Advances in Thermal Chemical Conversion of Biomass/Organic Waste/Coal
A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "I3: Energy Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 877
Special Issue Editors
Interests: sustainability; solar energy; renewable energy technology; clean conversion and utilization of energy; design and development of new energy materials and devices; thermochemical conversion of organic wastes; thermodynamic analysis and optimization of energy systems; solar thermal utilization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: resource utilization of organic waste and renewable energy; multiphase flow and heat transfer in supercritical water gasification process; comprehensive management optimization; dynamic coordinated control of energy systems
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Thermochemical conversion of biomass, organic waste, and coal plays a pivotal role in the sustainable energy landscape, serving as a bridge between waste management, energy production, and chemical manufacturing. By converting low-grade, abundant feedstocks into high-energy-density fuels, syngas, bio-oil, hydrogen, and value-added chemicals, these processes enable the valorization of residues that would otherwise be landfilled, incinerated, or burned inefficiently. This creates opportunities for decarbonization across sectors, improves resource efficiency, and enhances energy security by diversifying supply. The field benefits from advances in feedstock characterization, pretreatment, catalysts for gas cleanup and tar reforming, reactor design, and process intensification, enabling more efficient, selective, and robust operations under variable feedstocks and climate conditions.
This Special Issue seeks to present the latest advances in theory, modeling, design, operation, and environmental assessment of thermochemical conversion processes, including gasification, pyrolysis, torrefaction, combustion, hydrothermal carbonization, liquefaction, and co-processing of mixed feedstocks. We invite original research that addresses feedstock characterization and pretreatment, catalyst development and upgrading (gasification gas cleanup, tar reforming, bio-oil upgrading, etc.), reactor design and process intensification, kinetic and CFD modeling, control strategies, technoeconomic analysis, life-cycle assessment, emissions mitigation, and pilot-/demonstration-scale studies.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Thermochemical conversion technologies: gasification, pyrolysis, torrefaction, combustion, hydrothermal carbonization, liquefaction, and co-processing of biomass/organic waste/coal.
- Feedstock characterization, pretreatment, upgrading, supply chains, and multi-feedstock processing.
- Catalysis and upgrading: tar reforming, gas cleaning, syngas conditioning, and bio-oil upgrading.
- Reactor design, process intensification, heat and mass transfer, scale-up, and reactor diagnostics.
- Modeling and simulation: kinetic modeling, CFD, system-level models, uncertainty quantification, and AI/data-driven approaches.
- Process integration and energy efficiency, heat integration, and exergy analysis.
- Environmental and sustainability assessment: life-cycle assessment, technoeconomic analysis, and policy implications.
- Products and applications: biofuels, chemicals, hydrogen, syngas, biochar, and activated carbon.
Dr. Jialing Xu
Dr. Zhiyong Peng
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. Energies 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 2600 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
- thermochemical conversion
- biomass
- organic waste
- coal
- gasification
- pyrolysis
- biochar
- life-cycle assessment
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