Multi-Criteria Decision Making for Supplier Selection in Biomass Supply Networks for Bioenergy Production

Decision-making on outsourcing biomass supply operations for bioenergy production is both of strategic and operational importance and can be modeled as a multi-perspective supplier selection problem characterized by multiple qualitative and quantitative factors, as well as technical and non-technical attributes and constraints. The biomass supply system presents unique features that highly impact the bioenergy production. Network functionality, raw material availability (influenced by seasonality, weather/climate conditions, land suitability, and other parameters), and procurement costs constitute important parameters for the viability of bioenergy production plants. This chapter provides a comprehensive analysis of biomass supply chains, focusing on the special issues of raw material cost fluctuations, biomass seasonality, and the dynamics of biomass demand. It also suggests the effectiveness of a multi-criteria decision making approach for adequately assessing imprecise and uncertain biomass supplier profiles based on Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets (IFS) in conjunction with a multi-period optimization framework for selecting the best biomass supply mix at a maximum total purchasing value.