Utilization of renewable energies such as biofuels is rapidly progressing in many countries for environmental protection reasons. The surge of global energy demand and environmental concerns has led to greater desire to replace fossil fuels with clean and renewable fuels. One of the best substitutes to the gasoline is bioethanol. The main advantage of bioethanol is the environmentally-friendly nature of this fuel; which is produced sustainably from the nature. This study examines the potential of producing bioethanol from agricultural residues such as rice straw, wheat straw, barley straw, rice hulls, maize fodder, sugarcane bagasse and cotton stalks in the Mazandaran province in the south of Caspian Sea in Iran. This is the first time which a thorough study has been performed for this purpose in the south of Caspian Sea. The study evaluates 13 major cities of the province to find the best location for installing a bioethanol production plant. The evaluation is performed with the use of Vlsekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR), Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), and Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) methods. The Borda ranking method is used to summarize and suggest a single final location. Results show that the Mazandaran province has great bioethanol production potential although the Babol city ranks first for the bioethanol production plant development. The methodology described in this research provides future oriented and pro-active methods for convincing, professionals, policy makers, and management in order to decide and locate the best site for production of bioethanol fuel.

由于环境保护的原因，许多国家对可再生能源如生物燃料的利用正在迅速发展。全球能源需求的激增和对环境的关注导致人们更加渴望用清洁和可再生燃料替代化石燃料。汽油的最佳替代品之一是生物乙醇。生物乙醇的主要优点是这种燃料的环保特性。从自然界可持续地生产。这项研究检验了伊朗里海南部马赞达兰省的农业残留物，例如稻草，小麦秸秆，大麦秸秆，稻壳，玉米饲料，甘蔗渣和棉秆产生生物乙醇的潜力。这是第一次在里海南部进行了全面的研究。该研究评估了该省的13个主要城市，以找到安装生物乙醇生产厂的最佳地点。使用Vlsekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje（VIKOR），与理想解决方案相似的偏好顺序技术（TOPSIS）和简单加法加权（SAW）方法进行评估。Borda排名方法用于总结和建议单个最终位置。结果表明，尽管Babol市在生物乙醇生产装置开发方面位居第一，但Mazandaran省具有巨大的生物乙醇生产潜力。这项研究中描述的方法为说服，专业人员，决策者和管理人员提供了面向未来的主动方法，以便确定和定位生产生物乙醇燃料的最佳地点。