A bibliometric review on the application of fuzzy optimization to sustainable energy technologies

Sustainable energy production has been one of the contemporary concerns of society. In order to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions while generating the required demand for energy, various energy technologies, and production systems must be considered. In the consideration of different energy technologies, optimization is one of the important tools to optimally design energy systems. This study aims to analyze the progress of current research related to energy and sustainability that utilizes fuzzy optimization approach. Bibliometric methods based on the database of Web of Science core collection are used for the analysis. Of the 96 retrieved publications, 87% were journal articles. Analysis on the patterns for these articles were conducted such as highly cited articles, journals, subject categories, institutions, countries, and impact factor. The articles are evaluated into three categories such as technological, environmental, and economy and are comprehensively reviewed. The results showed a significant increase in publication related to fuzzy optimization in sustainability and energy technologies. The analysis showed China with 26 publications, which has the largest contribution in terms of the number of articles published. North China Electric Power University ranked as the number 1 institution with 10 publications. Based on the comprehensive analysis, fuzzy optimization showed significant results on technological, environmental, and economical factors. These findings help to identify hotspots in energy technology optimization for sustainability research. Similarly, the study gives useful inputs for selecting subtopics and strategy on publication related to fuzzy optimization on energy technologies.