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Sustainability in Environmental Biotechnology
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Sustainability in Environmental Biotechnology

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Pollution Prevention, Mitigation and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 4385

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Gabriela Soreanu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Engineering and Management, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, 700050 Iași, Romania
Interests: sustainable terrestrial and space biosystems for air revitalization and gas treatment; environmental biotechnology; environmental engineering; modelling and optimisation of environmental processes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Marcin Zielinski

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Co-Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, 10-950 Olsztyn, Poland
Interests: wastewater treatment; renewable energy; algae-based technologies; methane fermentation; environmental biostrategies; bio-refinery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Magdalena Zielińska

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Biotechnology, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, 10-709 Olsztyn, Poland
Interests: biological wastewater treatment; removal of micropollutants from wastewater; membrane techniques in wastewater treatment; water reuse; activated sludge valorisation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. John Morken

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
Faculty of Science and Technology, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 1432 Ås, Norway
Interests: anaerobic digestion; organic waste; lifecycle assessment; GHG
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This issue aims to address the possibility of using biotechnologies for solving environmental issues in a sustainable manner. Microorganisms and plants can work “freely” for the environment, cleaning various organic and inorganic pollutants from contaminated air, water, or soil. For example, heterotrophic bacteria and fungi can remove volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from air, autotrophic bacteria can remove hydrogen sulphide from biogas, photosynthetic microorganisms (e.g., microalgae) and plants can uptake carbon dioxide from the air, denitrificans can use the nutrients from wastewaters, plants can extract the petroleum compounds from damaged soils and capture the noxes from indoor and atmospheric air. The list goes on and on. Some of these examples can be applied both terrestrially as well in space (e.g., A. platensis is a promising microalgae candidate for life support in space and has high potential in the context of the circular economy), being subject to dual benefit from knowledge transfer. By their nature, the biosystems involved in these processes are considered environmentally friendly and cost-effective; however, there is still room to enhance their environmental performance in light of sustainability. That is, extending the approach of these systems towards waste management (e.g., residual biomass valorization in agriculture or for energy purposes), integration (e.g., using wastewaters as a source of nutrients in the bioreactors treating gaseous streams), lower CO2 emission technologies (e.g., involving microalgae for CO2 capture in biosystems treating VOCs in air), aesthetical considerates and well-being aspects, life cycle assessment approaches (e.g., for comparison of the environmental performances of the biosystems used for the treatment of contaminated streams), innovation, and other aspects that could contribute to better environmental protection, quality of life, health, and mitigation of global warming and climate change issues are expected to be provided in the articles submitted in the frame of this call.

Dr. Gabriela Soreanu
Guest Editor

Prof. Dr. Marcin Zielinski
Dr. Magdalena Zielińska
Prof. Dr. John Morken
Co-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

  • contaminated streams biotreatment
  • microorganisms
  • plants
  • biomass
  • terestrial and space applications
  • sustainable development
  • green technologies
  • environmental protection

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 7824 KiB  
Article
An Eco-Friendly Modification of a Walnut Shell Biosorbent for Increased Efficiency in Wastewater Treatment
by Andra-Cristina Enache, Petrisor Samoila, Corneliu Cojocaru, Roxana Apolzan, Georgeta Predeanu and Valeria Harabagiu
Sustainability 2023, 15(3), 2704; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032704 - 2 Feb 2023
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2399
Abstract
Herein, we report the performance of some low-cost biosorbents developed by environment-friendly modification of walnut shells. Two types of biosorbents were prepared by ecological modification of walnut shell surfaces: (1) biosorbents obtained by hot water treatment (WSH2O) and (2) biosorbents produced [...] Read more.
Herein, we report the performance of some low-cost biosorbents developed by environment-friendly modification of walnut shells. Two types of biosorbents were prepared by ecological modification of walnut shell surfaces: (1) biosorbents obtained by hot water treatment (WSH2O) and (2) biosorbents produced by mercerization (WSNaOH). Different techniques were used to evaluate the morphological, elemental, and structural modification of the biosorbents, by comparison with raw materials. These characterization techniques involved scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The biosorbents were employed for the removal of methylene blue (MB) and crystal violet (CV) cationic dyes (as model organic pollutants) from aqueous solutions. The kinetic adsorption data mainly followed the pseudo-first-order model. The maximum adsorption capacities of the produced biosorbents ranged from 102 to 110 mg/g and were observed at 330 K. Equilibrium data for adsorption were fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The calculated values of thermodynamic parameters suggested that the investigated adsorption processes were exergonic (ΔG < 0) and exothermic (ΔH < 0). In addition, a possible valorization of the cost-effective and eco-friendly spent biosorbents was tested by performing secondary adsorption of the anionic dyes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in Environmental Biotechnology)
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11 pages, 2027 KiB  
Article
Moving towards Valorization of Biowastes Issued from Biotrickling Filtration of Contaminated Gaseous Streams: A Thermochemical Analysis-Based Perspective
by Gabriela Lisa, Ion Anghel, Dana-Maria Preda, Catalin Lisa, Igor Cretescu, Ingrid Ioana Buciscanu, Mariana Diaconu and Gabriela Soreanu
Sustainability 2022, 14(17), 10737; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141710737 - 29 Aug 2022
Viewed by 1165
Abstract
This paper investigates the valorization potential of two biowaste types resulting from biotrickling filtration of volatile organic compounds (i.e., ethanol) and carbon dioxide from air by co-immobilized microalgae and compost heterotrophs, which were either attached on polypropylene spheres or entrapped within the alginate [...] Read more.
This paper investigates the valorization potential of two biowaste types resulting from biotrickling filtration of volatile organic compounds (i.e., ethanol) and carbon dioxide from air by co-immobilized microalgae and compost heterotrophs, which were either attached on polypropylene spheres or entrapped within the alginate beads. In this regard, biomass samples from the surface of the packing spheres (S1) and the waste alginate beads (S2) underwent thermal and energy characterization via thermogravimetry and calorimetry techniques as a screening step for establishing some possible biomass valorization pathways. The heat release capacity (HRC) values for the samples S1 and S2 were 95.67 J/(g·K) and 44.11 J/(g·K), respectively, while the total heat release (THR) values were 11.03 kJ/g and 3.64 kJ/g, respectively. The results of this study indicate that the S1 biomass could be suitable for undergoing thermal decomposition processes-based applications, while the S2 biomass could have a potential application for improving flame retardancy of some materials. These findings show that the biowaste issued from such air biotreatment can become a valuable resource for different applications instead of being disposed of. Further research referring to the implementation of these solutions for the development of the final applications is needed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in Environmental Biotechnology)
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