Advanced Coal, Biomass and Waste Conversion Technologies

Coal, biomass and waste, which are abundant, are considered to the foremost raw material that can potentially replace the depleting economically-viable oil resources and promote the energy and environment sustainability. Complex constituents in coal, biomass and waste make their efficient and environmental utilization still challenging. In this special issue of C, the readers can appreciate the latest efforts have been made in this field from the fundamental research to industrial process development.

In the fundamental laboratory research, Zhao et al. (2019) [1] demonstrated the concept for a bio-catalytic system that simultaneously combines the dehydrogenation of formic acid for H2, in-situ capture of CO2 and its re-hydrogenation to reform formic acid; Ramanujam et al. (2019) [2] proved that polyol can be synthesized with corn oil and 2-mercaptoethanol, which can be an alternative to the petroleum-based polyol for the synthesis of polyurethane foams; Ossler and Hetherington (2019) [3] analyzed nanostructures on the surface of burnt spaghetti using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX); Bergna et al. (2018) [4] used a one-stage process to carbonize and steam-active two different wooden biomasses (birch and pine) into activated carbons. In the industrial process development, current practices on treating the cattle manure were reviewed by Font-Palma (2019) [5].

As Guest Editors of this Special Issue, we would like to appreciate all authors’ excellent contributions, and we would also hope that this Special Issue can be helpful for the readers.