[VSI] Sustainable and innovative biomass valorization pathways for high-value bioproducts

Resources, Conservation and Recycling, IF>10 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/special-issue/323853/sustainable-and-innovative-biomass-valorization-pathways-for-high-value-bioproducts

Sustainable and innovative biomass valorization pathways for high-value bioproducts

Submission deadline: 01 May 2026

The sustainable utilization of biomass is the key to propelling global sustainable development, especially in the context of energy transition and climate change mitigation. As the most abundant resource in the world, biomass can provide tremendous opportunities for advancing our industrial systems and the built environment via providing advanced bioenergy products and biomaterials (Zhang et al., 2025). Yet, the potential high-cost and environmental impacts of biomass conversion process, large variations in feedstock characteristics, and potential difficulty in upscaling and commercialization may largely constrain the development of a future sustainable bioeconomy (Singhvi & Gokhale, 2019; Nguyen et al., 2020). These challenges raise several critical research questions: (1) What are the most promising valorization pathways for biomass? (2) How can the sustainability of these pathways be effectively evaluated? (3) What strategies can further enhance their environmental, economic, and social performance?

This special issue aims to examine, model, and assess the sustainable pathways of utilizing biomass resources to produce high-value bioproducts that can be produced at a large scale. These high-value bioproducts can include, but are not limited to, advanced biomaterials and bio-based chemicals, bio-based industrial carbon products, and bioenergy products. We expect to see these biomass valorization pathways to show great potential in increasing resource and energy efficiency, mitigating climate change, minimizing waste generation, and reducing environmental pollution.

We welcome submissions that apply a wide range of methodological approaches, including but not limited to process design and simulation, life cycle assessment, social life cycle assessment, material flow analysis, techno-economic analysis, system engineering, and artificial intelligence. Interdisciplinary studies that integrate multiple tools to provide holistic insights into the sustainability of biomass valorization pathways are especially encouraged.

This special issue aims to bring together novel and impactful contributions that address the pressing challenges in developing a future-oriented, sustainable bioeconomy. Submissions may take the form of original research articles, systematic reviews, or perspective papers. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Novel biomaterials and bio-based chemicals from biomass feedstocks

Advanced bio-based industrial carbon products (e.g., biographite, carbon nanomaterials)

Emerging bioenergy products for decarbonization and circular bioeconomy

Comprehensive life cycle assessment, techno-economic analysis of biomass valorization pathways

Social life cycle assessment or social analysis to improve the social sustainability of bioproducts

Process design/simulation, system engineering, and optimization to investigate and improve the scalability and sustainability of biomass valorization pathways

Development and applications of machine learning approaches to improve the sustainability of high-value bioproducts

Guest editors:

Kai Lan

Department of Forest Biomaterials, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States of America

Sunkyu Park

Department of Forest Biomaterials, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States of America

Joshua Pulsipher

Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada

Lei Wang

School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310030, China

Manuscript submission information:

A Virtual Special Issue (VSI) is an online-only grouping of Special Issue articles traditionally assigned to a single Special Issue. The articles in a VSI will be assigned a unique identifier and published in a regular journal issue. The unique identifier allows for simultaneously adding the article to a VSI in ScienceDirect.com. Articles grouped together in a VSI retain their original citation details. A VSI speeds up the publication of individual articles as, unlike the publication process for conventional Special Issue articles, a VSI does not need to wait for the final article to be ready before publication.

A detailed submission guideline is available here: Guide for authors. All manuscripts and any supplementary material should be submitted through the online editorial system Editorial Manager®. The authors must select the article type of  “VSI: Biomass” in the submission process.

Important Dates

Submission open date: 01 August 2025

Full paper submission deadline: 01 May 2026

Publication: As soon as accepted (VSI)

References:

Zhang, J., Gu, J., Shan, R., Yuan, H., & Chen, Y. (2025). Advances in thermochemical valorization of biomass towards carbon neutrality. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 212, 107905.

Singhvi, M. S., & Gokhale, D. V. (2019). Lignocellulosic biomass: hurdles and challenges in its valorization. Applied microbiology and biotechnology, 103(23), 9305-9320.

Nguyen, Q. A., Smith, W. A., Wahlen, B. D., & Wendt, L. M. (2020). Total and sustainable utilization of biomass resources: a perspective. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 8, 546. 

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