An IVIF-Distance Measure and Relative Closeness Coefficient-Based Model for Assessing the Sustainable Development Barriers to Biofuel Enterprises in India

Arunodaya Raj Mishra, Pratibha Rani, Fausto Cavallaro () and Ibrahim M. Hezam
Additional contact information
Arunodaya Raj Mishra: Department of Mathematics, Government College Raigaon, Satna 485441, Madhya Pradesh, India
Pratibha Rani: Department of Engineering Mathematics, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, Vaddeswaram 522302, Andhra Pradesh, India
Fausto Cavallaro: Department of Economics, University of Molise, Via De Sanctis, 86100 Campobasso, Italy
Ibrahim M. Hezam: Department of Statistics & Operations Research, College of Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11495, Saudi Arabia

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 5, 1-22

Abstract: Biofuel can become a favorable sustainable energy resource in India by relieving conventional fossil fuels. However, biofuel enterprises (BEs) are still in the preliminary phase because of sustainable development barriers (SDBs) in environmental, technological, economic, social, and regulatory aspects. In the paper, nineteen SDBs to biofuels are identified by studying the literature and decision experts’ (DEs’) views. Considering the involvement of multiple tangible and non-tangible barriers, the assessment of SDBs to BEs can be taken as a multi-attribute decision-analysis (MADA) problem. Since ambiguity and imprecision generally ensue in the assessment of SDBs to BEs, the doctrine of interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IVIFSs) has been recognized as a more sensible and proficient way to tackle uncertain MADA problems. Then, an integrated approach with IVIF-distance measure and IVIF-relative closeness coefficient models is presented to form associations between the SDBs to recognize the most important SDBs. The outcomes of this study show that four SDBs, i.e., “lack of effective storage facilities (EC-2), lack of investors (EC-3), technical issues associated with conversion technologies (T-2), and lack of trust between local societies, agencies, and developers (S-4)” are the leading obstacles. The paper also discusses some policies that can be utilized as a managing stage by the DEs to articulate guidelines for the operational exclusion of SDBs to biofuel enterprises.

Keywords: interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets; distance measure; closeness coefficient; sustainability; barriers; MADA; biofuel sector (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/5/4354/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/5/4354/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:5:p:4354-:d:1084078

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().