School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350, China; Center for Green Buildings and Sponge Cities, Georgia Tech Tianjin University Shenzhen Institute, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518071, China.
Institute of Blue and Green Development, Shandong University, Weihai, 264209, China; College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China.
Environ Pollut. 2021 Apr 15;275:115785. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.115785. Epub 2020 Oct 7.
For the foreseeable future, industrial water demand will grow much faster than agriculture. The demand together with the urgency of wastewater treatment, will pose big challenges for most developing countries. We applied the bibliometric analysis combined with social network analysis and S-curve technique to quantitatively analyze 9413 publications related to industrial wastewater treatment in the Scientific Citation Index (SCI) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) databases from 1998 to 2019. The results showed that: (1) Publications on industrial wastewater treatment have increased from 120 in 1998 to 895 in 2019 with a steady annual increment rate, and researchers have focused more on the application and optimization of existing technologies. (2) China had the highest number of publications (n = 1651, 19.66% of global output) and was a core country in the international cooperation network, whereas the United States and European countries produced higher quality papers. (3) By analyzing the co-occurrence and clusters of keywords and comparing three wastewater treatment categories (physical, chemical, biological), adsorption (n = 1277), oxidation (n = 1085) and activated sludge process (n = 1288) were the top three techniques. Researchers have shifted their focus to treatment technologies for specific wastewater type, such as textile wastewater, pulp and paper wastewater, and pharmaceutical wastewater. The S-curve from articles indicates that physical and chemical treatment technologies are attached with great potential in the near future, especially adsorption and advanced oxidation, while the biological treatment technologies are approaching to the saturation stage. Different pattern is observed for the S-curve derived from patents, which stressed the limited achievement until now and further exploration in the field application for the three treatment categories. Our analysis provides information of technology development landscape and future opportunities, which is useful for decision makers and researchers who are interested in this area.
在可预见的未来，工业用水需求的增长速度将远远快于农业用水。这种需求加上废水处理的紧迫性，将给大多数发展中国家带来巨大挑战。我们应用文献计量分析结合社会网络分析和 S 型曲线技术，定量分析了 1998 年至 2019 年科学引文索引（SCI）和社会科学引文索引（SSCI）数据库中与工业废水处理相关的 9413 篇出版物。结果表明：（1）1998 年，关于工业废水处理的出版物从 120 篇增加到 2019 年的 895 篇，年增长率稳定，研究人员更加关注现有技术的应用和优化。（2）中国发表的论文数量最多（n=1651，占全球产出的 19.66%），是国际合作网络的核心国家，而美国和欧洲国家发表的论文质量更高。（3）通过分析关键词的共现和聚类，并比较三种废水处理类别（物理、化学、生物），吸附（n=1277）、氧化（n=1085）和活性污泥法（n=1288）是前三大技术。研究人员已经将注意力转移到特定类型废水的处理技术上，如纺织废水、制浆造纸废水和制药废水。文章中的 S 曲线表明，物理和化学处理技术在不久的将来具有很大的潜力，特别是吸附和高级氧化，而生物处理技术则接近饱和阶段。从专利得出的 S 曲线呈现出不同的模式，强调了迄今为止的有限成就，并进一步探索了这三种处理方法在实际应用中的潜力。我们的分析提供了技术发展前景和未来机遇的信息，这对有兴趣的决策者和研究人员很有用。
