Oil and gas (O&G) supply chain management (SCM) is complex because it deals with different geographic locations to manage demand and supply, transportation, inventory, and distribution. Blockchain technology has created an interesting research gap in the SCM domain, and this study is designed to describe the relevancy of blockchain technology for O&G SCM. SCM is based on agile and lean supply chains (SCs). Agile SC focuses on increasing flexibility and responsiveness to gain competitive advantages, and lean SC is based on eliminating waste and processes to improve firm performance. This study is an initial effort to propose a framework that suggests the implication of blockchain for O&G by providing an overview of O&G SCM. Data were collected from SC managers of O&G companies, and we analyzed the impact of agile and lean SCs on firm performance. The results indicate that agile SC is highly important for O&G industries in comparison to lean SC. This study proposes the key requirements o... [more]

LaMnO3 and 1% Pd-, Ag-, or Y-doped perovskite type nanomaterials were prepared by the sol-gel method, followed by heat treatment at a low temperature (600 °C for 6 h). The investigation through X-ray diffraction and FT-IR spectroscopy indicated that all samples were well crystallized, without secondary phases, and that the transition metal doping changed the crystal structure from the R-3c space group for the undoped LaMnO3 to the Pm-3m space group for the doped perovskite compounds. In this research paper, the efficiencies of the perovskite LaMnO3 materials for methyl orange removal were analyzed, wherein the effect of the doping ions and of the pH on the catalytic activity were studied together with a kinetic approach for the LaMnO3 materials at different values of the pH. Moreover, in the catalytic activity, it should be noted that a slightly better performance was obtained for the Ag-doped materials compared to the Y- and Pd-doped perovskite samples. The results presented for the p... [more]

The material selection of injection gas wells in acid gas flooding is the bottleneck of the successful implementation of the technical scheme. Through standard and literature research, the materials of the wellhead, wellbore, and packer for reinjection well in acid gas flooding are preliminarily established, and then the suitable materials are further screened by using the weight-loss and surface characterization method. Finally, a new type of packer is designed to optimize the wellbore material. The results show that 35CrMo (CR = 0.0589 mm/y) steel is used for wellhead materials, 625 alloy steel is selected as the sealing surface, and 625 or 825 alloys (with CR ≤ 0.0055 mm/y) steel is used for wellhead sealing material. The main material of the packer is 718 Alloy (with CR ≤ 0.0021 mm/y). The cost of T95 steel within 20 years (1263 ten thousand yuan) of service is much smaller than that of G3 alloy (1771 ten thousand yuan), but after 30 years of service, its cost is close to that of G... [more]

Climate change and environmental sustainability are among the most prominent issues of today. It is increasingly fundamental and urgent to develop a sustainable economy, capable of change the linear paradigm, actively promoting the efficient use of resources, highlighting product, component and material reuse. Among the many approaches to circular economy and zero-waste concepts, biochar is a great example and might be a way to push the economy to neutralize carbon balance. Biochar is a solid material produced during thermochemical decomposition of biomass in an oxygen-limited environment. Several authors have used life cycle assessment (LCA) method to evaluate the environmental impact of biochar production. Based on these studies, this work intends to critically analyze the LCA of biochar production from different sources using different technologies. Although these studies reveal differences in the contexts and characteristics of production, preventing direct comparison of results, a... [more]

The lack of detect technology hinders the understanding of host-guest (H-G) chemical properties for thiolate-protected tiara-like structural nanoclusters (Mn(SR)2n). In this work, NMR spectroscopy is demonstrated as a powerful tool to probe the H-G structure of Mn(SR)2n both experimentally and theoretically. A low-field shifting and wide chemical shift (CS) signal of the H nucleus in CH2Cl2 is observed in the NMR spectrum of the mixture of CH2Cl2 and Pd8(PET)16 (PET is 2-phenylethanethiol), agreeing with the theoretical results that a deshielding area appears in the central cavity of Pd8(SR)16. All Mn(SR)2n own similar nucleus-independent chemical shift maps and deshielding cavities, which means that the H nucleus in small molecules trapped by Mn(SR)2n should have consistent low-field shifted CSs. However, such a phenomenon was only observed in the NMR spectrum of the mixed solution of Pd8(SR)16 and CH2Cl2, indicating that Pd8(SR)16 is the only one in the series of Pdn(SR)2n (n = 4~16)... [more]

Anthropogenic climate change, global warming, environmental pollution, and fossil fuel depletion have been identified as critical current scenarios and future challenges. Cement plants are one of the most impressive zones, emitting 15% of the worldwide contaminations into the environment among various industries. These contaminants adversely affect human well-being, flora, and fauna. Meanwhile, the use of cement-based substances in various fields, such as civil engineering, medical applications, etc., is inevitable due to the continuous increment of population and urbanization. To cope with this challenge, numerous filtering methods, recycling techniques, and modeling approaches have been introduced. Among the various statistical, mathematical, and computational modeling solutions, Python has received tremendous attention because of the benefit of smart libraries, heterogeneous data integration, and meta-models. The Python-based models are able to optimize the raw material contents and... [more]

