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Circular Economy for Sustainable Manufacturing Processes
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Circular Economy for Sustainable Manufacturing Processes

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 July 2023) | Viewed by 4604

Special Issue Editors

Dr. M. Estela Peralta

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Engineering Design, University of Seville (US), 41011 Seville, Spain
Interests: sustainable design; sustainable manufacting; circular economy; industry 4.0; sustainable assessment; lifecycle assessment
Dr. Amanda Martín Mariscal

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Engineering Design, University of Seville (US), 41011 Seville, Spain
Interests: territorial intelligence; urban studies; product life cycle management; sustainable manufacturing product; collective creativity: collaborative process

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Interest in circular economy research and its implementation has grown in the last decade. The control of waste within the industrial, urban or rural sectors of activity, and the efficiency–effectiveness of waste management processes is one of the main challenges of today’s society. Despite successive attempts over the last few decades, a sufficiently optimal control model has not been achieved. The transition to the circular economy seems to be the model of change necessary to achieve a society that is sustainably integrated into the planet.

The CE redefines the concept of economic growth to solve environmental and social problems. Its aim is to conceive a social metabolism that gradually decouples “consumption” from “use of (finite) resources”. To this end, it proposes the creation of a closed-loop system for the exchange of goods and services, which must be self-optimized (eco-efficient) and regenerative (eco-effective, with zero impact and with the capacity to reverse the damage caused). The global challenge is to convert the anthroposphere into an artificial ecosystem that works with the same synergy as natural ecosystems; this implies configuring productive systems as a second nature.

This Special Issue, “Circular Economy for Sustainable Manufacturing Processes”, solicits research papers that address and highlight the applications of circular economy in manufacturing processes. In particular, this Special Issue invites application based papers that fit within three broad areas; first, contributions to the knowledge of the circular economy area (reviews, new models, standards-based new and renewed manufacturing paradigms, etc.); second, the best practices of innovation and resulting impacts on manufacturing industry (pilot projects, success stories, future implementations); third, lessons learned from innovating projects and models of circular economy.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following areas:

  • New and renewed manufacturing paradigms from the circular economy;
  • Standards-based of the circular economy in manufacturing processes;
  • Circular economy and industry 4.0;
  • Energy and circular economy in process industries (renewable energy, energy conservation, waste-to-energy, water–energy, etc.);
  • Digitalisation and smart circular economy (smart waste management, smart eco-industrial parks, tehcnologies for the circular economy);
  • Product lifecycle management;
  • Collaborative project bases and collaborative processes in the circular economy;
  • Circular economy business model innovation (frameworks, tools, business models);
  • New trends and challenges in circular manufacturing processes; challenges to implement the circular economy; benefits, opportunities, and barriers;
  • Drivers and approaches in manufacturing firms; current levels of circularity in the economy in small and medium enterprises, and large manufacturing companies;
  • Pilot projects and implemented success cases (circular economy practices and implementation);
  • Strategies for the circular economy in manufacturing (inputs circular economy, waste managemente, etc.);
  • New methods for the circular economy in manufacturing (design, lifecycle assessment, waste input output analysis, indicators and metrics, taxonomies);
  • Social dimensions of the circular economy in manufacturing processes.

Dr. M. Estela Peralta
Dr. Amanda Martín Mariscal
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. 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.

Keywords

  • circular economy
  • closed-loop material flows
  • economy transition
  • sustainable manufacturing
  • manufacturing process

