Title: A taxonomy and review of the multiple criteria decision-making literature in chemical engineering

Authors: Mohsen Pirdashti; Madjid Tavana; Mimi Haryani Hassim; Majid Behzadian; I.A. Karimi

Addresses: Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Shomal University, Amol 46134, Iran. ' Management Information Systems, Lindback Distinguished Chair of Information Systems, La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA 19141, USA. ' Department of Biotechnology and Chemical Technology, Aalto University School of Science and Technology, FIN-02015 HUT, Finland. ' Industrial Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Shomal University, Amol 46134, Iran. ' Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 117576, Singapore

Abstract: Many situations and problems in the chemical and related industries involve complex decision-making demanding discerning abilities and methods. Multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) tools and methods have been widely used to solve chemical engineering (CE) problems that involve conflicting and multiple objectives of diverse types. The main aims of this contribution are to: 1) explain and compare the most common MCDM methods; 2) present and classify more than 300 published papers related to the application of MCDM in CE. The various MCDM publications are classified based on the application area, decision context, and journal and year of publication to highlight the trends over the past three decades. This article can serve as a complete state-of-the-art reference for chemical engineers and it highlights the potential applications of MCDM in CE problems.

Keywords: multicriteria decision making; MCDM publications; decision support systems; DSS; multi-objective optimisation; chemical engineering; literature review; taxonomy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCDM.2011.043556

International Journal of Multicriteria Decision Making, 2011 Vol.1 No.4, pp.407 - 467

Published online: 29 Nov 2014 *

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