Comparative evaluation of alternatives for management of wood wastes by using multi-criteria decision tools

Abstract

In Turkey, the wood industry is a prevailing sector generating economically valuable by-products such as sawdust, wood chips and wood shavings. The utilization of these materials supports an important contribution to the revival of the economy. Selection of the best management alternative considering economic and environmental factors synchronously requires the application of statistical decision-making methods. The significance of this study is to determine the suitability of promising alternatives for the utilization of wood wastes (production of pellet, panel, cemented wood composites and pyrolysis) by using multi-criteria decision-making methods (PROMETHEE and FPROMETHEE). Super Decision Program was used to evaluate the importance of the selected criteria (environmental impact, operation risk, installation cost, applicability, operation cost and market competition) based on data obtained from the 9-scale questionnaire. In PROMETHEE and FPROMETHEE applications, both equally weighted and calculated importance of criteria was considered. According to results of AHP, installation cost was the most important criterion with 31% ratio. Results of the study showed that pellet production was the best alternative in all applications with the highest-ranking values. Wood-based panel production was followed by pellet production; however, it was seen that the production of cemented wood composites and pyrolysis are not suitable for the utilization of wood wastes.