Journal of Cleaner Production 331 (2022) 130004

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Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Research progress, trends, and updates on anaerobic digestion technology:

A bibliometric analysis
Larissa Castro Ampese a, William Gustavo Sganzerla a, Henrique Di Domenico Ziero a,
Ackmez Mudhoo b, Gilberto Martins c, Tânia Forster-Carneiro a, *
a
School of Food Engineering, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Rua Monteiro Lobato, n.80, 13083-862 Campinas, SP, Brazil
b
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius, Réduit, 80837, Mauritius
c
Brazilian Center for Engineering, Modeling and Applied Social Sciences, UFABC, Av. dos Estados, 5001, Santo André, São Paulo, Brazil

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Handling Editor: Kathleen Aviso Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a consolidated waste management technology with numerous publications on this
topic. Consequently, using Scientometric tools can be insightful to depict and analyze research gaps and trends
Keywords: towards updating scientific datasets and upgrading knowledge in this research area. Therefore, this bibliometric
Renewable energy review examined the research progress, trends, and updates on AD technology. The Web of Science© database
Biogas
was used to select the documents, and the softwares VOSviewer© and Bibliometrix were used to carry out the
Bibliometrics
bibliometric investigation. The results obtained in this bibliometric study highlight that the hot topics in the field
Pretreatment
Circular economy over the last five years of publications are associated with environmental studies for biogas production to avoid
Biorefinery. greenhouse gas emissions, focusing on the microbiological and engineering parameters involved. There is a lack
of information regarding the recovery of bioenergy from organic waste. The main opportunities and trends can
be associated with the integration of feedstock pretreatment prior to the core processing of substrates by AD with
a view to improve biogas production and quality. The production of bioenergy and biofuels from AD processes
can be an alternative to meet the relevant Sustainable Development Goals. Finally, the knowledge on feedstock
pre-treatment with process modeling, optimization, and operation, is crucial to establish AD as a profitable
management system reaping alongside significant economic and environmental benefits.

1. Introduction
There is a global concern about the possibilities to overcome the
impacts of climate change and support sustainable development (Kle­
nert et al., 2020). In general, the impacts of climate change are mainly
associated with the consumption of non-renewable fuels and the
resulting emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), which cause negative
environmental consequences and affect human life (Brauer and Khan,
2021). Otherwise, the incorrect disposal of solid and liquid residues
from various industries contributes to GHG emissions (Chen, 2018).
Considering the GHG emissions by sector, the disposal of wastes is
responsible for 3.2% of the GHG emissions, including wastewater (1.3%)
and landfills (1.9%), whereas, considering the global GHG emissions,
the food waste is responsible for 6% of the total (Ritchie and Roser,
2020a). Moreover, considering the emissions per type of fuel in 2020,
the utilization of fossil fuels represented 93.22% of CO2 emissions
around the world (the respective percentages are 40.15% for coal,
31.81% for oil, and 21.26% for gas) (Ritchie and Roser, 2020b).
Therefore, the correct management of organic wastes has grown into a
challenge for different industrial sectors, which aimed to meet the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Na­
tions Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (United
Nations, 2020). Among the 17 SDGs established, waste valorization into
more sustainable paths support the achievement of the following goals:
• SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), since AD is worldwide used for
effluent treatment, which contributes to diminishing the pollution of
water bodies
• SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), since the waste could be used
for electricity and thermal energy generation through methane
upgrading from biogas
• SDG 13 (climate action), by avoiding environment pollution, GHG
emission, and by encouraging other sectors to contribute in
achieving the goals.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: taniafc@unicamp.br (T. Forster-Carneiro).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.130004
Received 29 July 2021; Received in revised form 15 November 2021; Accepted 3 December 2021
Available online 6 December 2021
0959-6526/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 富含甲烷的沼气
L.C. Ampese et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 331 (2022) 130004

environmental perspective, methane-rich biogas can be considered a

Abbreviations renewable energy carrier that can be transformed into heat and elec­
tricity, decreasing in this way the environmental impacts caused by
AD Anaerobic digestion fossil fuels (Hakawati et al., 2017; Li et al., 2019; Mao et al., 2015).
ADM1 Anaerobic digestion model The use of scientific information from published documents can
ADSM Anaerobic digestion system model determine the research trends and gaps in a field. Recently, bibliometric
AM2 Anaerobic digestion model studies have been widely used to disseminate the prospects in diverse
BMP Biomethane potential research fields, such as trends on biomass and bioenergy (Ferrari et al.,
CH4 Methane 2020), bioenergy from bio-waste (Obileke et al., 2020), and the status of
CO2 Carbon dioxide studies in bioenergy under climate change, offering a fresh perspective
i.e. id est and suggestions to researchers and policymakers for future research and
GHG Greenhouse gas policy formulation (Zhang et al., 2021b).
H2 Molecular hydrogen Therefore, to elucidate research progress and trends in AD technol­
HRT Hydraulic retention time ogy, this study presents a bibliometric analysis. Firstly, the search was
OLR Organic loading rate conducted in the timespan from 1980 to 2020 to observe the global
RT-PCR Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction research trends. Then, the timespan was focused over the last five years
SCI-E Science Citation Index Expanded of publications (2015–2020), aiming to summarize the technological
SDG Sustainable Development Goals advancement and current development trends for the AD process from a
TPAD Temperature-phased anaerobic digestion bibliometric viewpoint. Different from previous review articles, which
UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate use literature search to identify and explain important concepts and
Change advances in a certain field, the present study focused on a broad analysis
VS Volatile solids of AD to identify the main gaps that still need to be studied in the field.
WoS Web of Science© Finally, a deep discussion on the challenges and prospects have been
WWTP Wastewater treatment plant provided to support future research and decision-making in this field of
science and technology.

