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Sustainable (Bio)Chemical Processes for Lignocellulosic and Lipid Waste Biomass Valorization to Fuels, Chemicals and Materials

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A special issue of Sustainable Chemistry (ISSN 2673-4079).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 15763

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Konstantinos S. Triantafyllidis

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Guest Editor

Laboratory of Chemical and Environmental Technology, Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: green chemistry; heterogeneous catalysis; synthesis and characterization of nanostructured materials; thermochemical and catalytic processes for biomass valorisation; biobased polymers and nanocomposites
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Rafael Luque

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Guest Editor

Departamento de Química Orgánica, Universidad de Córdoba, Campus de Rabanales, Edificio Marie Curie (C-3), Ctra Nnal IV-A, Km 396, Córdoba, Spain
Interests: green chemistry; biomass valorization; heterogeneous catalysis; nanomaterial design
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Carol Sze Ki Lin

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Guest Editor

School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Interests: circular economy; green and sustainable chemistry; metabolic engineering of microorganisms for fermentative production of biobased products; waste and biomass valorisation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleague,

The projected depletion of fossil resources (petroleum and coal) and the environmental pollution caused by their intensive use, in the form of fuels/energy, toxic chemicals and nonbiodegradable polymers, have spurred the generation of the “bioeconomy” and “circular economy” concepts, which will comprise the main pillars of our society in the years to come. To this end, the utilization of natural renewable resources, such as lignocellulosic and lipid biomass, preferably in the form of wastes, residues and byproducts (e.g., forestry and agricultural wastes, food waste, low quality lipids, vegetable oils used in cooking, industrial organic byproducts, municipal wastes, etc.) toward the production of chemicals, fuels and materials has become an emerging area of basic and applied multidisciplinary research. Despite the significant advances already achieved in the last 20 years, more sustainable technologies and zero-waste integrated biorefinery approaches still need to be developed. Within this context, we invite the submission of original research papers and review articles presenting the latest achievements and trends in sustainable (bio)chemical processes for lignocellulosic and lipid biomass valorization to fuels, chemicals and materials, including the important topics of technoeconomic analysis and life-cycle assessment.

Prof. Konstantinos S. Triantafyllidis
Prof. Rafael Luque
Dr. Carol Sze Ki Lin
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. Sustainable Chemistry is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1000 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

Lignocellulosic biomass
Lipid biomass
Agricultural and forestry wastes
Industrial residues and byproducts
Food waste
Hazardous wastes
Biobased platform chemicals
Biobased polymers and composites,
Biofuels
Biochar
Biobased food additives
Thermochemical and (bio)catalytic conversion
Advanced analytical methods
Scale-up of biomass valorization processes
Technoeconomic analysis
LCA
Green chemistry and chemical technology
Circular (bio)economy

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 2900 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Valorization of Hazardous Organic Solid Wastes towards Fuels and Chemicals via Fast (Catalytic) Pyrolysis

by Kyriazis C. Rekos, Ioannis D. Charisteidis, Evangelos Tzamos, Georgios Palantzas, Anastasios I. Zouboulis and Konstantinos S. Triantafyllidis

Sustain. Chem. 2022, 3(1), 91-111; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/suschem3010007 - 25 Feb 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3755

Abstract

The management of municipal and industrial organic solid wastes has become one of the most critical environmental problems in modern societies. Nowadays, commonly used management techniques are incineration, composting, and landfilling, with the former one being the most common for hazardous organic wastes. An alternative eco-friendly method that offers a sustainable and economically viable solution for hazardous wastes management is fast pyrolysis, being one of the most important thermochemical processes in the petrochemical and biomass valorization industry. The objective of this work was to study the application of fast pyrolysis for the valorization of three types of wastes, i.e., petroleum-based sludges and sediments, residual paints left on used/scrap metal packaging, and creosote-treated wood waste, towards high-added-value fuels, chemicals, and (bio)char. Fast pyrolysis experiments were performed on a lab-scale fixed-bed reactor for the determination of product yields, i.e., pyrolysis (bio)oil, gases, and solids (char). In addition, the composition of (bio)oil was also determined by Py/GC-MS tests. The thermal pyrolysis oil from the petroleum sludge was only 15.8 wt.% due to the remarkably high content of ash (74 wt.%) of this type of waste, in contrast to the treated wood and the residual paints (also containing 30 wt.% inorganics), which provided 46.9 wt.% and 35 wt.% pyrolysis oil, respectively. The gaseous products ranged from ~7.9 wt.% (sludge) to 14.7 (wood) and 19.2 wt.% (paints), while the respective solids (ash, char, reaction coke) values were 75.1, 35, and 36.9 wt.%. The thermal (non-catalytic) pyrolysis of residual paint contained relatively high concentrations of short acrylic aliphatic ester (i.e., n-butyl methacrylate), being valuable monomers in the polymer industry. The use of an acidic zeolitic catalyst (ZSM-5) for the in situ upgrading of the pyrolysis vapors induced changes on the product yields (decreased oil due to cracking reactions and increased gases and char/coke), but mostly on the pyrolysis oil composition. The main effect of the ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst was that, for all three organic wastes, the catalytic pyrolysis oils were enriched in the value-added mono-aromatics (BTX), especially in the case of the treated wood waste and residual paints. The non-condensable gases were mostly consisting of CO, CO₂, and different amounts of C₁–C₄ hydrocarbons, depending on initial feed and use or not of the catalyst that increased the production of ethylene and propylene. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable (Bio)Chemical Processes for Lignocellulosic and Lipid Waste Biomass Valorization to Fuels, Chemicals and Materials)

