A Bibliometric Review of Research Trends on Bioelectrochemical Systems

Bioelectrochemical systems (BES) have received widespread attention for their capability of simultaneous wastewater treatment and electricity or fuels/chemicals production. The present study was performed to evaluate the global scientific output of BES-related research based on the Science Citation Index-Expanded database from 1991 to 2014. The publication outputs, journals, subject categories, countries and institutes were analysed to identify the world research on BES. In addition, 'word cluster analysis' was applied to give an insight into the research trends on BES. The results indicate that the annual publications on BES increased steadily, especially after 2004. China, with 7 institutes included among the 15 most productive institutes, is the largest contributor on BES research during the past 24 years. Microbial fuel cell is the most frequently studied reactor, and 'electricity generation' and 'wastewater treatment' are two dominant applications of BES. The use of two nanostructured materials - carbon nanotubes and grapheme - is increasingly studied in the BES field.