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Sustainable Air Quality Management: Bioaerosols, Human Health, and Integrated Environmental Strategies

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Air, Climate Change and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 1799

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Ewa Brągoszewska

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Guest Editor

Department of Technologies and Installations for Waste Management, Silesian University of Technology, 18 Konarskiego St., 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Interests: air quality; emission control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Air quality is a key determinant of human health and well-being. Beyond chemical pollutants, bioaerosols—airborne microorganisms and their by-products—play a critical role in shaping the microbiological quality of both indoor and outdoor environments. Exposure to harmful biological agents in workplaces and public spaces can cause a wide range of health effects, from allergies and infections to chronic respiratory conditions. Despite their importance, bioaerosols remain insufficiently studied compared to other air pollutants, and effective strategies for their monitoring, regulation, and control are still developing.

The aim of this Special Issue, ‘Sustainable Management of Bioaerosols and Air Quality: Implications for Human Health and the Environment’, is to advance knowledge on the microbiological quality of air and promote innovative, sustainable methods for reducing the risks associated with airborne biological hazards. The scope is directly aligned with Sustainability, as it addresses environmental and health challenges that require integrated and forward-looking solutions.

Topics of interest include the following:

Microbiological quality of indoor and outdoor air;
Characterization and monitoring of bioaerosols;
Health effects of exposure to biological air pollutants;·
Predictive models and risk assessments of bioaerosol exposure;
Standards and regulations for harmful biological agents in air;
Sustainable methods and technologies for improving indoor air quality.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Ewa Brągoszewska
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 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

microbiological air quality
bioaerosols
bacterial bioaerosols
fungal bioaerosols
health risk

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20 pages, 6150 KB

Open AccessArticle

Volatile Matter Release Characteristics of Selected Textile Wastes in Support of Sustainability

by Michał Kozioł and Joachim Kozioł

Sustainability 2026, 18(10), 4708; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18104708 - 9 May 2026

Viewed by 307

Abstract

One of the challenges to sustainability is the management of textile waste. Effective technologies for recycling this type of waste are still lacking. Currently, textile waste is most often landfilled or incinerated. Pyrolysis offers a more advantageous solution, as it enables partial recovery of raw materials along with energy recovery from the remaining mass, thereby aligning with the circular economy. The kinetics of volatile matter release play an important role in the pyrolysis and combustion of solid substances. This paper presents research related to this issue. The study concerns three waste textile materials (cotton, silk, and polyamide) and the following process parameters: temperatures from 400 to 800 °C and time from 0 to 900 s. The results of the study are characteristics, i.e., functions describing the kinetics of volatile matter release as a function of process parameters. The general forms of these functions were determined taking into account fundamental physical and chemical laws. In addition to process parameters, the functions include coefficients whose values were determined on the basis of experimental measurements. The characteristics were determined for isothermal processes as well as for generalized processes, additionally accounting for temperature variability, which represents an original contribution of this study. Kinetic coefficients were derived from the obtained characteristics. The studies revealed mass fractions of volatile matter exceeding even 90%. The obtained characteristics may serve as tools for improving the sustainable management of textile waste by enabling more rational control of thermal processes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Air Quality Management: Bioaerosols, Human Health, and Integrated Environmental Strategies)

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17 pages, 1544 KB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainability Evaluation of Ambient-Temperature Biocomposite Additive Manufacturing Using Life Cycle Assessment

by Katarzyna Klejnowska, Nedzhmie Yusufova and Jeremy Faludi

Sustainability 2026, 18(3), 1223; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18031223 - 26 Jan 2026

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1074

Abstract

Additive manufacturing offers rapid and customizable production, yet conventional plastic-based methods remain energy-intensive and environmentally harmful, often resulting in higher impacts per part than traditional manufacturing. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether upcycled biomaterials, specifically oyster shells, pistachio shells, and clay, could be used as lower-impact alternatives to PLA in 3D printing. The scope included detailed measurement of print parameters for each material and a full life cycle assessment (LCA) of the printed elements, covering printer manufacturing, raw material extraction, transport, operation, and end of life. The results show that ambient-temperature extrusion of these upcycled biomaterials can reduce energy consumption by up to 89% and overall environmental impact by up to 94% (as measured by ReCiPe Endpoint H points) compared to PLA printing. These reductions were observed for the Netherlands and EU contexts, where electricity mixes are relatively clean and recycling rates are high; even greater improvements were observed for the US. Although the printed biomaterial objects exhibit lower mechanical strength, limited waterproofness, and reduced print resolution, they are already suitable for low-load applications such as prototypes and architectural models. Overall, the findings demonstrate that upcycled biomaterial extrusion has strong sustainability potential, outperforming both conventional plastics and bioplastics such as PLA in terms of material impacts and energy use. Continued development of material formulations as well as pre- and post-processing techniques could further expand functionality and support the broader adoption of low-impact 3D printing across a wide range of applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Air Quality Management: Bioaerosols, Human Health, and Integrated Environmental Strategies)

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