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Materials and Processes for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Systems

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A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2021) | Viewed by 13933

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Natalia Howaniec

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Guest Editor

Department of Energy Saving and Air Protection, Central Mining Institute, Pl. Gwarkow 1, 40-166 Katowice, Poland
Interests: sustainable energy systems; hydrogen economy; renewable energy; environmental engineering; carbon materials; gasification/co-gasification; waste valorization
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In this world of depleting natural resources, increasing energy demand, and severe environmental issues, the development of materials and processes for sustainable energy and environmental systems is of special importance. Numerous advancements have been made in terms of low-emission energy systems development as well as greenhouse gas emission mitigation, waste valorization into added value products, and energy efficiency improvements in various sectors of the economy. The progress in rational and efficient resource use as well as in the development of advanced functional materials for energy and environmental applications is evident. Nevertheless, a more interdisciplinary approach in power, material, chemical, and environmental engineering is still needed to build up a synergetic effect for a sustainable future.

The aim of this Special Issue entitled “Materials and Processes for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Systems” is to present the recent advancements in various aspects related to materials and processes contributing to the creation of sustainable power systems and environmental solutions, particularly applicable to clean energy developments. These include materials and engineering processes for clean coal technologies, carbon capture and utilization, hydrogen economy, functional carbon materials, advanced energy materials, as well as waste and by-products valorization in energy systems and environmental engineering.

The authors of full research papers, communications, and review papers are invited to contribute to this Special Issue.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Natalia Howaniec
Guest Editor

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. Materials 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

clean energy systems
carbon capture and utilization
clean coal technologies
hydrogen economy
carbon materials for energy and environmental applications
energy materials
waste and by-products valorization in energy and environmental systems

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research

3 pages, 189 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Materials and Processes for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Systems

by Natalia Howaniec

Materials 2022, 15(19), 6692; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15196692 - 27 Sep 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 809

Abstract

Developments in materials and processes for sustainable energy and environmental systems are of special importance in the world of depleting natural resources, serious environmental concerns, increasing energy demand, and disturbances in the global energy market affecting energy supply chains [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Materials and Processes for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Systems)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

11 pages, 2604 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Process Kinetics of the Carbonation of Fly Ashes: A Research Study

by Marian Jacek Łączny, Sebastian Iwaszenko and Adam Smoliński

Materials 2021, 14(2), 253; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14020253 - 06 Jan 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1620

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to present the results of research on the carbonation process kinetics of coal combustion ashes originating from fluidized bed boilers used in power plants. Based on the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), the hypothesis that carbon dioxide is bounded by the mineral substances (calcium compounds) in the fly ashes was confirmed. Determining the kinetic parameters of the carbonation of fly ashes requires simultaneously taking into consideration the kinetics of the drying process of the sample. The drying process of the sample masks the effect of the reaction of CO₂ with calcium compound. Unlike the ashes generated in pulverized fuel boilers, fly ashes contain irregular amorphic mineral components or poorly crystalized products of complete or partial dehydroxylation of claystone substance present in shale formations constituting the gangue as well as anhydrite (CaSO₄), a desulfurization product. The content of free calcium oxide (CaO) in such ashes ranges from a few to several percent, which is a significant obstacle considering their use in cement and concrete production as type II admixtures understood to be inorganic grained materials of pozzolanic or latent hydraulic properties. The paper presents effective mechanisms which reduce the content of free CaO in ashes from Fluidized Bed Combustion (FBC) boilers to a level that allows their commercial utilization in the cement industry. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Materials and Processes for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Systems)

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Graphical abstract

16 pages, 1921 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Profile of CO₂, CO, and H₂ Emissions from Thermal Oxidation of Polish Coals

by Karolina Wojtacha-Rychter and Adam Smoliński

Materials 2020, 13(4), 848; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13040848 - 13 Feb 2020

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 1917

Abstract

The self-heating phenomenon of coal leads to work safety hazards in underground mining. The quantitative analysis of gaseous products in mine atmosphere constitutes one of the detection methods of advanced coal heating. The article presents the results of tests on CO, CO₂, and H₂ emissions during simulated heating of coal in the temperature range of 323–523 K. The oxidation of 15 Polish coals of various carbon contents was performed using a flow reactor technique. A chromatography method was applied to measure the changes of oxidation products concentrations with the increase of temperature. It has been determined that all the tested gases were generated at the initial temperature. The collected data indicated that CO₂ was a major oxidation product in the entire temperature range, while the amounts of H₂ produced did not exceed 0.49% volume. At the temperature of 323 K, the ratio of CO₂/CO was in the range of 10–23 but along with the temperature increase the ratio range narrowed to 3–4. In this paper, a comparison of the physical-chemical properties of the tested coals and the emissions profile of the gases using, among others, the hierarchical clustering analysis showed that samples with higher oxygen, sulfur, and inertinite content as well as lower ash and carbon content formed larger amounts of fire gases. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Materials and Processes for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Systems)

