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 and biohydrogen fuel production for fuel cells in a biorefinery context. Bioethanol fuels also play a critical role in maintaining energy security in supply shocks related to oil price shocks, 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 bioethanol prior to bioethanol production through hydrolysis of the biomass and fermentation of the resultant hydrolysates. Europe has been one of the most prolific producers of research in bioethanol fuel research, producing 28% of the global research output in this field. The European research in the field of bioethanol fuels has intensified in this context in the key research fronts of the production of bioethanol fuels and utilization of bioethanol fuels and to a lesser extent the evaluation of bioethanol fuels. For the first research front, pretreatment and hydrolysis of feedstocks, fermentation of feedstock-based hydrolysates, and production of bioethanol fuels and to a lesser extent distillation of bioethanol fuels are the key research areas while for the second research front, utilization of bioethanol fuels in fuel cells and transport engines and bioethanol-based biohydrogen fuels and to a lesser extent bioethanol sensors and bioethanol-based biochemicals are the key research areas. Research in this field has also intensified for the feedstocks of lignocellulosic biomass at large, bioethanol fuels, cellulose, wood biomass, starch feedstock residues, lignin, and sugars and to a lesser extent industrial wastes, hydrolysates, biomass at large, sugar feedstock residues, urban wastes, and food wastes. However, it is essential to develop efficient incentive structures for the primary stakeholders to enhance research in this field. Scientometric analysis has been used in this context to inform the primary stakeholders about the current state of research in a selected research field. As there have been no published scientometric studies in this field, this chapter presents a scientometric study of research in the European experience of bioethanol fuels. 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, Scopus keywords, and research fronts.
