Hybrid multi-criteria decision-making approach to select appropriate biomass resources for biofuel production

Abstract

Biofuel generation from local biomass resources can significantly contribute to greenhouse gas mitigation and cleaner energy production. In this regard, a hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approach was employed to prioritize appropriate biomass resources for biofuel production. Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), Additive Ratio Assessment (ARAS), and Weighted Aggregates Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS) were the employed MCDM approaches. Subsequently, ranking aggregation methods, i.e., Borda, Copeland, and Rank Mean, were applied to integrate the rankings obtained from the MCDM approaches. Guilan province of Iran was selected as a case study based on its promising potential for biofuel production from first-, second-, and third-generation biofuel resources. Initially, through an in-depth review of the literature and the use of academic professors' expert opinions, ten criteria were selected as the evaluation indices of the study: 1) creating technical side jobs, 2) preserving non-renewable energy resources, 3) relative advantage of biofuel production, 4) complexity of biofuel production process, 5) cost of the biomass conversion process, 6) biomass reusability, 7) cost of biomass supply, 8) environmental impacts of biomass accumulation, 9) adaptability of the biofuel production process to the size of biomass production units and the attitude and knowledge of the producers, and 10) energy self-sufficiency of the biomass producer. Moreover, the 11 investigated potential sources of biofuel production were rice, peanut, livestock and poultry wastes, rice waste, peanut waste, tea residues and its processing wastes, olive residues and its processing wastes, livestock and poultry slaughter and farm-raised fish wastes, municipal solid waste and sewage, forest and wood farming wastes, algae and Azolla. The results indicated that “municipal solid wastes and sewage”, “forest and wood farming wastes” and “livestock and poultry wastes” from the second-generation biofuels were identified as the most important biomass resources in the studied area.