Ranging from simple food ingredients to complex pharmaceuticals, value-added products via microbial fermentation have many advantages over their chemically synthesized alternatives. Some of such advantages are environment-friendly production pathways, more specificity in the case of enzymes as compared to the chemical catalysts and reduction of harmful chemicals, such as heavy metals or strong acids and bases. Fungal fermentation systems include yeast and filamentous fungal cells based on cell morphology and culture conditions. However, filamentous fungal fermentation has gained attention in the past few decades because of the diversity of microbial products and robust production of some of the most value-added commodities. This type of fungal fermentation is usually carried out by solid-state fermentation. However, solid-state fermentation poses problems during the scale-up for industrial production. Therefore, submerged fermentation for value-added products is usually preferred for s... [more]

Biochips are engineered substrates that have different spots that change colour according to biochemical reactions. These spots can be read together to detect different analytes (such as different types of antibiotic, pathogens, or biological agents). While some chips are designed so that each spot on its own can detect a particular analyte, chip designs that use a combination of spots to detect different analytes can be more efficient and detect a larger number of analytes with a smaller number of spots. These types of chip can, however, be more difficult to design, as an efficient and effective combination of biosensors needs to be selected for the chip. These need to be able to differentiate between a range of different analytes so the values can be combined in a way that demonstrates the confidence that a particular analyte is present or not. The study described in this paper examines the potential for information visualisation to support the process of designing and reading biochi... [more]

In the literature, several approaches have been proposed to integrate and optimize product supply and construction processes associated with demand management. However, in Industry 4.0, there needs to be more studies related to applying techniques that directly affect the programming and reprogramming process that integrates the industries at the operational level. This document proposes a flow-shop scheduling procedure to address the problem of planning the repair of medical equipment in public hospitals whose main objective is to eliminate downtime and minimize total production time. The research stems from the practical problem of responding to clinical users who make use of critical equipment, such as mechanical respirators, due to COVID-19, and the limited quantity of this equipment, which makes it necessary to have repair planning processes that seek to keep the equipment in operation for the most extended amount of time. The novelty of this study is that it was applied to a crit... [more]

Objective: To establish a method for the simultaneous determination of seven alkaloids in Semen Nelumbinis and its products, the extraction technology and HPLC method were optimized by the single factor experiment. Methods: Firstly, the samples were extracted ultrasonically with 1% formic acid ethanol and purified by PXC SPE column. Then, the extracts and the purified liquid were taken after concentration with nitrogen for quantitative analysis of seven alkaloids by HPLC method. Next, the contents of alkaloids in five samples were determined. Results: The method was fully validated and the result showed that seven kinds of alkaloids had good linear relation in the corresponding range of mass concentration, r2 > 0.999, where the detection limit was 0.5−1.5 mg/kg, the quantification limit was 1.25−4.5 mg/kg, the recovery was 83.33−116.04%, and the RSD of detection method was 1.06−5.25% (n = 7). In five samples, the contents of Lotusine and Neferine were the highest, Berberine Hydrochlori... [more]

Currently, intelligent ships are still in the early stages of development in terms of autonomous navigation and autonomous berthing, so almost no source of fault data can be obtained. Conducting an in-depth analysis of the failure modes of intelligent ships is critical to optimizing the design of smart ships and ensuring their normal and safe navigation. In this paper, the fixed-weight Failure Mode Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) is combined with the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method to analyze the failure modes and effects of intelligent ship positioning systems. This combined method not only overcomes the failure of traditional FMECA methods to differentiate between severity, incidence, and detection rates but also allows the correlation of failure causes to be analyzed, bringing the results of the analysis closer to reality. Through the expert scoring of failure modes, the failure modes of this system are risk-ranked, and the key failure cause... [more]

It is well known that with the development of economic globalization and increasing competition in the market, enterprises are facing a huge challenge in the unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem with setup time (UPMST). Determining the processing order of all jobs and assigning machines to production scheduling has become more complex and has research implications. Moreover, a reasonable production scheduling scheme can not only complete the production plan efficiently but also contribute to reducing carbon emissions. In this paper, a mathematical model with the goal of the shortest completion time is studied for the UPMST problem. An improved line-up competition algorithm (ILCA) is proposed to solve this model, and the search accuracy and rate of the algorithm are improved by the newly proposed heuristic workpiece allocation rules and variation strategies. From the perspective of evaluation purposes, the effectiveness and stability of the method are significantly superior to... [more]

Solid-state fermentation (SSF) is part of the pathway to consolidate waste as a relevant alternative for the valorization of organic waste. The objective of SSF is to produce one or several bioproducts of added value from solid substrates. Solid-state fermentation can use a wide variety of organic waste as substrates thus, it is an excellent candidate in the framework of the circular bioeconomy to change the status of waste from feedstock. The development of SSF was boosted in the previous decade by scientific efforts devoted to the production of hydrolytic enzymes. Nowadays, SSF has expanded to other valuable products: biosurfactants, biopesticides, aromas, pigments, and bio-flocculants, among others. This review explores the conditions to obtain the main emerging SSF products and highlight and discuss the challenges related to the scale-up of these processes and the bioproducts downstream, which hamper their further commercialization.

