The transition towards a circular and low-carbon economy requires not only substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but also more sustainable strategies for managing the rapidly increasing quantities of solid waste generated by industrial production, construction, mining, energy conversion, and municipal activities. Many solid wastes, including steel slag, waste concrete, cement kiln dust, mine tailings, incineration residues, and alkaline industrial by-products, contain reactive calcium and magnesium bearing phases. These materials therefore represent both an environmental burden and a potentially valuable resource for carbon dioxide sequestration and secondary material production.

Carbon mineralization converts CO₂ into thermodynamically stable carbonate minerals through reactions with alkaline components in solid wastes. Compared with conventional carbon capture and storage approaches, this process offers the potential for permanent CO₂ fixation with a low risk of subsequent release. At the same time, mineralization can modify the mineralogical composition, surface chemistry, pore structure, volume stability, leaching behavior, and engineering performance of solid wastes. These changes may enable the production of low-carbon construction materials, supplementary cementitious materials, recycled aggregates, carbonate products, and other value-added materials. Carbon mineralization therefore provides a promising pathway for integrating carbon management with waste valorization and resource recovery.

Despite its growing potential, the large-scale implementation of solid-waste carbon mineralization remains constrained by several scientific and engineering challenges. These include the heterogeneous composition and limited reactivity of many waste streams, incomplete understanding of reaction and phase-transformation mechanisms, high requirements for energy, water, chemicals, and material pre-treatment, and uncertainties regarding product quality, environmental safety, process scalability, and overall carbon benefits. Further progress requires coordinated research across materials science, environmental engineering, chemical engineering, geochemistry, process intensification, and life-cycle assessment.

This themed issue, “Solid Waste Carbon Mineralization for a Circular and Low-Carbon Future,” aims to bring together recent advances in the fundamental mechanisms, process development, material applications, environmental performance, and engineering implementation of solid-waste carbon mineralization. Particular attention is given to studies that connect CO₂ sequestration with the production of functional and low-carbon materials, improve the efficiency and selectivity of mineralization processes, clarify the relationships between reaction conditions and product properties, and evaluate the technical, environmental, and economic feasibility of large-scale applications. Through these contributions, this themed issue seeks to support the development of scientifically robust and practically viable solutions for simultaneous carbon mitigation, waste management, and circular material production.

Topics covered include, but are not limited to:

• Fundamental mechanisms, reaction kinetics, and thermodynamics of solid-waste carbon mineralization.
• Carbonation behaviour and technology of industrial solid wastes.
• Development and process intensification of direct and indirect carbon mineralization technologies.
• Development and application of carbonated solid waste products in low-carbon construction and other value-added materials.
• Design, synthesis and application of functional materials derived from solid-waste carbon mineralization.
• Molecular dynamics simulations and atomistic modelling of interfacial reactions, ion transport, nucleation and phase transformation during carbon mineralization.
• AI-driven modelling, prediction, optimization or process control for carbon mineralization.
• Environmental and economic assessment, management, and decision support for carbon mineralization processes and products.

Guest Editors

Prof. Peiliang SHEN

Professor

State Key Laboratory of Silicate Materials for Architectures

Wuhan University of Technology, China

E-mail: peiliang.shen@whut.edu.cn

Prof. Ruben Snellings

Associate Research Professor

Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

KU Leuven, Belgium

E-mail: ruben.snellings@kuleuven.be

Prof. Juhyuk Moon

Professor

Department of Civil, Urban and Environmental Engineering

Seoul National University, Republic of Korea

E-mail: juhyukmoon@snu.ac.kr

Prof. Yi Jiang

Professor

School of Mechanics and Construction Engineering,

Jinan University, China

Email: yijiang@jnu.edu.cn

Prof. Songhui Liu

Professor

School of Materials Science and Engineering,

Henan Polytechnic University, China

E-mail: liusonghui@hpu.edu.cn

Dr. Luge CHENG

Assistant Professor

Architecture and Architectural Engineering

Kyoto University, Japan

E-mail: cheng.luge.3t@kyoto-u.ac.jp

Submissions and Publication

1. Acceptable paper types: Original Research Report/Communication/Review/Progress Report.

2. Please prepare your manuscript using the Manuscript Template (note that the Graphical Abstract, Author Contribution Statement, Declaration of Competing Interest, and Author Biography are required), and see the full Submission Guidelines for further details.

3. Please submit your manuscript via the ScholarOne Manuscripts system before February 28, 2027, and please select “Solid Waste Carbon Mineralization for a Circular and Low-Carbon Future”.

4. Once a themed issue paper is accepted, it will be quickly released online on the SciOpen platform, without waiting for other papers of this issue.

Open Access Sponsorship

As a fully open-access journal, MRSE will provide maximum exposure for published articles, making the research available to all to read and share. In addition, MRSE will waive the Article Processing Charge (APC) for the invited contribution.

Contact

Prof. Peiliang SHEN, peiliang.shen@whut.edu.cn

Prof. Ruben Snellings, ruben.snellings@kuleuven.be

Prof. Juhyuk Moon, juhyukmoon@snu.ac.kr

Prof. Yi Jiang, yijiang@jnu.edu.cn

Prof. Songhui Liu, liusonghui@hpu.edu.cn

Dr. Luge CHENG, cheng.luge.3t@kyoto-u.ac.jp

Editorial Office of Materials Reports: Solidwaste and Ecomaterials, mrse@mater-rep.com