Comprehensive evaluation of sustainable ammonia production systems based on fuzzy multiattribute decision making under hybrid information

Abstract

The comprehensive evaluation of ammonia production systems is of great significance for improving the sustainability of energy management and food supply. Therefore, an important contribution could be provided by developing a generic decision-making framework for prioritizing multiple ammonia production systems and identifying the best one. In this view, this paper aims to propose an integrated fuzzy MADM (multiattribute decision making) framework combining fuzzy BWM (best-worst method), fuzzy CRITIC (Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation), and fuzzy GRP (gray relational projection) approaches for the sustainability assessment of ammonia production systems under hybrid information. Comparing with the previous MADM-based frameworks for sustainability assessment, this framework adopts the TFN (triangular fuzzy number) to deal with the hybrid information (ie, crisp numbers, interval values, and fuzzy numbers) that arise from real-world decision-making issues. Accordingly, the weights of criteria can be comprehensively determined by integrating the fuzzy BWM and fuzzy CRITIC, which balance experts’ subjective preferences and system's objective properties under uncertainties in the determination of the weights, while the sequence of alternatives can be reliably prioritized by extending the GRP into fuzzy conditions, which escalates the ranking capability under hybrid information via considering the relationships and relative balance among the alternatives’ performances regarding the multicriteria. Seven alternative systems were studied by the proposed framework, indicating that ammonia generated from hydropower-electrolysis and coal gasification would be more preferable than the others, by considering 12 criteria from the concerns of technological, environmental, economic, and social-political. Additionally, sensitivity analysis and result comparison were conducted to verify the rationality and feasibility of the framework. This work makes a methodological contribution to the MADM-based sustainability research and serves as a reference for developing the ammonia economy in the future.