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Towards Zero-Waste Cities: Advancement in Waste-to-Energy

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "B: Energy and Environment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 April 2022) | Viewed by 12669

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Lu Sun

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Guest Editor

Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Interests: circular economy; waste management; eco-industrial development

Dr. Jingzheng Ren

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Guest Editor

Department of Industrial and Systems, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Interests: engineering operations research for energy, environment, and sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Yi Dou

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Guest Editor

Department of Chemical System Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
Interests: circular economy; environmental systems engineering; eco-industrial development; eco-city; technology assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Rapid urbanization and industrialization have resulted in increasing waste generation globally. As a consequence, the rate of waste generation and resultant pollution levels have risen drastically. It is important to build a circular society, reduce pollution, improve waste treatment efficiency, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As the key platform of human activities, a variety of urban wastes generated due to industrial and living activities, cities should seek innovative countermeasures to optimize energy, material, and capital from lifecycle perspectives, so that the overall sustainable development level of cities can be improved. Waste-to-energy (WTE) treatment recovers the energy from various wastes, and can greatly improve overall energy efficiency, and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the final wastes to landfills. Consequently, reducing waste and improving the efficiency of energy recovery are the key issues in waste management, which require system optimization, different technologies, energy recovery, and energy substitution integration. Furthermore, the energy recovery performance and GHG emissions reduction of different systems need to be evaluated. This Special Issue aims to:

Investigate advanced technologies implementation, systemic solutions, and data-driven optimization of the waste management and energy problems encountered in cities;
Post-pandemic opportunities and roles for waste-to-energy systems, such as sustainable consumption, business models, and social impacts;
Promote eco-industrial development, waste recycling, landfill and final disposal reduction, achieving the zero-waste city target from a circular economy perspective;
Assess advanced waste management systems from a life cycle perspective, including technology assessment, environmental impact evaluation, social benefits analysis, etc.

We welcome article types including but not limited to: data reports, general commentaries, methods papers, original research articles, perspectives, short communications, policy and practice reviews, policy briefs, and reviews.

Dr. Lu Sun
Dr. Jingzheng Ren
Dr. Yi Dou
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. 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

circular economy
waste management
energy recovery
energy system optimization
climate change mitigation

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research

5 pages, 200 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Waste-to-Energy: A Midas Touch for Turning Waste into Energy

by Long Zhang, Wuliyasu Bai and Jingzheng Ren

Energies 2023, 16(5), 2238; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en16052238 - 25 Feb 2023

Viewed by 1909

Abstract

Presently, the rapid urbanization and industrialization have generated a great amount of waste around the world, which has led to increasing environmental pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Towards Zero-Waste Cities: Advancement in Waste-to-Energy)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

13 pages, 2174 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Determination of the Red Mud Industrial Cluster Sites in Indonesia Based on Sustainability Aspect and Waste Management Analysis through PROMETHEE

by Hendrik, Yin Yuan, Akhmad Fauzi, Widiatmaka, Dyah Tjahyandari Suryaningtyas, Florentinus Firdiyono and Yang Yao

Energies 2022, 15(15), 5435; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15155435 - 27 Jul 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1466

Abstract

Red mud storage is associated with an increased risk of dam failure and there is an urgent need to address the environmental problem caused by the very fine particle size (average 4.9 µm) of red mud with high alkalinity (pH = 10–12.5) in the alumina industry. The specific objective of this study was to investigate the use of red mud based on the “simulation” integrating the sustainability aspect through the PROMETHEE method. The data source is from a field survey with experts conducted at the research location from the province of West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The results of the study using the PROMETHEE ranking parameter showed that the best optimal industrial cluster sites were Ketapang, followed by Belitung Island, Mempawah, and Teluk Batang, with scores of 0.4167, 0.0476, 0.0, and −0.463, respectively. However, using economic input and environmental output, the efficient frontier showed that Ketapang, Teluk Batang, and Pulau Belitung are efficient sites. Considerably more work will need to be carried out to determine the strategic partner in the increasing significant added value in the red mud industrial cluster sites. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Towards Zero-Waste Cities: Advancement in Waste-to-Energy)

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20 pages, 1960 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Power Production from Produced Waters via Reverse Electrodialysis: A Preliminary Assessment

by Alessandro Cosenza, Giovanni Campisi, Francesco Giacalone, Serena Randazzo, Andrea Cipollina, Alessandro Tamburini and Giorgio Micale

Energies 2022, 15(11), 4177; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15114177 - 06 Jun 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2052

Abstract

Wastewaters generated by crude oil extraction processes, called “produced waters” (PWs), are complex solutions that contain organic compounds, mainly hydrocarbons, and often exhibit high salinity. The large amounts of PWs represent a global issue because of their environmental impact. An approach widely used in the oil industry is the reinjection of this wastewater into the extraction wells after a suitable treatment. The high salt concentration of such solutions may be used in salinity gradient technologies to produce green electricity. Among these technologies, reverse electrodialysis (RED) is one of the most promising. In this work, the application of RED for energy generation from two different real oil industry brines was investigated. An experimental campaign was performed by testing 10 × 10 cm² units in long-run continuous operations, monitoring the performance for more than 25 days. Fouling phenomena, occurring during the continuous operation, decrease the unit performance and several anti-fouling strategies were adopted to tackle this issue. As a result, a positive net power density for up to 18 days of continuous operation was obtained. A maximum power density of about 2.5 W/m² was observed, demonstrating how the RED technology could be an important strategy to harvest energy from an industrial waste. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Towards Zero-Waste Cities: Advancement in Waste-to-Energy)

