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Joint efforts and interdisciplinary approach are proper means to face the issue of global warming. An adequate response should be to employ state of the art scientific knowledge for the technology advancement, as well as for fostering new scientific insights. Together with resource efficiency, circular economy is getting in focus of researchers and consequently policymakers. Sustainable development is a multidisciplinary topic and interaction of energy, water and environment systems plays one of the central roles. Within the paradigm of circular economy, there is growing need for system integration where a by-product of one system can represent resource for the other. This review is dedicated to the 12th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Sysmems, and discusses some latest developments in three main areas of sustainability themes: (i) Energy, (ii) Water and (iii) Environmental Systems. Examples of circular economy approach have been emphasized which improve economic efficiency of the whole chain and further decrease environmental burden, enabling cleaner production. Although integrative concept of energy, water and environmental systems is coming in the research focus, more effort is necessary for further integration of those systems, whereby increased complexity is going to be handled only by multidisciplinary, intersectoral scientific cooperation.

La industria de la pintura de automoviles es una fuente de contaminacion ambiental causada por los compuestos organicos volatiles (COV) presentes en el aire de ventilacion descargado. Para contribuir a la mitigacion de este tipo de contaminacion atmosferica, Ekoinwentyka Ltd. desarrollo -desde la escala piloto hasta la escala completa- y adapto la tecnologia del biorreactor de lecho de goteo compacto (CTBB), cuyo principio de funcionamiento se basa en el flujo descendente de la fase gaseosa (aire contaminado) y la fase liquida (solucion de sales minerales) a traves de un lecho empacado en el que los microorganismos activos se inmovilizan en la biopelicula de las superficies de los elementos de empaquetado. El biorreactor a escala piloto de 0,32 m de diametro y 1,50 m de altura total tenia su lecho empacado inoculado con un consorcio de microorganismos dominado por la bacteria Pseudomonas fluorescens. Durante el programa experimental, que duro varios meses, el caudal de aire extraido del sistema de ventilacion del taller de pintura variaba entre 1,0 y 10,0 m3/h y la concentracion de entrada de COV oscilaba entre 10 y 200 ppm. Al medir la concentracion de COV en el aire purificado, se comprobo que el factor de biodegradacion de los COV oscilaba entre el 85 y el 99%. A partir de los experimentos a escala piloto, se ha desarrollado un CTBB a escala real de 2,8 m de diametro y 10 m de altura total y se ha instalado como componente adicional del sistema de ventilacion del taller de pintura. Las pruebas realizadas con caudales de gas de hasta 6.000 m3/h confirmaron un factor de biodegradacion de COV del 85-99%, lo que demuestra un resultado positivo de la adaptacion de la tecnologia CTBB a las condiciones de la industria de la pintura de automoviles.

Due to climate change concerns, various environmental stresses and social inequality among the people, the welfare of mankind is increasingly being viewed through the prism of sustainable development. Sustainable development is a highly multi-disciplinary field of research that has been extensively studied during last two decades. Therefore, from the beginning of the 21st century, a series of Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) Conferences were founded to address sustainable development issues. This Journal of Cleaner Production Special Volume (SV) is dedicated to the 10th SDEWES Conference. The SV is focused on three main fields that are of strategic importance to sustainable development: energy issues, water issues, and environmental engineering and management. The division of selected papers according to the named research fields was established following the previous Journal of Cleaner Production Special Sections and Volumes dedicated to the SDEWES Conferences. Therefore, this Special Volume builds upon the previously generated SDEWES knowledge base.

