Advances in Biochemical Conversion Technologies of Waste to Bioenergy, Biochemicals, and Biomaterials

Dear Colleagues,

Global concern about fossil fuel depletion and its harmful effects on the environment is ever more prominent, and has led to a focus on searching for alternative sources for sustainable fuel, chemical, and material production. There has been an increasing trend of using various biochemical conversion technologies such as anaerobic digestion, composting, fermentation, and microbial electrochemical technologies for simultaneously extracting resources from waste along with its treatment. Residual waste such as forest residues, agro-industrial waste, organic fraction of municipal solid waste, and animal manure are recognized as sustainable feedstocks—upon some pretreatment, its biodegradability can be enhanced and is subsequently accessible for microorganisms for converting it into a plethora of value-added products. Industrial waste gas pollutants such as CO and CO₂ bioconversion to biofuels, such as ethanol, butanol, and hexanol, using acetogens is another approach that has been explored greatly in recent years. On the other hand, electrochemically active bacteria oxidize the organic matter present in wastewater into electrons and protons at the anode, and generate electricity or hydrogen at the cathode end through microbial fuel or the microbial electrolysis system, respectively. A more recent approach, termed microbial electro-synthesis, reduces the greenhouse gas CO₂ to multi-carbon compounds using the electrons received from the cathode.

This Special Issue titled “Advances in Biochemical Conversion Technologies of Waste to Bioenergy, Biochemicals, and Biomaterials” intends to highlight recent developments and innovative bioprocess technology research in the recovery of resources from solid, liquid, and gaseous waste. We would like to invite authors to submit original and state-of-the-art critical reviews within the theme of the Special Issue, which include, but are not limited to, the following: 

Theme 1: anaerobic digestion technology; biogas upgrading; biohydrogen production technology; pretreatment methods; bio-hythane

Theme 2: syngas fermentation: acetogens; hydrogenotrophic methanogens; carbon monoxide/carbon dioxide bioconversion; biological water gas shift reaction

Theme 3: microbial electrochemical technologies: exoelectrogens; electrotrophs; microbial fuel cell (MFC); microbial electrolysis cell (MEC); microbial electrosynthesis (MES); biosensors

Theme 4: bioproducts: biofuel (ethanol, butanol, hexanol, biogas, and biohydrogen); biochemicals; bioelectricity; biopolymers; microbial proteins.

Theme 5: innovative bioreactor design; modelling; genetic and metabolic engineering; sustainability and techno-economic analysis

Dr. Haris Nalakath Abubackar
Prof. Dr. Tugba Keskin
Dr. Luciana Peixoto
Prof. Dr. Azize Ayol
Prof. Dr. Chunping Yang
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. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 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 2500 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.