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Energies
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From Waste to Energy: Towards Resource Recovery Optimization from Waste
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From Waste to Energy: Towards Resource Recovery Optimization from Waste

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A4: Bio-Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 December 2025 | Viewed by 1699

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Christian Aragón-Briceño

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Industry and Energy Department, CIRCE-Research Centre for Energy Resources and Consumption, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain
Interests: bioresource recovery; anaerobic digestion technologies; nutrients; waste water treatment; hydrogen; biogas; fermentation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Panagiotis Boutikos

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Center for Research and Technology—Hellas, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: gas; membranes; water; sensors; carbon dioxide
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Musa Manga

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
The Water Institute at UNC, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 357 Rosenau Hall, 135 Dauer Drive, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Interests: bio-energy recovery; nutrient recovery; anaerobic digestion; composting, faecal sludge treatment; pathogen inactivation; decentralized wastewater treatment; on-site sanitation systems; resource recovery from human waste; economic and financial costing; global public health; water sanitation and hygiene (wash)
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent times, one of society’s primary goals has been to achieve a circular economy. Governments and companies prioritize minimizing waste by maximizing resource use to reach this objective. The “Waste to Energy” (WtE) concept has been vital in recent years. However, it no longer fully encapsulates the circular economy’s scope. Consequently, a new concept has emerged: “Resource Recovery Optimization”. This approach not only addresses the technological challenges of increasing resource recovery but also considers the societal, economical, and environmental factors influencing resource use. It encompasses all systems and technologies aimed at maximizing resource recovery, such as anaerobic digestion, fermentation technologies, biomass thermochemical conversion routes (gasification, pyrolysis) for H2 production, CO2 capture and conversion technologies, hydrogen production, waste heat recovery systems, (hydro)thermal treatments, integration of renewable energies, etc.

This Special Issue aims to present the concept and disseminate the most recent advances in resource recovery optimization, including the impact of these technologies within society. This is the follow-up edition of the Special Issue “From Waste to Energy: Anaerobic Digestion Technologies”.

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

  • Advances in resource recovery from waste technologies.
  • Advances in fermentation technologies (bio-hydrogen, bio-methane, etc.).
  • Process design and optimization.
  • Life cycle assessment of novel waste recovery systems.
  • Novel systems for waste heat recovery.
  • Bio-resource recovery (i.e., methanol, methane, VFAs, flue gases, etc.).
  • Nutrient recovery technologies.
  • CO2 capture and utilization technologies.
  • Resource recovery management (energy and resource management).
  • Integration of renewable energies.

Dr. Christian Aragón-Briceño
Dr. Panagiotis Boutikos
Dr. Musa Manga
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. Energies 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 2600 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

  • resource recovery optimization
  • bioresource recovery
  • thermal treatments
  • renewable energies
  • biogas
  • bio-hydrogen
  • biomass
  • process modeling
  • carbon dioxide
  • nutrients
  • waste heat
  • life cycle assessment
  • energy management
  • resource management
  • hydrochar
  • bioenergy

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 2069 KB  
Article
Thermal and Kinetic Study of Waste Polypropylene, Cardboard, Wood Biomass, and Their Blends: A Thermogravimetry Approach
by Martinson Joy Dadson Bonsu, Graeme Palmer, Lachlan Yee, Ernest Du Toit, Md Sydur Rahman and Shane McIntosh
Energies 2025, 18(19), 5193; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18195193 - 30 Sep 2025
Abstract
In this study, a thermogravimetry approach was employed to investigate the thermal parameters of waste polypropylene (PP), mixed wood biomass (WB), cardboard (CB), and their blends during co-gasification under oxidative conditions at varying heating rates. The resulting data were used to quantify the [...] Read more.
In this study, a thermogravimetry approach was employed to investigate the thermal parameters of waste polypropylene (PP), mixed wood biomass (WB), cardboard (CB), and their blends during co-gasification under oxidative conditions at varying heating rates. The resulting data were used to quantify the mass loss profiles for each feedstock and to assess the effects of blending on process temperatures (onset and end), residual mass, and activation energies. Activation energies (Ea) were determined using three iso-conversional methods: Friedman, Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose (KAS), and Numerical Optimization. Among the feedstocks, PP exhibited the highest thermal stability. When blended with either CB or WB, both onset and end temperatures significantly (p < 0.05) increased with rising PP content. These trends were consistent at heating rates of 20 and 40 °C/min. In contrast, CB/WB blends showed no notable variation in onset temperature across blend ratios at either heating rate. However, PP/CB blends exhibited significantly lower residual masses (up to a six-fold decrease) with increasing PP content. Since both PP and WB individually yielded very low residual mass (<2 wt%), increasing PP content in PP/WB blends did not significantly affect the residual mass. Overall, higher heating rates shifted thermal decomposition into higher temperature regimes in both individual and blended feedstocks, but had no impact on residual mass. The Ea of WB was the highest (138–139 kJ/mol), followed by CB (113–116 kJ/mol) and PP (56–63 kJ/mol). The blending of PP/CB and CB/WB resulted in reduced Ea values compared to the pure feedstocks, indicating a positive synergistic effect during co-gasification. In essence, the co-gasification of mixed plastic waste presents a promising strategy for sustainable waste management and energy recovery. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Waste to Energy: Towards Resource Recovery Optimization from Waste)
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22 pages, 1959 KB  
Article
Integration of Plant Pomace into Extruded Products: Analysis of Process Conditions, Post-Production Waste Properties and Biogas Potential
by Jakub Soja, Tomasz Oniszczuk, Iryna Vaskina, Maciej Combrzyński and Agnieszka Wójtowicz
Energies 2024, 17(24), 6476; https://doi.org/10.3390/en17246476 - 23 Dec 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1144
Abstract
Waste streams from cereal-based food production processes, rich in organic matter and carbohydrates, have untapped potential for biogas production. This study uniquely investigated the extrusion-cooking process conditions, physical properties and biogas efficiency of snack pellets enriched with plant pomace (apple, chokeberry, pumpkin, flaxseed [...] Read more.
Waste streams from cereal-based food production processes, rich in organic matter and carbohydrates, have untapped potential for biogas production. This study uniquely investigated the extrusion-cooking process conditions, physical properties and biogas efficiency of snack pellets enriched with plant pomace (apple, chokeberry, pumpkin, flaxseed and nigella seeds) at different levels (10, 20 and 30%), produced using a single-screw extruder-cooker. The highest efficiency obtained in the extrusion-cooking process (18.20 kg/h) was observed for pellets with the addition of 30% flaxseed pomace. The SME value during the entire process was in the range of 0.015–0.072 kWh/kg. New insights into the interaction between the inclusion of pomace, the physical properties of the extrudate and the anaerobic fermentation efficiency were obtained. The results show that 30% chokeberry extrudate maximized methane production (51.39% gas), demonstrating a double innovation: improving snack pellet quality and converting food waste into renewable energy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Waste to Energy: Towards Resource Recovery Optimization from Waste)
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