This book covers the research fields in biodiversity conservation, the Belt and Road eco-environmental cooperation, China's five-year plan for eco-environmental protection, sustainable development goals assessment, and human health loss assessment. In the past, these achievements have played an important scientific role in supporting China's ecological and environmental protection, and produced extensive social impacts and significant environmental benefits. At the same time, the relevant research ideas and methods also show the latest progress and trend in the field of environmental strategy and planning in China in recent years, which can be used for reference by experts and scholars of other countries in the field of ecological environment.

This book surveys state-of-the-art and prospective practices, methods and technologies in agri-food and forestry sectors to document the potential measurable improvements in areas of environmental management, food security, economic growth, social cohesion and human health at the local and global scale. With a focus on the ecosystems-resources-climate-food-health nexus as a framework towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals applicable in these sectors, the book offers a portfolio of guidelines and standards that assesses the affordability, potential profitability and possible unintended consequences of interventions. The areas of intervention covered in the study include global and local forest resources management, safe wastewater reuse for irrigation, sustainable crop and plant protection (e.g. biopesticides, bioherbicides), carbon sequestration and emission reduction strategies, and safe processing methods for food and food waste (e.g. sustainable food preservatives and healthier food). The book is primarily intended for academics, professionals, and policymakers. The professional audience, including enterprises in the forestry, farming, food processing, healthcare and waste management sectors, will take advantage of the updated knowledge basis concerning the innovations in the respective practices, methods and technologies, including their feasibility, affordability and profitability, and policymakers will find useful the comprehensive review of these innovations which could be strategically promoted and deployed in the next decade, with the aim of achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Japan was ahead of the rest of the world when it introduced intermediate processing of municipal waste by such means as incineration in the 1960s. Owing to the small land area of the country and the difficulty in securing landfill sites, the incineration ratio of municipal combustible waste had reached 100% by the 1990s. Along with the landfill of incineration residues, proprietary technologies such as high salt leachate treatment, desalination treatment, by-product recycling, a focus on the resource of incineration residues, sea surface landfill sites, and covered type landfill sites have spread and developed since then. This book describes the introduction of incineration facilities starting in the 1960s, landfill technology, and issues arising after 1990 following the introduction of the facilities. The necessity of a total system from incineration to landfill is explained as well. The volume is a valuable resource for countries that plan to introduce intermediate processing such as incineration and for countries that are developing a waste management policy.

An enormous amount of synthetic dyes is used annually in the textile, leather, plastics, paper, and dye industries due to their coloring properties. Although dyes give color to materials, they are prone to increase the level of pollution in the environment. The colored wastewater produced in industrial sectors is released into water bodies, posing threats to the ecosystem. To reduce the adverse effects of dyes in the environment, it is necessary to implement feasible and cost-effective strategies. '"Dye Biodegradation Mechanisms and Techniques - Recent Advances'' provides fundamental principles and pathways of bio-based mechanisms in dye removal. This edition firstly discusses dye classification and pollution, then concentrates on the application of fungi, mesophilic bacteria, microflora, and enzymes in dye degradation. This book also highlights the performance of sequential batch reactor systems, moving bed biofilm reactors, and hybrid bioreactors for dye biodegradation

Water is regarded as an important element for sustainable development and many countries are attempting to provide clean water for municipal and industrial sectors. Owning to population explosion, industrial activities, agricultural practices and urbanisation, water bodies are polluted with various pollutants such as dyes, heavy metals, etc.. This first volume focuses on utilization of different promising nanocomposites for water and wastewater remediation. It provides an overview of wastewater treatment technologies, and explores the performace of materials such as organic-inorganic polymer hybrids, hydroxyapatite, magnetic composites (with polymers and biomaterials), zeolites, and so on in water and wastewater decontamination. The present edition takes into account various types of pristine and modified materials in different water treatment methods such as adsorption, catalysis and photocatalysis. Recent advances and developments are discussed in this book, and it provides a valuable resource for researchers and professionals in different fields such as environmental and chemical engineering.

