A GIS-based multi-criteria fuzzy approach to select a suitable location for a MSW-based power plant and landfill: a case study, Khuzestan province, Iran

The aim of this study was to find the best location for municipal solid waste (MSW)-based power plant and landfill. Another goal was to investigate the energy recovery potential of MSW by anaerobic digestion and recycling process. A combination of multi-criteria fuzzy decision making system was applied in GIS environment to select the most suitable site for MSW-based power plant and landfill. The effective sub-criteria were classified into three main categories of environmental, social, and economic criteria, and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process was used to weight and integrate them. The method was used in a case study to find the best location of MSW-based plant and landfill in Khuzestan province, Iran. Based on the amount of MSW production in this province and as a result, the potential for energy savings by recycling the recyclable part and recovering energy from the digestible part, the amount of fossil fuel that can be saved and the emission of greenhouse gases that can be avoided were estimated. Based on the results, in total, recycling the recyclable portion (dry waste) and producing energy from the digestible portion (wet waste) of MSW in Khuzestan province, leads to avoid burning 7.4 billion MJ of fossil fuels and emitting 644,169 t of CO2eq GHG. The results also showed that the integration of fuzzy logic and multi-criteria fuzzy decision making system provides more flexibility in choosing the best location for the MSW-based plant. This method is flexible enough and in other situations can include other necessary criteria and can provide a comprehensive guideline for decision makers in choosing the optimal location for a power plant or a landfill.