Combining multi-attribute decision-making methods with multi-objective optimization in the design of biomass supply chains

A survey of multi-criteria decision-making techniques for green logistics and low-carbon transportation systems

With the increasing severity of environmental problems, low-carbon development has become an inevitable choice. Nowadays, low-carbon green sustainable development is influenced by a variety of factors such as social, environmental, technological, and economic development levels, making its development complex, which in turn imposes challenges on decision-makers. In this context, the application of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) in different areas of sustainable development engineering has become a hot topic. Although many reviews of MCDM techniques already exist, there is a lack of holistic review efforts on MCDM in the field of low-carbon transport and green logistics. Considering these shortcomings in the state of the art, this paper systematically reviews more than 190 papers from 2010 to 2022, constructs a general structure of MCDM techniques for this research topic, provides a comprehensive review and analysis of it, and clarifies the current practices. Furthermore, future directions for the development of MCDM techniques for green logistics and low-carbon transportation systems are presented as well.

Multi-Objective Optimization of Nutritional, Environmental and Economic Aspects of Diets Applied to the Spanish Context

Current food consumption patterns must be revised in order to improve their sustainability. The nutritional, environmental, and economic consequences of these dietary patterns must be taken into consideration when diet guidelines are proposed. This study applied a systematic optimization methodology to define sustainable dietary patterns complying with nutritional, environmental, and economic issues. The methodology was based on a multi-objective optimization model that considered a distance-to-target approach. Although the three simultaneous objectives (maximal nutritional contribution, minimal greenhouse gas emissions, and minimal costs) could be divergent, the proposed model identified the optimal intake of each food product to achieve the maximal level of nutritional, environmental, and economic diets. This model was applied to six different eating patterns within the Spanish context: one based on current food consumption and five alternative diets. The results revealed that dietary patterns with improved nutritional profiles and reduced environmental impacts could be defined without additional costs just by increasing the consumption of vegetables, fruits, and legumes, while reducing the intake of meat and fish.

Multi-Objective Optimization Applications in Chemical Process Engineering: Tutorial and Review

This tutorial and review of multi-objective optimization (MOO) gives a detailed explanation of the 5 steps to create, solve, and then select the optimum result. Unlike single-objective optimization, the fifth step of selection or ranking of solutions is often overlooked by the authors of papers dealing with MOO applications. It is necessary to undertake a multi-criteria analysis to choose the best solution. A review of the recent publications using MOO for chemical process engineering problems shows a doubling of publications between 2016 and 2019. MOO applications in the energy area have seen a steady increase of over 20% annually over the last 10 years. The three key methods for solving MOO problems are presented in detail, and an emerging area of surrogate-assisted MOO is also described. The objectives used in MOO trade off conflicting requirements of a chemical engineering problem; these include fundamental criteria such as reaction yield or selectivity; economics; energy requirements; environmental performance; and process control. Typical objective functions in these categories are described, selection/ranking techniques are outlined, and available software for MOO are listed. It is concluded that MOO is gaining popularity as an important tool and is having an increasing use and impact in chemical process engineering.

Toward Sustainable Chemical Engineering: The Role of Process Systems Engineering

Products from chemical engineering are essential for human well-being, but they also contribute to the degradation of ecosystem goods and services that are essential for sustaining all human activities. To contribute to sustainability, chemical engineering needs to address this paradox by developing chemical products and processes that meet the needs of present and future generations. Unintended harm of chemical engineering has usually appeared outside the discipline's traditional system boundary due to shifting of impacts across space, time, flows, or disciplines, and exceeding nature's capacity to supply goods and services. Being a subdiscipline of chemical engineering, process systems engineering (PSE) is best suited for ensuring that chemical engineering makes net positive contributions to sustainable development. This article reviews the role of PSE in the quest toward a sustainable chemical engineering. It focuses on advances in metrics, process design, product design, and process dynamics and control toward sustainability. Efforts toward contributing to this quest have already expanded the boundary of PSE to consider economic, environmental, and societal aspects of processes, products, and their life cycles. Future efforts need to account for the role of ecosystems in supporting industrial activities, and the effects of human behavior and markets on the environmental impacts of chemical products. Close interaction is needed between the reductionism of chemical engineering science and the holism of process systems engineering, along with a shift in the engineering paradigm from wanting to dominate nature to learning from it and respecting its limits.