In the past, food waste has been used to produce biogas and biofuels, fertilizers, and animal feed. Using it as a feedstock for innovative biorefineries is not only an ethical issue but also a smart application of the circular economy. This book explores the zero-waste concept in the thriving biobased sector, proposing technologies and procedures to meet the sustainable development goals. The volume categorizes food waste sources and proposes an impressive number of high value-added compounds (e.g., platform chemicals, enzymes, nutraceuticals, antioxidants, organic acids, phosphate, bioadsorbents, pectin, solvents, and pigments) that can be obtained in a sequential biocascade, via chemical, biochemical, thermal, and physical technologies. The synthesis of bioplastics from food waste, their copolymerization and blending, as well as the production of biocomposites and bionanocomposite with biofillers from food scraps, are presented: eluding the cost of waste disposal, reducing biobased materials price, and avoiding using edible resources as a starting material for biobased items are the main beneficial peculiarities of the process. The Authors illustrate challenging characteristics of new biobased materials, such as their mechanical and physico-chemical features, their biodegradability, compostability, recyclability, chemical compatibility, and barrier properties. The volume also delves into socioeconomic considerations and environmental concerns related to the upcycling of food waste, as well as the safety and life cycle assessment of biobased products. Finally, the authors address how advances in digital technology can make food waste upcycling a negative-cost process and discuss best practices to practically implement the biorefinery concept. Research gaps and needs are suggested, and recommendations for food waste handling and management during this COVID-19 pandemic are provided.

This book investigates innovative solutions to increase the share of renewable engery in the global power mix, with a particular focus on improved and sustainable biomass conversion technologies. To this end, the book deals with an analysis of the generation mix of renewable energies (including biofuels, renewable waste and biogas) in the overall power balance of several countries. In addition, the possibilities of using bioenergy resources in the context of power generation are thoroughly analyzed. As one of the most important ways of converting biomass into energy, the combustion process is analyzed in detail, highlighting the vast potential for the use of innovative biofuels. In this context, a detailed classification of existing biofuels is established, reflecting the relationship between their energy properties and their potential use in industrial facilities. Additionally, the most efficient combustion technologies for the respective applications are discussed. Furthermore, the authors emphasize that the management of renewable waste, both from industry (tannery waste and oils from transport) and agriculture, requires an economic and environmental friendly approach. The challenges of burning various renewable waste fuels and upgrading industrial facilities are discussed, and the ideas and technologies presented in this book contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for "Affordable and Clean Energy". The book is a useful resource for professionals dealing with current and upcoming activities related to renewable energy combustion, and a good starting point for young researchers.

This book highlights recent findings of membrane - based dye removal methods along with the application of photocatalytic, nanofiltration and ultrafiltration membrane including membrane - based fibers, metal-organic frameworks, polyethersulfone, ceramic, etc. Among water and wastewater pollutants, dyes have been normally observed and detected in various aquatic solutions, including rivers and lakes. Aesthetic pollution, toxicity, persistent, and carcinogenicity are some of the adverse effects of dyes entering the ecosystem. Although dyes have brought a colourful world, their presence in the environment are responsible for adverse effects on the planet. Diverse physical, chemical and biological methods are available to treat dye contaminated water. This book presents membrane separation technology that has been developed in the past decade to treat different wastewaters, and owning to its effective performance, has garnered the attention of academia and industry alike.

This book focuses on software reuse and the chances, dependability tests and recommendations for best reuse practice. A short introduction of the Ecodesign of hardware is given combined with the latest update of relevant EU legislation and standardization. It also describes the combination of different states of software in a E&E system in order to guarantee dependability of the product to be resold.

