Plastic Recycling and Biopolymer Synthesis for Industrial Application
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Materials".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2025 | Viewed by 1248
Special Issue Editors
Interests: biorefining; biofuel; biochemical and biopolymers; waste valorisation; fermentation and bioprocessing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: theory and methods of thermodynamics in complex systems; molecular simulation in conformational transformation; aggregation, reaction, and separation behaviours of complex systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
2. School of Applied Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield HD1 3DR, UK
Interests: biofuel; bioenergy; lignocellulosic biomass; catalysis; industrial enzymes; fermentation technology; industrial microbiology; bioethanol
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Plastic waste is one of the major classes of solid waste raising significant concern worldwide. In 2017, 438 millions tonnes of plastic were produced worldwide, mainly used for plastic packaging, building and construction industry, textile industry and others. Most of the plastic waste ends in landfill or incineration at the end of its useful life, while many synthetic plastics take over 100 years to degrade in the natural environment. Therefore, plastic recycling to reduce the impact on the environment and to reduce the depletion of non-renewable resources is a crucial approach to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN.
Alternatively, a growing number of investigations have been carried out to synthesize biopolymers to replace crude-oil-based plastic in industrial applications, such as poly-lactic acid (PLA), poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) and alginate extracted from seaweed. These biopolymers have increasingly been used in various industries, providing a sustainable solution to plastic pollution.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews related to plastic recycling and biopolymer synthesis are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Plastic recycling technology and its application;
- Biopolymer extraction, synthesis and design for large-scale industrial application;
- Sustainability assessment of new technologies or new products for the replacement of crude-oil-based plastics;
- Assessment of the environmental impact of plastic waste and its remediation.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Prof. Dr. Chenyu Du
Prof. Dr. Diannan Lu
Dr. Ali Nawaz
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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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
- plastic recycling
- biopolymers
- PET
- waste valorisation
- textiles
- packaging
- microplastics
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