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Sustainability
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The Role of Biorefineries in Circular Economy
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The Role of Biorefineries in Circular Economy

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 5898

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Lisandra Rocha Meneses

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Waste and Biomass Valorization Group (WBVG), Department of Applied Bioeconomy, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Chełmońskiego St. 37a, 51-630 Wrocław, Poland
Interests: lignocellulosic biomass; anaerobic digestion; biofuel; bioethanol; biomethanol; biomethane; biogas; biomass pretreatment; zero-waste; second and third generation biofuel production
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Nemailla Bonturi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Tallinn University of Technology, 12618 Tallinn, Estonia
Interests: bioprocesses; synthetic biology; metabolic engineering; microbial cell factories
Dr. Boboescu Iulian Zoltan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Division of Bioprocess Engineering, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
Interests: multiproduct biorefinery; lab-on-a-chip; (Na)DES; external fields
Dr. Clelton A Santos

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
LNBR – Brazilian Biorenewables National Laboratory, CNPEM - National Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas Sao Paulo, Brazil
Interests: enzymology; recombinant protein; lignocellulose-degrading enzymes; biofuels; high-value added chemicals; microbial platforms for protein production Photo:

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Energy markets and our dependence on fossil fuels worldwide have been facing economic, environmental, and technological challenges. Nowadays, more than ever, countries must focus on their energy independence and shift from utilizing fossil fuels as the primary source of energy, platform molecules, and the main driver of current food systems. It is crucial to promote the development and adoption of sustainable, cost-effective, and reliable alternative feedstocks for biofuels, energy cariers, polymers, functional food and feed ingredients, as well as biofertilizers. Moreover, non-food feedstocks, aquatic cultivated feedstocks, and genetically modified organisms can successfully produce electricity, heat, and fuel while treating municipal and industrial sidestreams, key aspects to reaching a sustainable circular economy.

This Special Issue addresses the limitations and challenges of global bulk and specialty chemicals production and their utilization. It promotes and investigates the utilization of bioresources and biotechnologies to produce value-added functional products and biochemicals in all stages of the supply chain (upstream, production, and downstream processes). All types of original submissions are welcome. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Second-, third-, and fourth-generation biofuels and biocommodities production;
  • Chemical, biochemical, and thermochemical conversion processes;
  • Development and utilization of technologies for bioresource recovery;
  • Novel functional food and feed ingredients;
  • Modeling, simulation, and optimization techniques;
  • Legal framework of biorefineries and circular economy;
  • Life-cycle assessment and technoeconomic analysis of biorefinery approaches. 

Dr. Lisandra Rocha Meneses
Dr. Nemailla Bonturi
Dr. Boboescu Iulian Zoltan
Dr. Clelton A Santos
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

  • biomass valorization
  • zero-waste
  • protein transition
  • circular economy
  • process integration
  • biochemicals
  • biofuels
  • second-generation
  • third-generation
  • fourth-generation
  • bioresource recovery

Published Papers (3 papers)

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13 pages, 2936 KiB  
Article
Environmental Performance of Oxidized Kraft Lignin-Based Products
by Neethi Rajagopalan, Iris Winberg, Olesya Fearon, Giuseppe Cardellini, Tiina Liitia and Anna Kalliola
Sustainability 2022, 14(17), 10897; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141710897 - 31 Aug 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2297
Abstract
Bio-based products can help us to reach sustainability goals and reduce our dependency on fossil-based raw materials. Lignin is an abundantly available bio-based material. Recently, a concept of an alkali–O2 oxidation (LigniOx) process for feasibly producing lignin dispersants at a kraft pulp [...] Read more.
Bio-based products can help us to reach sustainability goals and reduce our dependency on fossil-based raw materials. Lignin is an abundantly available bio-based material. Recently, a concept of an alkali–O2 oxidation (LigniOx) process for feasibly producing lignin dispersants at a kraft pulp mill has been introduced. The oxidation process uses O2 gas to increase the anionic charge of lignin and the final oxidized lignin can serve as a concrete plasticizer or versatile dispersant. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool widely used to holistically evaluate the environmental benefits of various products. The goal of this study was to evaluate the versatility of the novel lignin dispersants produced from kraft lignin and to compare the environmental performance with the synthetic products using an attributional cradle-to-gate LCA. Results showed that LigniOx impacts were lower than synthetic equivalents for both the end uses—superplasticizer and dispersants—in most of the impact categories. The only negative impact was on eutrophication that arises from fly ash purging at the kraft pulping process even without the integrated LigniOx production. In addition, the production of LigniOx lignin appeared to be more attractive than conventionally recovered kraft-lignin. LigniOx contributed minimally to the total impacts with the majority of impacts arising from the kraft pulping process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Biorefineries in Circular Economy)
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33 pages, 8498 KiB  
Article
Impact of Policy Instruments in the Implementation of Renewable Sources of Energy in Selected European Countries
by Elnaz Nasiri, Lisandra Rocha-Meneses, Abrar Inayat and Timo Kikas
Sustainability 2022, 14(10), 6314; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14106314 - 22 May 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2139 | Correction
Abstract
Nowadays, great attention has been paid to alternative sources of energy that can be used as a replacement for fossil fuels and help to reduce their utilization in the overall energy mix. In Europe, the development and implementation of renewable sources of energy [...] Read more.
Nowadays, great attention has been paid to alternative sources of energy that can be used as a replacement for fossil fuels and help to reduce their utilization in the overall energy mix. In Europe, the development and implementation of renewable sources of energy is regulated and supported by legal frameworks. This paper investigates the impact of European Directives and its transposition to national policies on the share of renewable sources of energy in electricity, heating and cooling, and transport in Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. For this, quantitative and qualitative data were utilized. The quantitative data refer to the gross energy consumption, energy consumption for heating and cooling purposes (by category), and energy consumption in the transportation sector, while the qualitative data refer to the main directives and legal frameworks utilized to regulate the utilization and implementation of renewable energy in the selected countries. The results of this study show that the European Directives are not as effective as expected in the promotion and adoption of renewable sources of energy. Although none of the countries investigated in this paper were able to achieve the 10% share of energy produced from renewable sources for the transportation sector, certain goals were still achieved. For instance, in 2018, 6.57% of the energy utilized in the transportation sector in Denmark was from renewable sources, while in Estonia it was 3.29%, in Ireland 7.17%, in Latvia 4.73%, in Lithuania 4.33%, and in the Netherlands 9.59%. These results suggest that the current regulations should be revised and that clear, accountable, and predictable regulations should be put in place to ensure the energetic independence in Europe. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Biorefineries in Circular Economy)
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3 pages, 183 KiB  
Correction
Correction: Nasiri et al. Impact of Policy Instruments in the Implementation of Renewable Sources of Energy in Selected European Countries. Sustainability 2022, 14, 6314
by Elnaz Nasiri, Lisandra Rocha-Meneses, Abrar Inayat and Timo Kikas
Sustainability 2022, 14(17), 10636; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141710636 - 26 Aug 2022
Viewed by 833
Abstract
The authors would like to make the following corrections about the published paper [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Biorefineries in Circular Economy)
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