2. Material and methods

Innovative technologies enabling appropriate waste management
and energy recovery pathways are crucial to uphold sustainable devel­
opment based on bioeconomy (Yaashikaa et al., 2020). The recovery of
bioenergy from waste (waste-to-energy) can support the achievement of
profitable processes with environmental conservation while mitigating
losses, environmental side-effects, and avoiding GHG emissions (Van
et al., 2020). Therefore, the design of innovative processes for bioenergy
recovery can avoid organic waste disposal by landfilling or incineration,
and consequently contribute in gradually establishing a circular econ­
omy because the wastes could be then used as feedstock to obtain
value-added products at the end of the production cycle.
One of the most employed biological processes for organic waste
management and energy recovery is anaerobic digestion (AD), whereby
organic waste is treated without oxygen (Zamri et al., 2021). The AD
reactions are carried out by a consortium of microorganisms that
transform complex organic matter into simple soluble compounds and
eventually produce biogas and many other valuable compounds
(Nguyen et al., 2021). AD can be classified by considering the feed and
maintenance of organic matter in wet AD (solids < 15%) and dry AD
(solid > 15%) (Jimenez-Castro et al., 2020). Both processes present
many advantages and disadvantages, which have been extensively dis­
cussed in the literature (Atelge et al., 2020; Kothari et al., 2014; Li et al.,
2019; Nguyen et al., 2021; Xu et al., 2018b; Zamri et al., 2021).
The AD occurs in four phases: i) hydrolysis; ii) acidogenesis; iii)
acetogenesis; and iv) methanogenesis (Kothari et al., 2014). Hydrolysis
is characterized by transforming complex compounds with high mo­
lecular weight (i.e. proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids) into simple
soluble molecules (i.e. sugars, amino acids, and short-chain fatty acids).
In the acidogenic phase, bacteria use the low molecular weight material
introduced in the metabolic cycle (Atelge et al., 2020). The acidogenic
bacteria are the most abundant and active microorganisms present in the
AD process (Xu et al., 2018b). Syntrophic acetogenesis converts glucose
into volatile fatty acids consisting mainly of acetate, and then homo­
acetogenesis converts carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2) to ace­
tate (Nie et al., 2007). In the methanogenesis phase, the microorganisms
transform the acetic acid, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide into methane,
which is the main product of the biogas (Cremonez et al., 2021; Neu­
mann et al., 2016). AD is a versatile process, resulting in many products,
such as methane, hydrogen, volatile fatty acids, and fertilizer. From an
文献检索方法
The bibliometric study used scientific output data from the core
collection of Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) – Clarivate Ana­
lytics’ ISI – Web of Science© (WoS) and was performed as presented in
Fig. 1. The type of search applied was “advanced search” applying the
following logic operation: TS= (“anaerobic digestion”) NOT KP=
(“anaerobic digestion”), to obtain reliable and accurate details based in
selected words included in the title, abstract, author’s keywords, and not
in the keywords-plus of each document on the topic. The types of doc­
uments were filtered to “article” and “review”. The systematic search
was conducted using two different timespans. First, the search was
conducted in the timespan from 1980 to 2020, aiming to observe the
publication’s evolution over the years and the most frequent research
areas (total of 12,554 publications). Then, for the bibliometric analysis,
the timespan was changed to publications from 2015 to 2020 (a total of
6,854 publications).
The data from the documents obtained in the last five years were
exported and analyzed on bibliometric software. The “Bibliometrix”
package (R language) was used to obtain a three-field plot and the top
authors’ production over the timing diagram. After that, the dataset was
investigated on VOSviewer© software to construct the authors, sources
and countries networks, and the authors’ keyword clusters. All the data
used in the bibliometric analysis were obtained on WoS. The most cited
documents and the most prominent issues discussed in each section were
evaluated to understand the importance and repercussion(s) of different
aspects of AD. In addition, several references were accessed and studied
in more detail. Moreover, the documents were considered within the
context of bibliometric results, aiming to understand the associated
importance and thus enable the formulation of constructive discussions
for the AD research field.
3. Research tendencies analysis by bibliometrics
The results of the bibliometric analysis on AD are presented in the
next sections, indicating the most prominent research areas, author
keywords, authors, journals, among others. Each part of the results was
discussed to provide insightful data on research progress, trends, and
updates on AD technology.

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L.C. Ampese et al.
Fig. 1. Flowsheet of the six steps making up the bibliometric analysis.
3.1. Publication evolution and research areas
Fig. 2 shows the publication evolution over the years. This first
analysis was conducted to observe the total number of documents
published in the field of AD since 1980. In total, 12,554 documents have
been obtained for the search since 1980. From 1980 to 2000, the total
number of publications per year was lower than 1,500. However, from
2000 to 2020, there was a significant increase in the total number of
publications, reaching 11,200 total documents. Also, the exponential
increase in the number of publications related to AD represents an in­
terest of the researchers on the subject and a worldwide trend in moving
towards the use of renewable fuels. Indeed, due to the awareness of
climate change and its cascading impacts, green technologies for bio­
fuels production were encouraged after the Kyoto Protocol, established
during the UNFCCC in 1997 (Zhang et al., 2021b). Hence, countries with
high GHG emissions stimulated and incentivized academic research in
bioenergy and low-carbon energy sources, aiming to decrease the cli­
matic consequences emanating from the continuous use of fossil sources
(Obileke et al., 2020). Obileke et al. (2020) also indicate that Europe is
responsible for the most of publications around bioenergy from biowaste
research (41.63% of publications) as a result of Europe being in the front
line on the fight against climate change and for reducing GHG emissions,
which could be achieved with biogas (Obileke et al., 2020). According to
the European Environment Agency, the average GHG emissions per
Fig. 2. Evolution of the number of publications over the years (1980–2020 and 2015–2020).
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Journal of Cleaner Production 331 (2022) 130004
European citizen decreased from 11 to 8 tonnes for the period from 1990
to 2019, which indicates a result of the switch from coal to gas for power
generation (European Environment Agency, 2020). It is not easy to
directly measure the effect of developing research on biowaste and
bioenergy in the GHG decrease reported, but research can still be used to
estimate the effects that decisions made in the present will have in a few
years, which is indicative of the present article’s importance. In the last
five (5) years, the number of publications progressively increased
(Fig. 2). In 2015, 883 documents were recorded in WoS (822 articles and
61 reviews); while in 2020, there has been a noticeable 1.8-fold increase
(1440 articles and 155 reviews) in comparison with 2015. Therefore, the
publications evolution demonstrated that, nowadays, there is a pro­
gressive trend in study AD technology, especially emanating from the
strong interest in bioenergy and biofuel generation from wastes
(Yaoyang and Boeing, 2013).
The research areas analysis is a powerful tool to determine the gaps
in the field. The bibliometric analysis indicates that currently, the arti­
cles are associated with several research areas, such as Environmental
Sciences Ecology (38.73%), Engineering (35.57%), Energy Fuels
(31.83%), Biotechnology Applied Microbiology (24.35%), and Agricul­
ture (17.56%) (Table 1). This fact indicated that research on AD en­
compasses several areas and hence shows its multidisciplinary and
interdisciplinary characters. After evaluating the research fields and
several publications grouped, it was found that the hot topics in the field
图中图！
L.C. Ampese et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 331 (2022) 130004

