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Sustainable Environmental Engineering

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 February 2025 | Viewed by 2791

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry (DCCI), University of Genova, Via Dodecaneso 31, 16146 Genova, Italy
Interests: environmental remediation; water and soil treatments; environmental nanotechnology; resource recovery; process modelling and simulation
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Guest Editor
Ecas4 Australia Pty Ltd., Mile End South, SA 5031, Australia
Interests: Dimensionally Stable Anodes (DSA®) for oxygen and chlorine production; environmental applications of electrochemistry; environmental remediation; water & soil treatments; electrolysed water
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The continuous development of our society has led to the steady growth of problems related to resource depletion and environmental pollution. Unfortunately, the development of technical solutions to effectively cope with the consequences of human activity has not been so rapid.

Today, the sustainability of products and processes is no longer optional. This applies, for example, to manufacturing activities, which are increasingly moving towards carbon neutrality through energy efficiency strategies and the substitution of materials and processes to reduce their environmental footprint, but it cannot be limited to this. There are activities aimed at environmental protection, the reclamation of sites or the treatment of contaminated effluents, as well as the valorisation of waste through the recovery of resources that, although implemented with “noble intentions”, are often highly invasive, unsustainable and socially unacceptable, as they involve the significant use of chemical products or processes.

This special issue aims to collect research activities focused on the development of new material, processes and practices to reach new heights of sustainability in the various fields of applied science. Inspired by real industrial problems and the need to deal with real cases of contamination or prevent potentially harmful situations, we will discuss the development and optimisation of “smart” solutions, i.e. sustainable not only from an environmental point of view, but also from an economic one, to facilitate their effective implementation as much as possible.

Contributions on the following topics are particularly welcome:

  • Energy and water efficiency in industry and mining (construction materials; food industry; metallurgy; chemical industry; process optimisation; water use and waste minimisation; life cycle assessment; cleaner production; environmental impact assessment)
  • Renewable energy resources (technical and economic potentials; barriers; cost and benefits)
  • Nano- / micro-technologies and science for the sustainable development of energy, water, and environmental systems
  • Environmental policy and management (waste management; wastewater management; climate change mitigation; climate change adaptation; land management; reclamation and rewilding; social aspects; strategic environmental impact assessment)
  • Modelling for pollution avoidance, energy efficiency and resources optimisation (computer-aided engineering; pollution spreading; heat and mass transfer modelling)

Dr. Marco Vocciante
Dr. Sergio Ferro
Guest Editors

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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. Applied Sciences 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.

Keywords

  • environmental pollution and remediation
  • resource recovery and recycling strategies
  • sustainability assessment
  • circular economy
  • water and wastewater treatment
  • waste recovery, recycling and valorisation
  • soil and water reclamation
  • nanotechnologies for environmental and energy applications
  • computer-aided modelling of industrial processes and equipment
  • energy efficiency in industrial applications

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 5093 KiB  
Article
The Optuna–LightGBM–XGBoost Model: A Novel Approach for Estimating Carbon Emissions Based on the Electricity–Carbon Nexus
by Yuanhang Cai, Jianxin Feng, Yanqing Wang, Yuanming Ding, Yue Hu and Hui Fang
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(11), 4632; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14114632 - 28 May 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1209
Abstract
With the challenge posed by global warming, accurately estimating and managing carbon emissions becomes a key step for businesses, especially power generation companies, to reduce their environmental impact. Optuna–LightGBM–XGBoost, a novel power and carbon emission relationship model that aims to improve the efficiency [...] Read more.
With the challenge posed by global warming, accurately estimating and managing carbon emissions becomes a key step for businesses, especially power generation companies, to reduce their environmental impact. Optuna–LightGBM–XGBoost, a novel power and carbon emission relationship model that aims to improve the efficiency of carbon emission monitoring and estimation for power generation companies, is proposed in this paper. Deeply exploring the intrinsic link between power production data and carbon emissions, this model paves a new path for “measuring carbon through electricity”, in contrast to the emission factor method commonly used in China. Unit data from power generation companies are processed into structured tabular data, and a parallel processing framework is constructed with LightGBM and XGBoost, and optimized with the Optuna algorithm. The multilayer perceptron (MLP) is used to fuse features to enhance prediction accuracy by capturing characters that the individual models cannot detect. Simulation results show that Optuna–LightGBM–XGBoost can achieve better performance compared to existing methods. The mean absolute error (MAE), mean squared error (MSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and coefficient of determination (R2) of the model are 0.652, 0.939, 0.136, and 0.994, respectively. This not only helps governments and enterprises to develop more scientific and reasonable emission reduction strategies and policies, but also lays a solid foundation for achieving global carbon neutrality goals. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Environmental Engineering)
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17 pages, 3138 KiB  
Article
Sustainable Recovery of an Agricultural Area Impacted by an Oil Spill Using Enhanced Phytoremediation
by Marco Vocciante, Elisabetta Franchi, Danilo Fusini, Francesca Pedron, Meri Barbafieri, Gianniantonio Petruzzelli and Andrea P. Reverberi
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(2), 582; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14020582 - 9 Jan 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1069
Abstract
In this paper, a viability study is conducted for a bioremediation intervention in a cultivated area contaminated by a pipeline oil spill. In this context, green technologies such as bioremediation and phytoremediation could represent an optimal solution for reducing pollution without deteriorating soil [...] Read more.
In this paper, a viability study is conducted for a bioremediation intervention in a cultivated area contaminated by a pipeline oil spill. In this context, green technologies such as bioremediation and phytoremediation could represent an optimal solution for reducing pollution without deteriorating soil quality. The phytoremediation test was conducted at the microcosm scale using three plant species (Zea mays, Lupinus albus and Medicago sativa) and at the mesocosm scale (Zea mays), also evaluating the application of plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB). The results showed that the selected plants, being able to grow satisfactorily, are able to lessen the presence of hydrocarbons in the soil. An increase of 15–18% in the degradation of the C > 12 fractions in vegetated soils was observed, confirming the effect of plants on the biodegradation of hydrocarbons in the soil. Moreover, a further improvement was recorded after adding PGPB, resulting in fresh biomass production being up to 50% higher than the controls and the degradation of the C > 12 fraction increasing by up to an additional 10%. Particular attention was also paid to pyrene, considered an indicator of PAH contamination. At the end of the experimentation in vegetated soils, pyrene removal reached values above 50%. By favoring plant growth, the addition of PGPB resulted in a further up to 20% reduction in the content of the contaminant in the soil. The primary role of the plants in soil contaminated by petroleum derivatives was to accelerate the degradation of contaminants through the stimulation of microbial activity. Therefore, the cooperation between plants and microorganisms can be concretely used as a nature-based solution in a sustainable and economical way. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Environmental Engineering)
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