Sustainability and challenges in biodiesel production from waste cooking oil: An advanced bibliometric analysis

Biodiesel production from waste cooking oil (WCO) has become an economic and environmental strategy to help address global renewable energy challenges and contribute to a sustainable society. A systematic and extensive assessment of WCO-based biodiesel production research has become increasingly important. However, scant literature based on the bibliometric analysis of this field, including publication trends, geographical distribution, co-citation references analysis, and future research trends are available. To visualize and map the developments and sustainable future challenges in this research area more thoroughly, a comprehensive bibliometric analysis was conducted. A total of 2,750 publications from the Web of Science Core Collection databases (from 2000-2020) were analyzed using ArcGIS 10.2, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace. The results demonstrated that the three stages of development in this field included the initial stage (2000-2007), the exploration stage (2008-2015), and the stable development stage (2016-2020). China, India, and Malaysia are the most active countries with the highest number of publications. The top three prolific research organizations included the Indian Institute of Technology System, Universiti Putra Malaysia, and Universiti Malaya. These 2,750 publications are found in the following journals Fuel, Renewable Energy, and Energy Conversion and Management. The most fruitful authors and literatures have also been included in this research field. Cluster analysis indicates that two constant research fields were transesterifications and diesel engines. Future studies should concentrate on life cycle assessment, lipase, WCO, ultrasound, and deoxygenation. Two augmented insights involve the application of soft computing techniques and thermodynamic-based sustainability assessment analysis. This is the first study to use bibliometric analysis method to provide an overview of WCO-based biodiesel production research. By conducting a systematic survey of the current research, this study offers a tool that industry practitioners and renewable energy policymakers can use in their work. (C) 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Automated summary

The study on biodiesel production from waste cooking oil has gone through different stages of development, with China, India, and Malaysia being the most active countries. Indian Institute of Technology System, Universiti Putra Malaysia, and Universiti Malaya are the top prolific research organizations in this field. Future research should focus on life cycle assessment, lipase, ultrasound, and other areas, along with the application of soft computing techniques and thermodynamic-based sustainability assessment analysis.