) 50% sulfur”
L392-393 – Change to “…construction industries at (a) 40% sulfur and (b) 50% sulfur.”
L394 – Change to “4. Conclusions”
L414 – Add a sentence or two to the last paragraph in the Conclusions section on how the research can be improved in the future
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
In this paper, the authors try to use sea shell powder instead of a certain percentage of gypsum to achieve the recycling of biological waste. The durability of the bio-inorganic hybrid material is tested by sulfuric acid erosion, sulfate erosion, and freeze-thaw cycles deterioration, thus providing a new idea for green materials. Also, the feasibility of this green material is demonstrated using economic analysis. The authors' work deserves recognition, here are comments from the reviewer, and they will hopefully help you to improve your manuscript.
(1) Title, the title should be a summary of the research content, and it is suggested to change the aquaculture waste to shellfish aquaculture waste.
(2) Data visualization, the primary purpose of a figure is to provide clear information, please add the scales in Figure 2, Figure 9, Figure 10 and Figure 11.
(3) Line 272, normative writing of chemical formulae, please check the entire paper.
(4) Line 274-277, “However, after week 3, Ra begins to decrease and by week 5, Ra is less than 1”, The compressive strength of the specimens mixed with seashells powder decreased significantly from the third week and it is suggested to supplement the photographs of the specimens from the third to the fifth week in Figure 6 to prove the conclusion: “This is because the fabricated gypsum produces a volumetric expansion of the material and led to spalling of the surface layers and consequently, a decrease in compressive strength”.
(5) Line 288-290, “Deterioration seems to be related to the reaction between calcium sulfate (in different hydrated forms), aluminates and hydrated lime to form ettringite”, in gypsum, aluminum is present as an impurity (Al2O3 is 0.18 in commercial gympsum, Table1) and not as a major component, please add pictures or textual content to prove the reliability of the conclusion.
(6) Please supplement the discussion in sections 3.1.2, 3.1.3 and 3.1.4 with specific values for the compressive strength of the specimens as appropriate, rather than using a single relative data.
(7) The costs for different processing steps are clearly shown in Table 4, and Figure 9 can be deleted, and the percentage of costs for different steps can be supplemented to Table 4.
(8) Check the data units in the "IV - Coquimbo" column in Table 5.
(9) Line 395-400, The test results showed that the compressive strength of the specimens mixed with seashell powder resisted sulfate erosion and freeze-thaw cycles were significantly inferior to that of pure gypsum specimens. The negative test results also have reference value for scientific research, and the advantages and disadvantages of different materials should be written in the conclusion.
(10) In section 3.2.3, the payback period is based on shell replacement gypsum savings to compensate for equipment acquisition costs and should be supplemented with the yield of the relevant equipment to determine the exact time of payback period.
(11) The paper should highlight the author's contribution and innovation in the introduction section, and clearly summarize the findings in the conclusion section. The author can also refer to the follow papers:
“Zhou, Z., Zhang, J., & Gong, C. (2022). Automatic detection method of tunnel lining multi-defects via an enhanced You Only Look Once network. Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, 37, 762-780. ”
“Zhou, Z., Hu, J., Li, F., Zhang, J., & Lei, M. (2022). Elastic Modulus Prediction Model of Foamed Concrete Based on the Walsh Formula. Applied Sciences, 12(10), 5142.”
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
This manuscript is a good start to better understanding of how to integrate the aquaculture and construction industries by using shell waste in construction materials. The authors made improvements to the manuscript, however there were a lot of formatting and clarity edits that were not made. The amount of these edits are enough to interfere with understanding and clarity. Please carefully review the MDPI Sustainability template for how the manuscript should look when making changes (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/instructions) and download this by clicking on the hyperlink titled “Microsoft Word template.” I would like to briefly review these edits before recommending for publication. This manuscript is suitable for publication in MDPI Sustainability after the following TEN substantive edits as well as minor line-number specific edits are made:
1) Please make sure there are NO blank row(s) separating paragraphs. You misunderstood my substantive edit here. All section, sub-section, and sub-sub-section headers should NOT be indented and you have made these edits. However, you indented all paragraphs in the manuscript and this is not correct. Please correct these for all paragraphs and indent them. Once you do this, you can remove the blank spaces between paragraphs since these blank spaces are not needed to separate paragraphs.
2) For all sub-section and sub-sub-section headers, add a space between number (#.#.) or number (#.#.#.) and writing. Also, for all sub-section headers numbered like (#.#.) these all need to be in italics (see below). Follow the MDPI format:
2. Header for second section
2.1. First sub-header
2.1.1. First sub-sub-header
2.1.2. Second sub-sub-header
2.2. Second sub-header
3) Paragraphs need to have at least 3 sentences. You did not make these corrections.
4) In Figure 1, the second map in green for demand of resources does not have any weights associated with this. Why? What type of resources (scallops or construction materials or something else)? You did not clarify this.