Table 1 result suggests the relevant concerns about the techniques to valorize
Ranking of the 10 top publication areas, affiliations, countries, and journals wastes and give way to the possibility for formulating technological
based on the number of publications over the last 5 years of bibliometric routes to produce bioenergy and value-added products from AD. Also,
analysis. the bibliometric coupling of the 100 most frequent keywords demon­
Ranking Research areas Number %a strates the formation of 6 clusters, also associated with the keywords’
1st Environmental Sciences Ecology 2,655 38.73 coupling.
2nd Engineering 2,438 35.57 Fig. 3(b) shows a thematic map grouping the author’s keywords
3rd Energy Fuels 2,182 31.83 according to the relevance and development degree of the research
4th Biotechnology Applied Microbiology 1,669 24.35 fields. The thematic map consists of an intuitive plot to understand
5th Agriculture 1,204 17.56
6th Science Technology Other Topics 912 13.30
research themes, and it is divided into four quadrants: i) motor themes,
7th Water Resources 569 8.30 ii) basic themes, iii) emerging or declining themes and iv) very
8th Chemistry 447 6.52 specialized/niche themes (Fig. 3(b)). In this bibliometric study, the
9th Microbiology 169 2.46 keywords “bioenergy”, “digestate” and “life cycle assessment” are
10th Thermodynamics 158 2.30
considered motor-themes, meaning they are well-developed and
Ranking Affiliations (Country) Number %a important themes. In contrast, “anaerobic digestion”, “biogas”,
1st Chinese Academy ff Sciences (China) 257 3.75 “methane”, “biomethane”, “microalgae”, and “wastewater treatment”
2nd Tsinghua University (China) 140 2.04
3rd Inrae (France) 133 1.94
are considered basic themes, important for the research field but are not
4th China Agricultural University (China) 128 1.86 developed. It means they present low density and high centrality, and
5th Tongji University (China) 126 1.83 need more research and analysis ahead. Once the research around these
6th Technical University of Denmark (Denmark) 125 1.82 keywords is further substantiated, they may turn into motor-themes.
7th University of Queensland (New Zealand) 109 1.59
Table 3 presents all items forming the clusters obtained on VOSviewer
8th University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) 95 1.38
9th Beijing University of Chemical Technology (China) 93 1.35 and Bibliometrix and the main keywords of each software.
10th Harbin Institute of Technology (China) 84 1.22 In recent years, studies demonstrated that AD is not widely applied
Ranking Countries Number %a
for energy recovery from organic wastes, which is associated with poor
1st China 1,841 26.86 methane yield due to operational issues and process instability (Kumar
2nd United States of America 751 10.95 and Samadder, 2020; Serrano et al., 2021). Therefore, critical reviews
3rd Italy 470 6.85 thoroughly examined the use of several pre-treatment technologies to
4th Spain 433 6.31
enhance AD and energy recovery (Atelge et al., 2020; Nguyen et al.,
5th Germany 385 5.61
6th England 308 4.49 2021). Additionally, the most frequent keywords did not mention ‘dry
7th India 295 4.30 AD’. However, this technology has been widely used in the last years to
8th Australia 287 4.18 treat organic wastes with high solids loading in the reactor’s start-up.
9th Brazil 274 3.99 Indeed, further research is needed to address some of the drawbacks
10th France 265 3.86
linked with the high total solids content of the process (Rocamora et al.,
Ranking Journals Number %a 2020). For instance, it is necessary to optimize the composition and size
1st Bioresource Technology 854 12.46
of feedstock, inoculum-to-substrate ratio, bed compaction, liquid recir­
2nd Waste Management 298 4.34
3rd Journal of Cleaner Production 239 3.48 culation, and pre-treatment, aiming to decrease the inhibitory effects
4th Water Research 202 2.94 and ward off process instability (Rocamora et al., 2020). From an
5th Science of the Total Environment 175 2.55 environmental perspective, a life cycle assessment of AD technology has
6th Renewable Energy 163 2.37 been positively adopted to determine the impacts and benefits associ­
7th Journal of Environmental Management 145 2.11
8th Energies 133 1.94
ated with this environmentally friendly technology to waste manage­
9th Waste and Biomass Valorization 129 1.88 ment (Mayer et al., 2021; Tua et al., 2021). Finally, the ‘energy recovery
10th Biomass and Bioenergy 120 1.75 from biogas’ can be a strategy core to the causes and upholding of
a
Percentage of 6,854 documents (automatically calculated in WoS).
sustainable development, and which was highlighted by the popularity
of keywords such as ‘sustainability’ and ‘circular economy’ widely used
in AD process to offer sustainable development and sheer opportunities
are associated with environmental studies for biogas production, which
for an Industry 4.0 (Ghobakhloo et al., 2021).
focus on the microbiological and engineering parameters involved.
研究领域的【关键词共现分析】可识别热点！ 3.3. Most cited publications
3.2. Study of main keywords
One of the most important indicators in a research field is the ‘most
The co-occurrence analysis of keywords in a research field can be a cited documents’, which show the most influential, studied, and devel­
tool to identify the research hot spots and frontiers (Ye et al., 2020). oped topics related to the research interest. Table 2 presents the top 10
Fig. 3(a) shows the clustering of the 100 most frequent keywords used by most cited publications in the AD research (2015–2020). Most of the
the authors over the last five years in publications related to the bib­ publications presented in this ranking are reviews (80%). One study
liometric search presented in this study. In this type of map, the colors experimentally analyzed the biomethane potential (6th position, 241
indicate different clusters, and the cluster construction is based on the citations), and only one article determined the effects of microplastics in
relationship among the items, resulting in groups of closely related el­ sewage sludge (8th position, 212 citations). Since AD technology is
ements. From the current search, over the previous five years of publi­ studied and applied worldwide for waste treatment and energy recov­
cations, 6,854 studies have been found, and 271 keywords were related ery, there are several insightful reviews grouping different aspects of
to AD technology. In general, the most frequent keywords used in the AD. These studies presented the guidelines for AD exploratory essays,
selected documents ranked according to the highest link strength were and therefore, experimental work based articles frequently cite infor­
anaerobic digestion (3356 occurrences), biogas (1192 occurrences), mation given by reviews, such as ranges of operational parameters and
methane (441 occurrences), food waste (401 occurrences), microbial pre-treatment techniques (Carrere et al., 2016; Mao et al., 2015;
community (264 occurrences), co-digestion (183 occurrences), sewage Romero-Guiza et al., 2016; Sawatdeenarunat et al., 2015; Shen et al.,
sludge (216 occurrences), methane production (228 occurrences), 2015; Xu et al., 2018a; Yang et al., 2015; Zhen et al., 2017).
pre-treatment (142 occurrences), and bioenergy (149 occurrences). This The first position in the ‘most cited articles’ ranking belongs to a

