Recovery and reuse of high-acidity vegetable oil waste (higher content of free fatty acids) is a major concern for reducing their effect on the environment. Moreover, the conventional deacidification processes are known to show drawbacks, such as oil losses or higher costs of wastewater treatment, for which it requires great attention, especially at the industrial scale. This work presents the design of a highly efficient and sustainable process for Camelina sativa oil deacidification by using an ecofriendly method, namely molecular distillation. Experimental studies were performed to identify operating conditions for removing of free fatty acids (FFA) by molecular distillation which involves the oil evaporation in high vacuum conditions. The experimental studies were supported by statistical analysis and technical-economic analysis. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to formulate and validate second-order models to predict deacidification efficiency, FFA concentration, and triacylglyceride (TAG) concentration in deodorized oil based on three parameters effects, validated by statistical p-value < 0.05. For a desirability function value of 0.9826, the optimal parameters of evaporator temperature at 173.5 °C, wiper speed at 350 rpm, and feed flowrate at 2 mL/min were selected. The results for process design at optimal conditions (using conventional and molecular distillation methods) showed an efficiency over 92%, a significant reduction in FFA (up to 1%), and an increase in TAG (up to 93%) in refined oil for both methods. From an economical point of view, the deacidification by molecular distillation of Camelina sativa oil is a sustainable process: no wastewater generation, no solvents and water consumption, and lower production costs, obtaining a valuable by-product (FFA).
The automotive industry has set a highly demanding standard to meet customer satisfaction. The paper aimed to detail how quality analysis has been conducted to state the main causes that generated nonconformities of heat, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Problems have been reported on HVAC systems, such as noise, not being cold enough and moldy smell issues. All three problems determined by customer reports initiated the first contribution of this paper, namely by an initial quality study, and generated the investigation using is/is not problem scoping, data analysis, and graphical analysis. Pareto analysis and the Plan, Do, Check and Act (PDCA) approach are used to highlight the traceability of the actions performed in the evaluation of the problems and the detection of the causes related to each problem. The data analysis process and the data obtained from the analysis are the core of this paper. An immediate action plan is proposed, concluding with the hypothesis that the root cause is the blockage of the heater. This methodology has significant potential for being implemented, even for other components in the same industry or different sectors.
The purpose of this research is to identify the risks and deficiencies that affect the performance of companies that provide vehicle after-sales services. Thus, this paper highlights the results of a comparative study based on a questionnaire conducted at the level of six brands in the automotive industry. A model was developed to investigate the factors that affect the global performance of the after-sales sector and the authenticity of the information related to the issue studied. Moreover, based on the collected data, this study evaluates the strategies related to performance management used by the organizations studied. In the end, even if the results showed a score of 81% on the questionnaire, we found that companies that provide vehicle after-sales services have not implemented and do not maintain totally the strategies related to performance management. Consequently, the need for change can be emphasized. Based on the analyzed data in the second part of the paper, we identified deficiencies and risks in terms of the organization, operation and management of the service units. These results confirm that the vehicle repair service has a significant influence on employee and customer satisfaction, on the quality of the vehicles repaired and the repair completion time.
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