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Harnessing renewable energy (RE) sources to power desalination systems can migrate the pressures of freshwater scarcity and fossil fuel depletion. In this paper, a novel mathematical framework was developed to assess the sustainability of different RE-powered desalination systems, which is very essential for their portfolio selection, by resorting to the fuzzy multi-attribute decision making (MAMD) methods. In the framework, an evaluation system including ten attributes from four dimensions is introduced, while fuzzy triangular numbers and interval values are employed to capture the epistemic and aleatory uncertainties of decision information, respectively. More importantly, three fuzzy MADM methods were proposed in the framework to make the following methodological contributions: (1) fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory-based analytic network process (DANP) offers a reliable weighting result by addressing the interrelationships among the attributes; (2) fuzzy full consistency method (FUCOM) can easily but rigorously quantify the qualitative attributes by using the simplified pair-wise comparisons; (3) interval vector-aided technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (VATOPSIS) generates a rational ranking sequence by incorporating the balance among multi-attributes. To illustrate the proposed framework, six RE-powered desalination systems were studied, showing that the solar thermal-powered multi-effect distillation would be the best option under current conditions. Finally, the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed framework were verified by results comparison and discussion. Image 1 • A framework was proposed to assess the sustainability of RE-powered desalination. • The mathematical framework can address both the epistemic and aleatory uncertainties. • A fuzzy DANP approach was used to assign the weights to the interrelated attributes. • A fuzzy FUCOM method was developed to easily quantify the qualitative attributes. • An interval VATOPSIS method was introduced to rationally rank the alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen has attracted considerable attention as a clean and renewable energy carrier to potentially solve the increasingly serious problems of energy security and environmental pollution. As it can be produced from diverse feedstocks by using a variety of technologies, this study aims to develop a novel multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) mathematical framework for the sustainability assessment of multiple hydrogen production technologies (HPTs). In the proposed method, the criteria weights were determined by combining the grey relational analysis (GRA) and DEMATEL method, which can realize a relatively objective weighting process by considering the causal relationships among criteria. Moreover, the alternatives are also ranked by using the GRA approach to attain the grey correlation coefficients as indicators, which measures the closeness of the corresponding alternative with the ideal scheme. Finally, the developed MCDM method was illustrated by the sustainability prioritization of 9 HPTs. • A MCDM method was established for more objective sustainability assessment of HPTs. • An GRA-incorporated DEMATEL method was developed for determining the criteria weight. • The GRA approach was adopted for ranking the sustainability of HPTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen has emerged as one of the most promising players in the future energy system for a better life due to multiple advantages, it is important to identify the most sustainable technology for producing hydrogen among several alternatives. This study aims to propose a novel multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) framework for prioritizing hydrogen production technologies under data uncertainties by combining the methods of interval best-worst method (IBWM), interval entropy technique (IET), and interval best-worst projection (IBWP). In the framework, the IBWM and the IET methods were integrated to offer a comprehensive weighting result by capturing both the uncertain subjective judgments and uncertain objective information regarding the importance of multiple criteria; the IBWP approach was introduced to offer a rigorous ranking result by aggregating both the absolute performance and relative balance of the alternatives regarding the multi-criteria system in uncertain conditions. An illustrative case considering five hydrogen production technologies was studied to verify the feasibility of the proposed framework, while results comparisons and sensitivity analysis were implemented to indicate the necessities and advantages of the developed MCDM methods. • A novel framework was proposed for selecting hydrogen production technology. • Uncertainties were incorporated into the sustainability assessment framework. • The interval BWM and the interval entropy were combined for weighting the criteria. • A novel IBWP method was developed for ranking technology alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination with carbon capture and storage (CCS) can significantly reduce CO 2 emission in power generation systems, however, it remains to be clarified whether the CCS combination can make the power generation systems more sustainable by comprehensively taking account of economic, social and environmental effects. In this study, a novel multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) mathematical framework was developed to evaluate the sustainability of power generation systems using either fossil energy (with or without CCS) or renewable energy sources. In the mathematical framework, interval numbers are used to retain the objective uncertainties, and an improved Grey-Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (G-DEMATEL) method is employed to determine the weights of the evaluation criteria, which can avoid subjective uncertainties while considering the interactions between evaluation criteria. According to the affecting factors calculated by G-DEMATEL, the interaction between criteria can be visualized and key criteria can be identified more intuitively. Finally, the interval Vlsekriterijumska Optimizacijia I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method is employed to rank the sustainability of alternative power generation systems. In order to verify the developed framework, the sustainability of 6 power generation systems was assessed and compared by considering 10 criteria from dimensions of technology, environment, economy and society. The results show that "Wind power" is assessed as the most sustainable technology and the criterion of "Global warming" has the greatest impact on the sustainability of power generation systems, while the sustainability of power generation systems using fossil energy can be significantly improved by combining with CCS. • A framework for assessing the sustainability of power generation systems is proposed. • The effect of combining with carbon capture and storage is investigated. • An objective weighting method that consider the interaction of criteria is developed. • An approach is developed for visualizing the interaction between the criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More and more groundwater has been polluted recently, and technologies for groundwater contamination remediation are of vital importance; however, it is usually difficult for the users to select the most suitable technology among multiple alternatives. In order to address this, this study aims at developing a sustainability assessment framework for prioritizing the technologies for groundwater contamination remediation by combining the concept of sustainability and multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method. A criterion system which consists of six criteria in three aspects has been proposed for sustainability assessment of technologies for groundwater contamination remediation, and a novel MCDM method by combining the logarithmic fuzzy preference programming based fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and the improved ELECTRE method has been developed for prioritizing the alternatives. In order to illustrate the developed methodology, four technologies including pump-treat (P&T), monitored natural attenuation (MNA), permeable reactive barriers (PRB), and air sparging (AS) have been studied, and the results show that the proposed methodology is feasible for prioritizing the technologies for groundwater contamination remediation for the stakeholders/decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]