4
L.C. Ampese et al.
Fig. 3. Clustering of the 100 most frequent authors’ keywords over the last 5 years. (a) Term map based on different clusters; and (b) Thematic map.
study where the authors present a comprehensive review of AD, dis­
cussing factors affecting the biogas production, biogas accelerants, the
use of inorganic additives, and types of reactors the commonly used
feedstocks (Mao et al., 2015). The document in the 2nd position (467
citations) presented data of sludge production in China, the adminis­
trative agents, and its functions, laws for sludge management in the
country, and explores discussions on future options and challenges
(Yang et al., 2015).
The documents occupying the 3rd, 9th, and 10th positions can be
grouped in the same research topic, which is associated with discussions
on the general aspects of AD. The article ranked in 3rd position (296
citations) presents aspects of lignocellulosic biomass digestion and
highlights advances regarding AD biorefinery (Sawatdeenarunat et al.,
2015). The lignocellulosic composition of several biomasses is
5
Journal of Cleaner Production 331 (2022) 130004
发展良好的重要主题
重要但未得到发展
密度：低
中心性：高
presented, as well as discussions around methane potential and chal­
lenges in using this type of biomass (Sawatdeenarunat et al., 2015). The
document ranked in 9th position (211 citations) showed an overview of
wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the USA and considered the
sludge generated at WWTPs to energy self-sufficiency using biogas (Shen
et al., 2015). The review highlighted the benefits of biomethane, the
economic, technical, social, and regulatory barriers to biogas production
from WWTPs, and strategies to overcome these problems (Shen et al.,
2015). Lastly, in the 10th position (209 citations), a study about the AD
of food waste presented the challenges, solutions, and future perspec­
tives of food waste AD (Xu et al., 2018a). In a nutshell, these documents
presented some general aspects of AD, which provided enough infor­
mation to advocate the implementation of AD at the industrial scale.
They presented the most critical operational parameters, types of
L.C. Ampese et al.
Table 2
Top 10 most cited articles in the anaerobic digestion research over the last 5 years.
Ranking Title
1st Review on research achievements of biogas from
anaerobic digestion
2nd Current state of sludge production, management,
treatment and disposal in China
3rd Anaerobic digestion of lignocellulosic biomass:
Challenges and opportunities
4th Overview of pre-treatment strategies for enhancing
sewage sludge disintegration and subsequent anaerobic
digestion: Current advances, full-scale application and
future perspectives
5th Review of feedstock pre-treatment strategies for improved
anaerobic digestion: From lab-scale research to full-scale
application
6th Towards a standardization of biomethane potential tests
7th The role of additives on anaerobic digestion: A review
8th Microplastics in Sewage Sludge: Effects of Treatment
9th An overview of biogas production and utilization at full-
scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the United
States: Challenges and opportunities towards energy-
neutral WWTPs
10th Anaerobic digestion of food waste - Challenges and
opportunities
reactors, process conditions, and the main types of feedstocks used for
biogas production.
The documents occupying the 4th, 5th, and 7th positions can be
grouped in documents exploring techniques to improve biogas produc­
tion from AD. Starting with the 4th position, a study of pre-treatment
strategies to promote the disintegration of sewage sludge and favor
AD was carried out (Zhen et al., 2017). Moreover, Zhen et al. (2017)
presented the characteristics of different types of sludge and the various
combinations of pre-treatment (mechanical, thermal, chemical, and
biological) (Zhen et al., 2017). The 7th most cited paper (213 citations)
belonged to study inorganic and biological additives to improve AD
performance (Romero-Guiza et al., 2016). Among the micro and mac­
ronutrients supplementation, special attention was given to iron addi­
tion, a decisive co-factor for enzymatic reactions (Liu et al., 2012;
Romero-Guiza et al., 2016), and ashes from waste incineration addition
(Romero-Guiza et al., 2016), which might increase metals concentration
and benefit the AD process (Lo et al., 2010). The use of additives to
mitigate ammonia inhibition and to promote biomass immobilization
are also described, as well as the use of nanomaterials, bioaugmentation,
and enzymes supplementation (Romero-Guiza et al., 2016). Thereafter,
the 5th most cited document (245 citations) presented several
pre-treatment methods combined to different feedstocks, focusing on
highlight the most promising approaches for biogas production for
full-scale application (Carrere et al., 2016).
The 6th most cited document in AD technology standardized the
biomethane potential (BMP) tests to avoid the high variability of BMPs
for the same substrate (Holliger et al., 2016). Thereby, an international
workshop was held in Switzerland in 2015, where attendees worldwide
worked together to agree on common solutions for BMP test (Holliger
et al., 2016). Finally, the 8th position belonged to a document that had
evaluated the microplastics in sewage sludge and the effects of AD, lime
stabilization treatment processes, and thermal drying on microplastics
Journal of Cleaner Production 331 (2022) 130004
Issue Journal Citations Year
Presents a review of factors affecting anaerobic digestion Renewable & 636 2015
efficiency, accelerants, types of reactors and biogas AD Sustainable Energy
processes using different substrates. Reviews
Reviews the current situation of sludge production, Water Research 467 2015
management, treatment and disposal in China.
Presents a review of lignocellulosic biomass digestion and Bioresource 296 2015
discusses its challenges and the future research needs of Technology
lignocellulosic biomass digestion.
Review of pre-treatment technologies used for improving Renewable & 284 2017
biogas production, including mechanical, thermal, Sustainable Energy
chemical and biological processes. Reviews
Review of the most appropriate pre-treatments Bioresource 245 2016
(mechanical, thermal, chemical and biological) for the Technology
main feedstocks of biogas plants, including sewage sludge,
animal by-products, lignocellulosic and algal biomass,
considering lab-scale and full-scale applications.
Presents methodologies used in biomethane potential tests Water Science and 241 2016
(BMP) and defines recommendations for the validation of Technology
BMP according to compulsory elements.
Review about the utilization of inorganic and biological Renewable & 213 2016
additives to improve anaerobic digestion process feasibility Sustainable Energy
and to include new substrates. Reviews
Presents the characterization of microplastics (MPs) in Environmental 212 2017
sludge samples from different wastewater treatment plants science & technology
and the effects of such treatments on the MPs particles.
Review presenting the barriers, gaps, and challenges in Renewable & 211 2015
deploying biogas production technology, with economic, Sustainable Energy
technical, social and regulatory issues. Reviews
Summarizes the types of foodwaste in terms of quantity, Bioresource 209 2018
composition, and methane potential. Discuss different Technology
strategies to enhance AD of food waste, including
codigestion, addition of micronutrients, control of foaming,
and process design.
composition from seven WWTPs in Ireland (Mahon et al., 2017).
In addition, the industrial activities generated a substantial amount
of wastes and organic residues (Morales-Polo et al., 2019). The waste­
water treatment process generates sewage sludge, which is a by-product
that can cause environmental impact if not properly managed (Zhen
et al., 2017), and which has been a topic of interest as evidenced by data
in the 2nd position (Table 2) (Yang et al., 2015).
Based on the analysis of ‘most cited documents’, AD is commonly
used to treat organic wastes. Moreover, different pre-treatment tech­
niques can be used to disrupt the recalcitrant structures of certain
feedstocks/substrates, facilitating the consumption of the nutrients by
microorganisms and allowing higher methane yields (Zhen et al., 2017).
Together with feasible pre-treatment techniques (chosen according to
the feedstock of interest) (Carrere et al., 2016), the control of opera­
tional parameters (Mao et al., 2015), and the use of additives (Romer­
o-Guiza et al., 2016), biogas production can be strongly improved.
Thereby, AD studies support decision-making to mitigate environmental
impacts associated with waste generation while allowing the imple­
mentation of technological routes for renewable energy recovery
alongside (Meegoda et al., 2018).
3.4. Authors’ network and most productive authors
Fig. 4(a) illustrates the authors’ network, using the number of cita­
tions per author to define the size of the circles, which indicates its