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22 pages, 2248 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment on the Cost Synergies and Impacts among Measures on Energy Conservation, Decarbonization, and Air Pollutant Reductions Using an MCEE Model: A Case of Guangzhou, China

by Yunsheng Xie, Peng Wang, Yi Dou, Lei Yang, Songyan Ren and Daiqing Zhao

Energies 2022, 15(4), 1258; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15041258 - 09 Feb 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1661

Abstract

Many challenges are faced in the process of urban sustainable development, including the continuous growth in energy demand and rapid increase in CO₂ and air pollutant emissions. This study focuses on the costs of measures to address these issues and establishes a multi-objective comprehensive assessment model for energy saving, CO₂, and pollutant emission (MCEE). Taking Guangzhou as an example, the sustainable development measures are divided into three categories, energy-saving, demand-optimization, and environmental-protection. Five scenarios are set to quantitatively evaluate the costs when these measures are implemented alone or coordinately for the period 2015–2035. Conclusions are as follows: (1) Measures of energy-saving and demand-optimization have the best synergistic effect on energy saving and emission reduction. The synergistic benefits include an 80% and 84% increase in energy savings and CO₂ reductions, respectively, and more than 50% increase in pollutant reductions. (2) Measures of demand-optimization and energy-saving have the best synergistic effect on cost saving, which reduces the unit technical improvement costs of energy saving and CO₂ reduction by 49.5% and 54.9%, respectively, and the unit end-of-pipe costs of four pollutants by 59.15%, 54.43%, 61.15%, and 51.96, respectively. (3) Environmental-protection measures have remarkable synergistic effects in reducing the cost of health loss and labor loss. At the price of a 5% increase in technical improvement cost and 9% in end-of-pipe treatment cost, health loss, labor loss, and total social cost will be reduced by 18%, 19%, and 3%, respectively. The above conclusions provide support for cities of the same type to coordinate various measures, reduce resistance and barriers to their implementation, compensate for the market deficiency of high costs of some measures, and achieve the goal of sustainable development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Towards Zero-Waste Cities: Advancement in Waste-to-Energy)

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9 pages, 2131 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Slow Pyrolysis as a Method for Biochar Production from Carob Waste: Process Investigation and Products’ Characterization

by Marco Maniscalco, Giulia Infurna, Giuseppe Caputo, Luigi Botta and Nadka Tz. Dintcheva

Energies 2021, 14(24), 8457; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en14248457 - 15 Dec 2021

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2623

Abstract

The zero-waste city challenge of the modern society is inevitably addressed to the development of model’s waste-to-energy. In this work, carob waste, largely used in the agro-industrial sector for sugar extraction or locust beangum (LBG) production, is considered as feedstock for the slow pyrolysis process. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in 2012, the world production of carobs was ca. 160,000 tons, mainly concentrated in the Mediterranean area (Spain, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, and Greece). To evaluate the biomass composition, at first, the carob waste was subjected to thermo-gravimetric analysis. The high content of fixed carbon suggests that carobs are a plausible candidate for pyrolysis conversion to biochar particles. The thermal degradation of the carob waste proceeds by four different steps related to the water and volatile substances’ removal, degradation of hemicellulose, lignin and cellulose degradation, and lignin decomposition. Considering this, the slow pyrolysis was carried out at three different temperatures, specifically, at 280, 340, and 400 °C, and the obtained products were characterized. Varying the processing temperature, the proportion of individual products’ changes with a reduction in the solid phase and an increase in liquid and gas phases, with an increase in the pyrolysis temperature. The obtained results suggest that carob waste can be considered a suitable feedstock for biochar production, rather than for fuels’ recovery. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Towards Zero-Waste Cities: Advancement in Waste-to-Energy)

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14 pages, 2039 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Analysis Working toward Zero-Waste and Its Indication to Low Carbon City Development

by Ruixi Zhao, Lu Sun, Xiaolong Zou and Yi Dou

Energies 2021, 14(20), 6644; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en14206644 - 14 Oct 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1884

Abstract

Low carbon city development and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission mitigation in urban communities are urgent. There is great potential to improve the GHG inventory at the community level. Meanwhile, building zero-waste cities and improving waste treatment efficiency have been significant environmental issues due to the rapid increase of waste generation. This research aims to develop a community-scale GHG emission inventory of the waste sector and improve its accuracy and consistency through applying the bottom-up approach. This study covers both direct and indirect emissions categories of the waste sector with the goal of building a zero-waste community. Honjo Waseda community, located in Japan, was used as a case study community. Energy consumption waste treatment sectors were evaluated and calculated through first-hand field data. GHG emission estimation of the waste sector included waste incineration, residential wastewater, and waste transport. The highest emissions originated from Beisiagate supermarket due to the large waste amount produced, and the CO₂-biomass carbon emissions reached approximately 50% of the total emissions. Furthermore, a quantitative analysis of the implementation of new technologies was also conducted. This study created proposals for GHG emission reduction toward a zero-waste community through the comparison of three cases. Case 1 was business as usual; Case 2 proposed a combination of incineration bio-gasification (MBT); Case 3 introduced a combination of solid recovered fuel (SRF) and a bio-gasification system. SRF contributed the most to emission reduction, and Case 3 exhibited the highest energy recovery. Furthermore, comparing the GHG emissions produced by the use of SRF for power generation and heat supply revealed that using SRF as a heat supply reduced more GHG emissions than using SRF for power generation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Towards Zero-Waste Cities: Advancement in Waste-to-Energy)

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