The Potential Utilization of Biomass as a Renewable Energy Source for the Electricity Sector: A Bibliometric and Content Review

Climate change is currently a global concern. The world needs to drastically reduce carbon emissions (decarbonization) to avoid the harmful effects of the climate crisis. Nowadays, in several countries, biomass co-firing technology in coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) has been widely used and is acknowledged as a popular short-term decarbonization technique. Co-firing refers to replacing coal with biomass materials such as sawdust and rice husk at a specific ratio. By conducting bibliometric and content analyses, this study analyzes global publication trends related to biomass research, specifically for using biomass to produce electricity. Bibliometrics investigated several studies on the relationship between biomass and electricity or energy topics from 2013 to 2023 and collected 2707 publications (articles and reviews) from the Scopus database. Content analysis provides a complementary review of the potential and challenges for biomass resources from the latest publication. This study reveals that biomass use is currently given greater significance due to the urgency of the energy transition. However, the main obstacles to biomass utilization sustainability are related to variations in biomass properties and supply chain characteristics. Future research will concentrate on studies regarding the implications of biomass characteristics and conversion technology.