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Environmental Evaluation and Energy Recovery in Waste Management
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Environmental Evaluation and Energy Recovery in Waste Management

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 February 2023) | Viewed by 11745

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Dorota Kulikowska

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Environamntal Biotechnology, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, 10-709 Olsztyn, Poland
Interests: wastewater and landfill leachate treatment; aerobic and anaerobic methods in sewage sludge and waste management; bio-based products biodegradation; soil remediation-stabilization; new-generation washing agents for heavy metals removal from contaminated soils
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Katarzyna Bernat

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Biotechnology, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, 10-709 Olsztyn, Poland
Interests: biological nitrogen removal from wastewater; reject water and landfill leachate treatment; aerobic and anaerobic methods in waste management (sewage sludge, municipal solid waste, agro-food waste and lignocellulosic biomass)
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue, “Environmental Evaluation and Energy Recovery in Waste Management” is dedicated to research that aims to provide knowledge on modern and advanced technologies used for waste and wastewater management. It is known that proper waste and wastewater management is a building block of the circular economy and helps prevent waste and wastewater from having a negative impact on the environment and health. Today, there is a significant opportunity in terms of turning waste and wastewater into valuable resources and energy recovery. In order to identify new perspectives, we propose to focus on the most sustainable and eco-friendly strategies. Potential topics include but are not limited to:

  • Waste, wastewater and landfill leachate treatment;
  • Recovery of value-added products from waste and wastewater;
  • Recovery and re-use of wastes;
  • Strategies and technologies for sewage sludge management, including treatment and disposal;
  • Energetic valorization of renewable resources;
  • Technologies that favor reduction of greenhouse gasses emissions;
  • Effect of bio-based product on waste management;
  • Microplastic contamination.

We invite the submission of original research papers, reviews and case studies that are relevant to sustainable waste and wastewater management technologies, capable of combining environmental and energy aspects and that meet the requirements of closed loops in energy and matter cycles.

Dr. Dorota Kulikowska
Dr. Katarzyna Bernat
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.

Keywords

  • waste and wastewater management
  • aerobic stabilization
  • anaerobic stabilization
  • energy recovery
  • wastewater treatment
  • waste and wastewater in circular economy
  • value-added products
  • bio-based product
  • microplastics

