Sustainable Environmental Engineering

Dear Colleagues,

The continuous development of our society has led to the steady growth of problems related to resource depletion and environmental pollution. Unfortunately, the development of technical solutions to effectively cope with the consequences of human activity has not been so rapid.

Today, the sustainability of products and processes is no longer optional. This applies, for example, to manufacturing activities, which are increasingly moving towards carbon neutrality through energy efficiency strategies and the substitution of materials and processes to reduce their environmental footprint, but it cannot be limited to this. There are activities aimed at environmental protection, the reclamation of sites or the treatment of contaminated effluents, as well as the valorisation of waste through the recovery of resources that, although implemented with “noble intentions”, are often highly invasive, unsustainable and socially unacceptable, as they involve the significant use of chemical products or processes.

This special issue aims to collect research activities focused on the development of new material, processes and practices to reach new heights of sustainability in the various fields of applied science. Inspired by real industrial problems and the need to deal with real cases of contamination or prevent potentially harmful situations, we will discuss the development and optimisation of “smart” solutions, i.e. sustainable not only from an environmental point of view, but also from an economic one, to facilitate their effective implementation as much as possible.

Contributions on the following topics are particularly welcome:

• Energy and water efficiency in industry and mining (construction materials; food industry; metallurgy; chemical industry; process optimisation; water use and waste minimisation; life cycle assessment; cleaner production; environmental impact assessment)
• Renewable energy resources (technical and economic potentials; barriers; cost and benefits)
• Nano- / micro-technologies and science for the sustainable development of energy, water, and environmental systems
• Environmental policy and management (waste management; wastewater management; climate change mitigation; climate change adaptation; land management; reclamation and rewilding; social aspects; strategic environmental impact assessment)
• Modelling for pollution avoidance, energy efficiency and resources optimisation (computer-aided engineering; pollution spreading; heat and mass transfer modelling)

Dr. Marco Vocciante
Dr. Sergio Ferro
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. Applied Sciences 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.

• environmental pollution and remediation
• resource recovery and recycling strategies
• sustainability assessment
• circular economy
• water and wastewater treatment
• waste recovery, recycling and valorisation
• soil and water reclamation
• nanotechnologies for environmental and energy applications
• computer-aided modelling of industrial processes and equipment
• energy efficiency in industrial applications