Global research trends in wood pellets, a renewable energy: a bibliometric analysis

Due to global warming and climate change, more importance has started to be given to renewable energy sources instead of fossil fuels in recent years. Wood pellets are also one of the renewable energy sources and a growing number of studies have been conducted regarding wood pellets. Therefore, developments and trends in the field of wood pellets can be determined through bibliometric analysis of publications. This study aimed to explore the current status and current hot topics of research on wood pellets between 1980-2023 using performance analysis and science mapping. For this purpose, we carried out a bibliometric analysis of 758 publications in the Web of Science database scanned with the keywords "wood" and pellets". The numbers of publications and cited citations on wood pellets have grown steadily over the years, with 67% of publications produced and 89% of citations cited in the last decade. 2294 Authors from 884 organizations and 6 continents contributed publications in the field of wood pellets. University of British Columbia (Canada) and United States Department of Energy (USA) were the major institutions with the largest publications and the most cited. Sokhansanj Shahab from the University of British Columbia was the most active and most cited author. The published literatures have focused on three topics: biomass, bioenergy and combustion. As a result, this study will provide a general perspective for future research in the field of wood pellets.