Designing for the Future: Pioneering Sustainable Engineering Solutions for a Greener World

Dear Colleagues,

Optimal process design in science and engineering is essential for the manufacturing sector to carry out an effective and efficient production process, and minimize waste and the resultant environmental burdens. It is important, therefore, to strategically review process design on a regular basis to ensure that production is carried out efficiently, cost-effectively, and with near zero waste, while minimizing environmental burdens currently overloaded by anthropogenic activities. Unfortunately, many current process designs are outdated and, often, not robustly crafted, and, therefore, do not adequately focus on resource efficiency, waste minimization and environmental protection, which are underpinned by the UN sustainable development goals. Current process designs sometimes do not match up with the Industry 4.0 concept for the future, which was presented for the first time in 2011. The failures range from the waste of energy and raw materials due to non-conformance to the circular economy concept, the suboptimal design of large-scale production reactors and plants, and the unsustainable and unacceptable emission standards that continue to degrade the environment at alarming levels. Another challenge, especially for the process industry, is the lack of up-to-date information technology knowledge among the workforce, especially on data literacy, the fundamental competence to be able to exist and participate in the digital world in science, work and society. It enables the real-time monitoring and control of important production parameters such as production status, energy consumption, flow of materials, customer orders and supplier data. Process engineers must now, therefore, overcome the digital barrier. The industrial sector’s linear model of production and consumption has caused significant environmental degradation, resource depletion, and waste generation, and needs to be replaced by the circular economy principle, which should close the loop between “feedstock” used at the start of production and the end of a product’s life after use. In response, sustainable design and production systems are now emerging as solutions to promote resource efficiency, waste reduction, and environmental protection.

This Special Issue of Sustainability aims to provide a comprehensive guide for the industrial sector to implement sustainable production systems. Specifically, it focuses on the associated strategies, indicators, tools, techniques and obstacles that organizations may need to be aware of to propose sustainable engineering solutions for a greener world.

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

1. Circular economy philosophy;
2. Industrial symbiosis;
3. Digitalisation tools;
4. Industry 4.0 and sustainable design;
5. Decarbonisation and net zero carbon initiatives;
6. Innovative research into renewable sources and resources;
7. Combined heat and power systems;
8. Recycling of plastics;
9. Integrated supply chains;
10. Sustainable production systems: barriers and drivers;
11. Preservation of resource wheel;
12. Lean thinking and six sigma;
13. Tracking progress towards sustainability engineering solutions;
14. Reusable and recyclable materials;
15. Life-cycle assessment/life-cycle cost;
16. Bioenergy.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Chike F. Oduoza
Guest Editor

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• circular economy
• net zero carbon
• waste to energy
• combined heat and power
• remanufacture
• industrial symbiosis
• renewable energy
• digitalization tools
• biomass
• machine learning and artificial intelligence
• supply chain