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 3233 KiB  
Article
Sustainability of Spent Nickel-Based Electroplating Baths: An Innovative Valorisation Process
by Bruna Moura, Evangelos Papaioannou, Alexios Grigoropoulos, Alexandros Zoikis-Karathanasis and Helena Monteiro
Sustainability 2023, 15(21), 15366; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152115366 - 27 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1134
Abstract
The plating industry is a high-pollutant sector because it consumes a significant amount of chemical compounds and produces a large volume of hazardous waste via the disposal of spent plating baths. Thus, the development of regeneration/purification routes to extend the lifetime of the [...] Read more.
The plating industry is a high-pollutant sector because it consumes a significant amount of chemical compounds and produces a large volume of hazardous waste via the disposal of spent plating baths. Thus, the development of regeneration/purification routes to extend the lifetime of the plating baths may be a good opportunity to reduce both the environmental impact and the production costs of the plating industry. In this context, an innovative and in situ purification process, that uses magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) to capture and remove contaminants and undesirable chemicals from the plating baths, extending their lifetime, was studied within the scope of the PureNano project. To support the process that has been developed, this work aimed to assess the sustainability of this recovery route and highlight its potential benefits. A comparative analysis was conducted between this novel route and conventional alternatives (i.e., underground disposal and incineration). To do so, the life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) methodologies were used to evaluate the environmental impact and production costs, and an ecoefficiency analysis was performed to understand the trade-offs of each scenario. The results showed that MNPs were the main hotspot for the environmental impact and production costs. Overall, the purified plating baths may lead to lower environmental impacts (−98%) and processing costs (up to −95%) than other conventional alternatives. Regarding the ecoefficiency analysis, Scenario A (recovery route without MNPs recycling) and A-R (recovery route with MNPs valorisation) have a better economic/environmental impact relation than the conventional scenarios, i.e., incineration, and deposition in a landfill. However, Scenario A was the most ecoefficient scenario. In addition to this, further research is needed, namely, to search for other materials that may replace the most expensive and burdensome ones, and to investigate the use of renewable energy sources in MNPs production to improve their environmental and economic performances. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Circular Economy for Sustainable Manufacturing Processes)
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12 pages, 1638 KiB  
Article
A Circular Economy Approach in the Development of Superabsorbent Polymeric Matrices: Evaluation of the Mineral Retention
by Estefanía Álvarez-Castillo, Sonia Oliveira, Carlos Bengoechea, Isabel Sousa, Anabela Raymundo and Antonio Guerrero
Sustainability 2023, 15(15), 12088; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151512088 - 07 Aug 2023
Viewed by 735
Abstract
This manuscript focuses on the production of polymeric matrices enriched in minerals and antioxidant compounds. The biopolymers employed are obtained from different by-products of the agro-food industry (porcine plasma protein, pea protein concentrate and soy protein isolate), which helps to revalorize them. Two [...] Read more.
This manuscript focuses on the production of polymeric matrices enriched in minerals and antioxidant compounds. The biopolymers employed are obtained from different by-products of the agro-food industry (porcine plasma protein, pea protein concentrate and soy protein isolate), which helps to revalorize them. Two different manufacturing techniques are employed to produce these matrices: 3D-printing and injection molding. Bioactivity was enhanced through immersion of the samples in magnesium glutamate and iron lactate solutions. To incorporate these minerals and bioactive compounds into the matrices, two additional stages are required: (1) an immersion stage in a mineral/bioactive containing solution, which allows simultaneous removal of the glycerol employed as plasticizer and entrapment of the minerals and bioactive compounds; and (2) a subsequent freeze-drying stage. Matrices produced through these manufacturing processes were assessed through water uptake capacity, mineral analysis, bioactivity and color measurements. The studied matrices have great potential in the food industry, as the threshold for claiming a significant mineral content was reached after the immersion stage. The presence of bioactive compounds could avoid the degradation of these matrices when food processing includes stages at relatively high temperatures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Circular Economy for Sustainable Manufacturing Processes)
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29 pages, 1013 KiB  
Article
Sustainable Design Protocol in BIM Environments: Case Study of 3D Virtual Models of a Building in Seville (Spain) Based on BREEAM Method
by Juan Francisco Fernández Rodríguez
Sustainability 2023, 15(7), 5787; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15075787 - 27 Mar 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1889
Abstract
One of the key problems facing the construction industry concerns the requirement to integrate sustainability criteria that effectively reduce the environmental impact throughout the lifecycles of buildings. For this, it is necessary to use digital tools with the capacity to evaluate the environmental [...] Read more.
One of the key problems facing the construction industry concerns the requirement to integrate sustainability criteria that effectively reduce the environmental impact throughout the lifecycles of buildings. For this, it is necessary to use digital tools with the capacity to evaluate the environmental performance of the different solutions proposed through the design process. In this context, the objective of this study was to establish a protocol of sustainable standards defined by the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), employing building information modeling (BIM) technology to simplify the integration of these indicators in the initial phases of the design process. This study focuses on a case study associated with the use of BIM technology and the BREEAM method. The results of the analysis enable us to define which of the BREEAM indicators can be integrated into and evaluated in BIM environments in the initial phase of the design process and to identify the environmental improvements and economic costs associated with these indicators. This study concludes that the indicators associated with the geometric and spatial definition of the building are the most influential in improving sustainability in the initial design phase, without requiring significant economic investment. In turn, these are easy parameters to evaluate using BIM, reducing design times compared to the use of traditional tools; this facilitates their involvement in the design phase and enables them to have a real impact on improving the environmental conditions of the final construction. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Circular Economy for Sustainable Manufacturing Processes)
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