Odors are emitted from agricultural and industrial activities, such as animal farms, rendering plants, wastewater treatment plants, waste treatment or disposal facilities, paint shops, oil refineries, pulp and paper mills, and various chemical industries. Effects of this kind of air pollution may include: impairment of the quality of the environment; interference with business activities; discomfort, harm or impairment of the safety of any person; rendering any property, plant or animal unsuitable for human use. Odor treatment technologies can be classified into three categories, namely ones employing chemical (thermal oxidation, catalytic oxidation, ozonation), physical (condensation, adsorption, absorption) and biological (using biofilters, biotrickling filters, bioscrubbers and other bioreactor types) treatment methods. An important advantage of biological treatment methods over physical and chemical technologies is that the biological processes can be conducted at moderate temperatures (10–40 °C) and atmospheric pressure. Moreover, microbial degradation processes are generally oxidative in nature and produce compounds such as carbon dioxide, water, sulfate and nitrate that are ecologically safe. Applications of biological odor treatment date back to 1950ties. Initially, simple biofilters with soil beds have been employed and later, the use of other bed materials in more advanced filter structures has been reported and more sophisticated types of filtration equipment such as biotrickling filters and bioscrubbers have been developed. On the basis of accumulated experience, some more process options and equipment types for the application of biological methods emerged in recent years. During more than 30 years covered by the present review, biological methods of odor treatment have matured to become a well-developed field of process technology. In order to provide an overview of the state of the art, process principles and characteristics including the use of various microorganisms and nutrients, variations in equipment design and application ranges of the different odor treatment technologies are outlined and compared.

Following the 2015 Paris Agreement, the main challenge for world economies nowadays is to commit themselves to long-term reforms aimed at increasing and promoting sustainable, inclusive and balanced development. An adequate response to this challenge will certainly require using the best available scientific knowledge and constant re-evaluation of the development process in light of the scientific findings. To ensure that the sciences are responsive to the emerging needs and to address sustainable development issues. This Virtual Special Issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production is dedicated to both Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems 2016 Conferences – 2nd South East European Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems Conference and 11th Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems Conference. The Virtual Special Issue is focused on four main fields: Energy issues, Water issues, Environmental engineering and management, and Sustainable engineering solutions and large-scale sustainability approaches. The division of selected papers follows the previous Journal of Cleaner Production Special Sections and Volumes dedicated to the Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems Conference series.

The focus of this Special Volume (SV) of the Journal of Cleaner Production is “Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environmental Systems”. It is of interest to practitioners in various branches of industry including the energy and water & wastewater sectors and environmental services, governmental policy makers, researchers, educators and the general public. The purpose of this SV is to increase public awareness of key issues of sustainable development and to stimulate exchange of research results, practical experience and new ideas among actors involved in investigating, planning and implementing sustainable development, regarding energy, transport, water, environment and production systems. The SV is focused upon four main fields that are of strategic importance to the sustainable development: energy resources and energy management, water management and wastewater treatment, environmental engineering and management, and promotion of sustainability concepts. The systems under consideration are differentiated in scale, ranging from countries or groups of countries, through regions or branches of industry, municipalities or industrial plants, down to single processes or equipment pieces. Examples of on-going research including case studies are presented along with examples of innovative practical solutions. In the energy field, examples are presented of the development and applications of energy systems analysis, planning and design methods and tools, which can be used to analyse the coherency of the whole systems and to augment the creation of sustainable energy policies and action plans on a large scale, as well as small-scale systems for efficient energy management. Regarding water issues, water management in water stressed regions is discussed indicating the usefulness of advanced mathematical models that take system dynamics and the stochastic nature of rainwater availability as planning tools, and LCA-based methods for assessing the diverse water supply alternatives within a dry region. In the field of environmental engineering and management, large-scale systems for solid waste collection, management and recovery are analysed, and the formation of air pollutants in industrial sources and diesel engines is studied by simulation. Finally, sustainable use of biomass resources and the role of sustainability thinking in the investment planning and management are addressed. In each of the four fields, strategically important challenges for future research are identified including the use of advanced mathematical models and multi-criteria analysis for the optimisation, from the sustainability point of view, of the systems for energy and water supply and management, solid waste management and the utilisation of biomass resources.

