ABSTRACT
Crude oil-based gasoline fuels have been widely used in the transportation sector since the 1920s. However, there have been great public concerns over the adverse environmental and human impact of these fuels. Hence, biomass-based bioethanol fuels have increasingly been used in blending gasoline fuels and in biochemical production in a biorefinery context. Research in the field of chemical pretreatments of biomass has also intensified in recent years. A number of chemical pretreatments such as acid, ionic liquid, and alkali and to a lesser extent ammonia organic solvent, ordinary solvent, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), deep eutectic solvent, wet oxidation, supercritical water, surfactant, ozone (O3), sulfite, and supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) pretreatments have been widely researched in this context to increase sugar and bioethanol yield in recent years. Further, the most prolific biomass groups used in these chemical pretreatments have been biomass constituents, agricultural residues, and biomass in general and to a lesser extent wood, grass, and other biomasses such as algae and plants. Additionally, on individual terms, the most prolific biomasses used in chemical pretreatments have been cellulose, corn stover, and lignocellulosic biomass and to a lesser extent wood, biomass at large, grass, rice straw, wheat straw, hemicellulose, sugarcane bagasse, lignocellulose, and cellobiose. However, it is essential to develop efficient incentive structures for the primary stakeholders to enhance research in this field. As there have been no scientometric studies on chemical pretreatments of biomass, this chapter presents a scientometric study of research on the chemical pretreatments of biomass. It examines the scientometric characteristics of both the sample and population data presenting the scientometric characteristics of these both datasets in the order of documents, authors, publication years, institutions, funding bodies, source titles, countries, Scopus subject categories, keywords, and research fronts.
