Worldwide research progress and trends on geothermal water–rock interaction experiments: a comprehensive bibliometric analysis

Abstract

The present work reports a novel methodological and comprehensive bibliometric analysis on past and present research advances carried out on geothermal water–rock interaction experiments from 1963 to 2022. The novel bibliometric analysis enabled the most representative bibliometric indicators on the research subject to be obtained. Published articles, preferred publication journals, research leaderships (authors, networking groups, institutions, and countries), and future research trends were also collected from a comprehensive searching carried out in indexed databases (Web of Science and Scopus). Up to our knowledge, this bibliometric information will benefit the worldwide geothermal community by providing a deeper insight of water/rock interaction lab experiments carried out up to date. The bibliometric analysis suggests relevant research areas such as geochemistry, thermodynamics, enhanced geothermal systems, carbon dioxide capture, and hydrothermal alteration as the main key research findings. These research areas were identified as the main bibliometric hotspots which have a strong potential to be used for the experimental design of new and improved water–rock interaction studies to address some crucial problems present in the geothermal prospection and exploitation. Among these problems stand out the study of hydrothermal, superhot and enhanced geothermal systems, the chemical fractionation of major and trace elements, the hydrothermal alteration, the calibration of solute and gas geothermometers, the scaling and corrosion problems, the carbon capture and storage, the evaluation of environmental issues, among others. Details of this comprehensive bibliometric analysis, including some statistical and text mining and mapping tools are fully outlined.