Global population by 2050 is predicted to be over 9 billion and accordingly, the production systems will demolish about 140 billion tons per year of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass, i.e., thrice of the current need, and the food production itself has to be doubled. Optimized resource usage, lifecycle management, and reduced carbon emission have become a priority for agri-food businesses today, and circular economy (CE) helps for a sustainable and flexible way to grow without exhausting primary materials, and it thinks beyond recycling and resource usage. The word CE best relates to the resource and efficiency management, 6Rs, closed-loop production systems, zero waste and lifecycle engineering, reduced overconsumption of resources and waste generation, enriched system redesign and business model innovation, thereby leading to sustainable development goals. In this light, the book calls for theoretical and empirically sound contributions that are focused on the different aspects of the circular economy, 6R's, sustainable production and consumption, closed-loop systems, etc. in the agri-food sector.

Plastics & Sustainability clearly lays out the thorny and contentious issues that we encounter at the nexus of plastics and sustainability. The book serves as a practical guide for making sustainability decisions about how plastics are made and used, including current developments in the newest bio-based plastics. Designers, marketers, academics, and engineers will all find something of value in this balanced and thoughtful second edition. Increased public scrutiny of plastics materials and the plastics industry has led, paradoxically, to both a deeper understanding and growing confusion about polymers, their origins, their uses, their risks, and ultimately their disposal. The author makes objective comparisons among major polymer grades and bioplastics including their life cycle assessments and practical performance in commercial applications.

This book highlights the impact of COVID-19 on sustainable waste management and air emission, using various case studies. The year 2020 was a historical year mainly due to the pandemic caused by COVID-19 and it influenced or affected the global economy, business models and the industrial sectors, thus impacting sustainability in various ways. Given that sustainability has many faces and facets, it is worthwhile to deal with the relation (or impact) of COVID-19 on various elements of sustainability. This book presents how COVID-19 has influenced waste management and air quality.

This edited book discusses various processes of feedstocks bioconversion such as bioconversion of food waste, human manure, industrial waste, beverage waste, kitchen waste, organic waste, fruit and vegetable, poultry waste, solid waste, agro-industrial waste, cow dung, steroid, lignocellulosic residue, biomass, natural gas etc. Nowadays, the industrial revolution and urbanization have made human life comfortable. However, this requires excess usage of natural resources starting from food and food products, to energy resources, materials as well as chemicals. The excess use of natural resources for human comfort is expected to high fuel prices, decline natural resources as well as cause a huge hike in the cost of raw materials. These factors are pushing researchers to grow environmentally friendly processes and techniques based on inexpensive and sustainable feedstock to accomplish such worldwide targets. Bioconversion, otherwise called biotransformation, is the change of natural materials, for example, plant or animal waste, into usable items or energy sources by microorganisms. Bioconversion is an environmentally friendly benevolent choice to supplant the well-established chemical procedures utilized these days for the production of chemicals and fuels. A variety of alternatives advancements are being considered and are directly accessible to acquire diverse valuable end-products through bioprocesses. This book discusses in detail the process and techniques of bioconversion by focusing on the organic feedstock of animal and plant origin. It brings solutions to the bioconversion of various feedstock into value-added products.

This book aims to provide academic and industrial applications advancing the critical role of circular economy principles in the sustainability of various resources. The latest research and practice in resource sustainability are shared, discussed, and promoted. The core competency of this book revolves around providing recent advances in sustainable consumption and production implementations, developed tools for environmental and sustainability assessment, technological advancements in resource and waste management/treatment, and advances in waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and recovery. Resources are defined broadly to include (1) physical resources: metals, non-metallic minerals, energy, and water (2) biological resources: food, forestry, land, ecological systems, etc., and (3) "misplaced" resources: air emissions, water pollutants, and solid waste. Finally, legislation, and policy implications and recommendations for resources sustainability are concluded.

