Proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management
Pilsen, Czech Republic, July 23-26, 2019
© IEOM Society International
Selection of a Biomass Product using a Hybrid
Approach of BW-PROMETHEE
Mahdi Bastan
School of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering
University of Tehran
Tehran, Iran
bastan@ut.ac.ir
Peyman Kiani Nahand
School of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering
University of Tehran
Tehran, Iran
kiani.n.peyman@ut.ac.ir
Samaneh Korlou and Mahdi Hamid
School of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering
University of Tehran
Tehran, Iran
s.korlou@ut.ac.ir, m.hamid31400@ut.ac.ir
Abstract
The selection of suitable biomass is an important stage in the generation of biofuels, which has a significant
impact on the quality of biofuels. The selection of biomass is a strategic decision and, considering with the
selection of the raw material for the generation of suitable biomass is influenced by various social, economic
and environmental factors, it turns into a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. By reviewing
the literature in this paper, we identify the important criteria of suitable seed oil which includes 16 social,
economic and environmental criteria and three options for soybean, rapeseed (colza) and cotton for the
generation of biomass. Then we use a hybrid approach to determine the weight of the criteria and ranking
the alternatives so we first determine the weight of the criteria using the Best-Worst (BW) method. Then
we rank with PROMETHEE GAIA method the alternatives and analyze the model.
Keywords
Best-Worst Method, PROMETHEE, Biomass, MADM, Seed Oil
1. Introduction
Over the past decades, research and development of alternative fuels, including biofuels, has been increased because
of reducing fossil fuels, energy security and the impact that fossil fuels have on the environment, such as greenhouse
gas emissions. Biofuels are sustainable renewable energy sources that can reduce the environmental impact of fossil
fuels. Biomass is the primary source of bioenergy and biofuels, bioethanol and biodiesel are among of most important
biofuels. That this study focuses on biodiesel production.
After the 1970s oil crisis, many countries started planning to use more biofuels to reduce dependence on fossil fuels
(Timilsina and Shrestha, 2011), for example, in Iran, according to the perspective document, by the year 2025, 20
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