Decision making tool for produced water management : an application of multicriteria decision making approach

Mofarrah, Abdullah (2008) Decision making tool for produced water management : an application of multicriteria decision making approach. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (10MB)

Abstract

Produced water (PW) is the most significant source of waste discharge from the oil and gas operations. As such, development of an effective PW management system is important to minimize/mitigate the environmental impacts. However, there are challenges with respect to the selection of the best option due to competing and conflicting criteria. Selection of the best alternative often involves multiple criteria, which requires sophisticated multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) has widespread application in MCDM problems. It can effectively handle both qualitative and quantitative data. In this study AHP is integrated with an additive value model to enhance the decision making process. Linguistic terms are used to capture the subjective judgment of decision makers in the absence of quantitative data. -- However, the traditional AHP involves human subjectivity which leads to decision uncertainty. The vagueness type uncertainty associated in the decision making process is considered using the fuzzy based technique. The traditional AHP is modified to fuzzy AHP using extent analysis and integrated with the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) algorithm to solve the decision matrix. A hypothetical case study for PW management is demonstrated to illustrate and compare both traditional AHP and fuzzy based AHP methodology. -- The ecological risk assessment (ERA) of PW is conducted for this study and the ERA results for different PW management options are used in the integrated MCDM model under ecological risk criteria. -- This study has provided a framework for a decision support system which will be helpful for oil and gas industry persons to select the best PW management options with minimum efforts.

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