Sustainability in Process Metallurgy: Potentials to Increase the Resource Efficiency and Mitigate the Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Dear Colleagues, 

Metallurgical sectors have recently undergone tremendous modifications and development to improve product quality, enhance efficiency of materials utilization, reduce energy consumption, and mitigate fossil CO₂ emissions. Further developments are significantly needed to meet the demand for new products and innovative applications for modern society while tackling the challenges of economy, energy, materials, and environment. Today, new process technologies and environmentally friendly processes are being developed in the metallurgical sectors to combat the significant impact of greenhouse gas (GHG) and global climate changes. Utilization of renewable and green biocarbon energy and clean energy sources such as H₂ are under development to secure the sustainability of this vital sector, but also for the efficient recovery of metals and residue recirculation, which are essential to sustain zero waste valorization of metallic residues. 

In this context and in order to stimulate a scientific and technological debate about these vital topics, the purpose of this Special Issue is to invite researchers in process metallurgy to share their research via an open access journal which will significantly help in developing progress in process metallurgy and sharing knowledge to solve the current global challenges related to metallurgical industry. Papers are invited which present new ideas, research, and technologies in the field of process metallurgy which can lead to more efficient metal extractions, material utilizations, effective energy usage, and lower GHG emissions. 

We are searching for research scientific articles on new developments relating to but not limited to the following topics:

• Sustainable metallurgical processes;
• Biocarbon as energy and reducing agent in metallurgical applications;
• Developing H₂-based technology for metals extractions;
• Zero waste valorization of metallic residues;
• Recovery of energy and material resources; 
• Fundamental studies of modeling, kinetics and thermodynamics of metals extraction; 
• Environmental and economic assessments.

Dr. Elsayed Mousa
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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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.

• pyrometallurgy
• mineral processing
• extractive metallurgy
• recycling
• CO2 emissions
• bioenergy
• H2-based technologies
• climate change
• sustainability