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19 pages, 993 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Taguchi Method and Response Surface Methodology in the Treatment of Highly Contaminated Tannery Wastewater Using Commercial Potassium Ferrate

by Violetta Kozik, Krzysztof Barbusinski, Maciej Thomas, Agnieszka Sroda, Josef Jampilek, Aleksander Sochanik, Adam Smolinski and Andrzej Bak

Materials 2019, 12(22), 3784; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12223784 - 18 Nov 2019

Cited by 28 | Viewed by 2634

Abstract

The potential implementation of Envifer^®, a commercial product containing potassium ferrate (40.1% K₂FeO₄), for the purification of highly contaminated tannery wastewater from leather dyeing processes was proposed. The employment of the Taguchi method for optimization of experiments allowed the discoloration (98.4%), chemical oxygen demand (77.2%), total organic carbon (75.7%), and suspended solids (96.9%) values to be lowered using 1.200 g/L K₂FeO₄ at pH 3 within 9 min. The application of the central composite design (CCD) and the response surface methodology (RSM) with the use of 1.400 g/L K₂FeO₄ at pH 4.5 diminished the discoloration, the chemical oxygen demand, the total organic carbon, and suspended solids within 9 min. The Taguchi method is suitable for the initial implementation, while the RSM is superior for the extended optimization of wastewater treatment processes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Materials and Processes for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Systems)

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Graphical abstract

22 pages, 7920 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Real-Time Corrosion Monitoring of AISI 1010 Carbon Steel with Metal Surface Mapping in Sulfolane

by Andrzej Bak, Bozena Losiewicz, Violetta Kozik, Julian Kubisztal, Paulina Dybal, Aleksandra Swietlicka, Krzysztof Barbusinski, Slawomir Kus, Natalia Howaniec and Josef Jampilek

Materials 2019, 12(19), 3276; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12193276 - 08 Oct 2019

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3295

Abstract

Solvents are widely used in organic synthesis. Sulfolane is a five-membered heterocyclic organosulfur sulfone (R-SO₂-R’, where R/R’ is alkyl, alkenyl, or aryl) and an anthropogenic medium commonly used as industrial extractive solvent in the liquid-liquid and liquid-vapor extraction processes. Under standard conditions sulfolane is not aggressive towards steel, but at higher temperatures and in oxygen, water, or chlorides presence, it can be decomposed into some corrosive (by-)products with generation of SO₂ and subsequent formation of corrosive H₂SO₃. This pilot-case study provides data from laboratory measurements performed in low conductivity sulfolane-based fluids using an industrial multi-electrochemical technique for reliable detection of corrosion processes. In particular, a comprehensive evaluation of the aqueous phase impact on general and localized corrosion of AISI 1010 carbon steel in sulfolane is presented. Assessment of corrosive damage was carried out using an open circuit potential method, potentiodynamic polarization curves, SEM/EDS and scanning Kelvin probe technique. It was found that an increase in the water content (1–3 vol.%) in sulfolane causes a decrease in the corrosion resistance of AISI 1010 carbon steel on both uniform and pitting corrosion due to higher conductance of the sulfolane-based fluids. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Materials and Processes for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Systems)

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9 pages, 555 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Bioconversion of Sewage Sludge to Bio-Fuel: The Environmental and Economic Benefits

by Adam Smoliński, Janusz Karwot, Jan Bondaruk and Andrzej Bąk

Materials 2019, 12(15), 2417; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12152417 - 29 Jul 2019

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 2809

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the economic feasibility of generating a novel, innovative biofuel—bioenergy—obtained from deposit bio-components by means of a pilot installation of sewage sludge bio-conversion. Fuel produced from sewage sludge biomass bears the potential of being considered a renewable energy source. In the present study, 23 bioconversion cycles were conducted taking into consideration the different contents, types of high carbohydrate additives, moisture content of the mixture as well as the shape of the bed elements. The biofuel was produced using post fermentation sewage sludge for industrial energy and heat generation. Based on the presented research it was concluded that the composite biofuel can be co-combusted with hard coal with the optimal percentage share within the range of 20–30% w/w. Sewage sludge stabilized by means of anaerobic digestion carried out in closed fermentation chambers is the final product. The average values of the CO₂, CO, NO, NO_x and SO₂ concentrations in flue gas from co-combustion of a bioconversion product (20% w/w) and coal were 5.43%, 1903 ppm, 300 ppm, 303 ppm and 179 ppm, respectively. In total, within a period of 4.5 years of the plant operation, 1853 Mg of fuel was produced and successfully co-combusted with coal in a power plant. The research demonstrated that in the waste water treatment sector there exists energy potential in terms of calorific value which translates into tangible benefits both in the context of energy generation as well as environmental protection. Over 700,000 Mg of bio-sewage sludge is generated annually in Poland. According to findings of the study presented in the paper, the proposed solution could give 970,000 Mg of dry mass of biomass qualified as energy biomass replacing fossil fuels. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Materials and Processes for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Systems)

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