Advances in Thermal Chemical Conversion of Biomass/Organic Waste/Coal

Dear Colleagues,

Thermochemical conversion of biomass, organic waste, and coal plays a pivotal role in the sustainable energy landscape, serving as a bridge between waste management, energy production, and chemical manufacturing. By converting low-grade, abundant feedstocks into high-energy-density fuels, syngas, bio-oil, hydrogen, and value-added chemicals, these processes enable the valorization of residues that would otherwise be landfilled, incinerated, or burned inefficiently. This creates opportunities for decarbonization across sectors, improves resource efficiency, and enhances energy security by diversifying supply. The field benefits from advances in feedstock characterization, pretreatment, catalysts for gas cleanup and tar reforming, reactor design, and process intensification, enabling more efficient, selective, and robust operations under variable feedstocks and climate conditions.

This Special Issue seeks to present the latest advances in theory, modeling, design, operation, and environmental assessment of thermochemical conversion processes, including gasification, pyrolysis, torrefaction, combustion, hydrothermal carbonization, liquefaction, and co-processing of mixed feedstocks. We invite original research that addresses feedstock characterization and pretreatment, catalyst development and upgrading (gasification gas cleanup, tar reforming, bio-oil upgrading, etc.), reactor design and process intensification, kinetic and CFD modeling, control strategies, technoeconomic analysis, life-cycle assessment, emissions mitigation, and pilot-/demonstration-scale studies.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Thermochemical conversion technologies: gasification, pyrolysis, torrefaction, combustion, hydrothermal carbonization, liquefaction, and co-processing of biomass/organic waste/coal.
• Feedstock characterization, pretreatment, upgrading, supply chains, and multi-feedstock processing.
• Catalysis and upgrading: tar reforming, gas cleaning, syngas conditioning, and bio-oil upgrading.
• Reactor design, process intensification, heat and mass transfer, scale-up, and reactor diagnostics.
• Modeling and simulation: kinetic modeling, CFD, system-level models, uncertainty quantification, and AI/data-driven approaches.
• Process integration and energy efficiency, heat integration, and exergy analysis.
• Environmental and sustainability assessment: life-cycle assessment, technoeconomic analysis, and policy implications.
• Products and applications: biofuels, chemicals, hydrogen, syngas, biochar, and activated carbon.

Dr. Jialing Xu
Dr. Zhiyong Peng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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