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Improve the Energetic Sustainability of Processes Through Waste Heat Recovery

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 December 2026

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Heat and Mass Transfer Technological Center (CTTC), Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya—BarcelonaTech (UPC), ESEIAAT, C/Colom, 11, Terrassa, 08222 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: heat transfer; numerical simulation; energy thermal engineering; numerical modeling; solar energy; heat exchangers; fluid mechanics; experimental fluid mechanics; mechanical engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Heat and Mass Transfer Technological Center (CTTC), Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya—BarcelonaTech (UPC), ESEIAAT, C/Colom, 11, Terrassa, 08222 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: innovative heat exchangers; heat pipes; air-conditioning and refrigeration; heat pumps; ejectors; numerical simulation; experimental analysis; thermal management of electric vehicles

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

To achieve complete decarbonization, one of the main pathways is to decrease energy consumption, i.e., increase the energy efficiency of processes. Waste heat generation is one of the primary consequences of energetic inefficiency in the processes. It has been estimated that there is a potential of 316 TWh of waste heat from industrial processes in EU countries (2016). Therefore, there is significant potential for efficiency enhancement. Many sources of available waste heat can be found in the metallurgical, paper, and petrochemical industries.

Therefore, this Special Issue, entitled “Improve the energetic Sustainability of Processes through Waste Heat Recovery,” is devoted to publishing scholarly papers on waste heat recovery, including its collection, transportation, and transformation into a valuable resource, e.g., electricity, upgraded heat, cooling, etc. Industrial case studies are especially welcome.

Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Innovative heat exchangers for waste heat collecting, including their integration into the process;
  • Heat transportation: integration to heating/cooling networks;
  • Heat transportation: use of heat pipes;
  • Heat transformation: use of mechanical/thermal-driven heat pumps (sorption systems, ejectors, etc.);
  • Alternative waste heat transformation: electricity, desalination, etc.;
  • CAPEX / OPEX studies of the modified installations;
  • Industrial case studies;
  • LCA analysis studies, with special emphasis on reducing carbon footprints.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Jesús Castro
Dr. Carles Oliet
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-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

  • innovative waste heat recovery heat exchangers
  • thermal energy recovery
  • process heat reuse
  • energetic sustainability
  • industrial case studies
  • energy efficiency
  • carbon footprint reduction

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Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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