A suitable site selection for sustainable bioenergy production facility by using hybrid multi-criteria decision making approach, case study: Turkey

Abstract

Biofuels are rapidly taking their place amongst the renewable energy sources which are gaining importance day by day. Turkey procures a large portion of its energy needs with imported fossil fuels. This brings forward problems related to energy security and it also caused an increase in the greenhouse gas emissions of the country in the last decade. However, there are no satisfactory studies or investments related to biofuel potential and the evaluation of this potential. The research of the biomass energy potential in Turkey is of particular importance in terms of strengthening the energy policy. In this study, a multi-stage approach is presented for the first time in the appropriate site selecting for production facility to be established in a country. This is the most basic fact that distinguishes the study from other literature studies and makes it unique. Initially, the plant species and production amounts to be used in bioenergy production at the country scale were determined and theoretical biodiesel and bioethanol potentials were calculated. Then, the most suitable product-based site for the bioenergy production facility was determined with a hybrid method using the entropy-based multiple-attribute utility theory. Thus, contrary to the literature studies on potential determination only, the most suitable location for the bioenergy production facility was also selected by using determined potentials. The results show that Turkey has a biodiesel and bioethanol potential 1.666.176 tons, 13.546.751 tons, respectively. The products with the highest potential were determined for biodiesel and bioethanol production as sunflower (774.741 tons) and wheat (7.051.602 tons).