Energy Efficiency Improvement in Community-Scale Whisky Factories of Thailand by Various Multi-Criteria Decision Making Methods

摘要

The main objective is to select an appropriate decision making tool to be used for ranking energy efficiency improvement measures in community-scale whisky factories in Thailand. There are six measures comprising (1) insulation for the evaporator, (2) heat recovery from waste water, (3) pre-heating for fermented liquor, (4) high efficiency evaporator, (5) high efficiency condenser, and (6) high efficiency stove & air-fuel ratio improvement. The measures are considered under five criteria, which are cost (capital and maintenance), payback period, competitiveness, labor and social impacts, and environmental concerns. In this study, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Analytic Network Process (ANP) and Value Engineering (VE) are the tools in consideration. The study finds that both AHP and ANP use a system of pairwise comparison for scoring each alternative under the criteria. AHP structures a decision problem into a hierarchy with a goal, criteria and alternatives, while the ANP structures it as a network. With AHP, each criterion and alternative is considered independently from another, but with ANP, interdependent decisions are given among criteria and alternatives. VE is different from the other two by considering function of each alternative versus cost and then comparing among all of them without interdependence and pairwise comparison. It is found that the ANP is a good tool but it is too complex for factory owners who are all villagers. VE is cost oriented which is inappropriate for considering intangible aspects. In conclusion, AHP is the most appropriate application in this case due to the fact that it can consider both tangible and intangible aspects, with less complex methodology for the factory owners.