Selected results are presented of an on-going project conducted by Ekoinwentyka Ltd. with the aim to design, test and apply a compact trickle-bed bioreactor – operated in a biofiltration system with circulating salt solution – to the biodegradation of VOCs, mercaptans and H 2 S contained in the ventillation air in a copper-ore mine at a depth of 1000 m underground. The experiments were performed using a 48 dm 3 semi-industrial scale bioreactor in which gas and liquid phases flowed co-currently in downward direction through a bed made of polyethylene rings. The bioreactor was inoculated with a co-culture of microorganisms including bacterial strains found in the cooper-ore mine and adopted to chosen pollutants. In the laboratory tests, biodegradation of 4-components VOC mixture (acetone, styrene, benzene, vinyl acetate) and 8-component pollutant mixture (VOCs + xylene, H 2 S, dimethyl sulfide, dimethyl disulfide) was studied. In the gas-flowrate range 2.0 – 15.0 m 3 /h and at a specific pollutant load up to 40 g/(m 3 h), values of the efficiency of pollutant removal above 80% were measured for all mixture components except benzene which caused bioreactor poisoning at a specific load above 5 g/(m 3 h). Possible consequences of a fatal pollutant overload and the time required for regenerating the microorganisms and returning to stable process conditions were also investigated. In the copper-ore mine, it was found that pollutant concentration in the ventillation air was normally low not exceeding values attained during laboratory tests but temporary bursts of very high H 2 S concentration were also detected. An increase in H 2 S concentration to 1000 ppmv lasting for 1 h caused bioreactor poisoning but after H 2 S concentration returned to normal, stable process conditions were restored within 45 min. On the basis of experiments carried out both in the laboratory and copper-ore mine, acceptable values of parameters of the biodegradation process were determined. Despite harsh working conditions that are characteristic of the copper-ore mine 1000 m deep, the experimental set-up has been working reliably for several months and a high efficiency of pollutant removal has been achieved.

Two-stage fermentative hydrogen production process comprising dark fermentation and photofermentation followed by gas upgrading is studied from the technical and economic points of view. It is assumed that a conceptual hydrogen plant is connected to a sugar factory so that technical sucrose solutions produced there (raw juice, thick juice and molasses) can be used as fermentation feedstocks. Process data needed for the study are based on the results of a recently completed research project and in the techno-economic assessment of hydrogen production, data acquired in the sugar industry are taken into account. A parametric study of the cost of hydrogen production from molasses shows that the total cost is highly sensitive to the capital and operating costs of the photofermentation stage. Prospects of cost reduction through further development of the two-stage fermentative process are discussed.

The cement production industry worldwide is one of the largest CO2 emitting industrial sectors. It accounts for a considerable amount of total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Due to the increasing awareness of global warming, more energy efficient cement production is increasingly being emphasized. One of the priorities is to reduce the energy demand and innovate the production process to move towards the cleaner production as: Energy efficiency improvements; Waste heat recovery; Reduction of clinker/cement ratio and use of alternative raw materials; Substitution of fossil fuels with alternative energy sources. When the GHG emissions at source opportunities are close to being exhausted, the other mitigations options should be considered such as: CO2 capture and storage. This is however in most cases not the final solution from the point of Life cycle assessment (LCA). In recent years various mitigation measures are gaining on the importance and the cement industry is more and more shifting to cleaner production. Among the others, there are two measures, which can reduce the GHG emissions considerably: the use of alternative raw materials and alternative fuels. The challenge for the cement industry is to use alternative raw materials especially those originating from other industries where they are considered as by-products or even waste. Some of these by-products include: Bottom ash from municipal solid waste incinerators; Fly ash from coal power plants; Gypsum from the desulfurization plants used in power plants. Another important measure is the energy efficiency improvement in existing cement plants. There are various approaches for controlling and improving the energy efficiency within existing cement manufacturing units, however, mathematical modelling, simulation, optimisation and Process Integration are increasingly gaining in importance. The mathematical modelling approach uses the numerical simulations for the investigation of the thermo-chemical processes occurring inside of the manufacturing unit. The results gained are being used to enhance the efficiency of cement production. They improve the understanding of the flow characteristics and transport phenomena taking place inside the cement combustion unit. The objective of this paper is to review the current status of the cleaner cement manufacturing, the cement industry's shifting to alternative raw materials and alternative energy sources, and the modelling of the thermo-chemical processes inside the cement combustion units. Additionally, some critical issues, which up to now have not been adequately resolved, are outlined.

