Recent advances in utilization of municipal solid waste for production of bioproducts: A bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Presently urban areas are reported for supporting 56% of the total world population, accountable for generating significant amount of municipal solid waste (MSW). Seventy percent of which ends into landfills, 19% is recycled and 11% is employed for energy generation. For environmental and economic sustainability, it is important to minimize the waste and maximize the recovery. This paper details the review from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, for the recent research in MSW utilization (conventional and novel). It identified the niche area of bioproducts production, to conduct the bibliographic review. The data confirms that major portion of the research is reported in North America. For production of bioproducts, the research on MSW in higher than research being pursued on organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). Research studies on the valorization of MSW are aimed towards production of enzymes, surfactants and high value products, whereas on OFMSW, studies are aimed on the development of biomaterials and bioplastics. The most cited research articles are focused on the segregation of municipal waste and its valorization by microbial culture for production of high value products. MSW valorization at lab scale has given encouraging results but upscaling it to industrial level is challenging due the heterogeneity of the MSW.

Keywords

• Biomaterials
• Bioproducts
• Municipal solid waste
• Organic fraction of solid waste
• Urban waste
• Waste segregation