Sustainability in Biomass and Waste Fuels Utilization

Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to announce a new Special Issue “Sustainability in Biomass and Waste Fuels Utilization” of the journal Sustainability.

Biomass is plant- or animal-based material used for electricity production, heat production, or in various industrial processes, such as raw material for a range of products. Biomass contains stored energy from the sun, which is absorbed by plants via the process of photosynthesis. As a storable energy carrier, biomass can significantly contribute to increasing the share of renewable energy consumption and reducing CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels. Biomass is not only an energy carrier but it is also used as food, feed, chemicals, and for biomaterials. In a bio-based economy, these different uses are linked to each other and, if managed well, are complementary and sustainable.

Biomass is converted into usable energy via combustion. Bioenergy is currently covering 10.5% of the gross final energy consumption in EU28, representing 59% of all renewable energy consumption and the largest share of this energy, about 75%, is used for heat. The remaining share contributes to power and transport sectors. It is well known that only through the development and application of biofuels can the target of CO₂ emissions reduction by 50% until 2050 be accomplished.

Direct combustion is the most common biomass conversion technology. However, the main advantage of pure or converted biomass is its storability in liquid, gaseous, or solid forms, which allows for a high degree of flexibility. In fact, there are several thermal (gasification, pyrolysis, and torrefaction), biological (anaerobic digestion, and fermentation), mechanical, or chemical processes through which biomass is first converted into other solid, gaseous, or liquid forms (e.g., ethanol and hydrogen) to obtain biogases or biofuels with far greater energy density and calorific value on a mass basis than the original feedstock. Hydrogen can be viewed as a sustainable strategic alternative relative to liquid biofuels, especially in the fuel and transport sector (e.g., aviation). In the short term, biohydrogen could be produced mainly by known processes via reforming methane-rich gases. In the future, fermentative and thermo-chemical processes are also conceivable. The development of new technologies will enable the production of secure and sustainable biomass supplies, clean and effective conversion processes, high-quality fuels, and optimally integrated solutions for households, services, industry, and district heating and cooling.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Development and demonstration of lowest emission and highest efficiency residential biomass heating systems;
• Development of cost-efficient, sustainable supply of agrobiomass;
• Development of cost-efficient, sustainable supply of forest biomass;
• (Thermal) upgrading of biomass to high grade fuels;
• Preparation of solid and recovered fuels and biogas from the biodegradable fraction of waste;
• Development of enhanced concepts for co-utilization biorefineries;
• Development of storage, drying, and logistics of solid biomass fuels and the improvement of its quality;
• Biomass-based hydrogen production via thermo-chemical and bio-chemical/biological hydrogen production pathways.

Dr. Nikolaos Margaritis
Dr. Panagiotis Grammelis
Guest Editors

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.

• biofuels
• bioenergy
• sustainable logistics of biomass
• biohydrogen
• biomethane
• agrobiomass
• forest biomass
• biorefineries