importance. The lines among the researchers represent links, indicating
the number of co-authorship links between a given researcher with the
others, and the distance between two items is determined by the
strength of their relation. In this visualization of 50 authors, it is possible
to notice the formation of six clusters: i) red, 15 authors; ii) green, 10
authors; iii) blue, 9 authors; iv) yellow, 9 authors; v) purple, 5 authors;
and vi) light blue, 2 authors. The most cited authors in each cluster are Li
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L.C. Ampese et al.
Table 3
Clusters obtained on VOSviewer and Bibliometrix and the main keywords of
each software.
Cluster (items) Keywords on VOSviewer Network
Red (35) Algae, anaerobic digestion, biochar, biodiesel,
bioenergy, biofuel, biofuels, biogas, biohydrogen,
biomass, biomethane, biorefinery, biowaste, circular
economy, composting, dark fermentation, digestate,
energy, energy recovery, fermentation, gasification,
hydrogen, hydrothermal carbonization, lca, life cycle
assessment, microalgae, municipal solid waste, organic
waste, pyrolysis, renewable energy, waste management,
waste to energy, wastewater, wastewater treatment
Green (24) Ammonia inhibition, anaerobic co-digestion, anaerobic
digestion, antibiotic resistance genes, bioaugmentation,
biogas production, cattle manure, chicken manure, corn
stover, cow manure, dairy manure, dry anaerobic
digestion, food waste, hydraulic retention time,
metagenomics, methane production, methanogens,
microbial community, organic loading rate, swine
manure, temperature, thermophilic anaerobic digestion,
volatile fatty acids, wheat straw
Blue (15) Adm1, ammonia, biodegradation, co-digestion,
hydrolysis, inhibition, kinetics, manure, mesophilic,
modeling, ofmsw, pre-treatment, thermophilic, trace
elements
Yellow (11) Biodegradability, direct interspecies electron
transference, energy balance, inoculum, kinetic model,
kitchen waste, methane, methanogenesis, microbial
community, termal pre-treatment, waste activated
sludge
Light Blue (8) Lignocellulose, lignocellulosic biomass, methane yield,
optimization, pretreatment, response surface method,
rice straw, solid-state anaerobic digestion
Violet (7) Biochemical methane potential, biosolids, heavy metals,
organic fraction of municipal solid waste, sewage
sludge, sludge, termal hydrolysis
Main Keyword Keywords on Bibliometrix Thematic Map
Adm1 Biodegradation, modelling, modeling
Thermophilic anaerobic Thermophilic anaerobic digestion
digestion
Methanogenesis Inhibition, anaerobic digestion (ad), ammonia,
thermophilic, mesophilic, methanogens, direct
interspecies electron transfer, bioaugmentation,
microbial community structure
Biomethane Microalgae, wastewater treatment, sludge, wastewater,
biofuel, biogas upgrading, algae, biohydrogen, two-
stage anaerobic digestion
Anaerobic digestion Biogas, methane, food waste, microbial Community,
methane production, sewage sludge, biogas production,
co-digestion, anaerobic co-digestion
Bioenergy Digestate, life cycle assessment, renewable energy,
biomass, waste management, biochar, manure, organic
waste, municipal solid waste
Y (3423 citations), Liu G (1012 citation), Liu Y (2687 citations), Zhang Y
(2235 citations), Zhang J (2235 citations), and Zhang L (2235 citations).
In the following paragraphs, the most relevant document of the 3 more
numerous clusters is discussed, considering the relevance indication on
WoS. Also, based on the author’s keywords, the prevailing issue of each
cluster is presented.
The red cluster (Fig. 4(a)) presents studies on co-digestion, ammonia
inhibition, swine manure, waste-activated sludge, volatile fatty acids,
biochar, food waste, kitchen waste, and pre-treatment. The most rele­
vant document in this cluster is a study on temperature-phased AD
(TPAD) of food waste compared with single-stage mesophilic and ther­
mophilic AD (Xiao et al., 2018). The TPAD is an AD system where a short
thermophilic pre-treatment stage is performed, followed by a second
mesophilic stage with a longer retention time (Xiao et al., 2018). This
technology is suitable for several feedstocks. Still, studies comparing the
TPAD with single-stage mesophilic and thermophilic AD are not
numerous, and the number is even lower regarding energy balance
comparisons between the techniques (Xiao et al., 2018). Therefore, this
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Journal of Cleaner Production 331 (2022) 130004
document carried out the three different AD procedures and provided
interesting results. The biogas and methane productions were lower for
the TPAD than for the other reactors, as well as the degradation of
volatile solids and total chemical oxygen demand. Also, the energy
production and energy balance were lower for TPAD when compared to
the other tested reactors (Xiao et al., 2018). This may have been caused
by improper sludge retention time in the TPAD system. Moreover, the
operation parameters of this reactor must be adjusted to improve its
performance (Xiao et al., 2018). The study brings a relatively new
strategy for enhancing the AD of food waste, and by tuning the opera­
tional conditions, the method can be applied to other substrates.
The green cluster (Fig. 4(a)) presents studies on food waste AD, waste
activated sludge, pre-treatment, and activated carbon. The most rele­
vant study in this cluster explores the co-digestion of tobacco waste with
various agricultural biomass feedstocks and the inactivation of tobacco
viruses in AD (Liu et al., 2015). In this document, the authors obtained
the maximum methane yield of tobacco stalks during mesophilic AD was
0.163 m3 CH4 kg− 1 VS, in co-digestion with wheat stalks and pig manure
(Liu et al., 2015). Furthermore, the tests of indicator paper stripe,
half-leaf lesion, and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction
(RT-PCR) were used to check if the viruses were inactivated. Regarding
these experiments, the results indicated the Cucumber mosaic virus
could be inactivated by mesophilic and thermophilic AD.
In contrast, Tobacco mosaic virus was only inactivated by at least 20
days of thermophilic AD (Liu et al., 2015). The appeal of this study is
that tobacco waste is an environmental problem in China (Meng et al.,
2015), the largest producer and consumer of tobacco in the world
(Eriksen et al., 2015). This study is essential to allow an alternative route
for tobacco waste. The advantage of recovering energy and the inacti­
vation of viruses allows applying the digested residue and slurry to
Solanaceae cropland.
The blue cluster (Fig. 4(a)) covers studies on granular activated
carbon, blackwater, food waste, anaerobic co-digestion, microbial
community, and waste-activated sludge. Among the studies in this
cluster, the review of the potential effects of exogenous pollutants in
waste-activated sludge on AD is identified as the most relevant (Luo
et al., 2020). Waste-activated sludge is produced in increasingly large
amounts, reaching 40 million tons per year in China in 2014 (Tou et al.,
2017). Its disposal has become an environmental problem (Xu et al.,
2020). One of the main disposal routes for this waste is landfilling and
incineration (Yang et al., 2015). Therefore, AD is a promising technique
for waste activated sludge (Luo et al., 2020). Indeed, AD of activated
sludge presents low conversion efficiency (Xu et al., 2020). After that,
they are investigating the effects of exogenous pollutants in AD is
essential to allow the technique’s improvement (Luo et al., 2020).
Generally, the review has shown that the pollutants present a
dose-dependent influence on waste activated sludge digestion, and the
discussed exogenous pollutants are heavy metals, inorganic nano­
particles, xenobiotics, microplastics, humic acids, free ammonia, typical
flocculants and coagulants, and the combined effects of mixed pollutants
(Luo et al., 2020).
Fig. 4(b) presents the top 15 authors’ production over the years
(2015–2020), showing the number of articles (circle’s size) and total
citations per year (circle’s colour). Li Y (Tongji University) comes out
being the most productive author from 2015 to 2018, and the documents
from these years have collected a greater number of citations per year in
2015, 2017, and 2018. In 2019 the most productive author turned out to
be Zhang Y (Jiangnan University, 44 documents), and in 2020 Zhang Y
and Li Y were both the most productive authors, presenting the greatest
number of publications (53 documents). Liu Y’s publications (Harvard
Medical School) from 2019 have collected a greater number of citations
per year compared to the other authors. Still, the record of citations
belongs to Li Y in 2018 (248.25 citations/year). It is noteworthy that Li
YY (Tohoku University) presents the highest number of articles (reach­
ing 75 in November 2021), has published 16 documents in 2018, and
collected 153 citations in that year, which collectively evidence the
L.C. Ampese et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 331 (2022) 130004

