Mapping Research Trends in Pulsed Electric Field Technology Applied to Biogas Production: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis

This study provides a comprehensive review of the application of pulsed electric field (PEF) technology as a pretreatment method for enhancing biogas production from various organic substrates. A comparative bibliometric analysis was conducted using four databases, Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, Dimensions, and Google Scholar, to evaluate research activity, interdisciplinarity, and geographic distribution of PEF-related literature. The results show that, although biomass pretreatment research has grown considerably over the past two decades, the number of studies focused specifically on PEF remains extremely low, accounting for less than 0.5% in each database. A detailed overview of 66 studies further confirms PEF’s potential to improve methane yield through substrate disintegration and microbial community enhancement, yet highlights the need for standardization and scalability. Optimization studies reveal promising outcomes, particularly for sludge and algal substrates, though most were limited to laboratory scale. Two full-scale studies demonstrated economic feasibility, yet long-term stability, energy balance, and integration into existing anaerobic digestion systems remain underexplored. The analysis of author countries and institutions shows that research is concentrated in China, Sweden, and France. Overall, this review identifies major research gaps and outlines future directions aimed at including a more diverse range of substrates, improving comparability, and validating PEF in real-scale biogas production systems.