Vehicle routing problem (VRP) is one of the widely researched areas in transportation science, mainly due to the potential cost savings and service improvement opportunities which brings to ...organizations involved in physical distribution of goods. In this paper, we develop a multi-depot green vehicle routing problem (MDGVRP) by maximizing revenue and minimizing costs, time and emission, and then, apply an improved ant colony optimization (IACO) algorithm that aims to efficiently solve the problem. The IACO model developed in this research uses an innovative approach in updating the pheromone that results in better solutions. The results achieved through the IACO demonstrate satisfying performance, which have higher solution quality when compared to the conventional ACO. The IACO algorithm used in this paper demonstrated a good level of responsiveness and simplicity when solving MDGVRP with multiple objectives.
Increasing greenhouse gas emissions and negative environmental consequences have raised worldwide attention to ecological issues. The development of carbon regulations (CRs) beside carbon capture and ...storage (CCS) systems is part of carbon mitigation policies (CMPs), which are following in recent years to control and manage carbon liberation. Along with environemtal policies, the utilization of renewable energy resources have been promoted significantly. However, the economic opportunities for renewable energy development considering CMPs have not addressed extensively. In this study, a stochastic mathematical programming model has been presented to minimize cost and downside risk (DSR) of the bioelectricity generation supply chain considering the pre‐ and postdisaster conditions. The role of several CMPs on the economic behavior of the system has been analyzed by investigating the potential uncertainties on material availability, material quality, and consumer demand. To consider disruption effects, the postdisaster stage has been classified into several substages including damage, recovery, and back to the sustainability stages. Mississippi State after the Katrina Hurricane is addressed as a case study to examine the performance of the proposed model. The results demonstrated that the occurrence of disruptive uncertainties creates 8,978,502 $, 8,864,335 $ and 8,884,055 $ as the DSR, under carbon tax policy (CTP), carbon offset policy (COP), and CCS, respectively. The effect of disruptive scenario
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with a 15% reduction of resource has led to the greatest postdisaster supply chain costs in comparison with other scenarios. Although the financial analysis showed CTP has the greatest DSR after the occurrence of disaster, this policy has the most investment attractions, as well as COP, with the internal rate of return (IRR) of 9%. While implementing the CCS policy with the IRR of 2% creates 7% missed opportunity costs compared with other CMPs.
A bioenergy generation supply chain has been investigated due to before and after disaster behavior patterns. Three substages are discussed: after disruption consists of damage stage, recovery stage, and back to sustainability stage. A two‐stage stochastic programming models are used to optimize costs of biomass–based supply chain under routine and disruptive uncertainties. The economic down side risk of supply chain by considering carbon regulations and carbon capture and storage system is analyzed. The considered uncertainties are material availability, material quality, and consumer demand over time.
Contaminated irrigation water can increase trace heavy metals concentration in agricultural soil. The present research aimed to investigate the effect of three types of irrigation water sources, ...including treated wastewater effluent, Gharasoo river water, and well water with chemical fertilizer, on the accumulation and ecological risk of heavy metals in agricultural soils. Soil samples were collected before and after crop irrigation to evaluate heavy metal concentrations. The samples were analyzed to determine the presence of arsenic, nickel, cadmium, iron, chromium, zinc, lead, copper, and manganese. Based on the results, the concentration of essential metals in the soil before the irrigation process was more than toxic metals. The different irrigation sources increased the concentration of all heavy metals in the soil, and the accumulation of Cr, Ni, and Cd significantly elevated more than others. Irrigation resources' effectiveness in transferring heavy metals to the soil was obtained as treated wastewater effluent < well water with fertilizer < river water. Furthermore, the potential ecological risk index (RI) for irrigated soil was in a high-risk category. Therefore, it is recommended that the river water should not be used to irrigate vegetables to the utmost possible. Finally, the low heavy metals concentration and the presence of nutrients in treated wastewater effluent make this source the most suited source of irrigation because it eliminates the need for chemical fertilizers by farmers and transfers fewer heavy metals to the soil.
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•A third party reverse logistic provider (3PRLP) selection and evaluation process is developed.•A multiple attribute decision making (MADM) model to evaluate and select 3PRLPs in the presence of risk ...factors is proposed.•A fuzzy step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) approach to weight the evaluation criteria is applied.•A fuzzy (COPRAS) is proposed to rank and select the sustainable third-party reverse logistics providers in the presence of risk factors.•A real world case study is used from automotive industry to validate the quality of our model.
Reverse logistics is the backward process of collecting and redistributing products at the end-of-life from customers to producers and manufacturers for reuse, remanufacturing and disposal purposes. While reverse logistics brings several economic benefits, it seems to become a necessity for businesses to remain competitive in a world that environmental and social aspects of business activities are key to sustainable development. The operations and management of reverse logistics systems is a complex task that requires substantial level of infrastructure, technology, expertise and experience. Therefore, increasingly many business organizations tend to outsource their reverse logistics activities to third-party reverse logistics providers (3PRLPs). In this paper, we propose a multiple attribute decision making (MADM) model to rank and select 3PRLPs, using fuzzy step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) to weight the evaluation criteria. Accordingly, a developed fuzzy complex proportional assessment of alternatives (COPRAS) was proposed to rank and select the sustainable 3PRLPs in the presence risk factors. The suggested model was applied to a case study from automotive industry. Eventually, COPRAS and COPRAS-G methods were considered for the purpose of comparison and validation. As a result, the most sustainable 3PRLP was selected. While incorporating risk factors into our analysis, our study shows that environmental and social drivers are increasingly becoming dominant when selecting 3PRLPs.
