Thermal Treatment of Biomass: A Bibliometric Analysis—The Torrefaction Case

Adrian Knapczyk, Sławomir Francik, Marcin Jewiarz, Agnieszka Zawiślak and Renata Francik
Additional contact information
Adrian Knapczyk: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Agrophysics, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Balicka 120, 31-120 Kraków, Poland
Sławomir Francik: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Agrophysics, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Balicka 120, 31-120 Kraków, Poland
Marcin Jewiarz: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Agrophysics, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Balicka 120, 31-120 Kraków, Poland
Agnieszka Zawiślak: Department of Biotechnology and General Food Technology, Faculty of Food Technology, University of Agriculture in Krakow, 30-149 Kraków, Poland
Renata Francik: Institute of Health, State Higher Vocational School, Staszica 1, 33-300 Nowy Sącz, Poland

Energies, 2020, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-31

Abstract: The aim of the paper was to summarize and discuss current research trends in biomass thermal treatment (torrefaction process). Quantitative analyses were carried out, in which the main countries, research units and scientists were indicated. The analysis showed a clear upward trend in number of publications after 2010. Most scientists on selected topics come from China, USA, Canada, South Korea, Republic of China, Poland (Web od Science—Core Collection (WoS-CC) and Scopus databases). Quantitative analysis also showed that the most relevant WoS-CC categories in the summary are: Energy Fuels, Engineering Chemical, Agricultural Engineering, Biotechnology Applied Microbiology and Thermodynamics and Scopus Subject area: Energy, Chemical Engineering, Environmental Science, Engineering and Chemistry. Thematic analysis included research topics, process parameters and raw materials used. Thematic groups were separated: torrefaction process (temp.: 150–400 °C), hydrothermal carbonization process (HTC) (temp: 120–500 °C), pyrolysis process (temp.: 200–650 °C) and gasification and co-combustion process (temp.: 350–1600 °C). In the years 2015–2019, current research topics were: new torrefaction technologies (e.g., HTC), improvement of the physico-mechanical, chemical and energetic properties of produced fuel as well as the use of torrefied biomass in the process of pyrolysis, gasification and co-combustion. The raw materials used in all types of biomass thermal treatment were: energy crops, wood from fast-growing and exotic trees, waste from the agri-food industry, sewage sludge and microalgae.

Keywords: torrefaction; hydrothermal carbonization; pyrolysis; gasification; bibliometric analysis; research trends; research topic; scientometric; solid biomass (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/1/162/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/1/162/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2020:i:1:p:162-:d:472578

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().