A SYSTEMATIC BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT STATE AND PROSPECTS OF BIOGAS PRODUCTION
Biogas; Waste; Biogas Production; Bibliometric Analysis; Sustainability.
In the last two decades, discussions on improving the sustainability of human activities have gained significant attention, generating interest and investments in economic, bioeconomic, and circular economy aspects. Thus, the concept of the circular economy plays a crucial role in the valorization of biomass and organic waste to establish a more stimulating and productive life cycle for all stakeholders. This study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of biogas production from waste in general to ensure sustainability in the biofuel production process. To achieve this goal, a systematic bibliometric analysis using keywords, co-citations, and bibliographic coupling analysis was performed on 641 peer-reviewed articles from the Web of Science database. As a result, three basic themes were identified and addressed in the article: (1) the importance of the topic in academia by country; (2) sectors contributing to biofuel production; (3) equipment used in biofuel production. In addition, the results showed that research areas were grouped into categories such as (1) most cited waste sources in the database; (2) reactors used in the process; (3) application purpose of the produced biogas; (4) relevance of other energy sources; (5) areas of interest where biofuels are used; and (6) a comparison between the energy production capacity and the number of publications on the topic by country. The network map presented in this study can provide insights for further research on the topic.