This study aims to explore technological advances and prospects in phenol treatment by providing a detailed bibliometric survey of wastewater treatment applications, highlighting innovative advances in research. Using the Web of Science database, we identified 79,104 articles from 2003 to 2023, later refined to 1848. The keywords were used for the initial search: “phenol”, “wastewater”, “degradation”, “treatment” and “removal”. The bibliographic review details the occurrence of journals, authors, newspapers, countries, institutions, keywords, highly cited articles, and prominent predominant research fields. In particular, the field of “Engineering” was responsible for 32% of the published articles, followed by “Ecology of Environmental Sciences” (25%) and “Chemistry” (12%). In addition, a keyword analysis revealed five major groups of clusters that indicate where the research is progressing. This aspect is crucial for understanding the evolution and perspectives of research interests over time. Therefore, future research in the field should prioritize wastewater treatment and feedstock diversification. This focus is essential to address significant challenges, such as production costs, stability, and durability of treatment processes. Graphical Abstract

This paper aims to present the advances related to the biotechnological application of lipases Y. lipolytica, presenting their properties and more efficient ways to use them in different industrial applications. Waste treatment and bioremediation highlight recent studies and advances and the interest in large-scale applications in the food sector and biofuel production. The USA and China, two major world powers in industy, are of utmost importance in the search for the improvement in the development and properties of a controlled system for the large-scale production of a significant number of applications of lipase from Y. lipolytica.

Lignocellulosic biomasses are used in several applications, such as energy production, materials, and biofuels. These applications result in increased consumption and waste generation of these materials. However, alternative uses are being developed to solve the problem of waste generated in the industry. Thus, research is carried out to ensure the use of these biomasses as enzymatic support. These surveys can be accompanied using the advanced bibliometric analysis tool that can help determine the biomasses used and other perspectives on the subject. With this, the present work aims to carry out an advanced bibliometric analysis approaching the main studies related to the use of lignocellulosic biomass as an enzymatic support. This study will be carried out by highlighting the main countries/regions that carry out productions, research areas that involve the theme, and future trends in these areas. It was observed that there is a cooperation between China, USA, and India, where China holds 28.07% of publications in this area, being the country with the greatest impact in the area. Finally, it is possible to define that the use of these new supports is a trend in the field of biotechnology.

In this study, biodiesel was produced through the enzymatic esterification of vegetable oils from two common Brazilian palm trees: babassu and tucuman. The oils were hydrolyzed by a chemical route and their free fatty acids esterified with ethanol and methanol using the lipase enzyme Eversa^® Transform 2.0 in free forms and supported in iron magnetic nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄) (enzymatic load: 80 UpNPBg⁻¹). These enzymatic reactions were performed at an oil–alcohol molar ratio of 1:1, reaction temperature of 37 °C, agitation at 150 rpm, and reaction times of 2, 4, 6 and 8 h for the reactions catalyzed by the soluble enzyme and 8 h for the reactions using the biocatalyst. The conversions of fatty acids in ethyl and methyl esters obtained were monitored by gas chromatography (CG). The results obtained from ester synthesis using enzyme catalysts in free form were better: babassu 52.6% (methanol) and 57.5% (ethanol), and for tucuman 96.7% (methanol) and 93.4% (ethanol). In the case of immobilized enzymes, the results obtained ranged from 68.7% to 82.2% for babassu and from 32.5% to 86.0% for tucuman, with three cycles of reuse and without significant catalyst loss. Molecular coupling studies revealed the structures of lipase and that linoleic acid bonded near the active site of the enzyme with the best free energy of −6.5 Kcal/mol.

Biogas is a product composed of a mixture of gases resulting from the biological decomposition of organic material, consisting primarily of methane gas and carbon dioxide, besides smaller amounts of other gases. The current study aims to comprehensively analyze waste-based biogas production to ensure sustainability in the biofuel production process. An advanced systematic bibliometric analysis using keywords, co-citations, and bibliographic coupling analysis was performed on 641 peer-reviewed articles from Web of Science to conclude this goal further. This analysis covers the period from 2000 to 2022, a little more than 20 years. The methodology used reveals several themes that have been identified and addressed in the articles: (1) the importance of the topic in academia by country in which they were analyzed; (2) sectors contributing to biofuel production; (3) equipment used in biofuel production; (4) the most cited waste sources in the database; (5) application purpose of biogas; (6) relevance of other energy sources; (7) areas of interest where biofuels are used; and (8) a comparison between the energy production capacity and the number of publications on the topic by country. Furthermore, the potentials, limitations, perspectives, and future trends highlighted to improve the production process are also considered. Therefore, the conclusion is that organic waste can be used in the sustainable production of goods with added value for society.