Advances in Sustainable Process Design for Clean Energy Production and Storage

Achieving global climate and energy targets requires not only the development of clean energy technologies but also their sustainable design, optimization, and scale-up within the chemical process industry. Technologies such as green hydrogen, synthetic and bio-based fuels, power-to-X systems, electrochemical energy storage, and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) all depend on chemical processes whose technical, economic, and environmental viability is largely determined during the process design stage. Decisions regarding reaction pathways, reactor configuration, separation technologies, mass and heat integration, catalyst development, and solvent selection directly influence energy consumption, resource efficiency, waste generation, carbon emissions, and overall process sustainability.

Sustainable process design provides the critical framework for translating promising laboratory-scale innovations into commercially viable, safe, and environmentally responsible industrial technologies. Recent advances in process intensification, green chemistry, digital process modeling, artificial intelligence, multi-objective optimization, and integrated techno-economic, life-cycle, and environmental assessments enable sustainability considerations to be embedded from the earliest stages of process development rather than incorporated as post-design modifications. This integrated approach is essential for accelerating the commercialization of next-generation clean energy technologies while minimizing their environmental footprint and maximizing resource efficiency and economic competitiveness.

This Research Topic invites contributions that apply the principles and methods of sustainable chemical process design to the production, conversion, and storage of clean energy. We seek research that balances technical, economic, environmental, and societal objectives, and that advances the design, modeling, optimization, and assessment of low-carbon and low-footprint energy processes. We especially welcome interdisciplinary work that links process performance with quantitative sustainability assessment, and contributions relevant to industry, policymakers, and practitioners.

Themes of interest include, but are not limited to:
• Green chemistry routes and environmentally friendly technologies for clean fuels, hydrogen, and energy carriers
• Mass and energy integration and process intensification in energy production and storage
• Design and optimization of electrochemical, thermochemical, and chemical energy storage processes
• Power-to-X, electrification, and renewable-powered chemical process design
• Carbon capture, utilization, and storage integrated within energy processes
• Techno-economic analysis and environmental impact assessment (including life cycle assessment) of clean energy processes
• Systems approaches, multi-scale modeling, and optimization for sustainable energy process design
• Low carbon- and water-footprint technologies and strategies; conservation of natural resources
• Pollution prevention, waste valorization, and product recycling within energy systems
• Safety, risk, reliability, and resilience of sustainable energy processes
• Case studies, novel applications, and scale-up and feasibility of emerging clean energy technologies

Through these themes, the Research Topic aims to advance sustainable manufacturing practices in the clean energy sector and their impact on the chemical process industry, in line with UN Sustainable Development Goals 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and 13 (Climate Action).

Accepted article types:
Original Research, Review, Mini Review, Methods, Hypothesis and Theory, Perspective, Brief Research Report, and Community Case Study, among other article types accepted by the section.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: Green Hydrogen, Catalysis and Electrocatalysts, Water Electrolysis, Hydrogen Storage Materials

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.