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Sustainable Waste Utilisation and Biomass Energy Production
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Sustainable Waste Utilisation and Biomass Energy Production

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Waste and Recycling".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 May 2025 | Viewed by 3525

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Cristina Trois

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Director of the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 6100, South Africa
Interests: environmental and civil-engineering; waste management; climate change; bioenergy; waste to energy; biogas and bio-hydrogen from organic waste; systems modelling; decision-support tools; renewable energy from waste; GHGs control from zero waste in Africa and developing countries; circular economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to announce a new Special Issue “Sustainable Waste Utilisation and Biomass Energy Production” of the journal Sustainability.

The sustainable decarbonisation of the waste and energy sectors, particularly in developing countries, can be catalysed by the systematic insertion of decentralised waste bio-refineries in municipalities for the valorisation of organic waste and biomass into high-value products, compost, and/or energy. Biomass energy refers to renewable energy from plants, animals, as well as from the treatment of agricultural waste, residues from the forestry and forestry products industry, organic domestic waste, food and yard waste and sanitation waste. Between 2010 and 2020, total per-capita waste generation decreased by 4.2% in the EU; mineral waste constitutes a large portion (64% in 2020). If this type of waste is excluded, the trend in waste generation is driven by decreasing waste generation in the manufacturing and the energy sectors, and increases in waste generated by households and by water and waste treatment activities. In China, from temporal data, the economy of scale in solid waste production is lost by cities over time. But ongoing urbanization in sub-Saharan Africa, India, and other areas of the developing world would lead to an increase in superlinear waste production. In South Africa, 76% of yearly waste production is landfilled, while the waste sector accounts for 4.3% of national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (DFFE, 2021), mainly originating from the decomposition of the biodegradable fractions (food and garden waste), which make up 30-60% of the total municipal solid waste (MSW) produced in the country. It is essential to reduce the impact of organic waste management by promoting the circularity of by-products and minimising the risk of failure of waste-to-energy technologies. 

Biomass and waste treatment technologies involve thermal (gasification, pyrolysis, and torrefaction), biological (anaerobic digestion, and fermentation), mechanical, or chemical processes through which biomass is converted into biogases (e.g. methane, bio-hydrogen) or biofuels (e.g. ethanol). Gaps exist in the scaling-up of innovative technologies such as two-stage anaerobic digestion for the production of bio-hydrogen and methane. This Special Issue explores drivers and barriers, as well as decision support tools, in the development of waste biorefineries for the sustainable insertion and localisation of waste and biomass to energy technologies.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • The suitability of feedstocks for biogas and biohydrogen production in waste biorefineries;
  • Innovation and technology advancement in waste/biomass to energy technologies;
  • Waste-to-energy technology portfolios that can achieve carbon neutrality;
  • Barriers and drivers in the development of waste-to-energy roadmaps;
  • Energy system models for the integration of bioenergy from waste and biomass into the grid;
  • Decision support tools for the sustainable insertion and scaling-up of waste/biomass to energy technology;
  • The implementation of waste biorefineries for biomass energy in developing countries;
  • Bio-hydrogen production from organic waste/biomass 2S-AD;
  • Waste-to-energy systems as part of the circular economy.

Prof. Dr. Cristina Trois
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. 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

  • biofuels
  • bioenergy
  • waste-to-energy roadmaps
  • biohydrogen
  • biomethane
  • agrobiomass
  • forest biomass
  • biorefineries
  • decision support tools

