An integrated multi-attribute decision framework for sustainability assessment of renewable diesel fuel production pathways

Abstract

Ascertaining the sustainability of a fuel production technology in the presence of conflicting factors out of different existing production pathways is a typical and time-consuming exercise. Thus, it is necessary to follow a resourceful and systematic methodology to decide the best fuel production method for any application. The present work proposes a systematic decision framework that utilizes various MCDM schemes for identifying suitable renewable diesel production technology to replace conventional diesel fuel. Sustainability assessment for a total of five production methods was conducted, based on fifteen criteria. The MOORA, VIKOR, and COPRAS techniques are utilized to compute ranking schemes for different alternatives according to integrated criteria weights based on AHP and CRITIC methods. Qualitative assessment in terms of rank reversal test and sensitivity analysis employed to compare and check the robustness of applied methodologies. The results demonstrated that FT diesel is the most suitable alternative followed by green diesel-I and feedstock price as the most persuasive criteria followed by PM2.5.The qualitative assessment revealed that the integrated weight-based MOORA technique is the most robust framework for the present decision problem, followed by VIKOR and COPRAS strategies respectively. Further, the proposed MCDM techniques can be suggested independently to encounter similar types of decision-making problems.