A quantitative approach to the development of ballast water treatment systems in ships

Selection of the right ship ballast water treatment system is quite costly. In the present study, a decision-making approach was developed based on the associated issues, processes and the best solution under current conditions for selecting the ballast water treatment system for ships. The analysis of the study data revealed that the best decision-making system should include integrated DEMATEL (The Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) and ANP (Analytic Network Process) methods, especially since the current criteria interacted, there was a network among the criteria sets, and the system approach should be holistic. The study findings demonstrated that C4 (impact on the technical status of the ship) was the most significant criterion, while C11 (initial investment cost) was the most significant sub-criterion.