Selecting renewable desalination using uncertain data: an MCDM framework combining mixed objective weighting and interval MARCOS

Abstract

Using renewable energy to drive desalination is increasingly favored to augment water supply, given its cost advantage and energy saving. Divergent renewables can be integrated into different desalination technologies, resulting in the selection of an appropriate renewable desalination being a challenge. This work proposes a multi-criteria decision-making framework to evaluate renewable desalination alternatives from the perspective of multi-dimensional consideration and data uncertainty by developing a mixed objective weighting (MOW) method and extending the method of MARCOS (measurement of alternatives and ranking according to a compromise solution) into uncertain conditions. Mathematical contributions can be found in the two methods, i.e. the MOW improves the objectivity and fairness in the weighting result by considering the dispersions and correlations among the criteria's performances, and interval MARCOS guarantees stability in the ranking result while well preserving the uncertain data. An illustrative case concerning four renewable desalination alternatives is used to test the feasibility of the framework. After implementing comparisons regarding the weighting result and ranking sequence, the effectiveness of the involved methods is confirmed. In conclusion, by fully utilizing objective data concerning renewable desalination while eliminating subjective interference, the developed framework can offer a rational and reliable decision output.