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 6526 KiB  
Article
Application of Multispectral Images from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to Analyze Operations of a Wastewater Treatment Plant
by Bartosz Szeląg, Szymon Sobura and Renata Stoińska
Energies 2023, 16(6), 2871; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16062871 - 20 Mar 2023
Viewed by 1644
Abstract
The main task of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is to reduce pollutants that adversely affect the receiving environment in which the effluent is discharged. The operation of a WWTP is a complex task due to the number of different processes that take [...] Read more.
The main task of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is to reduce pollutants that adversely affect the receiving environment in which the effluent is discharged. The operation of a WWTP is a complex task due to the number of different processes that take place in its process facilities. In order to maintain the high efficiency of a WWTP, it is necessary to control the quality of the effluent at the outlet and monitor the processes taking place there. The main objective of the research presented in this study was to evaluate the possibility of using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology and multispectral images acquired with a Micasense Red-Edge MX camera to analyse the performance of an activated sludge bioreactor using the example of a municipal WWTP in Poland. Remote sensing analyses were carried out to check the relationships between the calculated spectral indices and the quality parameters in the bioreactor. The spectral indices assessed were the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), green normalised difference vegetation index (GNDVI), optimised soil adjusted vegetation index (OSAVI), and their derived indices, after substitution of the red or near-infrared channel with the red edge channel. In this study, the sensitivity of the NDVI and GNDVIRED-EDGE indexes to changes in the nutrient content (NUC) of the bioreactor was observed. The presented research may find application in the design of a new soft sensor for monitoring the operating conditions of wastewater treatment plants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Evaluation and Energy Recovery in Waste Management)
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17 pages, 2038 KiB  
Article
Pre-Treatment of Separately Collected Biowaste as a Way to Increase Methane Production and Digestate Stability
by Katarzyna Bernat, Thi Cam Tu Le, Magdalena Zaborowska and Dorota Kulikowska
Energies 2023, 16(3), 1264; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16031264 - 25 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1525
Abstract
To produce a valuable final product from anaerobic digestion (AD), one of the preferred methods of organic recycling, high quality feedstock must be ensured. In this study, separately collected real biowaste (B) was used, consisting of 90% food waste and 10% green waste. [...] Read more.
To produce a valuable final product from anaerobic digestion (AD), one of the preferred methods of organic recycling, high quality feedstock must be ensured. In this study, separately collected real biowaste (B) was used, consisting of 90% food waste and 10% green waste. The priority issues of AD are both high methane production (MP) and high organics removal efficiency (as organic matter, OM and dissolved organics, and DCOD), which may be improved after pre-treatment. In this study, the effect of hydrothermal pre-treatment (BHT) and enzymatic additives (BE) on MP and organics removal from biowaste in mesophilic (37 °C) conditions was analyzed. To assess the adequacy of pre-treatment application, biowaste without treatment (BWT) was used. Pre-treatment of biowaste prior to AD affected the maximal MP, the removal effectiveness of both OM and DCOD, and the kinetic parameters of these processes. For BWT, the maximal cumulative MP reached 239.40 ± 1.27 NL/kg OM; the kinetic coefficient of MP (kCH4) and the initial MP rate (rCH4) were 0.32 ± 0.02 d−1 and 76.80 ± 1.10 NL/(kg OM·d), respectively. After hydrothermal pre-treatment, the MP of BHT (253.60 ± 1.83 NL/kg OM) was 6.3% higher than BWT. However, the highest MP was found for BE, 268.20 ± 1.37 NL/kg OM; to compare, it increased by 12.1% and 5.5% with BWT and BHT, respectively. However, the kinetic parameters of MP were highest with BHT:kCH4 0.56 ± 0.02 d−1 vs. 0.32 ± 0.02 d−1 (BWT) and 0.34 ± 0.02 d−1 (BE); rCH4 141.80 ± 0.02 NL/(kg OM·d) (BHT) vs. 76.80 ± 1.10 NL/(kg OM·d) (BWT) and 89.80 ± 0.50 NL/(kg OM·d) (BE). The effectiveness of OM removal was highest with BE, similarly to the MP with the use of an enzymatic additive. The kinetics of OM removal (rOM, kOM) were highest with BHT, similarly to the kinetics of MP (rCH4, kCH4). The highest effectiveness of OM and, consequently, its lowest final content obtained with BE means that the organics were used most efficiently, which, in turn, may result in obtaining a more stable digestive system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Evaluation and Energy Recovery in Waste Management)
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13 pages, 1111 KiB  
Article
Composting of Municipal Sewage Sludge and Lignocellulosic Waste: Nitrogen Transformations and Humic Substances Molecular Weight
by Dorota Kulikowska and Katarzyna Bernat
Energies 2023, 16(1), 376; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16010376 - 29 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1557
Abstract
As increasing soil organic matter is considered one of the main strategies for reducing desertification in Europe, the production and use of high-quality composts has gained importance during the last decade. It is undisputed that the quantity and quality of humic substances (HS) [...] Read more.
As increasing soil organic matter is considered one of the main strategies for reducing desertification in Europe, the production and use of high-quality composts has gained importance during the last decade. It is undisputed that the quantity and quality of humic substances (HS) and their fractions, i.e. fulvic acids (FA) and humic acids (HA) in compost are considered important indicators of compost maturity and chemical stability. Other important aspects are concentrations of macro- and micronutrients and heavy metals (HMs) that are introduced to the soil with mature compost. In this light, this study assessed the detailed characteristic of compost from municipal sewage sludge. Moreover, kinetic of organic matter (OM), and nitrogen transformations, therein nitrogen loss, were analysed. OM degradation proceeded according to first-order kinetics. In the bioreactor, the rate constant of OM removal and the rate of OM removal were 0.134 d−1 and 12.6 mg/(g d.m.d), respectively. In the windrow, these constants were 5.2-fold and 16.7-fold lower, respectively. In mature compost, the concentration of HS equaled 240.3 mg C/g OM (1.65-fold higher than in the feedstock) and the concentrations of HA and FA were 120.7 mg C/g OM and 119.6 mg C/g OM, respectively. In FA predominated those with a molecular weight in the range of 10–30 kDa (47.2%), FA with a molecular weight >100 kDa accounted for only 14.4%. In HA, however, fraction with the highest molecular weight (>100 kDa) accounted for more than half (51.2%), while the share of HA with a molecular weight <10 kDa was only 6.8%. During composting, nitrogen loss was observed, which resulted from NH3 rather than N2O emission. In mature compost, organic nitrogen predominated (17.82 g/kg d.m.; ca. 92% of the overall nitrogen). The final concentrations of ammonia nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen were 0.23 and 1.12 g/kg d.m., respectively. The compost met the Polish requirements for the content of HMs (the HMs concentrations were as follows: Cd 1.85 mg/kg d.m., Pb 12.16 mg/kg d.m., Ni 11.05 mg/kg d.m., Cr 24.14 mg/kg d.m., Cu 104.24 mg/kg d.m., Zn 854 mg/kg d.m., Hg 0.12 g/kg d.m.). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Evaluation and Energy Recovery in Waste Management)
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17 pages, 2674 KiB  
Article
Life Cycle Analysis of Food Waste Valorization in Laboratory-Scale
by Tahereh Soleymani Angili, Katarzyna Grzesik, Erfaneh Salimi and Maria Loizidou
Energies 2022, 15(19), 7000; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15197000 - 23 Sep 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1644
Abstract
Among the different alternatives for the production of biofuels, food waste could be a favorable bioenergy source. Using food waste as a feedstock has the potential to meet the expectations of the second generation of biofuels, in terms of environmental savings and revenue-generation, [...] Read more.
Among the different alternatives for the production of biofuels, food waste could be a favorable bioenergy source. Using food waste as a feedstock has the potential to meet the expectations of the second generation of biofuels, in terms of environmental savings and revenue-generation, and which, along with other valuable co-products, can contribute to biorefinery profits. This study aimed to investigate the early stages of life-cycle assessment (LCA) for restaurant food waste processed into bioethanol, biomethane, and oil, split over different scenarios. Based on a life cycle inventory analysis, the environmental impacts were assessed using an IMPACT 2002+ methodology. The characterized impacts were then normalized against the average impacts, and the normalized results were weighted and aggregated to provide single score LCA results. The overall findings showed that electricity consumption and condensates included VFAs, as well as enzymes, yeast, and n-hexane, were the main contributors to the environmental burdens in all impact categories. Considering the sensitivity analysis, the results demonstrated that the enzyme dosage loading in the hydrolysis process and n-hexane utilization in the fat extraction process can change the environmental performance, along with the process efficiency. This study can provide an approach to foresee environmental hotspots in the very early developmental stages of food waste valorization into biofuels, and for highlighting drawbacks connected to the implementation of conversion processes at pilot and industrial scales. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Evaluation and Energy Recovery in Waste Management)
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Review

