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Green Conversion and Biorefinery Processes of Waste and Biomass Materials

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A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental and Green Processes".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 February 2023) | Viewed by 8308

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Chung-Yu Guan

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Guest Editor

Department of Environmental Engineering, National Ilan University, Yilan 260, Taiwan
Interests: biorefinery; conversion; green energy; environmental remediation; sustainable development

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Some of the major efforts towards protecting the environment include conversion and biorefinery for valorization, reducing waste, saving resources, and producing energy and value-added chemicals. In addition, these conversion processes are comprised of environmentally friendly green technology.

One of the main goals of conversion and biorefinery is to minimize waste and biomass materials with environmentally friendly processes. By applying this route of material sources and catalyst methods, the cost of the product will be lower since some waste and biomass materials are considered the most abundant resources. Moreover, using a catalyst reaction of green technology for conversion to value-added chemicals and energy replaces environmentally harmful materials that may be toxic, corrosive, or polluted.

This Special Issue, “Green Conversion and Biorefinery Processes of Waste and Biomass Materials”, welcomes submissions in the form of original research papers or reviews which reflect current research in the conversion and biorefinery field, with a focus on the following specific topics:

Green catalyst materials for conversion and biorefinery of waste and biomass materials;
Utilizing green solvent to the medium of conversion processes;
Multiple heating methods for reacting efficiencies;
Selecting optimization methods for large-scale and practical application.

Dr. Chung-Yu Guan
Guest Editor

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. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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

conversion
biorefinery
energy
value-added chemicals
green technology
waste
biomass materials
large scale

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 5212 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Upgrading Waste Activated Carbon by Equipping Micro-/Mesopore-Dominant Microstructures from the Perspective of Circular Economy

by Tsing-Hai Wang, Chun-Chi Chen, Ruo-Xin Xu, Chiu-Wen Chen and Cheng-Di Dong

Processes 2022, 10(8), 1631; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr10081631 - 17 Aug 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1168

Abstract

Equipping wastes with interesting properties in response to the circular economy could release environmental burdens by reducing resource exploitation and material manufacturing. In this study, we demonstrated that the waste regenerated activated carbon (RAC) could become micro-/mesopore-dominant through a simple surfactant/gel modification. This was achieved by associating carbon precursors, such as commercially available low-cost surfactants/methyl cellulose thickening reagents, with the pores of RAC. Following heat treatment, associated carbon precursors were carbonized, hence modifying the microstructure of RAC to be micro-/mesopore-dominant. The surfactant modification gave rise to a micropore-dominant RAC by increasing the micropore volume (

{PV}_{micro}

) together with significantly decreasing the mesopore volume (

{PV}_{meso}

) and macropore volume (

{PV}_{macro}

). In contrast, gel modification led to mesopore-rich RAC by blocking micropores with carbonized methyl cellulose and a surfactant matrix. Interestingly, both surfactant/gel modifications were insensitive to the properties of the surfactant applied, which provided a new alternative for waste/low-grade surfactant mixture disposal. Our results provide an important demonstration that waste could be effectively upgraded with a rational design by exhibiting new properties in response to the circular economy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Conversion and Biorefinery Processes of Waste and Biomass Materials)

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Graphical abstract

14 pages, 2462 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigating the Enhancement in Biogas Production by Hydrothermal Carbonization of Organic Solid Waste and Digestate in an Inter-Stage Treatment Configuration

by Roberta Ferrentino, Michela Langone, Davide Mattioli, Luca Fiori and Gianni Andreottola

Processes 2022, 10(4), 777; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr10040777 - 15 Apr 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2040

Abstract

In recent years, sewage sludge (SS) and bio-waste management have attracted increasing environmental attention. In this study, hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) technology is investigated in the framework of a co-treatment of sewage sludge digestate (SSD) and an organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OW). The proposed configuration integrates HTC with anaerobic digestion (AD) in an inter-stage configuration (AD1 + HTC + AD2). The effects of different percentages of OW added to SSD in the HTC treatment are evaluated in terms of characteristics and methane yield of the produced HTC liquor (HTCL) and HTC slurry (i.e., the mixture hydrochar-HTCL), as well as dewaterability of the HTC slurry. Results show that, with the increase in the percentage of OW in the OW-SSD mixture fed to the HTC process, production of biogas and biomethane of both HTC slurry and HTCL increases. The highest biogas production is achieved when a mixture consisting of half SSD and half OW is used, reaching 160 ± 10 and 240 ± 15 mL biogas g⁻¹ COD_added, respectively, for HTCL and HTC slurry. Furthermore, sludge dewaterability is significantly improved by the combined AD1-HTC-AD2 process. Finally, an energy assessment allows estimating that the co-treatment of OW with SSD in HTC can cover up to 100% of the energy consumption of the system. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Conversion and Biorefinery Processes of Waste and Biomass Materials)

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Review

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17 pages, 1222 KiB

Open AccessReview

Non-Thermal Plasma as a Biomass Pretreatment in Biorefining Processes

by Carmen Maria Meoli, Giuseppina Iervolino and Alessandra Procentese

Processes 2023, 11(2), 536; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11020536 - 10 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1929

Abstract

Climatic changes and the growing population call for innovative solutions that are able to produce biochemicals by adopting environmentally sustainable procedures. The biorefinery concept meets this requirement. However, one of the main drawbacks of biorefineries is represented by the feedstocks’ pretreatment. Lately, scientific research has focused on non-thermal plasma, which is an innovative and sustainable pretreatment that is able to obtain a high sugar concentration. In the present review, literature related to the use of non-thermal plasma for the production of fermentable sugar have been collected. In particular, its sugar extraction, time, and energy consumption have been compared with those of traditional biomass pretreatments. As reported, on one hand, this emerging technology is characterized by low costs and no waste production; on the other hand, the reactor’s configuration must be optimized to reduce time and energy demand. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Conversion and Biorefinery Processes of Waste and Biomass Materials)

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Figure 1

14 pages, 1410 KiB

Open AccessReview

Recent Advances in the Bioconversion of Waste Straw Biomass with Steam Explosion Technique: A Comprehensive Review

by Baige Zhang, Hongzhao Li, Limei Chen, Tianhong Fu, Bingbing Tang, Yongzhou Hao, Jing Li, Zheng Li, Bangxi Zhang, Qing Chen, Chengrong Nie, Zi-Yi You, Chung-Yu Guan and Yutao Peng

Processes 2022, 10(10), 1959; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr10101959 - 28 Sep 2022

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2550

Abstract

Waste straw biomass is an abundant renewable bioresource raw material on Earth. Its stubborn wooden cellulose structure limits straw lignocellulose bioconversion into value-added products (e.g., biofuel, chemicals, and agricultural products). Compared to physicochemical and other preprocessing techniques, the steam explosion method, as a kind of hydrothermal method, was considered as a practical, eco-friendly, and cost-effective method to overcome the above-mentioned barriers during straw lignocellulose bioconversion. Steam explosion pretreatment of straw lignocellulose can effectively improve the conversion efficiency of producing biofuels and value-added chemicals and is expected to replace fossil fuels and partially replace traditional chemical fertilizers. Although the principles of steam explosion destruction of lignocellulosic structures for bioconversion to liquid fuels and producing solid biofuel were well known, applications of steam explosion in productions of value-added chemicals, organic fertilizers, biogas, etc. were less identified. Therefore, this review provides insights into advanced methods of utilizing steam explosion for straw biomass conversion as well as their corresponding processes and mechanisms. Finally, the current limitations and prospects of straw biomass conversion with steam explosion technology were elucidated. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Conversion and Biorefinery Processes of Waste and Biomass Materials)

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