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Emerging Sustainable Technologies for Environmental Remediation and Management

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Pollution Prevention, Mitigation and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 26 December 2026 | Viewed by 707

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. Departmento de Industrias, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2. Instituto de Tecnología de Alimentos y Procesos Químicos (ITAPROQ), CONICET/UBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Interests: multiphase reactors; advanced oxidation processes; process intensification; hydrodynamic cavitation; wastewater treatment; pretreatment of lingocellulosic residues; radioactive particle tracking; computational fluid dynamics; fault diagnosis

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Guest Editor
1. Division Catalizadores y Superficies. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencia y Tecnología de Materiales (INTEMA-CONICET-UNMdP), Av. Colón 10850, Mar del Plata B7606BWV, Argentina
2. Departamento de Ingeniería Química-Facultad de Ingeniería, UNMdP, Av. J. B. Justo 4302, Mar del Plata B7608FDQ, Argentina
Interests: advanced oxidation processes; multiphase reactors; process intensification; Fenton-based processes; recalcitrant pollutants
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The development of sustainable technologies within the challenges of climate change and population growth requires innovative engineering solutions to address the increasing demand of energy and water and the environmental pollution burden. Hence, this Special Issue will address emerging technologies for environmental remediation and management, particularly focused on converting fluid effluent streams and solid residues into resources, emphasizing efficient and cost-effective processes.

We invite submissions of research exploring innovative and advanced methods for wastewater treatment and for converting fluid effluents and solid wastes into resources. We encourage submissions of research involving process intensification methods, like the use of multifunctional reactors, innovative new materials (catalysts, adsorbents, hybrid materials), and processes including the use of ultrasound, microwave, hydrodynamic cavitation, alternative energy sources, etc. In addition, developments pursuing the conversion of solid residues into advanced materials, products and fuels are welcome.

Dr. Miryan Cassanello
Dr. Maria Alejandra Ayude
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

  • clean technologies
  • process intensification
  • solid wastes
  • wastewater treatments
  • advanced oxidation processes
  • environmental remediation
  • lignocellulosic residues

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 2973 KB  
Article
Enzymatic Saccharification of Delignified Biomass Intensified by Hydrodynamic Cavitation
by María del Pilar Balbi, Santiago Fleite, Candela González Giqueaux, María Alejandra Ayude and Miryan Cassanello
Sustainability 2026, 18(6), 2816; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18062816 - 13 Mar 2026
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Abstract
Lignocellulosic biomass is a promising renewable resource for sustainable biorefineries, although its commercial use remains limited by the complex biomass structure and process inefficiencies. This work investigates the use of hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) as a process-intensification strategy during the washing step following hydrogen [...] Read more.
Lignocellulosic biomass is a promising renewable resource for sustainable biorefineries, although its commercial use remains limited by the complex biomass structure and process inefficiencies. This work investigates the use of hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) as a process-intensification strategy during the washing step following hydrogen peroxide–acetic acid (HPAC) delignification, with the aim of enhancing subsequent enzymatic saccharification to produce glucose. Wood residues from Eucalyptus sp., Tipuana tipu, and Pinus sp. were delignified using HPAC under mild conditions (1:1 v/v glacial acetic acid: 30% w/w H2O2 solutions, at 90 °C, 15 g/L, 1 h orbital shake) and washed either by conventional soaking or by HC-assisted recirculation prior to enzymatic hydrolysis using the Novozymes Cellic CTec3 blend at optimal initial conditions (40 FPU/g substrate, pH = 5, and 53 °C). HC applied during washing significantly increased glucose yields and initial hydrolysis rates for delignified angiosperm species. Glucose yields after 28 h increased significantly for Eucalyptus sp. and Tipuana tipu compared to conventional washing, while little effect was found for Pinus sp. Overall, the glucose yield, expressed per 100 g of precursor dry mass, attained 34.5 g/100 g for Eucalyptus sp., 30.2 g/100 g for Tipuana tipu, and only 12.9 g/100 g for Pinus sp. Structural and morphological analyses indicate that the effectiveness of HC is species-dependent and might be associated with fiber disruption and the removal of inhibitory compounds rather than changes in cellulose crystallinity. Implementing HC during the washing step involved 7% extra energy compared to the energy required for HPAC, thus resulting in less energy required per unit mass of glucose generated. These results demonstrate that HC-assisted washing is an effective and energy-efficient intensification step when combined with HPAC, contributing to improved biomass valorization while avoiding harsher pretreatment conditions. Since HC is relatively simple to scale up, the proposed strategy offers an energy-convenient approach for enhancing enzymatic saccharification in sustainable biorefinery processes. Full article
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