Combining life cycle sustainability assessment and fuzzy multicriteria decision making method for prioritizing the flare technologies in the oil, gas, and chemical plants

Abstract

AbstractLife cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) of flare technologies can assist the stakeholders/decision‐makers to choose the most sustainable flare technology in life cycle outlook among multiple options. This article purposes in developing a framework of life cycle sustainability decision‐support for prioritizing the flare technologies by integrating the LCSA concepts and fuzzy multicriteria decision making (MCDM) method. A novel fuzzy MCDM (FMCDM) technique that can handle linguistic variables in the decision‐making matrix was progressed by integrating SWARA–WASPAS approach and fuzzy evaluation (fuzzy SWARA–fuzzy WASPAS). Using fuzzy SWARA is obtained the weights of the metrics for LCSA and then, fuzzy WASPAS is employed to prioritize the alternatives with considering the metrics. Finally, the findings of fuzzy SWARA show the “Production cost,” having the topmost weight with value of 0.5094, is the foremost metric that overshadows the choice of suitable and sustainable flare technology. The results obtained from the fuzzy WASPAS suggest that “Steam‐assisted flare,” is the highest prioritized and thus, the most significant alternative to employ flare technology in oil, gas, and chemical plants. The results indicate that combining LCSA and MCDM can effectively rank industrial systems and equipment under data uncertainties.