Global Research Trends in Wood Pellets, a Renewable Energy Source: A Bibliometric Analysis

Due to global warming and climate change, more importance has started to be attached to renewable energy sources as alternatives to fossil fuels. Wood pellets are among the renewable energy sources, and have been the subject of a growing number of studies. Therefore, developments and trends in research on wood pellets can be determined through bibliometric analysis of publications. This study explores the current status and hot topics of research on wood pellets using performance analysis and scientific mapping based on publications from 1980-2023. 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 citations on wood pellets have grown steadily over the years, with 67% of publications and 89% of citations coming in the last decade. A total of 2,294 authors from 884 organizations and six continents have contributed publications in the field of wood pellets. The University of British Columbia (Canada) and the United States Department of Energy (USA) were the institutions with the most numerous and the most cited publications. Sokhansanj Shahab from the University of British Columbia was the most active and most cited author. The published literature has focused on three topics: biomass, bioenergy, and combustion. As a result, this study will provide a general perspective for future research relating to wood pellets.