Biotechnology and Biomaterials Innovations in Sustainable Environmental Engineering: Towards a Circular and Low-Carbon Future

Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue titled "Biotechnology and Biomaterials Innovations in Sustainable Environmental Engineering: Towards a Circular and Low-Carbon Future" in the journal Sustainability aims to showcase cutting-edge research at the intersection of biotechnology, advanced biomaterials, and environmental engineering. It emphasizes innovative solutions addressing pressing global challenges in sustainability, including pollution remediation, renewable energy generation, waste valorization, and resource circularity.

Focus: The issue centers on the development and application of biotechnological processes and bio-derived or bio-inspired materials for sustainable environmental engineering. Key themes include bioelectrochemical systems (e.g., microbial fuel cells for simultaneous wastewater treatment and energy production), nanomaterials for enhanced bioremediation, biodegradable biomaterials from renewable or waste sources, and integrated approaches combining microbial biotechnology with engineering for eco-friendly technologies.

Scope: Contributions are invited on topics such as bio-nanotechnology, microbial fuel cells (MFCs), plant microbial fuel cells (PMFCs), sustainable biomaterials (e.g., bioplastics, mycelium-based materials), waste-to-energy conversions, CO₂ conversion technologies, biocatalysts, bio-nanomaterials, sustainable agriculture technologies, circular economy models in environmental applications, and life-cycle assessments of these technologies. The scope spans from laboratory-scale innovations to pilot and potential industrial implementations, covering air/water/soil pollution control, energy preservation, biodiversity support, and socio-economic aspects of deployment.

Purpose: This Special Issue seeks to advance scientific understanding and practical deployment of these technologies to support the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It promotes interdisciplinary research that quantifies sustainability benefits (e.g., reduced carbon footprints, resource efficiency, pollutant removal rates), fosters policy-relevant insights, and encourages open science practices with detailed methodologies for reproducibility.

This issue usefully supplements the existing literature by bridging gaps between fundamental biotechnology/biomaterials research and real-world sustainable engineering applications. While prior works have explored sustainable biomaterials or bioelectrochemical systems in isolation, this collection emphasizes integrated, transdisciplinary solutions tailored to environmental challenges in diverse contexts (e.g., developing regions, industrial settings). It builds on reviews of trends in sustainable biomaterials and bioenergy while providing new empirical data, modeling, and case studies that address scalability, cost-effectiveness, and socio-economic integration—often underexplored areas.

Contribution to Sustainability: By focusing on biotechnology and biomaterials, the issue directly mirrors Sustainability journal priorities, such as water/air pollution mitigation, renewable energy sources, waste management, CO₂ conversion technologies, biocatalysts, bio-nanomaterials, sustainable agriculture technologies, sustainable resource utilization, and circular economy principles. It supports defining/measuring sustainability through metrics like energy yield, pollutant degradation efficiency, and life-cycle impacts. Potential outcomes include tools for monitoring environmental health, policy recommendations for green technologies, and applications that reduce reliance on fossil resources, thereby promoting integrated socio-economic and scientific approaches to sustainable development.

Prof. Dr. Sathish Kumar Kamaraj
Prof. Dr. Heriberto Cruz-Martínez
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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability 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.