Energy recovery from waste presents a promising alternative for several countries, including Ghana, which has struggled with unsustainable waste treatment methods and an inadequate power supply for several decades. The current study adopts a comprehensive multi-criteria decision-making approach for the selection of an optimal waste-to-energy (WtE) technology for implementation in Ghana. Four WtE technologies are evaluated against twelve selection criteria. An integrated AHP-fuzzy TOPSIS method is applied to estimate the criteria’s weights and rank the WtE alternatives. From the AHP results, technical criteria obtained the highest priority weight, while social criteria emerged as the least important in the selection process. The overall ranking order of WtE technologies obtained by fuzzy TOPSIS is as follows: anaerobic digestion > gasification > pyrolysis > plasma gasification. The sensitivity analysis indicates highly consistent and sturdy results regarding the optimal selection. This study recommends adopting a hybrid system of anaerobic digestion and gasification technologies, as this offers a well-balanced system under all of the evaluation criteria compared to the standalone systems. The results of the current study may help the government of Ghana and other prospective investors select a suitable WtE technology, and could serve as an index system for future WtE research in Ghana.
Keywords: AHP; circular economy; fuzzy TOPSIS; multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM); municipal solid waste (MSW); waste-to-energy (WtE); zero waste.