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Toward Net-Zero Industry: Sustainable Processes, Renewable Energy Solutions, and Innovative...
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Toward Net-Zero Industry: Sustainable Processes, Renewable Energy Solutions, and Innovative Thermal Management

A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026 | Viewed by 1938

Editors

Dr. Maria Dolores Duran Garcia

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Mechanic Engineering Department, Engineering Faculty, Universidad Autonoma del Estado de México, Toluca 50110, Mexico
Interests: thermoeconomics; concentrated solar power; solar heat for industrial processes; application of biofuels in industrial process; life cycle assessment
Dr. Eduardo González-Mora

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor Assistant
Energetic Engineering Department, Engineering Faculty, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Cerro de Coatepec SN, Toluca 50110, Mexico
Interests: concentrated solar powe; solar heat for industrial processes; endoreversible thermodynamics modelling; exergy; nonimaging optics
Dr. Artur O. Zaporozhets

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Forecasting the Electric Power Complex Development, General Energy Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 03150 Kyiv, Ukraine
Interests: system analysis; energy informatics; renewable energy; distributed generation; power equipment diagnostics; information and measurement technologies; environmental monitoring
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The industrial sector was responsible for approximately 24% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 (direct and indirect) and 34% of global energy consumption, with a heavy dependence on fossil fuels (83.2% of the total) and a minimal share of renewable energy—less than 1% came from solar thermal and geothermal energy (REN21, 2024). Process heat generation, which accounts for 74% of this sector's energy demand, presents the most significant challenge for decarbonization. Achieving Net-Zero goals as soon as possible is a vital priority, not only because of the environmental impact but because it represents an opportunity to generate tangible economic benefits in the short, medium, and long term, thereby strengthening the competitiveness and resilience of companies.

In this scenario, the industry is called upon to transform its traditional frameworks by adopting innovative solutions. This includes not only the decarbonization of process heat, the utilization of multigeneration systems, and waste heat recovery but also the electrification of processes, waste management, automation, intelligent control, and the application of artificial intelligence in operational optimization. Contrary to prevailing widespread assumptions otherwise, there are currently mature and proven technologies in various sectors and contexts that have demonstrated technical and economic feasibility.

This Special Issue will not only break paradigms but also establish new foundations for a future version of industry that combines sustainability, efficiency, and resilience while also driving the democratization of energy, guaranteeing equitable access, and promoting a transformation toward fairer and more inclusive systems.

Thus, this Special Issue will serve as an interdisciplinary, cutting-edge forum for presenting viable and scalable solutions that can accelerate the industrial transition toward a low-carbon economy. Our approach will focus on both scientific and technological innovation, as well as the creation of strategic and regulatory frameworks that facilitate the adoption of these solutions.

We invite the academic, scientific, and industrial communities to submit original research articles, reviews, and case studies presenting advances and proposals in the following areas:

  • Applications of renewable energies (solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, green hydrogen) in industry;
  • Advanced technologies for industrial thermal generation and management (e.g., thermal storage, heat recovery, multigeneration);
  • Electrification strategies, energy efficiency, and the circular economy in industrial processes;
  • Application of innovative fuels and technological solutions for the energy transition;
  • Modeling, simulation, and optimization of sustainable industrial processes using artificial intelligence;
  • Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs), sustainability indicators, and environmental impact assessments;
  • Applications of automation, digitalization, and artificial intelligence to energy management;
  • Economic, social, and regulatory assessments in the adoption of Net-Zero technologies;
  • Case studies and best practices for the implementation of renewable energies in industry.

Dr. Maria Dolores Duran Garcia
Dr. Artur O. Zaporozhets
Guest Editors

Dr. Eduardo González-Mora
Guest Editor Assistant

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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Processes 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 2400 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

  • decarbonization of process heat
  • multigeneration systems
  • waste heat utilization
  • electrification of industrial processes
  • waste recovery
  • automation
  • optimization and intelligent process control
  • application of RES in process heat

