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Resource Recovery and Utilization of Industrial Waste: 2nd Edition

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026 | Viewed by 425

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and of Economics, University of L’Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Interests: hydrometallurgical processes; recovery of base and precious metals from industrial waste; recovery of critical raw materials from end-of-life devices; advanced wastewater treatments; thermal treatment of biomass and industrial waste; circular economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Università Politecnica of Marche, Via Brecce Bianche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Interests: urban mining; life cycle assessment; circular economy; sustainability; hydrometallurgy; bio-hydrometallurgy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The increasing industrial waste generation globally presents serious environmental, economic, and social challenges. Traditional waste disposal methods are no longer sufficient to address the scale and complexity of current industrial waste streams. Therefore, innovative and sustainable approaches are needed to recover valuable resources from industrial waste and to support a more circular and resource-efficient economy.

This Special Issue, titled, "Resources Recovery and Utilization of Industrial Waste", aims to gather high-quality research and practical solutions focused on turning industrial waste into valuable resources through advanced technologies and sustainable strategies. We invite interdisciplinary contributions that explore innovative techniques for industrial waste management, promote material and energy recovery, and support the transformation of waste into value-added products.

Key topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Technologies for industrial waste minimization: Development of methods and innovations that reduce waste generation in industrial processes, encouraging efficiency and sustainable production.
  • Recovery of valuable materials from industrial waste: Approaches for extracting and reusing metals, chemicals, and other materials from waste streams, reducing dependency on virgin resources.
  • Energy recovery from industrial waste: Techniques such as thermal conversion or bioenergy production that utilize waste as a renewable energy source, minimizing landfill disposal.
  • Valorization and reuse of industrial by-products: Transforming waste into secondary raw materials or alternative products for various industries.
  • Policy, regulation, and governance models: Analysis of regulatory frameworks, case studies, and international cooperation promoting industrial waste recovery and circular economy practices.
  • Public engagement and awareness: Strategies to foster behavioral change and stakeholder participation in industrial waste recovery and sustainability initiatives.

We look forward to your valuable contributions supporting the advancement of sustainable industrial waste management practices.

Dr. Pietro Romano
Dr. Alessia Amato
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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.

Keywords

  • waste management
  • circular economy
  • energy valorisation
  • material recovery
  • recycling

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

21 pages, 6240 KB  
Article
Selective Removal of Aluminum and Impurity Metals from End-of-Life Photovoltaic Panels Using Hydrochloric Acid Pretreatment: Optimization Through Response Surface Methodology
by Payam Ghorbanpour, Pietro Romano, Hossein Shalchian and Nicolò Maria Ippolito
Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(12), 5940; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16125940 - 12 Jun 2026
Viewed by 174
Abstract
The rapid growth of photovoltaic panels installations has led to a dramatic increase in the end-of-life (EoL) panels, creating an urgent need for efficient recycling strategies. In the present study, a pretreatment system consisting of hydrochloric acid was developed to remove impurity metals [...] Read more.
The rapid growth of photovoltaic panels installations has led to a dramatic increase in the end-of-life (EoL) panels, creating an urgent need for efficient recycling strategies. In the present study, a pretreatment system consisting of hydrochloric acid was developed to remove impurity metals such as aluminum and iron from EoL PV panel powder prior to the precious metals leaching step. Response surface methodology (RSM) based on a central composite design (CCD) was employed to optimize the effects of main operational parameters, i.e., HCl concentration, leaching time, and solid-to-liquid (S/L) ratio on the dissolution of Al, Fe, Pb, Sn, and Cu. Thermodynamic analysis with the help of HSC Chemistry® 10 software, confirmed the feasibility of dissolution of the Al, Fe, Pb, Sn, and Cu in chloride media. Experimental results demonstrated that the dissolution rate of Al and Fe under optimal conditions were 86.05 and 91.77 percent, respectively. In all of the tests, copper dissolution remained negligible (<4%), and no silver was detected which confirms the selectivity of the pretreatment. The optimized conditions (1.5 M HCl, 198 min, 20% S/L) enabled effective impurity removal while preserving silver in the solid residue. This study highlights the importance of selective pretreatment in enhancing downstream silver recovery and provides a practical approach for the hydrometallurgical recycling of end-of-life PV waste. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resource Recovery and Utilization of Industrial Waste: 2nd Edition)
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