Hot topics and application trends of the anammox biotechnology: a review by bibliometric analysis

Anammox has been extensively identified as a novel and sustained biotechnology for wastewater treatment. This study was conducted to evaluate the hot topics and application trends of anammox biotechnology by bibliometric analysis. The results show that “Water science and technology” and “Environmental science ecology” are the prevalent journal and category in this field. Many researches about “process” and “inhibition” have been carried out to conquer common challenges of anammox biotechnology in its actual engineering application. “Fluorescence in situ hybridization” continues to be the leading rRNA microbiological analysis method after its first application. Most importantly, “Completely autotrophic nitrogen removal over nitrite (CANON)”, “Sequencing batch reactors (SBR) for anammox operation”, “black water treatment” and “anammox biofilm” are identified as the prevalent process type, reactor type, wastewater type and bacterial aggregation form in anammox research currently, which forecasts the further engineering application direction of anammox biotechnology. The study will be useful for the researchers to acquaint the current state and the application trends in anammox biotechnology field.