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17 pages, 1400 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Food Waste Digestate-Based Biorefinery Approach for Rhamnolipids Production: A Techno-Economic Analysis

by Raffel Dharma Patria, Jonathan W. C. Wong, Davidraj Johnravindar, Kristiadi Uisan, Rajat Kumar and Guneet Kaur

Sustain. Chem. 2021, 2(2), 237-253; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/suschem2020014 - 08 Apr 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2901

Abstract

The present work evaluates the techno-economic feasibility of a rhamnolipids production process that utilizes digestate from anaerobic digestion (AD) of food waste. Technical feasibility, profitability and extent of investment risks between fermenter scale and its operating strategy for rhamnolipids production was investigated in the present study. Three scenarios were generated and compared: production using a single large fermenter (Scenario I), using two small fermenters operated alternately (Scenario II) or simultaneously (Scenario III). It was found that all the scenarios were economically feasible, and Scenario III was the most profitable since it allowed the most optimum fermenter operation with utilization of multiple small-scale equipment to reduce the downtime of each equipment and increase the production capacity and overall productivity. It had the highest net present value, internal rate of return and shortest payback time at a discount rate of 7%. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to indicate how the variation in factors such as feedstock (digestate) cost, rhamnolipids selling price, extractant recyclability and process capacity influenced the process economics. The work provides important insights on techno-economic performance of a food waste digestate valorization process which would be useful to guide its sustainable scale-up. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable (Bio)Chemical Processes for Lignocellulosic and Lipid Waste Biomass Valorization to Fuels, Chemicals and Materials)

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10 pages, 1155 KiB

Open AccessArticle

5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Hydrodeoxygenation to 2,5-Dimethylfuran in Continuous-Flow System over Ni on Nitrogen-Doped Carbon

by Francesco Brandi, Marius Bäumel, Irina Shekova, Valerio Molinari and Majd Al-Naji

Sustain. Chem. 2020, 1(2), 106-115; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/suschem1020009 - 19 Aug 2020

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3109

Abstract

Waste lignocellulosic biomass is sustainable and an alternative feedstock to fossil resources. Among the lignocellulosic derived compounds, 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) is a promising building block for chemicals, e.g., p-xylene, and a valuable biofuel. DMF can be obtained from 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) via catalytic deoxygenation using non-noble metals such as Ni in the presence of H₂. Herein, we present the synthesis of DMF from HMF using 35 wt.% Ni on nitrogen-doped carbon pellets (35Ni/NDC) as a catalyst in a continuous flow system. The conversion of HMF to DMF was studied at different hydrogen pressures, reaction temperatures, and space times. At the best reaction conditions, i.e., 423 K, 8.0 MPa, and space time 6.4 kg_Ni h kg_HMF⁻¹, the 35Ni/NDC catalyst exhibited high catalytic activity with HMF conversion of 99 mol% and 80 mol% of DMF. These findings can potentially contribute to the transition toward the production of sustainable fine chemicals and liquid transportation fuels. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable (Bio)Chemical Processes for Lignocellulosic and Lipid Waste Biomass Valorization to Fuels, Chemicals and Materials)

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Review

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21 pages, 1366 KiB

Open AccessReview

An Insight into Valorization of Lignocellulosic Biomass by Optimization with the Combination of Hydrothermal (HT) and Biological Techniques: A Review

by Nalok Dutta, Muhammad Usman, Gang Luo and Shicheng Zhang

Sustain. Chem. 2022, 3(1), 35-55; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/suschem3010003 - 11 Jan 2022

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 4280

Abstract

Biomass valorization plays a significant role in the production of biofuels and various value-added biochemicals, in addition to lowering greenhouse gas emissions. In terms of biorefining methods, hydrothermal (HT) and biological techniques have demonstrated the capability of valorizing biomass raw materials to yield value added end-products. An inter-disciplinary bio-economical approach is capable of optimizing biomass’s total potential in terms of environmental perspective and circular bioeconomy standpoint. The aim of this review is to provide an in-depth overview of combinatorial HT and biological techniques to maximize biomass value, which includes biological valorization following HT pretreatment and HT valorization of lignocellulosic substrates emanating from biocatalytic hydrolysis/anaerobic digestion and/or pretreated food waste for the ultimate yield of biogas/biochar and biocrude. In this study, we discuss recent advances regarding HT and biological treatment conditions, synergies between the two technologies, and optimal performance. Additionally, energy balances and economic feasibility assessments of alternative integrated solutions reported in previous studies are compared. Furthermore, we conclude by discussing the challenges and opportunities involved in integrating HT and biologicals methods toward complete biomass utilization. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable (Bio)Chemical Processes for Lignocellulosic and Lipid Waste Biomass Valorization to Fuels, Chemicals and Materials)

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