In this review, strategies for crude oil desulfurization are evaluated by reviewing desulfurization literature. The most important characteristics of crude oil that affect the market price are its sulfur content and gravity. Low sulfur content of crude oil is particularly preferred. Petroleum includes crude oil, natural gas, and heavy oil. Petroleum refineries convert crude oils and other input streams into dozens of refined (co)products. Two properties are especially useful for quickly classifying and comparing crude oils: API gravity (a measure of density) and sulfur content. Sulfur is naturally present as an impurity in fossil fuels. The removal of organosulfur compounds from crude oil is an important aspect of all countries to reduce air pollution. The sulfur compounds from gasoline are generally removed by treatment with an alkaline solution sodium plumbite. At large scales, the most economical technology for converting hydrogen sulfide into sulfur is the Claus process. This well-established process uses partial combustion and catalytic oxidation to convert about 97% of the H₂S to elemental sulfur.

Green entrepreneurship is a novel sustainability term. A strategy has recently been put forward to make a business greener by minimizing the harmful impact on the environment and committing to sustainability while maintaining financial imperishability. However, some barriers prevent its implementation to its full potential. This study aims at investigating such barriers following the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach for analyzing relationships among them and for their prioritization, for the effective construction of green entrepreneurship. The study revealed that collaboration among stakeholders of business activities is vital to green entrepreneurship. Results also show that R&D and technology are foundational to overcoming other barriers, such as the costs associated with green initiatives, lack of knowledge and subjective awareness in the market, shortage of investors and involvement of private sectors, government regulations, cultural differences, dominating industries, lack of incentive and support mechanism, and bureaucracy. Subsequently, the results indicated that overcoming these barriers will enable us to change the short-term mindset of investors towards green entrepreneurship. Implications of this study include using the revealed set of barriers and their modeled relationships for policymaking as well as the development of better targeted and more effective strategies to overcome these barriers, enabling its implementation to its full potential.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to systematically investigate the patient flow and waiting time problems in hospital emergency departments (EDs) from an integrated voice of customer (VOC) and voice of process (VOP) perspective and to propose a new lean framework for ED process.Design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted to better understand patients' perceptions of ED services, lean tools such as process mapping and A3 problem-solving sheets were used to identify hidden process wastes and root-cause analysis was performed to determine the reasons of long waiting time in ED.Findings: The results indicate that long waiting times in ED are major concerns for patients and affect the quality of ED services. It was revealed that limited bed capacity, unavailability of necessary staff, layout of ED, lack of understanding among patients about the nature of emergency services are main causes of delay. Addressing these issues using lean tools, integrated with the VOC and VOP perspectives can lead to improved patient flow, higher patient satisfaction and improvement in ED capacity. A future value stream map is proposed to streamline the ED activities and minimize waiting times.Research limitations/implications: The research involves a relatively small sample from a single case study. The proposed approach will enable the ED administrators to avoid the ED overcrowding and streamline the entire ED process.Originality/value: This research identified ED quality issues from the integration of VOC and VOP perspective and suggested appropriate lean tools to overcome these problems. This process improvement approach will enable the ED administrators to improve productivity and performance of hospitals.

The objective of this study was to produce an innovative bigel formulation by combining glycerol monostearate (GMS) oleogel with hydrogels stabilized by various agents, including cold pressed chia seed oil by-product gum (CSG), gelatin (G), and whey protein concentrate (WPC). The findings indicated that the choice of hydrogel influenced the rheological, textural, and microstructural properties of the bigels. The G′ value of the bigel samples was higher than G″, indicating that all the bigels exhibited solid-like characteristics. In order to numerically compare the dynamic rheological properties of the samples, K′ and K″ values were calculated using the power law model. K′ values of the samples were found to be higher than K″ values. The K′ value of bigel samples was significantly affected by the hydrogel (HG)/oleogel ratio (OG) and the type of stabilizing agent used in the hydrogel formulation. As the OG ratio of bigel samples increased, the K′ value increased significantly (p < 0.05). The texture values of the samples were significantly affected by the HG/OG ratio (p < 0.05). The study’s findings demonstrated that utilizing CSG, G, and WPC at an OG ratio more than 50% can result in bigels with the appropriate hardness and solid character. The low-fat mayonnaise was produced by using these bigels. The low-fat mayonnaise showed shear-thinning and solid-like behavior with G′ values greater than the G″ values. Low-fat mayonnaise produced with CSG bigels (CSGBs) showed similar rheological properties to the full-fat mayonnaise. The results showed that CSG could be used in a bigel formulation as a plant-based gum and CSGB could be used as a fat replacer in low-fat mayonnaise formulation.

The current era of industrial economics necessitates warehouse and logistic distribution centers (DCs) to contribute productively toward an organization’s success. Playing such a critical productive role implies that logistics activities must be practiced effectively and efficiently. However, the indistinguishability between effectiveness and efficiency leads to a somewhat shallow interpretation, and consequently, a diluted evaluation. Hence, this paper aims to develop a productivity evaluation model for nine DCs belonging to an international automotive vehicles and spare parts company. The developed model was set up based on two multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approaches: the Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment of Evaluations II (PROMETHEE II) and data envelopment analysis (DEA). PROMETHEE II was employed to evaluate the effectiveness, while the DEA was utilized in order to measure the efficiency of the investigated DCs. The resulting hybrid model collectively creates what can conceptually and practically be considered a productivity evaluation model. The results also provide six different strategies through which distribution center locations can be evaluated in order to implement potential future initiatives.

Renewable energy is a promising alternative solution for the energy requirements because it is clean and environmentally safe. Projections are important tools for long-term planning and policy settings. According to estimates, by 2040 approximately half of the global energy supply would be from renewable sources. Biomass can be converted into electric power through several methods. Heat is used to thermochemically convert biomass into a fuel oil which is then burned like petroleum to generate electricity. Biomass can also be burned directly to produce steam for electricity production or manufacturing processes. One alternative for producing electricity from biomass in a gas turbine is direct combustion of biomass as a primary energy source. Biomass is burned directly to produce steam, the steam turns a turbine which derives a generator thus electricity is generated.