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14 pages, 273 KiB  
Review
Post-Consumer Plastic Waste Management: From Collection and Sortation to Mechanical Recycling
by Katarzyna Bernat
Energies 2023, 16(8), 3504; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16083504 - 18 Apr 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4519
Abstract
Challenges associated with plastic waste management range from littering to high collection costs to low recycling rates. Effective collection of plastics is obviously an important step in the management of plastic waste and has an impact on recycling rates. For this reason, several [...] Read more.
Challenges associated with plastic waste management range from littering to high collection costs to low recycling rates. Effective collection of plastics is obviously an important step in the management of plastic waste and has an impact on recycling rates. For this reason, several countries have transformed their collection systems in recent decades. Collecting more plastic packaging comes at a cost, as the feedstock for the sorting process becomes more complex and leads to cross-contamination within the sorted fractions. Therefore, a balance must be obtained between some elements, such as the design of packaging, collection and recycling rates, and finally, the quality of fractions that have been sorted. Further investment to improve pretreatment, sorting, and recycling technologies and simpler recyclable packaging designs are, therefore, key to further increasing plastic recycling rates. It is essential to possess more data, especially on the type of containers and plastics, and examine how often unsorted waste is collected. The automated waste collection monitoring system is a step forward in automating manual waste collection and sorting. Multi-sensory artificial intelligence (AI) for sorting plastic waste and the blockchain sorting platform for the circular economy of plastic waste are forward-looking activities that will increase the efficiency of recycling plastic waste. This review focuses on the development of collection systems and sorting processes for post-consumer plastic recycling. The focus is on best practices and the best available technology. Separate collection systems for recyclable plastics are presented and discussed along with their respective technical collection and sorting solutions, taking into consideration that progress in separation and sorting systems are implicitly linked to approaches to waste collection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Evaluation and Energy Recovery in Waste Management)
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