One of the main issues of the coming decades is to improve resource efficiencies by integrating various life supporting systems, using waste from one, as resource in other, and in exact moment when it is beneficial to all. The challenge is on the electricity, heating, cooling, transport, water, buildings, industry, forestry and agriculture systems to integrate and become more sustainable. Since the sustainable development depends more and more on the holistic approach on the integration of energy, water and environment systems, from the beginning of the 21st century, a series of Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) Conferences has been founded to cover these issues. The background of this Special Section of the Journal of Cleaner Production is therefore the Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems dedicated to both SDEWES 2014 Conferences - 1st South East European SDEWES Conference and 9th SDEWES Conference. The Special Section focuses on scientists, researchers, policy makers, educators, general public and practitioners in various branches of industry including the energy and water & wastewater sectors and environmental services. The purpose of this Special Section is to increase public awareness of key issues of sustainable development and to stimulate exchange of research results, practical experience and novel ideas among actors involved in investigating, planning and implementing sustainable development. The Special Section is focused upon four main fields that are of strategic importance to the sustainable development: Energy issues ; Water issues ; Environmental engineering and management ; Sustainability approaches and promotion of sustainability concepts. The division of selected papers according to the named research fields has been established by the previous Journal of Cleaner Production Special Sections and Volumes dedicated to the SDEWES 2013 Conference. Hence, this Special Section is an extension of the previously generated SDEWES knowledge base in these four main research areas. As sustainable development is improving piecewise, so although it is necessary to see the big picture, actual technological improvement is one aspect of the technology systems. It has been shown that the sustainability can be improved by improving certain systems taking care of holistic sustainability criteria or integrating various systems in a way to improve the efficiency or resource efficiency of the combined system.

The paper is concerned with estimation of heat and power consumption in a conceptual plant to produce hydrogen from sucrose-containing or starchy biomass by fermentation. A hydrogen plant connected with a sugar factory is regarded as the basic option; the sugar factory serves as a source of sucrose-containing thick juice for the hydrogen plant, where this feedstock is processed to hydrogen. As another option, a stand-alone hydrogen plant in which starch must initially be converted to fermentable glucose solution is considered. The values of key process parameters are assumed on the basis of preliminary experimental data. For both options of the hydrogen plant, heat consumption is estimated taking heat recovery in a heat exchanger network into account. Power consumption is estimated by calculating power needed for pumping of liquid and gaseous process media. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. (Less)

Fermentation of biomass residues and second generation biomasses is potentially a way to enable a sustainable production of hydrogen. Simulation models which calculate mass and energy balances, developed with Aspen Plus (R), are used to integrate the process steps necessary to produce pure hydrogen from biomass in a 2-stage fermentation process. Process and heat integration are introduced to reduce the high water and heat demand of the process, connected to the low substrate concentrations in the involved process streams. The results show that the recirculation of process effluents, together with the use of properly designed heat exchangers, can reduce the water and heat demand up to 90% from a non-integrated process, but is also subject to restrictions due to an increase in osmolality in the system. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hydrogen can be produced through dark anaerobic fermentation using carbohydrate-rich biomass, and through photofermentation using the organic acids produced from dark fermentation. Sugar beet is an ideal energy crop for fermentative production of hydrogen in the EU due to its environmental profile and its potential availability in the area. In this work, various aspects of cultivating sugar beet in the EU for biohydrogen were highlighted, with special focus on The Netherlands and Greece. Moreover, fermentation of sugar beet juice with Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus at sucrose concentration 10 g/l was performed, and was found comparable to the fermentation on pure sucrose except that the hydrogen production was 10% higher on sugar beet juice. A conservative estimate of the annual hydrogen potential in the EU was made (300 × 106 kg hydrogen), considering the utilization of sugar beet pulp in hydrogen production.

