Evaluating fuel cell and hybrid energy technologies for aviation: A multi-criteria decision-making approach

Aviation and airport decarbonization requires energy options to be compared across environmental, technical, economic, and operational dimensions. Seven alternatives were evaluated: hydrogen cells, mixed/hybrid systems, grid connectivity options, multi-source energy generation, biomass gasification hybrid systems, cogeneration, and trigeneration combined cooling, heat, and power. A panel of 55 aviation, airport-facility, and sustainability professionals supplied pairwise judgments. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) priorities were examined with the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), the Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE), layer-specific machine-learning profiles, a Decision Tree diagnostic, and a technology-category patent landscape. All AHP matrices satisfied the threshold for the consistency ratio (CR < 0.10). Concordance across stakeholder-group rankings was moderate for the main criteria (Kendall's W = 0.600) and strong for the subcriteria (W = 0.759) and alternatives (W = 0.892). Hydrogen cells ranked first under AHP, TOPSIS, PROMETHEE, and the Decision Tree fit. Multi-source energy generation ranked second under AHP, PROMETHEE, and the Decision Tree but fourth under TOPSIS, exposing the effect of compensatory normalization. Leave-one-alternative-out evaluation of the Decision Tree yielded a mean squared error of 0.00285 ± 0.00488 and a root mean squared error of 0.0533. These values were interpreted as measures of internal rank-reproduction stability within the seven-alternative decision set rather than evidence of external predictive validity. The patent landscape was retained as contextual evidence of inventive activity rather than certified technological readiness. The integrated results support staged airport pilots in which lifecycle emissions, infrastructure compatibility, cost exposure, and supply resilience are measured jointly.