Waste-to-Energy Technologies Towards Circular Economy: a Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric Analysis

This article presents a systematic review of the literature using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method associated with a bibliometric analysis on global perspective of technological advances in waste-to-energy (WTE). OpenRefine and VOSviewer software supported the bibliometric analysis. It was possible to establish the scientific gap through the correlation among interactions observed on co-authored countries’ analyses, cited sources of co-citation, cited authors of co-citation, and keyword of the co-occurrence author. A total of 10 papers were included for meta-analysis and categorized into 8 fields: author(s), title, published year, research areas, energy conversion technologies, wastes used for energy production, WTE products, key findings. Considering the end use of the products, the systematic literature review confirmed a limitation of research focusing on the opportunities for a cleaner transport sector. When analysing the author’s keywords, the most cited were ‘municipal solid waste’, ‘incineration’, ‘waste management’, ‘gasification’, ‘anaerobic digestion’, ‘combustion’, ‘waste-to-energy’, ‘landfill gas’, and ‘sustainability’, noting that the studies were directed at economic and sustainable development, as well as circular economy, aiming to mitigate adverse environmental impacts. As can be seen from the systematic review associated with the bibliometric analysis presented, the waste to energy technology is an important innovation way or route that finds numerous applications in the transport and energetic sector. It was evidenced that the WTE research efforts are mainly focused on the conversion of waste for end use electricity generation. The main role of WTE technologies in the circular economy is the energy recovery from biomass and non-recyclable waste, and also it was presented as a viable alternative to the decarbonization of transport and energy sectors.