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

34 pages, 1014 KB  
Article
Techno-Economic and Exergetic Assessment of a Small-Scale Parabolic Trough Collector System for Industrial Process Heat: A Case Study in the Tequila Industry
by Eduardo González-Mora and Ma. Dolores Durán-García
Processes 2026, 14(14), 2234; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr14142234 - 8 Jul 2026
Viewed by 316
Abstract
The industrial sector accounts for 34% of global energy consumption, of which heat accounts for 74%, predominantly derived from fossil fuels. Solar Heat for Industrial Processes (SHIP) offers a viable decarbonisation route for low-to-medium temperature applications (80–250 °C)—a range that includes processes such [...] Read more.
The industrial sector accounts for 34% of global energy consumption, of which heat accounts for 74%, predominantly derived from fossil fuels. Solar Heat for Industrial Processes (SHIP) offers a viable decarbonisation route for low-to-medium temperature applications (80–250 °C)—a range that includes processes such as tequila production. Yet integrated techno-exergo-economic assessments for small-scale, modular systems in agro-industrial contexts remain scarce. This study presents a technical, thermodynamic, and economic evaluation of a 2.5 MWth parabolic trough collector system with thermocline thermal energy storage, integrated into a tequila production facility in Jalisco, México. A parametric analysis across seven solar multiple configurations identifies SM=1.258 as the economic optimum, yielding an annual solar fraction of 35%, a CO2 reduction of 33.5%, a levelised cost of heat of 75.19 USD/MWhth (16.3% below the fuel-oil baseline), and a payback period of 13.39 years under full accelerated depreciation. The system’s exergy efficiency (23–28%) is nearly four times that of the stand-alone boiler (6.31%); the analysis further quantifies diminishing returns beyond SM≈1.4 and demonstrates that México’s accelerated depreciation provision substantially broadens the economically feasible design space. These findings provide a replicable techno-exergo-economic framework for SHIP integration in gas-constrained, high-irradiation industrial regions, supporting decarbonisation efforts in emerging economies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Toward Net-Zero Industry: Sustainable Processes, Renewable Energy Solutions, and Innovative Thermal Management)
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36 pages, 5505 KB  
Article
A UDS-Based Pseudo-Fluid Moving-Bed Dual-Temperature CFD Framework for Hydrogen-Rich Shaft Furnaces Using Coke Oven Gas
by Yue Yu, Feng Wang, Xiaodong Hao, Heping Liu, Bin Wang, Jianjun Gao and Yuanhong Qi
Processes 2026, 14(11), 1838; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr14111838 - 5 Jun 2026
Viewed by 270
Abstract
Hydrogen-rich shaft furnaces operated with coke oven gas (COG) represent an important low-carbon ironmaking route. Conventional porous-medium CFD models, however, do not explicitly resolve geometry-dependent burden descent or downward advection of solid sensible heat in variable-cross-section moving beds. To address this gap, a [...] Read more.
Hydrogen-rich shaft furnaces operated with coke oven gas (COG) represent an important low-carbon ironmaking route. Conventional porous-medium CFD models, however, do not explicitly resolve geometry-dependent burden descent or downward advection of solid sensible heat in variable-cross-section moving beds. To address this gap, a user-defined-scalar (UDS)-based pseudo-fluid moving-bed dual-temperature CFD framework is developed in this study. The framework couples geometry-dependent pseudo-solid kinematics, UDS-based transport of pseudo-solid species and sensible enthalpy, and a 12-step reduction-reforming-carbon reaction network on a fixed Eulerian mesh. It is applied to a 0.5 Mt·a−1 industrial reactor through one reference case and three parametric groups covering solid descent velocity, cooling-side back pressure, and CH4 content. Mesh-independence and mass-conservation checks indicate that the medium mesh is adequate for the intended trend-level assessment; the fine-to-medium deviations are 0.54% for DRI metallization, 0.23% for DRI outlet temperature, and 0.20% for top-gas temperature, with a net global mass residual of 1.53 × 10−6 kg·s−1; the baseline DRI metallization (96.3%), carbon content (1.1%), and combined H2 + CO utilization (29.45%) all fall within the reported ranges of the HBIS demonstration line and Energiron-ZR projects. As the descent velocity increases from 2.88 to 6.72 × 10−4 m·s−1, DRI metallization drops from 98.0% to 79.4% and the outlet temperature rises from 313.3 to 719.4 K. Increasing the cooling-gas outlet back pressure from 60 to 100 kPa reduces the cooling-outlet excess flow from 1.49 to 0.11 kg·s−1, indicating a dynamic gas-seal control between the two gas circuits, whereas raising the inlet CH4 fraction from 10 to 23 vol% lowers the apparent CH4 conversion from 29.5% to 18.5% and broadens the carbon-deposition zone. The framework offers a continuum basis for proof-of-concept and trend-level analysis of variable-cross-section hydrogen-rich moving-bed shaft furnaces. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Toward Net-Zero Industry: Sustainable Processes, Renewable Energy Solutions, and Innovative Thermal Management)
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