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Innovative Technologies and Strategies for Energy and Resource Recovery from Waste and Wastewater

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Science and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2021) | Viewed by 15864

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Daniele Cecconet

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Guest Editor

Department of Chemistry, University of Pavia, Via Torquato Taramelli 12, 27100, Pavia, Italy
Interests: wastewater treatment; water treatment; wastewater engineering; groundwater remediation

Dr. Saba Daneshgar

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Guest Editor

Department of Data Analysis and Mathematical Modeling, Ghent University, Coupure links 653, 9000, Ghent, Belgium
Interests: wastewater treatment; resource recovery; modeling and optimization

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the Special Issue entitled “Innovative Technologies and Strategies for Energy and Resource Recovery from Waste and Wastewater”. In recent years, novel paradigms regarding circular economy have spread throughout the globe, showing the possibility of a more sustainable approach to waste and wastewater treatment and management. In particular, waste streams (solid, liquid, and gaseous alike) are no longer seen as non-usable assets, but rather as a mining ground from which to obtain valuable resources, including energy (in different forms, including heat and electricity) and nutrients. To achieve this goal, a plethora of technologies have been developed and integrated in the modern waste cycle.

Contributions are invited for manuscripts describing new innovation models, frameworks, and findings that address new developments and processes in this area, as well as new successful and/or environmentally sustainable applications and concepts, including challenges such as:

Research on sustainable technological challenges and assessments in the water, wastewater, solid waste areas, including the reduction of ecological and carbon footprints, recycling and reuse of materials, and energy from a comprehensive perspective according to circular economy principles;
Research on nutrient recovery under various aspects, including modeling;
Research on energy production from waste and wastewater, including anaerobic digestion, pyrolysis, gasification, and bioelectrochemical systems;

Sustainable waste and wastewater management, with a focus on reuse and recycle aspects and economics and governance aspects. Of interest are innovative approaches and tools available for supporting and delivering sustainable water/wastes management that is inclusive, resilient, and adaptive;
Comparative, analytical, and empirical studies on projects and initiatives responding to sustainable environment-related challenges with paradigm innovation approaches.

Dr. Daniele Cecconet
Dr. Saba Daneshgar
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2500 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

resource recovery
energy from waste(water)
microbial fuel cells
modelling
sustainability
circular economy

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 1784 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Multi-Echelon Network Design in a Dual-Channel Reverse Supply Chain Considering Consumer Preference

by Peng Li and Di Wu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(9), 4760; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094760 - 29 Apr 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2068

Abstract

The rapid development of e-commerce technologies has encouraged collection centers to adopt online recycling channels in addition to their existing traditional (offline) recycling channels, such the idea of coexisting traditional and online recycling channels evolved a new concept of a dual-channel reverse supply chain (DRSC). The adoption of DRSC will make the system lose stability and fall into the trap of complexity. Further the consumer-related factors, such as consumer preference, service level, have also severely affected the system efficiency of DRSC. Therefore, it is necessary to help DRSCs to design their networks for maintaining competitiveness and profitability. This paper focuses on the issues of quantitative modelling for the network design of a general multi-echelon, dual-objective DRSC system. By incorporating consumer preference for the online recycling channel into the system, we investigate a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model to design the DRSC network with uncertainty and the model is solved using the ε-constraint method to derive optimal Pareto solutions. Numerical results show that there exist positive correlations between consumer preference and total collective quantity, online recycling price and the system profits. The proposed model and solution method could assist recyclers in pricing and service decisions to achieve a balance solution for economic and environmental sustainability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Technologies and Strategies for Energy and Resource Recovery from Waste and Wastewater)

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15 pages, 777 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Induced Effect of Environmental Regulation on Green Innovation: Evidence from the Increasing-Block Pricing Scheme

by Zhangsheng Liu, Liuqingqing Yang and Liqin Fan

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(5), 2620; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052620 - 05 Mar 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2284

Abstract

With increasing constraints on resources and the environment, it is of great practical importance to discover and utilize the induced effect of green technology through market-based tools, in order to simultaneously realize economic development and ecological sustainability. Based on unique patent data from 1999 to 2013, this paper examines the induced effect of China’s increasing-block electricity pricing scheme (IBP) on energy-efficient patents and checks whether the effect is neutral or biased. Furthermore, the quality of the induced patents is identified. The results reveal that increased green innovation is strongly related to the IBP scheme. In addition, the induced effect is biased towards green technology such that, apart from autonomous technological advances, the biased effect of IBP induced two more energy-efficient patents per hundred technological patents. However, the quality of the induced innovation is relatively low: compared to high-quality inventions, low-quality utility models showed greater and more significant growth due to the IBP. Our paper provides quantitative insight into the impact of the IBP and indicates that a reasonable pricing scheme can benefit both the environment and the economy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Technologies and Strategies for Energy and Resource Recovery from Waste and Wastewater)

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16 pages, 1268 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Understanding the Gap between Environmental Intention and Pro-Environmental Behavior towards the Waste Sorting and Management Policy of China

by Huilin Wang and Aweewan Mangmeechai

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(2), 757; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020757 - 17 Jan 2021

