The gap between global energy production and consumption is increasing at a fast pace along with population growth, industrialization, and technological developments, resulting in a rapid increase in the need for energy. This has led countries to use their own resources more effectively. Consequently, in addition to existing energy sources, alternative solutions are now being sought for this problem via renewable resources such as biomass energy production. As forest resources are abundantly available in Turkey, forest residues constitute a significant biomass potential. This study aimed to identify key strategic factors in the evaluation of forest residues as biomass using A'WOT analysis. Measurement of the factors in SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis, and their ranking, was enabled by quantification via A'WOT analysis, which is a combination of SWOT analysis and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). A survey was conducted among relevant experts in Turkey to determine SWOT factors and AHP weights. As a result, eight sub‐factors for strengths and threats, seven sub‐factors for opportunities, and four sub‐factors for weaknesses were determined for analysis. Each SWOT parameter was then quantified by considering the viewpoints of the surveyed experts, and the resulting matrix was used to determine the vector weights and priorities of the groups and factors. The results indicated that if forest residues could be utilized as an alternative energy source, this would more than fill the gap between the production and consumption of energy in the country. In the evaluation of forest residues in Turkey, transportation costs emerged as the weakest factor, while the removal of natural sources of nutrition and fertilizer from the forest cover was seen as the greatest threat. The most important opportunity was perceived to be the improvement of forest management along with energy and climate‐change policies and activities. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The living conditions of living beings are becoming ever more difficult due to the climate change caused by industrialization. Forests, which have a great importance in terms of natural resources, are one of the main elements which prevent this situation. Therefore, it is important to ensure the sustainability of forests and to increase their genetic and structural quality. Appropriate farms and clonal seed orchards should be established with the purpose of achieving this genetic diversity. This way, quantitative traits of clones, which are located in these seed orchards, depending on their growth performance, the cone yield can be determined. In this study, the best clones in terms of cone yield were determined through MAUT and WASPAS methods, which are some of the multiple criteria decision-making techniques. This was done by using the height and diameter measurements of 30 Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) clones selected according to random sampling method in 3 different blocks in Erzurum region. Based on the sum product assessment and multi-attribute utility theory model results, clones 22 and 29 were determined as superior and prospective for further breeding procedures in terms of seedling height and root collar diameter. According to the entropy method, the maximum weights for seedling height and root collar diameter were obtained in Block-3 with 0.580175 and in Block-1 with 0.590017, respectively. Contribution/Originality:This study plays important role in selecting the best clones in terms of cone yield through MAUT and WASPAS methods, which are some of the multiple criteria decision-making techniques.
Wood resources obtained from forest and non-wood forest products (NWFP) have gained great importance recently as their economic values keeps increasing by the day. In this study, forecasting of Turkish Non-Wood Forest Products such as thyme, bay leaves, salvia and pine nut export amounts was carried out using a linear regression analysis method for the next fifteen years based on the data for the years between 1990 and 2009. Moreover, estimated import values and actual import values from the last years were compered and analyzed. Finally, predictions on future trends were made.
In this study, blends of polypropylene (PP) with polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) biopolymers and wood flour were prepared, and Fuzzy and Grey Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) methods were used to determine the blends with the best properties. The physical, mechanical, thermal, structural, and morphological properties of the composites were determined. The obtained results showed that PLA and wood flour generally improved the mechanical properties of the PP composites. However, wood flour did not exhibit a homogeneous distribution in the matrix. The density of the composites generally increased with the addition of both PLA and PHB. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the crystallinity index of the composites generally decreased due to the low crystallinity of biopolymers. Thermal stability did not change with the addition of PLA and PHB, but the addition of wood increased thermal stability. According to the MCDM analysis, both Fuzzy and Grey results were similar.
The aim of the paper is to determine the effects of nano fillers such as cellulose nanofibrils and nano-scaled titanium dioxide on some properties of polyhydroxybutyrate and polylactic acid biopolymers; it also determined the selection of biopolymer nanocomposites with the optimum properties by using multicriteria decision-making methods such as multi-attribute utility theory, simple additive weighting, and weighted aggregated sum product assessment. Test results showed that the mechanical properties of the biopolymer nanocomposites generally increased with the addition of the cellulose nanofibrils and nano-scaled titanium dioxide. However, the addition of nano-scaled titanium dioxide decreased the tensile modulus. The addition of the cellulose nanofibrils had a higher effect on the tensile and flexure modulus of elasticity than the addition of the nano-scaled titanium dioxide. Thermal properties were generally found to improve with the addition of the cellulose nanofibrils and nano-scaled titanium dioxide. Melting temperature (Tm) generally decreased with the addition of the nano fillers. The scanning electron microscopic images showed that the nano fillers were dispersed as white dots in the biopolymer matrix. After accelerated weathering and decay test, outdoor performance of the biopolymer nanocomposites was found to be improved with the addition of the nano fillers. Multicriteria decision-making methods were conducted to determine the biopolymer nanocomposites having the optimum properties, and all the methods showed that the best biopolymer nanocomposites was polylactic acid with 1% cellulose nanofibrils.
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