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, in fuel cells, and in biochemical production in a biorefinery context. Bioethanol fuels also play a critical role in maintaining energy security in supply shocks related to oil price shocks, the COVID-19 pandemic, or wars in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, it is necessary to pretreat the biomass to enhance the yield of the bioethanol prior to bioethanol production through the hydrolysis of the biomass and fermentation of the resulting hydrolysates, respectively. One of the most-studied feedstocks for bioethanol fuels has been waste biomass. The research in the field of second generation waste biomass-based bioethanol fuels has intensified in this context in the key research fronts of the pretreatment and hydrolysis of waste biomass and to a lesser extent fermentation of waste biomass-based hydrolysates, and production and evaluation of second generation waste biomass-based bioethanol fuels. The research in this field has also intensified for the feedstocks of lignocellulosic biomass at large, residual starch feedstocks, industrial wastes, residual sugar feedstocks, and to a lesser extent urban wastes, food wastes, and forestry wastes. Thus, it emerges as a distinctive research field, complementing the primary research on first generation bioethanol fuels from non-waste feedstocks such as starch and sugar feedstocks as well as grass, wood, algae, and biosyngas among others. However, it is essential to develop efficient incentive structures for the primary stakeholders to enhance the research in this field. Scientometric analysis has been used in this context to inform the primary stakeholders about the current state of the research in this research field. As there have been no published scientometric studies in this field, this chapter presents a scientometric study of the research in second generation waste biomass-based bioethanol fuels. It examines the scientometric characteristics of both the sample and population data presenting the scientometric characteristics of both these datasets in the order of documents, authors, publication years, institutions, funding bodies, source titles, countries, Scopus subject categories, Scopus keywords, and research fronts.
