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Biochar-related studies from 1999 to 2018: a bibliometrics-based review

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Abstract

Biochar has been paid great attentions during the last two decades, because of its resources potentials and environmental benefits. A bibliometric analysis was applied to assess the publications regarding the keyword biochar from the Web of Science database during the period of 1999 to 2018. A total of 8629 publications were obtained with a rapid increase of annual citations and number of papers. The research topics were diversified, which were mainly divided into “Environmental Sciences and Ecology,” “Agriculture,” and “Engineering.” Bioresource Technology was the journal which published most of the relevant papers. China ranked first in the number of published papers, followed by the USA, Australia, UK, and Germany. Especially, China established close collaboration with the USA in joint publication. Analysis of the keywords indicated that biochar production, comparative sorption, soil-applied black carbon, and soil management were the main research hotspots of biochar. The burst detection reflected that the innovation of biochar production and the new application field of biochar was the future research trends. These results can provide insight into the research progress regarding biochar.

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Funding

This paper was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51608499).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, People’s Republic of China

    Dongyang Li & Beidou Xi

  2. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, People’s Republic of China

    Dongyang Li, Ying Zhao, Tiancheng Gong, Mengyang Sun, Yuxin Jiao, Tianxue Yang & Beidou Xi

  3. Faculty of Geosciences and Environmental Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 611756, People’s Republic of China

    Rui Zhao

  4. Key Laboratory of Pesticide & Chemical Biology of Ministry of Education, Institute of Environmental & Applied Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, People’s Republic of China

    Xing Peng

  5. Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Environment and Resource Utilization, Ministry of Education, School of Resources Environmental & Chemical Engineering, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, People’s Republic of China

    Zhifei Ma

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  1. Dongyang Li
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  2. Rui Zhao
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Correspondence to Tianxue Yang or Beidou Xi.

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Li, D., Zhao, R., Peng, X. et al. Biochar-related studies from 1999 to 2018: a bibliometrics-based review. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 2898–2908 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06870-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06870-9

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