A multi criteria decision making framework for sustainability assessment of bioenergy production technologies with hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets: The case of Iran

A decision making method is developed, to evaluate bioenergy technologies towards a sustainable bioenergy system. The multi criteria method is based on a transparent framework with direct computation on the hesitant fuzzy linguistic data, incorporating experts' preferences trying to deal with the incompleteness and inconsistency of the information of bioenergy technologies in different sustainability dimensions. In this context, globally existing bioenergy technologies are identified and then prioritized against fifteen different criteria relevant to environmental, economic, technological and social aspects of sustainability. It is distinguished that production of biogas, heat and electricity from agricultural, municipal and industrial wastes achieves higher overall performance compared to the other technologies in Iran. This technology contributes to rural development and job creation in less developed areas of country. Also, it does not threaten food security and does not have effect on land use change or biodiversity loss.