Discovering the sustainable challenges of biomass energy: a case study of Tehran metropolitan

The extensive oil and gas industrial sectors have caused several environmental problems in Iran. This motivated the governments to consider the potential capacity developing renewable energies such as biomass energy as an excellent strategic plan for sustainable sources. However, biomass energy is at the early stage because of multi-dimensional barriers (e.g., social, technical, and policy). Thus, there is a need to assess and evaluate the existing challenges and provide a strategic plan to assist decision-makers, for the country's sustainable biomass energy development. A novel approach is developed in the current study by extending the Interval-valued Spherical fuzzy best–worst method (IVSFS-BWM) and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (IVSFS-DEMATEL). n the seven steps methodology, IVSFS-BWM is utilized to derive the optimum importance weights of contributing factors in sustainable challenges of biomass energy. Then, IVSFS-DEMATEL is employed to find causality and interrelationships between the contributing factors. 39 numbers of challenges as influential parameters are taken into account to study the challenges of biomass energy. A comparison with familiar decision-making competitors’ tools has been conducted to show the advantages and robustness of the proposed methodology. The results indicated that the proposed method can adequately deal with subjective uncertainties from decision-making opinions, and the challenge of the contributing factors in biofuel energy as “fear of public health and safety hazards” needs necessary attention to the contributing factors in the system such as “lack of professional training institute,” “lack of infrastructural requirements,” and “lack of investors,” considering the resilience aspects. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis is conducted and by checking all contributing factors, concluded that the system is not fully sensitive to the variation, as it is less partially dependent and reflects the conformity of obtained results as accurately as possible. The outcomes assist decision-makers in providing an effective strategic plan by eliminating the multi-dimensional barriers in sustainable biomass energy development.