This book explores an escalating modern-day crisis; managing waste in a sustainable way. The central question posed is whether advancing a circular economy provides a way to shift waste management practices towards more sustainable approaches. It begins with an in-depth analysis of the nature of waste management and the prevailing crisis, followed by a discussion about the circular economy in terms of its requirements and the challenges of implementation. The book then moves on to propose a framework that sets out how to establish the policy changes needed to advance a circular approach to waste management. Next, the book outlines complex issues in multilevel systems for advancing a circular economy through examining the contemporary situation in Belgium and Norway. It ends by bringing together the issues revealed in these case studies and draws insights for governments advocating circular approaches. The book will be a valuable resource to scholars, students, practitioners and policy makers interested in developing more sustainable methods of waste management.

This book discusses soil and recycling management in the Anthropocene era. Nitrogen shortage is one of nature's most important productivity regulators, but since the advent of technical nitrogen fixation (TNF), biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) input has nearly doubled, particularly in grass and arable lands covering over 13 million km2 of the Earth's surface. This book explores how monoculture grass, arable lands and forests are often over fertilized with TNF, animal slurries, sewage sludge, or municipally produced composts, and as a result, flora and fauna that have adapted to a nitrogen shortage in the soil will have to adjust to a surplus; those that are unable to adapt will disappear.

This second volume on ''Inorganic-Organic Composites for Water and Wastewater Treatment'' reviews research findings on advanced materials and methods for purification. Considering the fact that new emerging pollutants are released into the environment and water bodies, it is necessary to develop more advanced techniques in order to treat them. The utilization of metal - organic framework in view of applications, synthesis, properties like adsorption, characterization of the electronic and geometric aspects, and hybrid systems is reiewed in this book, and the advantages/disadvantages, shortcomings including future prospects associated with metal-based nanoparticles and nanocomposites for water decontamination are discussed. In addition, the use of carbon quantum dots, supramolecular ion-exchange resins, multifunctional composite aerogels, algal biomass valorization and titania-containing composites in treatment processes are also presented.

The two-volume set Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering is concerned with the application of the principles of mechanics to physical, chemical and electro-magnetic processes in the upper-most layers of the earth and the design and construction of the rock structures associated with civil engineering and exploitation or extraction of natural resources in mining and petroleum engineering. Volume 1, Fundamentals of Rock Mechanics, discusses rock-constituting elements, discontinuities and their behavior under various physical and chemical actions in nature. The governing equations together with constitutive laws and experimental techniques and the solution techniques are explained and some examples of applications are given. A number of chapters are devoted to possible new directions in rock mechanics. Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering is intended to be a fundamental resource for younger generations and newcomers and a reference book for experts specialized in Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering and associated with the fields of mining, civil and petroleum engineering, engineering geology, and/or specialized in Geophysics and concerned with earthquake science and engineering.

The two-volume set Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering is concerned with the application of the principles of mechanics to physical, chemical and electro-magnetic processes in the upper-most layers of the earth and the design and construction of the rock structures associated with civil engineering and exploitation or extraction of natural resources in mining and petroleum engineering. Volume 2, Applications of Rock Mechanics - Rock Engineering, discusses the applications of rock mechanics to engineering structures in/on rock, rock excavation techniques and in-situ monitoring techniques, giving some specific examples. The dynamic aspects associated with the science of earthquakes and their effect on rock structures, and the characteristics of vibrations induced by machinery, blasting and impacts as well as measuring techniques are described. Furthermore, the degradation and maintenance processes in rock engineering are explained. Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering is intended to be a fundamental resource for younger generations and newcomers and a reference book for experts specialized in Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering and associated with the fields of mining, civil and petroleum engineering, engineering geology, and/or specialized in Geophysics and concerned with earthquake science and engineering.

This volume describes the identification of emerging organic pollutants, mainly from industrial sources, their associated toxicological threats, and the latest green methods and biotechnological solutions to abate harmful impacts on people and the environment. The chapters present reviews on current applied toxicology research, occupational health hazards and green remedial solutions for pollution control in terrestrial and aquatic environments, with the aim of raising public awareness of these issues and providing chemists, toxicologists and environmental scientists with the knowledge to combat organic pollutants through sustainable means. Readers will learn about the multi-dimensional applications of materials and processes which harvest energy out of environmental remediation technologies, as well as the roles of biotechnology and nanotechnology in addressing high pollutant load. Specific attention is paid to technologies that draw energy through wastewater remediation, as this covers the primary means by which organic pollutants are introduced into the environment from industry and other sources. The book will be of use to pollution control boards, industry regulators, and students and researchers in the fields of biotechnology, biomedical science, hydrology and water chemistry.