The basics of hydrogen production by thermophilic fermentation and photofermentation are outlined. Various types of biomass, which can be used as raw materials for hydrogen fermentation are named and the methods of biomass pretreatment are highlighted. The approach to technical assessment of biomass suitability is reviewed and several promising raw materials are compared with respect to the attainable hydrogen yield.

In the past years we evaluated different strategies with the aim of eliminating completely from the beet sugar factory, the traditional calco-carbonic purification process taking into account the well-known problems related to the utilization of lime and the production of carbonation sludge. To complete the picture of the possible solutions to be adopted for the elimination of the traditional purification process, we tested and evaluated in laboratory and in pilot plants a new eco-friendly proposal. The results obtained, as well as the proposed flow-sheet and some economic evaluations, are presented and discussed.

The International Conference on Advances in Biological Hydrogen Production and Applications was held on December 14–15, 2012 at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad, India. It was dedicated mainly to the improvement and dissemination of knowledge on methods and technologies for hydrogen production from bioresources. Other topics including hydrogen storage and use of hydrogen in fuel cells were also discussed.

Report is given on the 18th Word Hydrogen Energy Conference held on 16--20 May 2010 in Essen, Germany. Basic facts about conference organization, and its goal, scientific programme and conclusions are reviewed.

The 7th International Conference on Environmental Engineering and Management (ICEEM07) was held on September 19–20, 2013 at Vienna University of Technology, Austria. Organized in close cooperation with the Environmental Biotechnology section of the European Biotechnology Federation, it was dedicated to integrating cutting-edge environmental technologies with efficient management practices, contributing thus to a sustainable future.

The topic of this special issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production is “Sustainable Hydrogen from Biomass.” It is of interest to practitioners in the energy sector, governmental policy makers, researchers, educators, as well as to the general public. The purpose of this special issue is to increase public awareness and to stimulate exchange of information among actors expected to play important roles in making hydrogen available for the sustainable energy system of the future. Hydrogen as a biofuel, that is, hydrogen produced from biomass in a sustainable way is recognised as an important component of the fuel market for the future low or non-carbon based energy systems. In this special issue, the main focus is on hydrogen produced from vegetable biomass by fermentation. The development of a two-stage bioprocess for the cost-effective and environmentally friendly production of pure hydrogen from multiple biomass feedstocks is elucidated by a collection of papers presenting preliminary results of Integrated Research Project HYVOLUTION supported by the 6th Framework Programme of the European Union. The attention is turned to: - the over-all concept and characteristics of the two-stage hydrogen fermentation process, - key technological issues of fermentative hydrogen production, - the availability of vegetable feedstocks including agricultural byproducts that suitable for fermentative processing, - prospects of societal integration and sustainability of the fermentative hydrogen production technology. Other papers included in this special issue are devoted to: - simultaneous production of hydrogen and methane by fermentation of lactose-containing feedstocks derived from byproducts of milk processing, - hydrogen gas generation from organic material by electrohydrogenesis, that is, a bioelectrochemical process performed in reactors known as a microbial electrolysis cells, - the ideas for Europe-wide effort on education of hydrogen users and training of skilled staff needed for facilitating the transition to the future hydrogen economy.

Environmental problems in the traditional beet sugar processing are mainly related to the production of large amounts of pulp, the consumption of large quantities of lime (which are transformed into sludges), the production of vinasse, and the consumption of energy and water. It is proposed: – To utilize the pulp and carbonation sludge for the production of paper; – To utilize vinasse for the production of compost; – To utilize new technologies for eliminating the utilization of lime; – To apply the “Water Pinch” and “Pinch Analysis” to the new technologies for drastically reducing both the water and the energy consumption.

Report is given on the 19th World Hydrogen Energy Conference held on 3–7 June 2012 in Toronto, Canada. Basic facts about conference organization, and its goal, scientific programme and conclusions are reviewed.

The 6th Dubrovnik Conference was held on September 25–29, 2011 at the University of Dubrovnik, Croatia. It was dedicated to the improvement and dissemination of knowledge on methods, policies and technologies for increasing the sustainability of development of energy, transport, water and environment systems.