Bibliometric analysis of wastewater treatment processes based on anaerobic ammonia oxidation process

In the realm of water treatment, the anaerobic ammonia oxidation (anammox) process stands out as one of the most innovative breakthroughs. Bibliometrics is an effective method for the evaluation of scientific results and the development of research trends in a particular field of study. Employing VOSviewer and CiteSpace, this study comprehensively analyzed scholarly articles and research trends related to anammox water treatment from 2014 to 2023. The findings revealed a total of 1225 articles in this domain, exhibiting an increasing trend every year in the world, while China emerges as the foremost contributor with close collaborations with the United States, Australia, and other nations. The examination of keyword co-occurrence and cluster network showcases coupled anammox-based reactor startup and operational strategies, nitrogen removal studies, nitrous oxide investigations and microbial community analyses are long-term academic endeavors. Furthermore, keyword burst and temporal network analysis,the operational control conditions, driving processes and analysis of microbial macrogenes for mainstream anammox in wastewater treatment plants need more research in the future to improve the feasibility of this technology in engineering applications. Additionally, a meticulous scrutiny of the top 20 landmark and highly cited research articles over the past decade underscores a few persistent intriguing themes, such as “mainstream anammox,” “biological nitrogen removal,” and “16S rRNA genes,” In summary, this study contributes a nuanced understanding of the contemporary landscape and development trends within the field of anammox water treatment, which will shed light on the future research efforts.