Assessment of Sustainable Biomass Energy Technologies in Pakistan Using the Analytical Hierarchy Process

  • Hira Soomro
  • , Syed Feroz Shah
  • , Wasayo Sanam Sahito
  • , Mohammad Aslam Uqaili
  • , Laveet Kumar
  • , Jonathan Nixon
  • , Khanji Harijan

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    7 Citations (Scopus)
    105 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Highlights: What are the main findings? Assessment of three cookstove technologies using the AHP. Technological, social, economic, and environmental criteria were evaluated. What is the implication of the main finding? The technologies were assessed using four main criteria corresponding to 12 sub-criteria. ECS technology is the most advantageous technology, followed by BCS and TCS. Pakistan is not merely confronting the energy crisis but also dealing with the scarcity of economical technologies for the utilization of energy resources. From the basic resources, renewable energy is one of the considerable resources. Due to environmental issues related to greenhouse gases (GHGs) and air pollution in Pakistan, the other energy resources are constricted. In rural areas, biomass resources are a fundamental need for domestic purposes. The prominent reason for environmental degradation and deforestation is due to ineffective use of such resources. Biomass resources for heating and cooking purposes are abundantly available in rural areas of Pakistan. In this context, this study helps us select the applicable cookstove technologies for the Sindh province for the proper utilization of biomass resources. The AHP (analytical hierarchy process) was used as the central methodology for the cookstove ranking. Concerning its improvement, four main criteria corresponding to 12 sub-criteria were considered for the selection of three cookstove technologies, i.e., traditional cookstoves (TCS), efficient cookstoves (ECS), and biogas cookstoves (BCS). The final decision of the AHP framework exposed the ECS technology as the advantageous technology, followed by the BCS and TCS, respectively. To analyze the results, a sensitivity analysis of the major results has also been carried out, and under the final ranking matrix, the ECS alternative got the highest weightage, nearly 36.56%, based on the developed model.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number11388
    Number of pages19
    JournalSustainability
    Volume14
    Issue number18
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 13 Sept 2022

    Bibliographical note

    Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

    Funding Information:
    The authors would also like to acknowledge the Higher Education Commission, the Government of Pakistan, and the British Council for supporting this study under the Knowledge Economy Partnership Project (KEP-PK-046).

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2022 by the authors.

    Funder

    The authors would also like to acknowledge the Higher Education Commission, the Government of Pakistan, and the British Council for supporting this study under the Knowledge Economy Partnership Project (KEP-PK-046

    Funding

    The authors would also like to acknowledge the Higher Education Commission, the Government of Pakistan, and the British Council for supporting this study under the Knowledge Economy Partnership Project (KEP-PK-046).

    FundersFunder number
    Government of Pakistan
    British CouncilKEP-PK-046
    Higher Education Commission of Pakistan

      Keywords

      • biomass energy
      • analytical hierarchy process;
      • cookstoves
      • sensitivity analysis;
      • Pakistan

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