This book presents a state-of-the-art overview of the major aspects involved in the science, technology and applications of ceramics, glasses and glass-ceramics. After providing an historical perspective of the development and use of ceramics and glasses along the Silk Road, the theoretical background and fabrication techniques of such materials are described and discussed. A special focus is dedicated to emerging high-tech applications in various fields, including medicine, energy, optics and photonics, sensors, sustainability and circular economy. The chapters are written by leading experts in their respective fields and highlight the contemporary challenges associated to each topic. This book will serve as a valuable reference for both early-stage and skilled researchers as well as industry professionals interested in the broad field of glasses and ceramics.

This book provides a comprehensive overview on mechanochemistry including its history, high-energy ball milling process, equipment used and fundamentals behind the observed scientific phenomena. It also shows that mechanochemistry is highly applicable in the field of waste treatment. The text reviews 1017 studies utilizing mostly high-energy ball milling for the treatment of various types of consumer, technogenic and agricultural waste. The text is divided into chapters based on individual waste types. The book presents an Appendix compiling all studies arranged according to the application that the recycled waste is meant for. In this way, readers from both academia and companies interested either in the treatment of a particular waste, or particular application might easily locate sections of interest.

This book provides a systematic and comprehensive account of the recent developments in the recycling of plastic waste material. It presents state-of-the-art procedures for recycling of plastics from different sources and various characterization methods adopted in analyzing their properties. In addition, it looks into properties, processing, and applications of recycled plastic products as one of the drivers for sustainable recycling plastics especially in developing countries. This book proves a useful reference source for both engineers and researchers working in composite materials science as well as the students attending materials science, physics, chemistry, and engineering courses.

This book discusses the detailed concepts of concrete and its development with pros and cons. Besides, the significance of various industrial wastes as partial replacements with concrete ingredients such as cement and aggregates are discussed. The creation of cement contributes to around 7% of carbon emissions into the atmosphere leading to greenhouse effect and global warming. Similarly, the wastes generated from various industries such as thermal, steel, ceramic, marble, paper and etc. shows the impact on atmosphere and leads to air pollution and land pollution. Thus, it is essential to focus on these wastes to use them in a profitable manner without compromising the current needs. This book discusses a few examples on studies of using various industry wastes as partial replacement of cement in concrete

This open-access book addresses latest Sino-German results of the joint research efforts within Major Water Program of the Chinese Government supported by German research funding. The Major Water Program aims at the restoration of polluted water environments and sustainable management of water resources in China. The joint BMBF-CLIENT project SINOWATER deals with three most significant and strongest polluted Chinese waters, the river Liao and the Dian-lake as well as Tai-lake in the area of the metropolises Shenyang, Kunming and Suzhou, respectively. The project was conducted by the Research Institute for Water and Waste Management at RWTH Aachen (FiW) e.V., Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection, Technical University of Munich, RWTH Aachen University, German and Chinese companies (Martin Membrane Systems AG, Steinhardt GmbH Wassertechnik, GuHong, JT-elektronik, bluemetric, Huawang Water, EVU Group, Atemis GmbH, i+f process GmbH) in close cooperation with Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences, Tongji University, and the Dianchi Lake Management Authorities. Overall, the joint Sino-German research project SINOWATER provided solutions for the improvement of the water quality in the mentioned water bodies as well as development and optimization of Good Water Governance. These objectives could be achieved through the implementation of innovative German water technologies and the optimization of water management elements in the fields of industrial and municipal wastewater treatment as well as river and shallow lake management.