Biochar and Compost in the Soil: A Bibliometric Analysis of Scientific Research

Abstract

Biochar is a carbonized material obtained from the pyrolysis of biomass produced in a limiting environment of zero or very low oxygen. Its interest lies in its versatility for different applications in the water treatment, soil pollution, mitigation of greenhouse gases, etc. The synergy of this product with other amendments such as compost has been studied for different applications in the soil, including environmental remediation, crop yield, etc. The aim of the research is to identify the relevant aspects in the scientific literature of biochar, compost and soil through a bibliometric analysis for which 753 articles were selected from the Scopus database, having as keywords “biochar”, “compost” and “soil”. This research used R software, specifically the package Bibliometrix, to analyze descriptive analysis, author sources, document metrics, citation, co-citation analysis, co-occurrence network, co-word analysis, and collaboration analysis. Results showed that Zhang Z is the author with the greatest number of documents, and with a higher H index. Science of The Total Environment, Bioresource Technology, and Agronomy are the 3 topmost relevant sources. The keywords according to bond strength and most frequent use were biochar (538 occurrences), composting (349 occurrences), compost (436 occurrences), charcoal (295 occurrences), soil (255 occurrences). China is the country with the most collaboration. It is hoped that the bibliometric review will help to identify current research trends and provide information on the application of biochar and compost in the soil.

Global Research Trends in Emergy and Wastewater Treatment: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…Furthermore, Fig. 3 shows that while the circle is bluer, it means that there is a greater total citation (TC) per year, while for a larger circle, it means that there is a greater number of articles (N. Articles) (Virú-Vásquez et al, 2022). It is illustrated that, for 2009, Chen GQ and Chen B Lotka's law is shown in Fig.…”

“…Bibliometric analysis has been used in various disciplines and fields, including environmental sciences due to their different advantages such as data visualization, quantitative analysis and knowledge discovery. Furthermore, bibliometric helps researchers to start understanding a new topic and helps to identify current research trends, provides information on specific and general aspects over time, and contributes to the development of important areas (Virú-Vásquez et al, 2022). In this sense, the aim of this research is to carry out a bibliometric analysis, through quantitative and qualitative analysis, and to identify trends in scientific literature, explore its future direction in specific scientific fields, analyze the state of research in detail, identify research hotspots, and build an international cooperation network between countries, institutions or important authors.…”

Modelos de enseñanza del deporte: Un estudio bibliométrico (Teaching models of sport: A bibliometric study)

“…Investigadores de diferentes países han concentrado esfuerzos para comprender mejor, explorar y aplicar nuevos modelos de enseñanza o instruccionales que se basen en la práctica, pero no fue posible encontrar en la literatura consultada un estudio sobre los autores, afiliaciones, colaboraciones científicas y revistas que concentran publicaciones sobre este tema investigativo. Considerando que la bibliometría ayuda a identificar tendencias de investigación, brinda información sobre aspectos específicos y generales a lo largo del tiempo, analiza la evolución de autores y redes de colaboración (Virú-Vásquez, et al, 2022), la presente investigación tiene como objetivo realizar un análisis bibliométrico de aspectos importantes en la literatura científica sobre el deporte en cuanto a modelos de enseñanza o instruccionales, temas pedagógicos para los cuales se realizó análisis descriptivo de autores y análisis de colaboración mediante bibliometrix, un paquete de datos del software R.…”

Physicochemical Characterization and Stability of Biochar Obtained from 5 Species of Forest Biomass in Peru

“…This thermal decomposition process allows the components to become smaller structures and volatilize through heat (Stauffer, 2013). The benefits of biochar are multiple, such as climate change mitigation (Bruckman and Apydin Varol, 2016), energy production (Schnell et al, 2012), improvement of soil quality through its individual application or synergy with other amendments, such as compost (Virú-Vásquez et al, 2022), waste valorization (Guo et al, 2020) among others. Biochar can be produced by different ways, such as pyrolysis, gasification, hydrothermal carbonization (Wang and Wang, 2019).…”