5) Change all “ton” to “metric ton” throughout the manuscript since “ton” is an English unit and it sounds like all weights are in metric units.
6) All “Figure #.” and “Table #.” to start the header needs to be in bold. So please change this throughout the manuscript.
7) Table 5 and 6 (and others) lack clarity. In Table 5 for example, is “Landing” the whole scallop including the shell? So should that read “Scallop landings (t)”? Also change to “Scallop shells (t)” for the label. What does SSF mean? For Table 6, delete the second row since volumetric capacity is not a cost. Change the header on L393 to “Table 6. Costs of final scallop shell disposal in landfill sites using a 10 metric ton volumetric capacity waste transport system.”
8) Figures 9 and 10 are not in all solid black. Grey lines and labels remain. You did not make this correction.
9) Any use of “Note:” should be at the bottom of the table and not in the header itself. Please just change how you write all table headers where you have this based on my comment for L347-348. Please make similar changes throughout the manuscript where you use “Note:” in table headers.
10) Numbers in all chemical formulas need to be subscripted. For example your write on L65: CaCO3
This needs to be changed to: CaCO3
Please make similar changes throughout the manuscript for number sub-scripts.
Specific Line Number of Manuscript Figure/Table comments (note that requested change of word(s) in quotations where NO edits need to be made for writing before/after each “…”):
L5 – Titles do NOT have a period since it is a title and not a sentence
L113 – Do not capitalize since in middle of sentence so change to “scallop”
L128-129 – Change to “Figure 1. Geographical distribution in Chile of raw, whole scallops including shells in metric tons (t) versus resource demands (t) in the construction industry.”
L142 – Change start of sentence to “Our study used Chilean scallop (Argopecten purpuratus) produced using aquaculture, hereinafter…”
L162 – Font size of table not the same as the rest of the manuscript.
L170 – Change end of sentence to “…were shown in [46].”
L198 – The “(4)” needs to be all the way to the right like the other equation numbers
L199 – Remove both “:”
L208 – Change end of sentence to “compressive strength over a period of 10 weeks.”
L217 – Same type of edit as on L208 above
L304 – Add a space between number (#.#.#.) and writing
L347-348 – Change to “Table 3. Pre-treatment costs (US$) of scallop shells (S) by composition percentage where 0%S: 100% gypsum, 40%S: 40% scallop and 60% gypsum, and 50%S: 50% scallop and 50% gypsum.”
L349-350 – Tables are stand alone in understanding even without the header, so add a row at the top and have “-------- Cost (US$) --------“ above the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th columns. Label the 1st column “Pre-treatment”
L366-367 – Tables are stand alone in understanding even without the header, so add a row at the top and have “-------- Manufacturing cost (US$) --------“ above the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th columns. Label the 1st column “Construction material”
L384 – The word “ton” is an English unit so change to “metric tons”
L385 – Change start of sentence to “Waste management for the scallop industry is…”
L385-386 – Spacing is not consistent at 1.5 spacing versus single spacing for the rest of the manuscript
L401-403 – The word “ton” is an English unit so change to “metric tons” and make sure this is done everywhere else by using Word Find & Replace function
L432 – Change to “4. Conclusions” and you did not bold this
L414 – Add a sentence or two to the last paragraph in the Conclusions section on how the research can be improved in the future
L443-444 – Change to “…of disposing scallop shells as aquaculture waste and the potential…”
L445 – Delete “(Construction)” as it is redundant
L470-672 – Please see MDPI Sustainability template and note that format should be unbolded comma after the publication year in bold for journal articles:
1. Author 1, A.B.; Author 2, C.D. Title of the article. Abbreviated Journal Name Year, Volume, page range.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 3
Reviewer 1 Report
This manuscript is a good start to better understanding of how to integrate the aquaculture and construction industries by using shell waste in construction materials. The authors made requested improvements to the manuscript. I do NOT need to review these final edits before page proof editing stage. This manuscript is suitable for publication in MDPI Sustainability after the following TWO substantive edit as well as minor line-number specific edits are made:
1) Please make sure there are NO blank row(s) separating paragraphs. You misunderstood my substantive edit here. You need to indent all paragraphs in the manuscript. The page proof editor will ask you to correct this.
2) Add “Acknowledgements” after “Author Contributions” section on L440-444.
Specific Line Number of Manuscript Figure/Table comments (note that requested change of word(s) in quotations where NO edits need to be made for writing before/after each “…”):
L77 – Delete space before “O” so reads “H2O” and the function you used for the 2 is reducing the size of the number and not the x2 subscript option in Word so please correct this throughout the manuscript for all numbers in chemical formulas that need to be sub-scripted.
L159 – Delete this line since there is no sub-section “2.1.2.” and all this fits under 2.1. Materials
L185 – “2.2.1.1.”
L197 – “2.2.1.2.”
L204 – “2.2.1.3.”
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf