Biobased Compounds and the Circular Economy: A Bibliometric Review of Waste Valorization and Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

The global plastic crisis, driven by 367 million tons of annual production and persistent environmental contamination, has intensified research into biobased compounds as sustainable alternatives. However, significant gaps remain in understanding the scientific landscape, research priorities, and industrial scalability of these materials. This study conducts a comprehensive bibliometric and systematic review to map the knowledge structure of biobased compounds and circular economy research. A refined search strategy was executed in Scopus (June 2026), retrieving 1350 documents, which were screened following PRISMA guidelines, resulting in a final dataset of 1306 peer-reviewed documents. The search strategy was designed to be comprehensive, capturing both the core biobased compounds literature and adjacent sustainability science (e.g., life cycle assessment, circular economy frameworks) that provides essential methodological foundations for the field. Bibliometric analyses were performed using RStudio/bibliometrix for descriptive statistics, VOSviewer for co-authorship and keyword co-occurrence networks, and Plotly Studio for interactive visualizations. The results reveal exponential growth in scientific production (R2 = 0.92046), with publications increasing from 15 in 2010 to 95 in 2026 (partial year, data through June). India leads in publication volume (293 documents), while the United States exhibits the highest citation impact (114.74 citations per paper). “Sustainable development” (489 occurrences) and “circular economy” (419 occurrences) are the dominant keywords, with the latter showing the highest annual growth rate (2333.33%). The Journal of Cleaner Production (31 publications, 2040 citations) and Bioresource Technology (95.53 average citations) are the most productive and impactful journals, respectively. Ten transitional research gaps were identified, with “synthetic biology” and “bioaccumulation” showing the highest priority indices (122.16). The most common barriers are weak theoretical foundations and limited research duration, while mechanical properties and reprocessability face additional interdisciplinary complexity. These findings indicate that biobased compounds research is rapidly expanding, suggesting a need for strengthened theoretical frameworks and increased academic attention to interdisciplinary collaboration to achieve circular economy transitions aligned with Sustainable Development Goals 12 and 13.