Fig. 4. Bibliometric analysis of authors: (a) 50 most expressive author’s network; and (b) top 15 authors’ production over the last five years.

studies’ relevance. environmental assessments, cleaner production, energy conversion,

sustainability, and biomass. In contrast, the green cluster explores issues
like enzymes, applied genetics and molecular biotechnology, treatment
3.5. Bibliometric study of journals, institutions, and countries
processes for water and wastewater, biochemicals, environmental
chemical engineering, emerging contaminants, nanomaterials, and
Fig. 5a presents the top 30 most frequent sources where the docu­
microplastics. The other clusters presented issues regarding environ­
ments regarding AD have been published. The network construction is
mental economics, circular economy, emerging chemical pollutants,
based on bibliographic coupling, and the relatedness of items is deter­
residuals management, bioreactor systems, hydrogen for energy, and
mined by the number of references they share. Based on the number of
others.
documents about AD published in each source, the top 3 in the ranking
Fig. 5(b) presents the journal Bioresource Technology as the most
are Bioresource Technology, Waste Management, and the Journal of Cleaner
prominent, and the strongest relation occurs with the keywords AD,
Production. Nevertheless, if considering the number of citations, the
biogas, microbial community, and food waste. The topic of food waste
journal Water Research places the second position. In Fig. 5(a), it is
deserves special attention since it also appears in the red cluster (Fig. 5
possible to verify the formation of 6 clusters of journals, and the red
(a)) as “biomass” which is a more embracing keyword, including crops,
contains the largest number of items (14 journals), including the most
organic wastes, and food waste (Chandra et al., 2012; Nunes et al.,
important journals. In addition, it is possible to identify the formation of
2020). The great importance of this issue is that biomass is an abundant
smaller clusters, like the blue (5 journals), the yellow (2 journals), and
alternative source of energy, especially lignocellulosic biomass (Sawat­
two clusters with only one source each (light blue and purple). Based on
deenarunat et al., 2015). For example, in the case of apple pomace,
this analysis, it is possible to identify the most important issues in each
frequently only 20% are destined to animal feed and the other 80% are
cluster based on the journals’ scope.
destined to landfills (Dhillon et al., 2013). Finally, through the visuali­
Regarding the red cluster in Fig. 5(a), the most frequent topics are
zation presented in Fig. 5(b) it is possible to understand the
biofuels, renewable energy, bioconversion of agro-industrial residues,
苹果渣，20%动物饲料，80%垃圾填埋场
8
L.C. Ampese et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 331 (2022) 130004

Fig. 5. (a) The 30 most expressive journals of publications related to anaerobic digestion. (b) The three-fields plot correlating the top 15 authors, authors’ keywords,
and sources.
这种图怎么画？？？
multidisciplinary AD studies, suggesting that the development of several countries allows a deeper understanding of the research field and clar­
research fields is essential for this technology. ifies why that specific type of research is being developed. The ranking
The 25 most expressive countries in the AD research and the corre­ of most productive countries in terms of an absolute number of publi­
sponding network are presented in Fig. 6. Studying the most productive cations brings People’s Republic of China in the first position (1,841

