Editorial · 01Helena Brooks, Gilbert Hughes
Published 2026
Linear production systems convert concentrated natural resources into products while dispersing substantial material value as waste, emissions, and low-grade residues. A circular bioeconomy seeks to alter this trajectory by combining renewable biolog…
Keywords: circular bioeconomy; biorefinery; industrial biotechnology; resource recovery; waste valorisation; lifecycle assessment; regenerative production
Editorial · 02Helena Brooks, Gilbert Hughes
Published 2026
Biological conversion can appear highly promising at laboratory scale while remaining technically unstable, resource intensive, or economically uncompetitive when transferred to industrial production. Scale changes mixing, oxygen transfer, heat remov…
Keywords: bioprocess engineering; scale-up; fermentation; process intensification; downstream processing; process analytical technology; techno-economic assessment
Editorial · 03Priya Menon, Lucas Ferreira
Published 2026
Waste streams are increasingly recognized not only as pollution burdens but also as heterogeneous reservoirs of carbon, nutrients, metals, energy, water, and functional compounds. Agricultural residues, food waste, wastewater, municipal organics, ind…
Keywords: waste valorisation; resource recovery; bioremediation; anaerobic digestion; wastewater; nutrient recovery; circular systems
Editorial · 04Priya Menon, Lucas Ferreira
Published 2026
Technologies are increasingly described as green, bio-based, circular, low-carbon, resource-efficient, or sustainable before their system-level consequences are known. Such labels can be useful hypotheses, but they are not evidence. This editorial ar…
Keywords: life-cycle assessment; techno-economic analysis; scale-up; sustainability assessment; uncertainty; process systems engineering; circularity metrics
