Global scientific research in Microbial Induced Calcite Precipitation: A bibliometric network analysis.

Abstract

Microbial Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP) offers a host of interesting features, both from theoretical and practical standpoints. This process was firstly investigated as a geo-biological mechanism involved in carbonate mineral formation both in rocks and soil. The interest towards its practical use significantly increased in the recent years, as MICP was used in different fields, such as oil recovery, improvement of soil geotechnical characteristics and concreate healing. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to carry out a bibliometric descriptive study of publications on MICP. We analyzed data from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC), which provides comprehensive information for bibliometric analysis, including the Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-E) and the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). The bibliometric analysis was carried out on 1580 publications, from 2000 to August 2022, and included publication output, author, institution, country, collaborations between authors, institutes and countries, and citation frequency. We created visualization maps including research collaborations by using the VOSviewer program. MICP, carbonate precipitation, cementation, and soil improvement in terms of geotechnical properties are high-frequency used keywords. Although in the year 2000 only two papers were published on MICP, the number of publications increased rapidly since 2014. In 2021, 333 papers were published. China leads as the most productive country, followed by USA and Australia. According to our results, the number of research papers dramatically increased in the last 5 years. MICP with concrete healing/cementation, soil geotechnical improvement, and the low environmental impact of such a technique are becoming very popular topics among researchers. With the ageing of concrete buildings, as well as with the worsening of environmental pollution and soil alterations, the research about MICP will play an ever increasing and crucial role in civil engineering and geotechnical issues and in soil science. Nevertheless, our study pointed out a sort of concentration of the MICP studies in few countries. Russia and Brazil, for instance, seems to poorly contribute to MICP researches. A larger cooperation among countries, together with the extension of the research network on this topic, would considerably foster the progress in MICP studies, from both practical and speculative standpoints.