Exploring the evolution, trends and scope of microalgal biochar through scientometrics

Abstract

The recent surge in biorefinery facet and prerequisite management of colossal amount of algal residues after extraction of value-added products, has provoked researchers to focus on the state-of-the-art material, microalgal biochar. This manuscript is a scientometric research of microalgal biochar conducted between 2009 and 2021, using CiteSpace 5.8.R1. Ten significant scientometric attributes namely, annual publication outcome, co-authorship network, co-author country network, author co-citation network, document co-citation network, journal co-citation network, co-author institution network, research grant analysis, subject category analysis and co-occurring authors keywords were investigated to identify the progression and advancements in microalgal biochar research. China, USA, and India are the leading contributors to this field with several established government research grants to promote this discipline. Algal Research is one of the top-echelon journals contributing to this field in terms of publication outcomes. The research on microalgal biochar has escalated in the last decade with focus on various production techniques, process optimization and enormous applications in medical and energy sectors. Yet, more focus on scale-up of the technology, life cycle and technoeconomic analysis, and thorough understanding of the effect of influential parameters is necessary to commercialize and engineer the biochar. Through a detailed examination of co-occurring keywords, this article attempts to recognize the frontiers, research gaps and emerging aspects in this domain.