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Recent Advances and Progress on Renewable and Sustainable Alternative Fuels

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2025 | Viewed by 1128

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Engineering, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK
Interests: conceptual design, process modelling and optimisation of low-carbon technologies; life cycle (LCA) and techno-economic assessments (TEA) of energy systems; carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS); sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production technologies, power to liquids, biomass to liquids, gas to liquids; direct air capture (DACCS) and bioenergy with carbon capture (BECCS); decentralised energy solutions

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Guest Editor
School of Engineering, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK
Interests: biomass waste/other waste characterisation, pre-treatments and alternative ways of exploitation; thermochemical treatments (carbonization-torrefaction-pyrolysis-gasification-combustion) of food-woody biomass waste, fossil fuels and other waste for waste to energy (WtE), bioenergy-biofuels, biochar production; bioenergy/solid-gaseous biofuels systems design/repurposing of existing technologies to adapt new types of waste to fuels/feedstock; advanced cycles and alternative processes for biomass, fossil fuels and waste exploitation for biofuels-bioenergy-biochars under the circular economy scenario; combined renewable energy sources (RES) energy production systems, emphasized in lignocellulosic biomass/other waste sources for net zero carbon centralised and decentralized solutions; 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation feedstock for biofuels production; biorefineries/waste-refineries and integration of thermochemical and biochemical processing routes of biomass/waste; artificial intelligence (AI)
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The resilience and sustainability of our future energy mix will require the development and deployment of low-carbon and cost-effective technologies that utilise renewable and sustainable energy sources to produce alternative fuels. Solid, liquid, and gaseous fuels can be utilised in multiple sectors of the economy, ranging from agriculture to hard-to-abate emission industries (e.g., aviation, heavy industries). Development of technologies for such fuel generation can assist in achieving ambitious net-zero targets that are globally implemented and eventually lead to a quick transition to a resilient 100% renewable energy systems society.

This Special Issue invites original and review research that reports recent advances and progress on promising alternative fuels such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), all types of biofuels, e-fuels, and ammonia. The purpose of the issue is multidisciplinary, aiming to include research dealing with process design, experimental studies, modelling, optimisation, and techno-economic and lifecycle assessments (TEA/LCA) of resilient and alternative fuel production technologies of a variety of technology readiness levels (TRLs). Suggested themes include, but are not limited to:

  • Process design, modelling, and optimisation of alternative fuel routes;
  • Applications of Artificial Intelligence in low-carbon fuel generation;
  • Whole system assessments including TEA/LCA;
  • Advances in catalysis and reactor design;
  • Fuelwood, wood residues, wood pellets, animal waste, vegetal material;
  • Biomethane, H2, e-fuel, ammonia;
  • Integration of thermochemical and biochemical processing routes;
  • Integration of fuel generation with other low-carbon technologies such as wind, solar, and nuclear.

We encourage submissions from diverse disciplines, including engineering, environmental studies, social sciences, chemistry, and physics. In addition, we welcome interdisciplinary papers that deal with different fields, such as overviews of international ongoing and collaborative results of laboratory- and field-scale research projects, technology transfer, and policy development in the field, to offer a thorough understanding of the sustainable production of fuels.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Stavros Michailos
Dr. Vasiliki Skoulou
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 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. 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.

Keywords

  • alternative fuels
  • resilient energy systems
  • aviation fuels
  • ammonia
  • LCA/TEA

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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22 pages, 970 KiB  
Case Report
An Industrial Perspective for Sustainable Polypropylene Plastic Waste Management via Catalytic Pyrolysis—A Technical Report
by Andromachi Chasioti and Anastasia Zabaniotou
Sustainability 2024, 16(14), 5852; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16145852 - 9 Jul 2024
Viewed by 725
Abstract
Recycling plastics on an industrial scale is a key approach to the circular economy. This study presents a techno-economic analysis aimed at recycling polypropylene waste, one of the main consumer plastics. Specifically, it evaluates the technical and economic feasibility of achieving a large-scale [...] Read more.
Recycling plastics on an industrial scale is a key approach to the circular economy. This study presents a techno-economic analysis aimed at recycling polypropylene waste, one of the main consumer plastics. Specifically, it evaluates the technical and economic feasibility of achieving a large-scale cracking process that converts polypropylene waste into an alternative fuel. Pyrolysis is considered as a promising technique to convert plastic waste into liquid oil and other value-added products, with a dual benefit of recovering resources and providing a zero-waste solution. This study concerns a fast catalytic pyrolysis in a fluidized bed reactor, with the presence of a fluid catalytic cracking catalyst of low acidity for high heat transmission, for an industrial plant with a capacity of 1 t/h of polypropylene waste provided by the Greek Petroleum Industry. From the international literature, the operational conditions were chosen pyrolysis temperature at 430 °C, pressure at 1atm, heating rate at 5 °C/min, and yields of products to 71, 14, and 15 wt.%, for liquid fuel, gas, solid product, respectively. The plant design includes a series of apparatuses, with the main one to be the pyrolyzer. The catalytic method is selected over the non-catalytic because the presence of catalyst increases the quantity and quality of the liquid product, which is the main product of the plant. The energy loops of recycling pyrolysis gas and char as a low-carbon fuel in the plant were considered. The production cost, annual revenue, for 2023, are anticipated to reach €13.7 million (115 €/t) and €15 million (15 €/t), respectively, with an estimated investment equal to €5.3 million. The Payback Time is estimated to 2.4 years to recover the cost of investment. The endeavor is rather economically sustainable. A critical parameter for large scale systems is securing feedstock with low or negligible price. Full article
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