Biotechnological Energy Conversion Technology: New Advances in Biosolids Management and Wastewater Treatment
A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A4: Bio-Energy".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (5 March 2026) | Viewed by 895
Special Issue Editors
Interests: biosolids management; wastewater treatment; thermal treatment processes; waste-to-energy; resource recovery from wastewater; contaminant’s fate during thermal treatment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: chemical looping; biogas decarbonisation to hydrogen and carbonanomaterials; thermal treatment processes; wastes transformation to energy and materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Water and energy are pivotal in human sustenance and economic development. It is hard to imagine life without them. Therefore, it is not surprising to see increasing demands for water and energy, reflected by the huge volume of research and innovation in water management and energy production in recent decades. Wastewater and biosolid (stabilised sewage sludge) generation are rapidly increasing thanks to rising populations, urbanisation, and industrialisation. In particular, the increasing volume of biosolids is being met with stringent regulations due to emerging concerns regarding contaminants, odours, greenhouse gas emissions, and nutrient leaching, among other issues. The global regulatory landscape is rapidly changing, and the water industry is faced with uncertainties, relying on scientists, engineers, technologists, and researchers alike to proffer sustainable solutions. Consequently, advances have been made in the development of innovative bio-technological processes, including, but not limited to, thermal hydrolysis, anaerobic digestion, thermal and hydrothermal treatments, and oxidation and immobilisation techniques.
This Special Issue will present and consolidate recent advances in biotechnological conversion technologies, focusing on wastewater treatment and biosolid management, particularly for energy production, volume reduction, resource recovery (carbon, nutrients), contaminant destruction, and char/agri-ash generation.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- The removal, degradation, transformation, and destruction of contaminants of emerging concern that are typical of wastewater and biosolid streams, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), microplastics, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, hormones, and pathogens;
- Thermal treatments, such as pyrolysis, gasification, incineration, hydrothermal carbonisation/liquefaction, and the supercritical water oxidation of biosolids for material and energy production;
- Circular resource recovery of nutrients and materials from wastewater;
- Sewage sludge stabilisation methods to create biosolids via thermal hydrolysis, anaerobic digestion, dewatering, and thermal drying;
- In situ applications of biosolid-derived char in wastewater treatment, biomethane generation, biogas upgrading, and gaseous pollutant removal;
- Energy production from biogas, biochar, syngas, and bio-oil obtained from the biological–thermal treatment of wastewater sludges;
Any other topic that demonstrates bio-technological solutions to wastewater treatment and biosolid management for energy and material production.
Dr. Ibrahim Gbolahan Hakeem
Prof. Dr. Kalpit Shah
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- volume reduction
- advanced thermal conversion
- contaminants of emerging concerns
- circular resource recovery
- odour and greenhouse gas emissions
- sludge-to-energy treatment
- biomethane generation
- biochar for energy and environmental applications
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