Chemical Approaches to Industrial Waste Management and Resource Recovery
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 15
Special Issue Editor
Interests: solid waste treatment; recycling; solidification/stabilization; environmental chemistry of heavy metals
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Industrial waste management is at the nexus of global sustainability challenges, demanding interdisciplinary solutions that integrate chemistry, policy, and circular economy principles. The surge in industrial solid waste—from heavy metal-laden sludges to persistent microplastics—has intensified environmental degradation and resource scarcity. This Special Issue focuses on advancing chemical technologies for sustainable industrial solid waste valorization, emphasizing resource recovery, pollutant mitigation, and circular economy integration.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following:
- Solidification/stabilization of hazardous wastes to reduce environmental mobility;
- Recycling valuable metals from industrial residues via solvent extraction or bioleaching;
- High-value transformation of spent plastics/rubber into fuels, monomers, or functional materials;
- Energy recovery from biomass through thermochemical or biochemical pathways;
- Biodegradation strategies for persistent organic pollutants;
- Purification and separation technologies targeting emerging contaminants (e.g., PFAS, microplastics).
This Special Issue integrates global policy dynamics, technological breakthroughs, and sustainability metrics, offering a platform for advancing both academic research and industrial practice. Submissions should emphasize scalability, regulatory alignment, and multidisciplinary approaches to bridge the gap between laboratory innovation and real-world implementation.
Prof. Dr. Linqiang Mao
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. Molecules 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 2700 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
- solidification/stabilization
- recycling valuable metals
- high-value transformation of spent plastics or rubber
- energy recovery from biomass
- emerging contaminants
- biodegradation
- purification and separation
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