9
L.C. Ampese et al.
Fig. 6. The 25 most expressive countries in the anaerobic digestion research over the last 5 years. (a) Map representation of the number of publications per country
on the research on AD. (b) Collaboration network strength between the countries according to co-authorship.
publications), followed by the United States of America (751 publica­
tions), Italy (470 publications), and Spain (433 publications) (Table 1).
The analysis of the most relevant publications (Section 2.4) showed
some reasons for the development of AD research in China, for example,
to obtain better routes for tobacco waste (Liu et al., 2015), and the use of
AD and complementary techniques to convert food waste and other
residues into energy (Xiao et al., 2018), which can be identified as a
global trend to avoid GHG emissions (Ghobakhloo et al., 2021).
Fig. 6(b) shows the formation of 3 clusters: i) red cluster (12 items
and 2472 documents) is formed by Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile,
Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain,
and Sweden; ii) green cluster (9 items and 3424 documents) grouped
Australia, Egypt, India, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, People’s R China,
South Korea, and the USA; and finally, iii) blue cluster (4 items and 538
documents) is formed by England, Ireland, Scotland, and Singapore.
This diagram was constructed considering the number of co-authored
documents to determine the relatedness of countries. Therefore, the
clustering indicated the most frequent partnerships established among
countries when studying AD. The red cluster presents studies on bio­
energy, digestate, wastewater treatment, food waste, sewage sludge, life
10
Journal of Cleaner Production 331 (2022) 130004
cycle assessment, two-stage AD, and bioethanol. The most relevant
document associated with this set of countries is an AD model (AM2 –
anaerobic digestion model) for the description of biogas processes at
dynamic feedstock loading rates (Arzate et al., 2017). The authors
evaluated the AM2 model for the application at dynamic process oper­
ation, onset because of a fluctuating feedstock load, applying this model
to two AD using maize silage as feedstock to obtain lab-scale digestions.
The set-up had online biogas production, methane, and CO2 content in
the gas, pH, and temperature. The tested model was also compared to
ADM1 (anaerobic digestion model) simulation as a reference model. The
AM2 appears to be promising for AD’s description for biogas production
(Arzate et al., 2017). The study of these models allows the easier oper­
ation of AD reactors. Furthermore, it helps to indicate the dynamic
provision of biogas and energy that the system can produce, making the
process more predictable.
The green cluster presents studies on AD inhibition, nutrient recov­
ery, pre-treatments, sludge, renewable energy, municipal solid waste,
swine manure, kinetic model, food waste, and biochemical methane
potential. The most relevant publication from this group regards
modeling the performance of AD reactor by the anaerobic digestion
L.C. Ampese et al.
system model (ADSM) (Hu et al., 2018). In this study, the authors aimed
to develop an ADSM to estimate general parameters and to simulate the
performance of a lab-scale process for AD experiments (Hu et al., 2018).
The results of AD simulation using ADSM fitted the experimental data
better than the results of the ADM1, indicating the modeling developed
in this work offers a reliable reference point for future simulations (Hu
et al., 2018).
Finally, the blue cluster develops biogas upgrading, waste to energy,
bioenergy, co-digestion, wastewater, life cycle assessment, circular
economy, biochar, resource recovery, and food waste. The most relevant
document in this set of countries is a review of AD modeling and opti­
mization using nature-inspired techniques (Ramachandran et al., 2019).
These techniques transfer knowledge from natural systems to engi­
neered ones, with the advantages of including scope for parallel
computing, self-organization, and dynamic behavior (Ramachandran
et al., 2019). The publication presents relevant techniques selected and
appropriate to the modeling of AD. According to the application inten­
ded to be given to the model under development, a specific technique
must be implemented to the detriment of the others (Ramachandran
et al., 2019).
Considering the issues regarding AD process explored in the top 30
countries, it is possible to understand some trends in the research field: i)
the studied countries are concerned about cleaner routes for wastes and
waste valorization; ii) the study of AD for treating food waste receives
great attention; and iii) among the most relevant publications indicated
by WoS, the three clusters presented studies on AD modeling. Docu­
ments on AD modeling are considered relevant on WoS. Still, they are
not numerous, and consequently, the documents receive attention
independently and not as a whole theme of study. In addition, these
three significant trends appear to be of great interest and relevance for
new studies, including the improvement on already existing and
consolidated processes and the adequacy of AD with new substrates,
using different techniques and/or pre-treatments and predictive models.
产业前景、研究进展及方向
4. Industrial perspectives, research progress and directions
AD dynamics are strongly affected by the microbial community
applied to the digestion since it is a biochemical route conducted by a
great variety of microbial groups at different stages (Gannoun et al.,
2016; Wang et al., 2018). Some AD applications include the production
of biofuels (like hydrogen and methane), bulk chemicals, bioplastics,
and allows chemicals’ removal from wastewater (Wainaina et al., 2019).
Depending on the characteristics of the inoculum, it is possible to en­
gineer the metabolic route of AD to produce bio-based hydrogen (Wai­
naina et al., 2019), as has been separately studied with Bacillus coagulans
(Kotay and Das, 2007). In contrast, methane production can be
accomplished by methanogens such as Methanobacteriaceae, Meth­
anosaetaceae, and Methanosarcinaceae (Liu et al., 2015). Besides, the AD
process depends on several variables, such as operational parameters
such as organic loading rate (OLR) and hydraulic retention time (HRT),
growth factors (temperature, pH, and nutrients), the processing system
and its configuration, and the applied feedstock(s) (Gannoun et al.,
2016; Liu et al., 2019; Van et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2018).
To obtain satisfactory biogas yields, it is of absolute importance to
provide suitable growth factors and adequate operational parameters for
the AD process. Temperature, pH, HRT, and OLR are common process
parameters (Khan et al., 2016). The AD converts organic waste (carbo­
hydrates, proteins, and lipids) into amino acids, sugars, and long-chain
fatty acids. Later, these molecules are converted into acetate, hydrogen,
and carbon dioxide and, finally, into biogas (Meegoda et al., 2018).
Since the process is mediated by enzymes and microorganisms (Khan
et al., 2016), it depends on pH and temperature conditions, and to avoid
methanogenesis inhibition, the pH values should be ranging from 6.5 to
8.5 (Panigrahi and Dubey, 2019). In contrast, the temperature must be
compatible with the inoculum applied (35 ◦ C for mesophilic or 55 ◦ C for
thermophilic) (Jain et al., 2015). The HRT corresponds to the period the
11
Journal of Cleaner Production 331 (2022) 130004
material is kept inside the reactor for biogas generation. At the same
time, OLR is the amount of feedstock added to the reactor per day per
unit volume, and both will depend on the feedstock type, besides other
influencing parameters (Jain et al., 2015). AD and its parameters are
widely studied with different feedstocks, like vegetable and fruit wastes
(Morales-Polo et al., 2019), pulp and paper mill (Veluchamy and
Kalamdhad, 2017), and corn silage (Veluchamy et al., 2019). Conse­
quently, literature reviews on AD are numerous, as shown in the present
study (Section 2.3).
The largest-ever decrease in global emissions happened in 2020 due
to the pandemics. Yet, the CO2 released to the atmosphere because of
energy use was 31.5 Gton (EIA, 2020), when renewable energy strate­
gies have been receiving increasing attention (Gielen et al., 2019).
Biomass can be obtained from crops or organic wastes, for instance, and
used to produce renewable energy (Chandra et al., 2012; Nunes et al.,
2020). The lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant for energy re­
covery (Phuttaro et al., 2019). However, lignin resists complete degra­
dation (Chandra et al., 2012), making the use of pre-treatments relevant
(Sawatdeenarunat et al., 2015). Several types of pre-treatments have
been studied, and they are usually divided into biological, chemical,
mechanical, and thermal (Carrere et al., 2016). Literature reviews on
pre-treatment strategies for different feedstock were frequently found
during this bibliometric analysis. Finally, the use of lignocellulosic
biomass, after an appropriate pre-treatment, is ideal for biogas and
bioenergy production (Sawatdeenarunat et al., 2015), and helps to
decrease GHG emissions (Liew et al., 2014).
Currently, the industries are looking for routes of organic waste
management that are environmentally favorable. The organic waste can
be converted into chemicals, materials, and fuels through the bio­
refinery concept (Schieb et al., 2015) while reducing waste disposal
costs. Therefore, considering biorefinery steps for biomass, including
pre-treatment, bioprocesses, bioproducts purification, and energy con­
version (Rodríguez-Valderrama et al., 2020), new technological strate­
gies can be developed in different industries. To summarize, the AD
approach consists of a route suitable for bioenergy production that
provides an appropriate and valorized disposal of organic wastes. Using
this technology, even the digestate from the reactor presents itself as an
eco-friendly substrate since it can be used as fertilizer or at least as a soil
conditioner (Wainaina et al., 2019).
With regards to specific pre-treatments which have been demon­
strated to enhance the dynamics of AD processes, there is also the need
to elucidate several related interactions before integrating adequately
mature pre-treatment stages in full-scale AD systems. First, if a single
pre-treatment is being prospected for inclusion in an AD process, the
selection of the most suitable single pre-treatment strategy for a specific
feedstock must be made after assessing the greenness, and absolute
technical and economic compatibilities of the strategy. The greenness of
the pre-treatment will have to assess the green reaction chemistry
metrics (e.g., reaction mass efficiency, yield, selectivity, catalytic ac­
tivity if a catalyst or an additive is being used, E-factor, hazardous and
risk levels associated with chemicals used) as well as the process-related
metrics (e.g., type, adaptability, and versatility of microbiome(s) used,
