Abstract
The utilization of agricultural waste for producing charcoal briquettes is gaining significant attention as a sustainable alternative energy source. Converting these residues into charcoal briquettes not only addresses energy shortages but also provides an efficient solution for managing agricultural waste, contributing to environmental sustainability. This study proposes a novel methodology integrating a Data Envelopment Analysis Variant (DEAV) with the Best-Worst Method (BWM) to assess and rank biomass materials for charcoal briquette production. The DEAV-BWM model enhances the evaluation process by considering multiple criteria simultaneously and incorporating both efficiency and consensus among different evaluation methods. The key highlights of the methodology are as follows:•A novel method, called the DEAV model, for evaluating efficiency scores has been established, incorporating both Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Multi-Attribute Decision Making (MADM) concepts.•This paper introduces a novel hybrid method that combines the DEAV model with the BWM to evaluate and rank biomass materials for charcoal briquette production, enhancing the reliability and robustness of the decision-making process.•The proposed method can be adapted and applied to other areas of biomass utilization and beyond, providing a versatile tool for researchers and practitioners in the field of sustainable energy, engineering, and operations research.