Assessment of Biofuel Industry Sustainability Factors Based on the Intuitionistic Fuzzy Symmetry Point of Criterion and Rank-Sum-Based MAIRCA Method

Abstract

Biofuel production from biomass resources can significantly contribute to greenhouse gas mitigation and clean energy generation. This paper aims to develop a new decision analysis approach under an intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS) setting to rank suitable biomass resources for biofuel production. For this purpose, an intuitionistic fuzzy Symmetry Point of Criterion (IF-SPC) tool was introduced to obtain the objective weight of the indicators and an IF-rank sum (IF-RS) was applied to find the subjective weight of the indicators under an IFS setting. Then, an integrated multi-attributive ideal real comparative assessment (MAIRCA) approach was introduced using aggregation operators and a proposed weight-determining tool to rank suitable biomass resources for biofuel production. Further, the usability of the proposed model was tested with a case study of the selection of biomass resources for biofuel production under the context of IFS. From the obtained outcomes, we found that the most important indicators for selecting suitable biomass resources for biofuel production are cost of biomass supply (EC-3), maturity (T-3), local acceptability (SP-1), cost of the biomass conversion process (EC-2), and reduction of GHG emissions (EN-1), respectively. From this perspective, globally existing sustainable biomass resources for biofuel production were recognized and then ranked over thirteen diverse indicators including environmental, economic, technical, and social-political pillars of sustainability. It was found that municipal solid waste and sewage, forest and wood farming waste, and livestock and poultry waste achieve higher overall utility scores over the other biomass resources for biofuel production in India. Furthermore, comparison with extant models and sensitivity analysis are discussed to present the usefulness and stability of the presented model.