Bibliometric analysis of research progress in microwave-assisted pyrolysis of biomass during 1979–2023

Abstract

Increasing the footprint of installed renewable energy capacity helps to mitigate CO2 emissions. Numerous countries have been devising strategies for harnessing various renewable sources to meet the rising demands. Solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and biomass are a few of the renewable sources that are being used to generate electricity across the globe. Based on the nature of the source's availability, biomass is considered one of the plausible resources to generate electricity consistently. In light of this, extensive research works is being conducted to explore different approaches to convert biomass to energy. Microwave pyrolysis is one of the new approaches to convert biomass into energy. This study aims to understand the global trends in adopting micro-wave-assisted pyrolysis with the help of bibliometric analysis performed based on keyword occurrences. A total of 510 scientific contributions have been made between 1979 and 2023, addressing various aspects of microwave-assisted pyrolysis to convert biomass into energy. To gain insights into the adaptability of microwave-assisted pyrolysis, temporal growth in the total number of publications and citations has been studied. Prominent publications, top journal sources, highly contributing countries, and researchers are also identified to facilitate future research in this area. Findings suggest that attention to microwave pyrolysis is increasing by 7.59%, and China is designated as the top nation and the most frequent partner in microwave-assisted pyrolysis of biomass, followed by the United States and Malaysia. Bioresource Technology, Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis, Fuel, and Energy are popular journals focusing on microwave-assisted pyrolysis. Based on the bibliometric study of prior existing work, this study presents a road map for collaborations to conduct research on microwave-assisted pyrolysis of biomass to generate energy.