An in-depth exploration of recent advances and promising 20 outlooks in biogas production

Abstract

Biogas is a product composed of a mixture of gases that result from a process of biological decomposition of organic material, consisting primarily of methane gas and carbon dioxide, in addition to smaller amounts of other gases. This study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of biogas production from waste, in general, to ensure sustainability in the biofuel production process. To conclude this goal further, an advanced systematic bibliometric analysis using keywords, co-citations, and bibliographic coupling analysis was performed on 641 peer-reviewed articles from the Web of Science database. This analysis covers the period from 2000 to 2022, thus covering a period of little more than 20 years. The applied method reveals some themes that were identified and addressed in the article: (1) the importance of the topic in academia by country in which they were analyzed; (2) sectors contributing to biofuel production; (3) equipment used in biofuel production; (4) most cited waste sources in the database; (5) application purpose of the biogas; (6) relevance of other energy sources; (7) areas of interest where biofuels are used; and (8) a comparison between the energy production capacity and the number of publications on the topic by country. Furthermore, it also considers potentials, limitations, perspectives, and future trends were highlighted as aspects regarding improving its production process. Therefore, it is concluded that is possible to use organic wastes in the sustainable production of goods with added value to society.