Treatment and Utilization of Waste Materials

A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental and Green Processes".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 December 2021) | Viewed by 9948

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Babeş-Bolyai University, 400028 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Interests: waste treatment; industrial wastewater treatment; waste management; clean technologies; computer-aided process engineering
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

The current trends of global population increase, industrialization, and technological development sustain and deepen one of the most important environmental and economic issues attributed to the accumulation and non-treatment of waste materials. The necessity to solve this ongoing global problem is emphasized by different policies, and requires further research activities in order to provide an adequate scientific framework for the large-scale deployment of innovative technological solutions. The development of eco-friendly waste-treatment technologies could accelerate the transition towards a sustainable industrial system in which undesired byproducts or waste materials can be efficiently recycled and transformed into useful resources for manufacturing processes. To promote the achievement of this goal, we invite the submission of innovative research works addressing critical areas of the Treatment and Utilization of Waste Materials. Subject areas include, but are not limited to:

  • Sustainable production with low environmental impact;
  • Industrial waste minimization;
  • Improved resource efficiency and productivity, resource conservation and pollution reduction;
  • Waste-to-resources, waste-to-energy;
  • Manufacturing innovative products from adequately processed waste materials;
  • Innovation in waste treatment (mechanical, biological, chemical, electrochemical, and thermal);
  • Conceptual design, mathematical modeling, and simulation of waste-treatment technologies.

Dr. Szabolcs Fogarasi
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • waste-to-resources
  • waste-to-energy
  • cleaner production
  • waste treatment
  • reduce pollution

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 5408 KiB  
Article
Data Driven Detection of Different Dissolved Oxygen Sensor Faults for Improving Operation of the WWTP Control System
by Alexandra-Veronica Luca, Melinda Simon-Várhelyi, Norbert-Botond Mihály and Vasile-Mircea Cristea
Processes 2021, 9(9), 1633; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9091633 - 10 Sep 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2974
Abstract
Sensor faults frequently occur in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) operation, leading to incomplete monitoring or poor control of the plant. Reliable operation of the WWTP considerably depends on the aeration control system, which is essentially assisted by the dissolved oxygen (DO) sensor. Results [...] Read more.
Sensor faults frequently occur in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) operation, leading to incomplete monitoring or poor control of the plant. Reliable operation of the WWTP considerably depends on the aeration control system, which is essentially assisted by the dissolved oxygen (DO) sensor. Results on the detection of different DO sensor faults, such as bias, drift, wrong gain, loss of accuracy, fixed value, or complete failure, were investigated based on Principal Components Analysis (PCA). The PCA was considered together with two statistical approaches, i.e., the Hotelling’s T2 and the Squared Prediction Error (SPE). Data used in the study were generated using the previously calibrated first-principle Activated Sludge Model no.1 for the Anaerobic-Anoxic-Oxic (A2O) reactors configuration. The equation-based model was complemented with control loops for DO concentration control in the aerobic reactor and nitrates concentration control in the anoxic reactor. The PCA data-driven model was successfully used for the detection of the six investigated DO sensor faults. The statistical detection approaches were compared in terms of promptness, effectiveness, and accuracy. The obtained results revealed the way faults originating from DO sensor malfunction can be detected and the efficiency of the detection approaches for the automatically controlled WWTP. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Treatment and Utilization of Waste Materials)
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10 pages, 28907 KiB  
Article
Optimization of Process Parameters and Kinetics Analysis of Cd Removal in ZnSO4 Production
by Xiaoling Ren, Xinqian Shu, Haisheng Li, Jiushuai Deng, Peng Li and Sixue Qin
Processes 2021, 9(8), 1437; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9081437 - 19 Aug 2021
Viewed by 1719
Abstract
In order to optimize the process parameters of Cd removal in the ZnSO4 production process and study the mechanism of Cd removal reaction, the response surface methodology was used to arrange Cd removal experiments and analyze the optimal production conditions, and the [...] Read more.
In order to optimize the process parameters of Cd removal in the ZnSO4 production process and study the mechanism of Cd removal reaction, the response surface methodology was used to arrange Cd removal experiments and analyze the optimal production conditions, and the mechanism of Cd removal was studied using kinetics. The results show that the optimal process conditions for Cd removal are as follows: reaction temperature 55 °C, reaction time 13.43 min, and the zinc powder dosage should be 2.14 times that of Cd; the main effects of the three variables from large to small are zinc powder dosage, reaction temperature and reaction time; Cd removal is a second-order reaction, and the activation energy of the reaction is 29.6986 kJ/mol, so the reaction conforms to the diffusion control mechanism. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Treatment and Utilization of Waste Materials)
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15 pages, 5510 KiB  
Article
Towards the Circular Economy of Rare Earth Elements: Lanthanum Leaching from Spent FCC Catalyst by Acids
by Corradino Sposato, Enrico Catizzone, Alessandro Blasi, Marilena Forte, Assunta Romanelli, Massimo Morgana, Giacobbe Braccio, Girolamo Giordano and Massimo Migliori
Processes 2021, 9(8), 1369; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9081369 - 5 Aug 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4392
Abstract
Rare earth elements (REEs) are strategic materials widely used in different applications from Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to catalysis, which are expected to grow more in the future. In order to reduce the impact of market price and reduce the environmental effect [...] Read more.
Rare earth elements (REEs) are strategic materials widely used in different applications from Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to catalysis, which are expected to grow more in the future. In order to reduce the impact of market price and reduce the environmental effect from soil extraction, recovery/purification strategies should be exploited. This paper presents a combined acid-leaching/oxalate precipitation process to recover lanthanum from spent FCC catalyst using nitric acid. Preferred to hydrochloric and sulphuric acid (preliminary assessed), HNO3 showed a good capability to completely leach lanthanum. The combination with an oxalate precipitation step allowed demonstrating that a highly pure (>98% w/w) lanthanum solid can be recovered, with a neglectable amount of poisoning metals (Ni, V) contained into the spent catalyst. This could open a reliable industrial perspective to recover and purify REE in the view of a sustainable recycling strategy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Treatment and Utilization of Waste Materials)
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