Constructing a research framework for material flow analysis towards carbon neutrality: a bibliometric perspective.

The material flow analysis (MFA) method is widely used in the fields of resource management, environmental governance, and sustainable development evaluation, but the progress of its international research and the paths to support carbon neutrality are still unclear. Therefore, following the logic of ' sorting-integration - expansion,' this study first analyzed 2 148 documents included in the core database of Web of Science from 2000 to 2022 by using CiteSpace bibliometric tools, captured the key knowledge base and topic evolution of the international MFA research, and conducted a detailed review and comprehensive analysis of the MFA frontier application research. Second, by integrating the current status of international MFA research and the paths to carbon neutrality, this study constructed an integrated MFA research framework towards carbon neutrality. Finally, this paper summarized the support paths of MFA application research for the four important carbon reduction sectors and proposed current research deficiencies and future development directions. The main findings include: (J) The key studies in the fields of ' resource management,' ' environmental accounting,' and ' indicators ' could serve as a methodological and theoretical basis for MFA to perform its management, accounting, and evaluation functions. © With the support of the basic research topics of 'industrial ecology,' 'material flow analysis,' and 'material flow management, ' the application research topics of MFA had gradually evolved from the outdated topics of ' nitrogen,' ' Tarragona province,' ' heavy metals,' and ' alloying elements' to the frontier topics of ' municipal solid wastes,' ' iron,' ' circular economy,' ' exposure,' and ' renewable energy,' and the integrated application of MFA with the methodologies of scenario analysis, life-cycle assessment, and input-output modeling had become a mainstream trend. © The integrated MFA research framework towards carbon neutrality consisted of three modules, i.e., theoretical and methodological basis, application research paradigm, and supporting pathway for carbon neutrality, of which the structure of the application research paradigm reflected the core functions of the MFA, i.e., accounting material stocks and flows, assessing material demand and recycling potential, and developing the material management system. The elements of the application research paradigm covered the metabolic object, spatial scale, application triggers, main content, and application purpose of MFA research. ® The studies of MFA application supported the four important carbon reduction sectors in heterogeneous ways, and their relevance to the goal of achieving carbon neutrality needed to be further improved. In future research, MFA can be applied to account for the resource demand and waste generation of specific zero-carbon technologies in the energy production sector, to assess the resource and environmental impacts of end-use electrification, efficiency, and cleaner technologies in the energy consumption sector, to measure the environmental exposures and economic feasibility of the technologies for decarbonization and solid-waste utilization in the industrial and commercial sectors, and to evaluate the metabolic efficiency of nutrients and the performance of biological carbon fixation in the agriculture and forestry sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]