ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH TRENDS IN PRODUCTION OF SOLID BIOFUELS

Solid biofuels can be defined as processed and unprocessed biomass. By definition it can be divided into: natural fuels (as obtained) and synthetic fuels (after mechanical and chemical treatment). Raw materials for the production of solid biofuels may include: wood, stalk plants, peat, sewage sludge and grains of cereals. These raw materials can be used directly as fuel or as a half-finished product for further production. The aim of the work was to analyze trends and research topics in the production of solid biofuels. This analysis was made using bibliometric techniques. Bibliometric analyzes allow to indicate the research topics, authors, as well as research institutions that significantly influence a given discipline. The research and analysis were carried out on scientific articles taken from the Scopus database in 2014-2018. The downloaded data have been cleaned and processed in the VOSviewer program. This program allows to analyze the frequency of occurrence of keywords in years and to present results in graphic form. Next, a detailed analysis of the content of the publications and classification according to selected criteria was carried out. The main countries that carry out research in this area are: Spain, Italy, Brazil, the Czech Republic and China. The main research areas were: Energy, Environmental Science, Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Chemical Engineering and Engineering. The most popular research topics throughout the research period were: biomass (raw materials, properties), biomass agglomeration processes (briquetting, pelleting), energy properties research, thermal biomass treatment (torrefaction, gasification and others), research on production and biochar properties and other.