Biomass and organic waste potentials towards implementing circular bioeconomy platforms: A systematic bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Over the last decade, the increasing sustainability discourse has pushed interest in investments in the nexus of economy, bioeconomy, and the circular economy (CE). Consequently, the emerging circular bioeconomy (CBE) concept with a special focus on biomass and organic waste valorization to close product lifecycle loops has gained momentum. This research aims at providing a comprehensive map of the body of knowledge in the biomass and organic waste literature with a CBE perspective. To achieve this, a systematic bibliometric analysis is performed employing keywords, co-citation, and bibliographic coupling analyses on a total of 646 peer-reviewed articles in Web of Science. As a result, four seminal background research themes building the biomass and organic waste research in the CE were identified as follows: (1) biological conversion technologies, (2) the CE concept and its implementation, (3) environmental studies, and (4) food waste. Moreover, the results revealed that the most recent areas of research in the target literature are clustered in seven categories, including: (1) the biochar industry development from a CE perspective, (2) the role of insect biorefinery in waste management in the CE framework, (3) lifecycle assessment studies for bio-waste treatment systems, (4) the CE implementation in the agricultural sector, (5) spent coffee grounds valorization, (6) organic waste biorefinery applications in a CBE, and (7) municipal bio-waste and food waste valorization via anaerobic digestion. The provided map of the research on biomass and organic waste in the CBE framework can, on the one hand, support scholars in advancing the research and, on the other hand, assist practitioners and local and national authorities in implementing the CE for bio-based waste management.