The smart and resilient transformation of manufacturing firms has flourished in the last decade. This paper investigates the smart and resilient transformation of manufacturing firms with the application of digital services. It uses a Serbian data set of 136 manufacturing firms from the Digital Servitization Survey from 2022 coordinated by IFIP WG5.7. The authors applied a different method approach through social network analysis, correlation analysis, and interviews with representatives from the manufacturing firms. The main results show that manufacturing firms that apply an adequate combination of services and digital technologies have the highest impact on the network of manufacturing firms. Moreover, the results show that applying digital technologies, such as additive manufacturing/3D printing, big data analytics, and digital twin, increases the gross annual turnover of manufacturing firms in the COVID-19 era. Finally, the results show that for a successful smart and resilient tr... [more]

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a technological revolution that enables human-to-human and machine-to-machine communication for virtual data exchange. The IoT allows us to identify, locate, and access the various things and objects around us using low-cost sensors. The Internet of Things offers many benefits but also raises many issues, especially in terms of privacy and security. Appropriate solutions must be found to these challenges, and privacy and security are top priorities in the IoT. This study identifies possible attacks on different types of networks as well as their countermeasures. This study provides valuable insights to vulnerability researchers and IoT network protection specialists because it teaches them how to avoid problems in real networks by simulating them and developing proactive solutions. IoT anomalies were detected by simulating message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) over a virtual network. Utilizing DDoS attacks and some machine learning algorithms such a... [more]

In light of the fact that three of the five healthiest meals on earth are fermented, fermentation came into focus of both customers, product developers, and researchers all around the world. Even in the cosmetics industry, fermented cosmetics have been increasingly introduced, creating a market emphasising the positive image that healthy fermented substances are environment-friendly and that it also aids skin health. Moreover, discovering usages for various naturally occurring organo-mineral rocks is a growing area of research. Thus, this study’s aim was to combine the benefits of alginite and Lactobacilli (LAB) for cosmetic applications and investigate their combined effect on the skin considering the fermentation parameters as well, such as biomass and lactic acid concentration. The examined LAB strains were Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Limosilactobacillus reuteri, and Lactococcus lactis, and a non-LAB probiotic strain Bifidobacterium adolescentis was also stud... [more]

This paper presents the results of applying hydrophobic deep eutectic solvents (HDESs) for the extraction of metal ions from a real hydrochloric acid solution after leaching the cathodes of three different types of Li-ion batteries. Aliquat 336-, D2EHPA- and menthol-based HDESs developed by us were used in this study. The optimal HCl leaching conditions chosen are 80 °C, 2 M HCl, 6 h, solid:liquid ratio = 1:25. The results of stepwise separation of the major elements using extraction with HDESs are presented. The HDESs used in the cross-current extraction made it possible to extract all elements with extraction ratios above 98%. It was shown that the suggested method could potentially be used in the process of recycling end-of-life Li-ion batteries.

The current scenario of society is to produce fuel from renewable energy resources. The purpose of this research work is to develop an integrated approach for glycerol valorization and biodiesel production. Employing a range of methodologies widely used in the industry, technical analysis and assessments of the process’s applicability in real-world situations are also made. The integrated process plant is simulated using Aspen Plus®. Several different sensitivity analyses are carried out to describe the process that improves efficiency and are designed to maximize hydrogen recovery from the reforming section. The integrated process results are compared with several existing standalone biodiesel production processes. Additionally, the results are verified with the theoretical studies on glycerol valorization. The outcomes of the process plant simulation reveal coherent results with the current industrial standards for the two processes. The results show that the amount of glycerol produ... [more]

Continuous casting is a dominant steelmaking process due to its steady-state nature, enhanced yield of steel production, and low consumption of energy and manpower. However, the production of defect-free cast products is still a big challenge, as the internal defects, including macro-segregation of alloying elements, cracks, and pores, can be easily formed during the solidification process, which seriously deteriorates the microstructure and mechanical properties of the cast products. Therefore, this paper puts forward the common solutions to overcome these problematic issues. The reduction technology can effectively improve the center segregation of the billet, bloom, and slab. The history of the development of the reduction technology is summarized and classified according to the variations in research trend. Furthermore, the basic principles and parameters of reduction technology are described to implement them in the actual production process. This paper compares the similarities a... [more]