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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21 pages, 2021 KiB  
Article
Double-Stage Anaerobic Digestion for Biohydrogen Production: A Strategy for Organic Waste Diversion and Emission Reduction in a South African Municipality
by Andrea Dell’Orto and Cristina Trois
Sustainability 2024, 16(16), 7200; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16167200 - 22 Aug 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1127
Abstract
Landfilling of organic waste poses a significant environmental threat, heavily contributing to climate change. The diversion of waste is imperative, but pathways to implementing alternative waste management strategies are needed. Double-stage anaerobic digestion has been identified as a potential technique that can reduce [...] Read more.
Landfilling of organic waste poses a significant environmental threat, heavily contributing to climate change. The diversion of waste is imperative, but pathways to implementing alternative waste management strategies are needed. Double-stage anaerobic digestion has been identified as a potential technique that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and diminish the amount of waste landfilled. Still, further research is needed before its implementation at the municipal level. This paper explored the potential insertion of double-stage anaerobic digestion into the portfolio of alternative treatment methods using the case study of the eThekwini Municipality in Durban, South Africa, by proposing a source-separation waste management scheme and forecasting the organic waste generation for a 24-year timeframe until 2050. The WROSE model has been identified as the ideal tool for the analysis. A new scenario, including double-stage anaerobic digestion, has been introduced in WROSE after developing a country-specific emission factor. The technology has been assessed against similar techniques, namely anaerobic digestion and composting, according to the environmental indicators included in WROSE. Compared with the business-as-usual scenario and three other alternatives, the new scenario proved to be the second-most effective (−282% versus business-as-usual) after anaerobic digestion (−291%) in reducing climate-altering emissions, achieving analogous waste diversion rate (10.09%), landfill airspace (1,653,705 m3), and monetary savings (3.8 billion Rand) compared to composting and anaerobic digestion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Waste Utilisation and Biomass Energy Production)
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23 pages, 1310 KiB  
Systematic Review
Impact of Substrates, Volatile Fatty Acids, and Microbial Communities on Biohydrogen Production: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
by Anam Jalil and Zhisheng Yu
Sustainability 2024, 16(23), 10755; https://doi.org/10.3390/su162310755 - 8 Dec 2024
Viewed by 492
Abstract
Hydrogen is becoming recognized as a clean and sustainable energy carrier, with microbial fermentation and electrolysis serving critical roles in its production. This paper provides a thorough meta-analysis of BioH2 production across diverse substrates, microbial populations, and experimental settings. Statistical techniques, including [...] Read more.
Hydrogen is becoming recognized as a clean and sustainable energy carrier, with microbial fermentation and electrolysis serving critical roles in its production. This paper provides a thorough meta-analysis of BioH2 production across diverse substrates, microbial populations, and experimental settings. Statistical techniques, including ANOVA, principal component analysis (PCA), and heatmaps, were used to evaluate the influence of various parameters on the hydrogen yield. The mean hydrogen generation from the reviewed studies was 168.57 ± 52.09 mL H2/g substrate, with food waste and glucose demonstrating considerably greater hydrogen production than mixed food waste (p < 0.05). The inhibition of methanogens with inhibitors like 2-bromoethanesulfonate (BES) and chloramphenicol (CES) enhanced hydrogen production by as much as 25%, as demonstrated in microbial electrolysis cell systems. PCA results highlighted Clostridium spp., Thermotoga spp., and Desulfovibrio spp. as the most dominant microbial species, with Clostridium spp. contributing up to 80% of the YH2 in fermentation systems. The study highlights synergistic interactions between dominant and less dominant microbial species under optimized environmental conditions (pH 5.5–6.0, 65 °C), emphasizing their complementary roles in enhancing H2 production. Volatile fatty acid regulation, particularly acetate and butyrate accumulation, correlated positively with hydrogen production (r = 0.75, p < 0.01). These findings provide insights into optimizing biohydrogen systems through microbial consortia management and substrate selection, offering a potential way for scalable and efficient H2 production. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Waste Utilisation and Biomass Energy Production)
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28 pages, 5085 KiB  
Systematic Review
Bridging the Gap between Biowaste and Biomethane Production: A Systematic Review Meta-Analysis Methodological Approach
by Charalampos Toufexis, Dimitrios-Orfeas Makris, Christos Vlachokostas, Alexandra V. Michailidou, Christos Mertzanakis and Athanasia Vachtsiavanou
Sustainability 2024, 16(15), 6433; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16156433 - 27 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1440
Abstract
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a promising biowaste valorization technology for sustainable energy, circular economy, local energy community growth, and supporting local authorities’ environmental goals. This paper presents a systematic review meta-analysis methodology for biomethane estimation, using over 600 values of volatile solids (VS) [...] Read more.
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a promising biowaste valorization technology for sustainable energy, circular economy, local energy community growth, and supporting local authorities’ environmental goals. This paper presents a systematic review meta-analysis methodology for biomethane estimation, using over 600 values of volatile solids (VS) content and biochemical methane potential (BMP) of six different waste streams, collected from 240 scientific studies. The waste streams include cow manure (CM), sheep/goat manure (SGM), wheat straw (WS), household waste (HW), organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), and sewage sludge (SS). The statistical analysis showed a mean VS content of 11.9% (CM), 37.3% (SGM), 83.1% (WS), 20.8% (HW), 19.4% (OFMSW), and 10.6% (SS), with BMP values of 204.6, 184.1, 305.1, 361.7, 308.3, and 273.1 L CH4/kg VS, respectively. The case study of Kozani, Greece, demonstrated the methodology’s applicability, revealing a potential annual CH4 production of 15,429,102 m3 (corresponding to 551 TJ of energy), with SGM, WS, and CM as key substrates. Kozani, aiming for climate neutrality by 2030, currently employs conventional waste management, like composting, while many local business residual streams remain unused. The proposed model facilitates the design and implementation of AD units for a sustainable, climate-neutral future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Waste Utilisation and Biomass Energy Production)
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