Limestone supplier selection for coal thermal power plant by applying integrated PF-SAW and PF-EDAS approach.

The flue gas desulfurization (FGD) process eliminates Sulphur dioxides from flue gas produced by the combustion of fossil fuels in furnaces, boilers, and other sources. Limestone is an essential element for the FGD process in coal-fired thermal power plants. FGD system contributes efficaciously to the prevention of air pollution through its limestone/gypsum treatment in greater reliability, higher efficiency, and more capability. The selection of the limestone suppliers is thus a crucial task to improve environmental aspects and reduce cost. To optimize the selection of limestone suppliers, appropriate criteria determination and an effective solution approach are the central undertakings, which need to be made scientifically. Addressing the multi-criteria nature of the selection process, this study introduces a new Multi-Criteria-Decision-Making (MCDM) approach to evaluate supplier selection and deliver a group decision making (GDM) method in an ambiguous and fuzzy environment. The proposed method also takes decision makers' judgments into account in times of pressure, bias, and lack of expertise during the evaluation process. Consequently, this study, for the first time, integrates the Pythagorean Fuzzy Sets (PFSs), Simple Additive Weighting (SAW), and Evaluation Based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) under GDM setting. This paper, also for the first time, includes the analyses of an evaluation for the right supplier selection in a thermal power plant. A real case study from Turkey is applied to illustrate the validity of the proposed approach. Sensitivity analysis and comparison of the results with the existing techniques are also presented to verify the significance of the found outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]