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The comprehensive use of available domestic energy resources, mainly coal and lignite, is the basis for the development of Poland’s economy and energy security due to the country’s large resource base. The implementation of clean coal technologies (CCT) is a necessary condition for maintaining coal’s leading position in Poland. Coal gasification technologies are seen as potentially attractive for the Polish economy, both for the chemical sector as well as for the mining sector. Working on the commercial implementation of coal gasification technologies, which ensures the effective substitution of scarce hydrocarbon fuels, will be a challenge to Polish industrial policy and support for CCT. This paper presents an analysis of coal gasification technologies using the decision support procedures, BOCR and SWOT analyses. These procedures helped determine the ranking of technologies and the types of development strategies plausible for the analysed technological variants. Taking into consideration the conditions of the Polish economy, the highest-ranking technologies included those aimed towards the production of methanol with the geological sequestration of carbon dioxide (CCS). In the case of underground coal gasification, it was found that the technology is not yet ready for implementation on a commercial scale and investment is subject to very high risk.

The Analytic hierarchy process is one of the most commonly used Multicriteria decision-making methods. The biggest drawback of this method is that it does not produce good results if some of the criteria are undesirable. There are many ways to overcome this problem, which are either too complex or too limited. This paper presents the application and results of one aspect of the general BOCR method. Namely, only an idea was taken, without restriction. Four approaches were used to eliminate the negative priorities of the same problem. Two of them are related to modifications of the value of alternatives by criteria for negative priorities, and two of them are associated with special processing of desirable and special processing of undesirable criteria. The problem was solved by applying the WASPAS method to check the results.

With the increasing population, the amount of wastewater that needs to be managed is also increasing. Population growth also increases energy demand. While treating wastewater containing organic matter and water, hydrogen energy can be produced at the same time. In this study, microbial fuel cells, dark fermentation, supercritical water gasification, and photobioreactors that produce hydrogen from wastewater have been evaluated and prioritized for the first time in terms of benefit, opportunity, cost, and risk criteria. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique and benefit, opportunity, cost, and risk (BOCR) model have been used to achieve this aim. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was performed to determine critical criteria for prioritizing technologies. With the analytic hierarchy process technique, it was determined that the criterion with the highest priority was benefit (53%), while the sub-criterion with the highest priority was technological development (33%) followed by operating cost (15%) and compliance with sustainability (12%). Supercritical water gasification technology was found to be the top priority with the AHP technique. In the BOCR model, dark fermentation was determined to be the highest priority technology. In the sensitivity analysis, changes in the weights of the opportunity and cost criteria showed that these criteria were critical. The results obtained show that dark fermentation, which is a technology close to the development, is preferred in the first rank because it has less risk and can produce a high rate of hydrogen. This study could spur more R&D work for researchers to industrialize this technology. It can also give an idea for different studies to researchers.Graphic abstract

Over the past few decades, there has been a growing need for businesses to become more environmentally friendly in their operations, products and services. However, the decision to undertake initiatives or programs that can help them achieve this goal is complex. While there are clear and desirable ecological benefits from these efforts, it is possible that there are also negative aspects that have to be considered. Our investigation presents a theoretical model that captures the variables, processes and dynamics involved in the decision to implement/not implement a green initiative. More specifically, we propose an analytic hierarchy process model that takes into account the benefits, opportunities, costs and risks that are associated with the potential implementation of these types of programs. A simulated example shows the utility of our proposed framework. Opportunities for future research are laid out.

The aim of this paper is to develop a strategic plan for selecting the best options for the supply of raw material to feed paper producing plants. The decision-making is examined within the framework of benefits, opportunities, costs, and risks (BOCR). A hierarchy is used to prioritize the BOCR, using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) ratings approach. A control hierarchy is then created and prioritized using the Analytic Network Process (ANP) to evaluate the \"control criteria\" of the system. There are a total of nineteen control criteria in the system and each controls a decision network evaluated using the ANP. The final synthesis of the system shows external procurement is the best choice.

Over the past few decades, innovations in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have led to a significant increase in the complexity of enterprise information systems. This has led to new challenges for enterprise architects, systems engineers, business managers and other decision makers who must cope with the complexity of business plans and processes (particularly automated engineering processes). In order to better manage this complexity, the Business Rule Group (BRG) has put forth the Business Motivation Model (BMM). The original BMM uses a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat) decision analysis approach. However, the SWOT framework contains significant limitations with respect to decision making and ICT risks, hampering the decision making ability of enterprise architects, business managers, engineers, and other decision makers. The AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) and ANP (Analytic Network Process) are among the most widely used decision making tools: they commonly implement a Benefit — Opportunity — Cost — Risk (BOCR) analysis to improve the effectiveness of business decision making. A new approach is put forth that replaces the original SWOT assessment with an ANP-based BOCR analysis. As well, the original BMM is modified and applied in a Component Architecture Framework (CAF).

A tool is proposed to evaluate multifactor risks during the operation of an innovation system of technological forecast. A modified BOCR method of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is developed. It allows: integrating the situation and force majeur risk evaluation into an overall structure of decision making with the help of AHP along with evaluating benefits, costs, and opportunities for each alternative; processing expert judgments in the form of fuzzy preference relations; taking into account a time parameter, when decision factors and alternatives may be corrected or fundamentally changed during some period. Indices of the risk of subjective judgment (information risk) evaluation are developed for given point, interval, and fuzzy expert judgments and probability distribution of expert judgments.