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

Abstract

Biogas is a product composed of a mixture of gases resulting from the biological decomposition of organic material, consisting primarily of methane gas and carbon dioxide, besides smaller amounts of other gases. The current study aims to comprehensively analyze waste-based biogas production to ensure sustainability in the biofuel production process. An advanced systematic bibliometric analysis using keywords, co-citations, and bibliographic coupling analysis was performed on 641 peer-reviewed articles from Web of Science to conclude this goal further. This analysis covers the period from 2000 to 2022, a little more than 20 years. The methodology used reveals several themes that have been identified and addressed in the articles: (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) the most cited waste sources in the database; (5) application purpose of 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, the potentials, limitations, perspectives, and future trends highlighted to improve the production process are also considered. Therefore, the conclusion is that organic waste can be used in the sustainable production of goods with added value for society.