Guest Editors
Nan Zhou, Assistant Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, China
Dr. Nan Zhou received a Ph.D. in Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering from the University of Minnesota, the USA, and a B.S. degree in Energy and Power Engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. His research has focused on the thermochemical conversion of biomass and solid wastes into fuels, chemicals, and materials. Specific research interests include microwave-assisted pyrolysis mechanism and process scale-up, catalysis for chemical recycling of plastics, and catalytic reforming of gasification tar. He has published more than 40 peer-reviewed SCI indexed papers, including 2 ESI highly cited papers, with an h-index of 19. He serves as a reviewer for over 10 SCI journals.
Yuan Xue, Assistant Professor, China-UK Low Carbon College, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China.
Dr. Yuan Xue received his Ph.D. at Iowa State University, USA, with a thesis on co-pyrolysis of biomass and plastics. His research focuses on the pyrolysis of biomass and plastic wastes for value-added products, lignin valorization for carbon materials, and thermochemical/electrochemical conversion of CO2. He has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and supervised two master dissertations. He serves as a reviewer for several scientific journals and a member of the editorial office of the Carbon Neutrality journal.
Kuan Ding, Associate Professor, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, China
Dr. Kuan Ding obtained his bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees in Thermal Energy Engineering from Hohai University (HHU, China) in 2010 and Southeast University (SEU, China) in 2017, respectively. After that, he moved to the University of Minnesota (UMN, United States) as a visiting scholar and post-doc researcher for more than one year. In February 2019, he joined Nanjing Forestry University as a full-time researcher. His main research interests include catalytic and microwave-assisted conversion of biomass and solid waste to produce renewable chemicals, fuels, and carbon-based materials. He has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles with 11 SCI journal papers as the first or corresponding author. He serves as a reviewer for more than 20 SCI journals.
Summary
Rapid urbanization and economic development are accompanied by an alarming generation rate of organic solid wastes from various sources, such as municipal solid waste, industrial solid waste, agricultural and animal waste, medical waste, construction waste, etc., most of which are sent to landfills and incinerators, causing substantial waste of resources and negative environmental impact. Pyrolysis is an attractive approach to organic solid waste valorization since it can convert solid wastes of various sources into a wide range of value-added able chemicals and renewable materials products, such as hydrogen, syngas, hydrocarbon fuels, biochar, and carbon nanotubes materials. Some interesting examples include microwave-assisted pyrolysis of waste plastics to produce hydrogen and carbon nanotubes, catalytic fast pyrolysis of forest residues to produce aromatic hydrocarbons and biochar, and slow pyrolysis of coal gangue to produce char-supported metal catalysts. However, successful industrial applications of these technologies are rare largely due to significant technical challenges in improving the product quality while avoiding high processing costs. This special issue aims to reveal the latest advances in process development and fundamental understanding of pyrolysis of various organic solid wastes and relevant product upgrading technologies, as well as the application of the produced chemicals and materials. Authors are encouraged to submit high-quality manuscripts presenting original research based on experiments, modeling, and data analysis. Review papers that summarize research advances in a specialized topic or present clear perspectives are also welcome. The specific topics of interest include but are not limited to:
• Mechanisms and kinetics of the organicsolid waste pyrolysis process;
• Process development for production of valuablechemicals and renewable materials from organic solid wastes pyrolysis;
• Upgrading or modification of the primary pyrolysis products to produce high-value final products;
• Application and assessment of the chemical and material products;
• Reduction of the undesirable by-products or pollutants during theorganicsolid waste pyrolysis process;
• Techno economic analysis (TEA) and/or life cycle assessment (LCA) of the process.
Keywords
Organic solid wastes, biomass, plastics, sludge, kitchen waste, pyrolysis, mechanism, production, upgrading, catalysis, application, biochar, carbon nanomaterials, hydrogen, syngas, bio-oil, value-added chemicals, renewable materials
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