A systematic analysis of research trends on incineration during 2000-2019

Although incineration has been widely studied by many researchers as one of the most important waste treatment processes, a few studies have been presented to systematically review the published studies on this area. Through conducting a bibliometric and visual network analysis, this paper aims to evaluate the trends of incineration research and demonstrate the related hotspots, based on 22,238 publications published from 2000 to 2019. The main research methodology includes bibliometric and social network analysis, covering document type, distribution of journals, publishing output, the activity of institutes and countries, language, as well as keywords. The results of the paper indicate that among the countries, China has played a key role in contribution to the total number of publications, while the USA, Japan, and Germany, respectively, ranked second, third, and fourth during the past two decades. "Waste Management" is the most productive journal with 1262 publications, followed by "Chemosphere," "Environmental Science and Technology," and "Journal of Hazardous Materials" with more than 540 publications. In recent years, "Biodiesel," "renewable energy," and "waste heat recovery" from "Bio," "energy," and "thermal treatment" areas, respectively, are growing topics in the related publications. Also, the field of "life cycle" has significantly grown based on the maps, resulted in a specified cluster during 2012-2019. The results of this study provide a better understanding of current incineration research and can also influence future studies in this field. [GRAPHICS]