Global trends and future prospects of lactic acid production from lignocellulosic biomass

Lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) stands as a substantial and sustainable resource capable of addressing energy and environmental challenges. This study employs bibliometric analysis to investigate research trends in lactic acid (LA) production from LCB spanning the years 1991 to 2022. The analysis reveals a consistent growth trajectory with minor fluctuations in LA production from LCB. Notably, there's a significant upswing in publications since 2009. Bioresource Technology and Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology emerge as the top two journals with extensive contributions in the realm of LA production from LCB. China takes a prominent position in this research domain, boasting the highest total publication count (736), betweenness centrality value (0.30), and the number of collaborating countries (42), surpassing the USA and Japan by a considerable margin. The author keywords analysis provides valuable insights into the core themes in LA production from LCB. Furthermore, co-citation reference analysis delineates four principal domains related to LA production from LCB, with three associated with microbial conversion and one focused on chemical catalytic conversion. Additionally, this study examines commonly used LCB, microbial LA producers, and compares microbial fermentation to chemical catalytic conversion for LCB-based LA production, providing comprehensive insights into the current state of this field and suggesting future research directions. This study systematically reviewed the current state and future trends of lactic acid production from lignocellulosic biomass, and compared the two major pathways for lactic acid production: microbial fermentation and chemical catalytic conversion.