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Forests
Special Issues
Energy Conversion and High-Value Utilization of Agroforestry Biomass
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Energy Conversion and High-Value Utilization of Agroforestry Biomass

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Wood Science and Forest Products".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 998

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Enrico Paris

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CREA-IT, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Center of Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Via della Pascolare 16, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
Interests: biomass; emissions; bioenergy; atmospheric pollution
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Beatrice Vincenti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CREA Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Center of Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Via della Pascolare 16, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
Interests: chemistry; gasification; green chemistry; biomass valorization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Daniele Rocco

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Industrial, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering Department, Roma Tre, Rome, Italy
Interests: chemistry; gasification; green chemistry; biomass valorization

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Agricultural and forestry activities worldwide generate substantial amounts of by-products and residual biomass; therefore, in the context of a circular and sustainable economy, their efficient management and valorization represent both a challenge and an opportunity to reduce environmental impacts and support transitions toward renewable energy systems. When properly converted, agroforestry biomass can contribute significantly to clean energy production, provided that conversion processes are optimized in terms of efficiency, emissions control, and overall sustainability.

Research plays a key role in advancing technologies such as combustion, gasification, and pyrolysis, which offer promising routes toward the transformation of biomass into energy and high-value energy carriers. Each of these pathways, however, presents intrinsic limitations that require targeted scientific investigation, including process modeling, system optimization, and technological innovation.

Equally crucial is the adoption of a “cascade use strategy” that will prioritize the extraction of high-value functional materials and biobased products before directing residual biomass to energy recovery. Such approaches maximize resource value, reduce waste, and strengthen the foundations of a sustainable bioeconomy. Consequently, eco-friendly processes and green chemistry principles are essential to achieving these objectives.

The Special Issue, “Energy Conversion and High-Value Utilization of Agroforestry Biomass,” aims to gather together original research contributions focused on innovative thermochemical, biochemical, and integrated conversion strategies. Topics of interest include advanced biomass conversion technologies, green chemistry approaches, biobased material production, pollutant mitigation, and studies that enhance the efficiency and environmental performance of biomass utilization.

We warmly invite you to submit your research to this Special Issue and contribute to advancing sustainable and high-value agroforestry biomass utilization.

Dr. Enrico Paris
Dr. Beatrice Vincenti
Dr. Daniele Rocco
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. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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

  • residual biomass
  • combustion
  • pyrolysis
  • gasification
  • environmental impact
  • bioenergy
  • waste
  • circular economy
  • smart materials
  • biobased materials

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

21 pages, 7022 KB  
Article
Machine Learning-Based Prediction and Optimization of Heavy Metal Adsorption Performance of Biochar
by Xin Huang, Xiaopeng Bai, Yifei Yang, Wenbin Li and Daochun Xu
Forests 2026, 17(3), 326; https://doi.org/10.3390/f17030326 - 5 Mar 2026
Viewed by 756
Abstract
Biochar has been extensively employed in wastewater treatment owing to its effectiveness in removing heavy metal ions. However, the relationships among biomass feedstock composition, pyrolysis conditions, and adsorption performance are highly nonlinear and difficult to quantify systematically across heterogeneous experimental studies. Random Forest [...] Read more.
Biochar has been extensively employed in wastewater treatment owing to its effectiveness in removing heavy metal ions. However, the relationships among biomass feedstock composition, pyrolysis conditions, and adsorption performance are highly nonlinear and difficult to quantify systematically across heterogeneous experimental studies. Random Forest (RF), Gradient Boosting Regression (GBR), and XGBoost (XGB) algorithms were employed to predict and optimize biochar yield, adsorption-related physicochemical properties, and adsorption capacity (qe). The models were developed using two literature-derived datasets comprising 431 samples for physicochemical property and yield prediction (Data 1) and 452 samples for adsorption capacity modeling (Data 2). Results indicated that XGB exhibits superior overall predictive performance across most tasks. Specifically, the single-target XGB models achieved coefficients of determination (R2) of 0.89–0.92 and root mean square errors (RMSE) of 0.02–0.07 on the test set, while the multi-target model attained an R2 of 0.83 with an RMSE of 0.05. Further analysis reveals that pyrolysis conditions exert a dominant influence on biochar yield, with pyrolysis temperature identified as the most critical factor. In contrast, the physicochemical properties of biochar and its adsorption performance are primarily governed by feedstock composition, particularly carbon and ash contents. Higher ash content impairs surface functionality and reduces adsorption capacity (qe), whereas increased carbon content and appropriately optimized pyrolysis conditions contribute to enhanced adsorption capacity. In addition to intrinsic biochar properties, the initial concentration of heavy metal ions in solution constitutes an important external factor influencing adsorption behavior. Feature importance analysis, SHAP analysis, and correlation analysis collectively elucidate the key factors affecting biochar characteristics and adsorption performance, as well as the interactions among these factors. These findings provide a data-driven basis for optimizing biochar production parameters and guiding experimental design for efficient Cu2+ and Pb2+ removal from wastewater. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Conversion and High-Value Utilization of Agroforestry Biomass)
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