Title: How Can We Achieve Zero Waste and Circular Economy in Pakistan
Abstract:
A zero-waste concept is intended to valorize waste sources as renewable feedstock t0 recover value-added chemicals, materials, alternative fuels, and energy. This concept integrates waste treatment, resource recovery, alternative fuels, and energy generation to shift from fossil-based linear economies to circular economies. However, traditional linear economies, particularly in the Asian world, have resulted in rapid economic growth due to increasing energy demands, environmental pollution, and climate change. The Paris COP21 summit has recently set out a roadmap to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to keep global warming to ' well below 2 o C'. Like global warming, the tremendous waste generation and its unsustainable disposal have emerged as a potential threat to our civilization. It is estimated that the current waste generation rate will escalate by three times by 2025. Traditional waste remediation methods involve waste removal from collection points and disposal in designated dumping sites where waste valorization to generate energy, and other value-added products are rarely performed. These sites have become a major source of GHGs emissions contributing to climate change. As a result, nations now focus on treating or refining waste instead of disposing of it, striving to recover energy and value-added products from waste to achieve a circular economy. In better words, using closed-loop waste bioprocessing units, the inherent net positive energy contained in solid, liquid, and gaseous wastes is harnessed and utilized as energy carriers. Despite their promising features, these individual processing technologies cannot handle the huge volume of waste in a single platform to achieve a zero-waste concept. They suffer from limited efficiencies and high capital and maintenance costs. Therefore, if these waste processing or waste-to-energy technologies could be integrated through the under-one-roof concept of a waste-driven factory, a significant part of wastes can be treated by various specialized techniques, while their outputs (heat, power, and fuel) could suffice the operating requirements of each other. An array of products, including heat, power, fuel, and value-added chemicals, enzymes, and materials, would be available not only to run the waste-driven factory by itself but to support the national electric grids, vehicular gas stations, combined heat and power (CHP) units, and domestic heating and industrial furnaces. However, such waste-driven factories' overall sustainability should be assessed through various tools, including life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle impact assessment (LCIA), and exergy.
Biography:
Dr. Abdul-Sattar Nizami has a Master of Science in Engineering from the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. He has a Ph.D. in Sustainable Gaseous Biofuel from University College Cork, Ireland. He worked at the University of Toronto, Canada as a Postdoctoral Fellow on alternative fuels and life cycle studies. Later, he served as an Assistant Professor and Head of the Solid Waste Management Unit at the Center of Excellence in Environmental Studies of King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He is currently working as a Professor (Associate) at Sustainable Development Study Centre, Government College University, Lahore, Pakistan.
He has published over 150 papers on renewable energy, alternative fuels, waste-to-energy, catalytic pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, and resource recovery. He has delivered 50 invited talks to various national and international forums. His work has been cited more than 11 thousand times in the peer-review press, with a total impact factor of over 1100 and an H-index of 55.
He is a Senior Editor in Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews (Elsevier Impact Factor 16.8), Energy & Environment (Sage Impact Factor 3.15), and Frontiers in Energy Research (IF 4.01). He serves as an Editorial Board Member in Bioresource Technology Reports (Elsevier) and Energy Sources Part B (Taylor & Francis IF 3.21). He is actively involved in community and consultation services to various international organizations, including the European Commission-based IF@ULB, the National Research Agency (NRA) of France, the National Science Centre Poland, the World Bank, and UNEP. He is ranked among the Top 2% of Scientists Worldwide by Stanford University, USA. His achievements have been selected as a Role Model by US Times Higher Education World University Rankings for King Abdulaziz University as No 1 in the Arab World in 2019. His recent UNEP report was published, ' Waste Management Outlook for WEST ASIA 2019, WASTE TOWEALTH'.