Towards the Sustainable Treatment of Organic Wastes via Various Novel Biotechnologies

Dear Colleagues,

The vast prouction of various organic wastes, such as food waste, agricultural residues, and municipal solid waste, is an ongoing global concern prompting constant research and engineering efforts. The conventional treatment technologies that have historically dominated the field play an essential role in disposing of or stablizing these wastes; however, they negelect the potential resources preserved in these wastes. Due to the challenges of climate change and escalating energy prices, a reevaluation of the traditional approaches to waste, and also the wastes themselves, is impending.

At present, biotechnologies offer a promising paradigm shift in waste(water) treatment. These include fungal, bactieral, or enzymatic pretreatments; anaerobic digestion; fermentation; and electrochemical bioechnologies, which not only signficantly reduce the pollutants in wastes and elevate their potential but also convert these wastes into valuable products, such as bioenergy, biofuels, and biochemicals, with relatively low energy expenses. The recent advancements in biotechnologies, including fungal and various enzymatic pretreatments, fermentation, and anaerobic electrochemical technologies, as well as the value-added products harvested from the processes used to treat wastes, are substantially broadening in application and elevating our understanding of their potential. All these innovations provide viable options for efficient and sustainable approaches to organic waste treatment while facilitating energy and resource recovery.

The objective of this Special Issue is to spotlight recent groundbreaking research and review papers focusing on various biotechnologies, including bio-pretreatment approaches aiming to recover either energy (e.g., methane, hydrogen, electricity) or resources (e.g., biochemicals such as ethanol, lactic acid, succinic acid, VFAs, MCFA, PHA) from organic wastes. Additionally, we encourage the submission of papers discussing the development of low-carbon or energy-neutral or -positive waste treatment systems based on biotechnologies, as well as LCA studies on the wastes themselves. Authors interested in submitting review papers are welcome and should contact the editors beforehand to ensure that their topics align with the scope of the journal.

Sincerely,

Dr. Xuefeng Zhu
Prof. Dr. Xuedong Zhang
Guest Editors

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• organic waste treatment
• food waste
• agricultural waste
• biotechnology
• anaerobic fermentation
• enzymatic pretreatment
• bioenergy recovery
• resource recovery
• carbon neutralization
• sustainability
• life cycle assessment (LCA)