scalability, size and number of unit operations, controllability, robust­
ness and stability, cleaning-in-place and maintenance, energy efficiency,
and costs). These having been said, it may be likely that at the large
scale/industrial scale, the throughput and characteristics of feedstocks
or other substrates will vary.
In the event, a high methane yield is targeted after maximizing the
solubilization and conversion kinetics of species resulting from the prior
AD stages, the need to have combined pre-treatment strategies can
become relevant. In this case, not only will it become a major challenge
to work out the optimal sequence of pre-treatments and the respective
best-for-operation operational conditions, but elucidating the intricacies
of the corresponding synergistic interactions will demand significant
research attention and investigation. So far, research on using combined
pre-treatment strategies for improving the dynamics of AD processes is
L.C. Ampese et al.
specific to the substrates analyzed and appears more popular at the
laboratory scale. Hence, the need to intensify research and development
in this perspective at the pilot-scale and industrial-scale is tangible.
AD processes are inherently complex (Phayungphan et al., 2020).
The complexity is, inter alia, because AD processes occur in multiple
stages, which are mediated by different microbial consortia under
continuous parametric variations. Each consortium is particularly sen­
sitive to several critical process parameters, among other things, pH,
temperature, and presence of inhibitory moieties, or possibly competing
for compounds. Under the influence of such process-imposed complex­
ities and fluctuations, it becomes equally challenging to ensure a precise
parameter control for all key AD-related bioprocesses and
reactor-connected parameters. The necessity to have exact control on
large-scale AD processes becomes more significant when combined
pre-treatments are integrated.
The AD processes in various laboratory-scale systems are well un­
derstood. Yet, the AD dynamics in some pilot-scale and few large-scale
systems remains moderately well understood. However, a new trend
has started with the spiking of different types of additives in AD pro­
cesses. The primary aim of amending the AD processes with these ad­
ditives (such as biochar, metal oxides, and nanomaterials) remains to
enhance the process dynamics and process performance with regards to
reaping improved biogas production rates and quantities. Nevertheless,
what the new set of microbial interactions and parameter variations will
be when large-scale AD systems are treated with specific dosages of
specific additives remain mostly unclear. There are reports in the liter­
ature that demonstrate the beneficial impacts of additives on the AD
dynamics (Giwa et al., 2019; Lizama et al., 2019; Sharma and Suthar,
2021; Shen et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2020; Zaidi et al., 2019).
Conversely, others reveal negative effects of amending AD processes
with additives (Chen et al., 2018; Feng et al., 2021; Ünşar and Perendeci,
2018; Zhu et al., 2020). On the premises of opposing effects of treated
AD systems with additives, it becomes even more important to study the
actual impacts of every category and type of additive on a specific AD
system being scaled up.
Now, besides the primary objective of enhancing the AD dynamics
and performance with these additives, if a secondary concern arises for
environmental sustainability with respect to warding off secondary
pollution, the fate lines of the additives, and especially those which are
nanostructured, must be tracked downstream from the respective points
of usage. For example, the residual concentrations and impacts of
nanomaterial additives in digestates will be thoroughly surveyed. In a
nutshell, the latter concerns constitute several avenues for more
research and development aiming to improve and optimize the overall
greenness of innovative AD systems.
Extending the discussions on ‘innovative AD systems’ a little further,
another trend has recently started in this field of research with the
design and examination of different types of membrane-type bioreactors
(Chen et al., 2021b; Cheng et al., 2018; Choerudin et al., 2021;
Deschamps et al., 2021; Diez et al., 2021; Ji et al., 2021; Kong et al.,
2021; Lei et al., 2021a; Sohn et al., 2021; Vinardell et al., 2021a; Zhang
et al., 2021a). Interestingly, Vinardell et al. (2020) have recently
completed a comprehensive review on the progress made up to 2020 in
the anaerobic membrane bioreactor technology for municipal sewage
treatment (Vinardell et al., 2020). Therein, the extent of maturity of
anaerobic membrane bioreactors for full-scale application has been
advocated, albeit recognizing that there are five core challenges that
have to be fully addressed before absolute technical and economic
feasibility of the anaerobic membrane bioreactors systems materializes
(Vinardell et al., 2020). Those challenges were grouped under the
following categories: (i) fouling of membrane and the mechanisms
thereof, (ii) novel process configurations of anaerobic membrane bio­
reactors systems for membrane fouling control, (iii) process temperature
of the anaerobic membrane bioreactors systems, (iv) sulphate concen­
tration in sewage, and (v) low organics concentration in sewage
(Vinardell et al., 2020). Regarding anaerobic membrane bioreactor
12
Journal of Cleaner Production 331 (2022) 130004
development for livestock wastewater treatment, the effects of inhibi­
tory substances on digester performance, poor antibiotics’ and heavy
metals’ removal efficiencies, and membrane fouling were highlighted as
the main challenges in a recent review (Zhang et al., 2021a). The main
approaches to address these limitations were grouped under the
‘wastewater regulation’, ‘process optimization’, ‘microbial acclimatiza­
tion’, and ‘amender addition’ (Zhang et al., 2021a).
Interesting research development which aims to mitigate some of the
abovementioned challenges can be picked up from studies published in
2021. For example, the addition of powdered activated carbon was
found to augment COD, nutrient, and total organic carbon removal ef­
ficiencies and effectively diminish pore blocking and irreversible fouling
by curbing the growth of fouling-associated microorganisms (Sohn et al.,
2021). In another insightful study, despite biochar addition leading to
higher concentrations of dissolved organic matter in the anaerobic
membrane bioreactor examined, it enhanced the filtration property of
the bulk sludge and absorbed the hydrophobic dissolved organic matter
(Lei et al., 2021a). Also, the biochar-induced decrease in filtration
resistance significantly augmented the membrane operation duration
(Lei et al., 2021a). Vinardell et al. (2021b) examined the economic
feasibility of a mainstream anaerobic membrane bioreactor-wastewater
treatment plant (Vinardell et al., 2021b). Amongst others, the findings
indicated that decreasing the treatment cost of anaerobic membrane
bioreactor and partial nitritation-Anammox can have an important
bearing in making anaerobic membrane bioreactor-wastewater treat­
ment plant competitive for municipal sewage treatment (Vinardell et al.,
2021b). There are many more studies in the 2021 literature that report
different laboratory, pilot-scale, and modelling approaches (Bacaksiz
et al., 2021; Chen et al., 2021a; Kwon et al., 2021; Lei et al., 2021b;
Nilusha and Wei, 2021; Shin et al., 2021; Tan et al., 2021) that have
been devised to understand the challenges related to the design, oper­
ation and performance of anaerobic membrane bioreactors, and there­
after propose potential mitigation and control approaches to optimize
system performance. Despite the notable rise in research output
observed in the literature, reaching optimized and stable large-scale
anaerobic membrane bioreactors which can treat much larger
throughputs of organic substrates together with energy recovery will
take more time to materialize.
5. Conclusion
This bibliometric study explored the research trends and gaps on
anaerobic digestion technology over the last five years of publications. It
provided an update in this field of science and technology. AD has been
used as one of the most effective processes to treat organic wastes. The
number of publications from 2015 to 2020 corresponds to almost 46% of
all studies published regarding AD since 1980. The bibliometric research
revealed a lack of information regarding organic waste in industries for
bioenergy recovery as a strategy for sustainable development. The main
opportunity stands in the study of feedstock pre-treatment and the
evaluation of biofuels potential production from different industries to
integrate AD as a profitable management system for bioenergy recovery.
Such advancement will be within the framework of the circular econ­
omy. Yet, to actualize this progress, it is crucial to further study the
techno-economic dimensions of different AD-based systems at the pilot
and industrial scale. It is expected that future works will be capable in
formulating an optimal pre-treatment and also help in compiling a set of
optimal operational conditions for specific types of substrates used in
AD. Also, the number of researches regarding the circular economy and
the application of AD in industries to close the product cycle and avoid
waste disposal is expected to grow, given the growing market demands
for sustainable products.
Another trend that has been identified is the concern in developing
AD systems in countries that present high GHG emissions. During this
study, several reviews grouping different aspects of AD were found.
These aspects are diverse because of the global interest, investigation,
L.C. Ampese et al.
and application of AD for waste treatment and energy recovery. In a
nutshell, the studies on AD are multidisciplinary, suggesting that the
development of several research fields is essential for this technology to
mature further. Finally, by combining the knowledge on feedstock
characterization and pre-treatment with detailed process modeling and
optimization, it is possible to intensify the application of AD as a prof­
itable, green, and yet more innovative waste management system for
bioenergy recovery.
Author contributions statement
Larissa Castro Ampese; William Gustavo Sganzerla and Henri­
que Di Domenico Ziero: Conceptualization; Data curation; Writing –
Original draft; review & editing; revision.
Ackmez Mudhoo; Gilberto Martins and Tânia Forster-Carneiro:
Writing – Original draft; review & editing; revision.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Brazilian Science and Research
Foundation (CNPq) (productivity grant 302473/2019-0); Coordination
for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES, Brazil)
(Finance code 001); and São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP,
Brazil) (grant numbers 2018/05999-0, 2018/14938-4, and 2019/
26925-7). The contents of this article were crosschecked for similarity in
the Turnitin platform.
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