Contamination control in the oil and gas industries using industrial separation technologies: A sustainability and safety-oriented DSS under Pythagorean fuzzy environment

Abstract

ABSTRACT The challenges related to the sustainability and safety policies to use the technologies for separating industrial contaminants in the oil and gas industry necessitate an investigation based on these policies. The criteria are in four economic, technical, social, and environmental aspects (as sustainability principles), and three applicability, functionality, and integrity aspects (as safety principles). The research aims at extending a novel decision support system (DSS) by integrating MEREC (method based on the removal effects of criteria) and MABAC (multi-attributive border approximation area comparison) methods under the Pythagorean fuzzy set. Its notable advantages are that renders a stronger expression of uncertainty and the decision-making process is more closely managed. Also, it allows the decision-maker (DM) to evaluate in a wider area and avoid data and conflict among the decision-making team. The industrial separation technologies prioritization is implemented with the DSS. These technologies have been taken into account for contamination control in the sector of Iran’s natural gas processing. The results of the prioritization are: High-efficiency liquid–gas coalescer technology, mesh pad technology, filter separator technology, cyclonic separator technology, vane pack technology, two-phase separator technology, and supersonic separator technology. The high-efficiency liquid–gas coalescer technology is selected as the preferable alternative.