Measuring the Importance of Decision-Making Criteria in Biofuel Production Technology Selection

Abstract

Environmental problems, combined with a finite supply of fossil fuels, have made the use of renewable energy sources necessary. Biomass is a renewable source of energy that has played a very important role in energy production in recent years. Because there are a number of technologies that can be used to convert biomass into energy, it is important to select the best option. The fact that multiple options are available that need to be evaluated based on a set of decision-making criteria makes this a multicriteria decision-making problem. This paper takes the first step in proposing an evaluation framework and identifying the importance of the relevant decision-making criteria in biofuel production technology selection. To determine the importance of the selection criteria, experts were asked to respond to an online questionnaire based on the best-worst method. The results indicate that air pollution, land use change, and human expertise are the three most important criteria for selecting the best biofuel production technology in our case country, Iran.