Current status and future prospects of microalgae-based degradation of spent lubricant oil hydrocarbon towards environmental sustainability: a mini review and bibliometric analysis

The biodegradation of spent oil waste (SOW) using bacteria and fungi has been actively researched over the years. Only recently has the use of microalgae for the treatment of SOW attracted significant attention. This review aims to highlight the biodegradative capabilities of microalgae as well as provide a comprehensive bibliometric analysis to assess current research activities and trends in microalgae-based biodegradation of SOW. The bibliographic data exported from Dimensions database was analyzed using VOSviewer, focusing on various aspects such as document types, publications, subject categories, sources, countries, authors, organizations, and cited articles. The results obtained showed a remarkable increase (80.23%) in the number of article publications from 2005 to 2023 in this field of research. China (887 publications), Environmental Science (3571 publications), Bioresource Technology (249 publications) and Harbin Institute of Technology (72 publications), were the most productive country, subject category, journal, and organization, respectively, publishing articles in this field of research. The review also discussed SOW hydrocarbons ranging from alkanes, aromatic compounds to polychlorinated compounds and the mechanism of degradation of these compounds by microalgae. Overall, the review provided useful insight on microalgae SOW degradation, current research direction and the prospect of using microalgae in environmental remediation and sustainability.