Nitrate is a groundwater pollutant which in higher concentrations limits, leads to health hazard such as Methemoglobinemia and formation of nitrosamine compounds. In this research, the nitrate and ...nitrite concentrations in all water resources in the villages of Songor plain were determined and the relationship between these values with the water table and zonation of nitrate concentration were investigated in the GIS environment. In this study, 37 samples of all groundwater resources of Sonqor plain were taken in, high water (March 2016) and low water (October 2017) periods. Water nitrate levels were then determined by spectrophotometry and results compared with national standards of Iran and analyzed by SPSS. Finally, the concentration distribution mapping was carried out in GIS environment and the factors affecting nitrite changes were analyzed. Nitrate concentration of water resources of Sonqor plain was fluctuating at 3.09–88.5 mg per Liter. In one station, nitrite concentrations in the high (88.5 mg/L) and low (71.4 mg/L) water seasons were higher than the maximum limit. Low thickness of alluvium, the site of wells in the downstream farmlands, the farming situation of the region, nitrate leaching from agricultural soils and wide use of nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture were considered as the causes of the pollution in one station. Though the average concentration of nitrate and nitrite are not high in this region, but because of problematic consequences of high nitrate concentrations to human health, proper management in use of chemical fertilizers, treatment or disposal of contaminated wells and protection of water wells is highly recommended.
This study aimed to assess the transfer factor (TF) of heavy metals (HMs) from soil to commonly consumed vegetables irrigated with different water sources. The field study covered 36 m2 of ...agricultural land in Kermanshah province, Iran, divided into nine equal-sized plots. Coriander, basil, and radish were the three types of vegetables cultivated and subjected to irrigation over two months, utilizing three different water sources: treated wastewater effluent (TWE), river water (RW), and well water + nitrogen fertilizer (WWF). After the irrigation and harvesting stages, soil samples from the cultivation area and harvested vegetables were collected. These samples underwent analysis using the ICP-OES method to assess HM levels and subsequent calculation of the TF of HMs from soil to plants. The results revealed that the TF levels indicated plants' relatively weak response (TF < 1) to the absorption of HMs. For non-toxic elements (Mn, Fe, Zn, Cu, Ni), TF values were generally higher than those for toxic elements (Cd, As, Pb) across all three vegetable types and irrigation treatments. The study's findings suggest that the TF of HMs in the studied vegetables varied based on the irrigation source and vegetable type. Various factors, including the type of irrigation source and vegetable, influenced the TF of HMs, each having different impacts on the transfer rate of each HM. The study highlights the importance of monitoring irrigation water and soil quality to prevent the accumulation of HMs in cultivated vegetables, thereby mitigating potential risks to human health.
Interests in Closed-Loop Supply Chain (CLSC) issues are growing day by day within the academia, companies, and customers. Many papers discuss profitability or cost reduction impacts of ...remanufacturing, but a very important point is almost missing. Indeed, there is no guarantee about the amounts of return products even if we know a lot about demands of first products. This uncertainty is due to reasons such as companies’ capabilities in collecting End-of-Life (EOL) products, customers’ interests in returning (and current incentives), and other independent collectors. The aim of this paper is to deal with the important gap of the uncertainties of return products. Therefore, we discuss the forecasting method of return products which have their own open-loop supply chain. We develop an integrated two-phase methodology to cope with the closed-loop supply chain design and planning problem. In the first phase, an Adaptive Network Based Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) is presented to handle the uncertainties of the amounts of return product and to determine the forecasted return rates. In the second phase, and based on the results of the first one, the proposed multi-echelon, multi-product, multi-period, closed-loop supply chain network is optimized. The second-phase optimization is undertaken based on using general exact solvers in order to achieve the global optimum. Finally, the performance of the proposed forecasting method is evaluated in 25 periods using a numerical example, which contains a pattern in the returning of products. The results reveal acceptable performance of the proposed two-phase optimization method. Based on them, such forecasting approaches can be applied to real-case CLSC problems in order to achieve more reliable design and planning of the network
The human body is primarily water and healthy drinking water is vital to human life. Today, the bottled-water industry has been widely developed in most countries and more than 150 several brands of ...bottled water are produced in Iran. Considering the increasing consumption of bottled water and its potential for contamination with harmful chemical and microbial agents such as nitrate, the aim of this study was to assess the nitrate concentration and also the microbial quality of bottled water in a number of brands produced in the Torbat-e Heydarieh city in 2017. In present descriptive-analytical research, random sampling (80 samples) was done by collecting 1.5 l bottled water with different production dates from 20 factories. These samples were collected in four different seasons. Measurement of nitrate concentration and microbial quality including total and fecal coliforms, were performed according to the Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater. The results indicated that, in general, the mean concentration of nitrate in all samples was range 0.6–16 mg/L and all samples are within the national standard of Iran (less than 50 mg/L) and international standards. Also, total coliforms and fecal coliforms in any of the studied samples were zero.
In this research, the villages with water supply systems under the supervision of the Water and Wastewater Company in Poldasht County, Iran in 2015 was studied. 648 samples were taken from 57 ...villages during 12month period to test for microbial quality according to the latest guidelines of WHO. Fecal coliform, coliform, turbidity, pH and free residual chlorine were analyzed. Also we used linear Regression statistical analysis for collected data. Result of Data showed that 13.6% of the villages under study had contaminated water resources. In 100 percent of the water sample resource the turbidity level was less than Iranian maximum permissible levels (5 NTU). There was a linear relation between the Free residual color and Coliform in different month of follow up (r = −0.154, P < 0.001). Data suggests water resources should be comprehensively planned and monitored keeping in view the WHO recommended parameters.
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