Prioritizing Circular Economy Operational Strategies for Biomass Supply Chains: An Integrated Delphi–AHP Framework

Abstract

The transition to a circular economy has increased the importance of operational strategies that improve resource recovery and environmental sustainability in biomass supply chains. Although many studies have been conducted on biomass consumption and the implementation of a circular economy, there is limited research that systematically prioritizes operational circular economy methods by combining expert consensus with structured multi-criteria decision-making approaches. The objective of this project is to find, validate, and prioritize operational circular economy ideas for biomass supply chains using an integrated Delphi-Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) framework. Candidate strategies were first identified through a comprehensive literature analysis and then validated by a panel of fourteen experts from academia, business, government, and biomass practitioners using the Delphi technique. The established evaluation criteria were weighted using the AHP, and the expert evaluations were pooled to obtain global priority scores of strategy performance. Results showed the most influential evaluation criteria were Environmental Impact (0.423) and Resource Recovery Potential (0.315), with a total decision importance of 73.8%. Of the six operational methods, reuse of agricultural by-products was the most important globally, followed by technology adoption and localized biomass processing. The results indicate that sustainability-oriented methods are more important than implementation-oriented factors. This study contributes by proposing an integrated Delphi-AHP decision-support framework that integrates expert consensus and multi-criteria prioritization to support evidence-based decision-making for policymakers, practitioners, and stakeholders aiming at improving circularity, environmental performance, and long-term sustainability in biomass supply chains.