Renewable source-derived carbon is found to be a green alternative catalyst to zeolite for the pyrolysis of plastics. However, only polyethylene (PE) catalytic pyrolysis over biomass-derived carbon has been extensively studied. In this work, carbon was produced from industrial organic solid waste using different activation agents, and their catalytic performance on the thermal degradation of typical polymers, namely PE, polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) were investigated. The degradation mechanisms and the roles of different active sites of the carbons are discussed. Steam failed to activate the carbon, which has a low specific surface area (6.7 m2/g). Chemical activation using H3PO4 and ZnCl2 produces carbons with higher specific surface area and more porosity. The pyrolysis characteristics of LDPE, PP, PS, and PET catalyzed by the carbons were studied using TGA and a fixed-bed reactor. The thermogravimetric results indicate that all three carb... [more]

The disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have forced many companies in the logistics sector to innovate, or even transform their business and underlying processes. Closing borders, limited supply and manpower, and continuous changes in regulations challenged many logistics firms to innovate. This study analyzes 5098 abstracts of logistics articles using text mining to identify and to quantify the changes in logistics trends and innovations before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and if these trends and innovations were accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Results indicate that (1) resiliency is an ongoing trend in logistics and has shown increasing importance during the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) there appears to be acceleration in digitalization trend in logistics based on emerging focus on blockchain, Internet of Things, data, drones, robots, and unmanned vehicles during COVID-19 pandemic, and (3) there seems to be no evidence of acceleration in sustainability due to COVID-19 de... [more]

Efficient cooling and heating solutions for nearly zero-energy solar dwellings are required to mitigate climate change and to make dwellings sustainable. The installed pipeline for a radiant heating system, which is only used for space heating when heating is necessary, can also be used to cool the room with only the enthalpic use of natural city water by releasing the natural city water through the embedded pipeline already installed for radiant heating. Natural city water used for radiant cooling can be used in necessary locations such as for toilets, washing cars, laundry facilities, and garden water, which corresponds to approximately 56% of the water we use at home. As a result, the embedded pipes that make up a radiant heating system can be converted to a passive intelligent radiant cooling system with minimal added installation and control systems. Thermal comfort and behavior analyses in an enclosure with a radiant cooling system are fulfilled through experimentation, mean radi... [more]

To better understand how positive bias and deposition pressure affect the plasma flow properties in the deposition chamber during the bias-enhanced MPCVD process, a two-dimensional axisymmetric model based on the discharge mechanism of pure H2 was constructed. The coupling process between different physical field models of the electromagnetic field, plasma, and temperature field in the MPCVD reactor is realized. We studied the influence of positive bias voltage and deposition pressure variation on microwave plasma flow characteristics in the deposition chamber. There was a bias voltage threshold phenomenon in the case of positive bias, and the suitable value range was narrow. Additionally, with the increase in the deposition pressure, the electron temperature in the deposition chamber tends to increase locally and reaches its maximum value when the pressure is approximately 30 torr. It provides new ideas and guidance for optimizing the process parameter setting of the bias-enhanced MPC... [more]

The existing results show the applicability of the Over-Parameterized Model based Hammerstein-Wiener model identification methods. However, it requires to estimate extra parameters and performer a low rank approximation step. Therefore, it may give rise to unnecessarily high variance in parameter estimates for highly nonlinear systems, especially using a small and noisy data set. To overcome this corruptive phenomenon. To overcome this corruptive phenomenon, in this paper, a robust Hammerstein-Wiener model identification method is developed for highly nonlinear systems when using a small and noisy data set, where two parsimonious parametrization models with fewer parameters are used, and an iteration method is then used to retrieve the true system parameters from the parametrization models. Such modification can improve the parameter estimation performance in terms of accuracy and variance compared with the over-parametrization model based identification methods. All the above-mentione... [more]

Black shank caused by Phytophthora nicotianae has become a destructive soil-borne disease to different flue-cured tobacco cultivars in Southwest China. The use of biochar amendments for microorganism synergy is a promising effective strategy for P. nicotianae development control. In this study, biochar samples were prepared from tamarisk with different pyrolization temperatures (300−500 °C). The effect of pyrolytic temperatures on the bacteria immobilization efficiency of biochar was investigated. B. subtilis Tpb55 was successfully loaded on different biochars as biocontrol composites. The survival investigation of the inoculum suggested that biochar pyrolized at 300 °C (BC300), with a large pore opening diameter; a greater pore volume exhibited a better Tpb55 immobilization. A pot experiment indicated that Tpb55-loaded BC300 had a more pronounced decrease in the disease severity index of black shank disease and an increase in the soil pH, alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen, soil-available p... [more]