Cited by 42 | Viewed by 5282

Abstract

Environmental pollution and ecological damage caused by human activities have attracted widespread attention in recent years, and while citizens’ environmental awareness and intentions have increased, their actions may not necessarily change accordingly. This study aims to understand the intention–behavior gap, based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), by exploring the relationship between intention and pro-environmental behavior on the new waste sorting policy in China. The structural model of extended TPB was tested using sample data from 3113 residents of Changsha, each of whom was asked to complete a two-stage survey. Results demonstrated that perceived policy effectiveness and actual behavioral control positively affect behavioral intention, implementation intention, and pro-environmental behavior. Among them, the actual behavioral control of residents was found to be the most influential factor on behavioral intention and implementation intention, followed by residents’ perceived policy effectiveness. Moreover, behavioral intention and implementation intention mediate the relationship between antecedents and pro-environmental behavior. These findings imply that people with high-level perceptions of policy effectiveness, strong control over actual behavior, strong behavioral intentions, and strong implementation intentions are more likely to engage in pro-environmental behavior. The findings suggest that factors such as perceived policy effectiveness and actual behavioral control should be considered when implementing new policies and campaigns for waste sorting and management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Technologies and Strategies for Energy and Resource Recovery from Waste and Wastewater)

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21 pages, 1559 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on Pricing and Service Level Strategies of Dual Channel Reverse Supply Chain Considering Consumer Preference in Multi-Regional Situations

by Yao Kang, Juhong Chen and Di Wu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(23), 9143; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17239143 - 07 Dec 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2021

Abstract

Facing the increasingly serious waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling problem, recycling enterprises actively introduce online recycling channels, build dual channel reverse supply chains (DRSC), and use high-level recycling price and service levels to enhance consumers’ recycling enthusiasm and recycling amount. Nevertheless, in China, where the imbalance of regional development is widespread, the recycling center, third-party recycler (TPR), and third-party platform (TPP) are faced with the choices of pricing and service level when facing multi-regional consumers. This paper mainly answers the following questions: (1) When the recycling center and TPP introduce online recycling channels in multi-regional situations, how should they set online recycling price, transfer price, and service level? (2) When consumer preference for online channels changes in a certain region, how should recycling enterprises adjust their optimal pricing and service level decisions for different regions to maximize their own profits? How do the profits of recycling enterprises change? In order to solve the above problems, in this paper, we propose three pricing and service level decision models for the recycling center with online channels, namely, keeping prices unchanged, unifying all prices, and maximizing its own profits. By using the Stackelberg game to solve the model, we get the optimal pricing, service level decisions, as well as the maximum profits of the recycling center, TPP, and TPR when consumer preference changes. By analyzing the results of the model, we find that the change of consumer preference for online channels in a certain region will affect the decision and profits of multi-regional recycling enterprises. Specifically, consumer preference for online channels in a certain region will not only lead to an increase in the profits of the recycling center and TPP and a decrease in the profit of local TPRs, but also an increase in the profit of TPRs in other regions. In addition, at the beginning of introducing online channels, the recycling center can adopt two strategies to avoid conflicts among channels: keeping offline transfer prices unchanged and unifying all transfer prices, but the former promotes its economic profits more significantly. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Technologies and Strategies for Energy and Resource Recovery from Waste and Wastewater)

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27 pages, 936 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Business Models in Water Supply Companies—Key Implications of Trust

by Adam Jabłoński and Marek Jabłoński

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(8), 2770; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082770 - 17 Apr 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3183

Abstract

Currently, trust is one of the key factors that ensures the acceptable mechanisms of economic and social relationships. It is not only an element of correct communication, but also a factor in inter-organizational bonds and a source of social dialogue. Trust has become a factor in the creation of value, as well as a key component of the conceptualization and operationalization of business models. It has revealed many problems at the strategic level, in the water sector in particular. From this perspective, trust is a major factor of strategies, models, and business processes which are currently being built. New types of business models that emerge have also started to include trust as part of their configuration. This is the case in the construction and implementation of social business models. A social business model can be understood as a business model whose factors that stimulate development include social aspects expressed in balancing economic, environmental, and social issues with the involvement of communities and their dynamic communication focused on the selected attributes of business models that stimulate growth and that are conducive to achieving success, expressed by economic and/or social profit. The satisfaction of stakeholders with such a solution is another condition for embedding this solution in the sphere of the social economy. In this approach, trust, which stimulates the growth of social and economic value in the component structure of the social business model, becomes particularly important. The aim of the paper is to present the place and role of trust as a key component of social business models. The scope of the paper includes research into public water sector industry companies located in the Province of Silesia and their social business models, with a focus on defining the position of trust among other attributes of these business models. The authors put forward a hypothesis that trust is a crucial component of the social business models of water supply companies that operate at the intersection of the market and social economy. Trust also helps companies from the water supply sector achieve both social and economic effects. It also becomes a source of reverse market polarization, where the value of a social business model materializes to create social and environmental effects without detriment to the economic effects. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Technologies and Strategies for Energy and Resource Recovery from Waste and Wastewater)

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