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The aim of this study was to evaluate the relative efficiency of major container ports in the Middle East between the years 2011-2013. The required information was collected from scientific resources. The input and output data was collected from the statistical yearbook of the Iranian Ports and Maritime Organization and the official website of each of the foreign ports. Firstly, in this study the relative efficiency of the ports was evaluated via a basic model of the DEA-technique, namely BCC-O. Afterwards, the ports were ranked based on the achieved results. To rank ports with 100% efficiency, the Anderson-Peterson method was used. Based on the results of the output-oriented CCR model that represents the overall technical efficiency, the port of Khorafkan has the highest coefficient of efficiency and Bandar-e-Imam Khomeini was the weakest port in this respect. The average efficiency of the studied ports was 54.3% in the period under study. Finally, virtual ports were proposed as a template for inefficient ports to improve efficiency.

Due to their toxicities, oil pollutions and its derivatives such as anthracene are one of the most important issues of environmental researches all over the world. Oil hydrocarbons in contaminated soils, sediments and water can be degraded by microorganisms. Removal of hydrocarbons from aqueous solutions is also possible using cultured bacteria. In this study, the anthracene bioremediation by Bacillus pumilus isolated from oil sediments of Imam Khomeini port, was investigated. This bacterium made no clear halo on blood agar medium and couldn’t disperse the mineral oil but created a halo with a diameter of 0.5 cm on the surface of crude oil. As a result, the bacterium was detected as a non-producing biosurfactant species. The optical density of this species in the sample containing 30 mg/l of anthracene finally reached to 0.086. Measurement of anthracene degradation by HPLC showed that %40.833 of mentioned hydrocarbon was removed after 5 days. Therefore, the results indicate that the isolated bacterium can probably behave the same in the natural environment and couid have the potential in bioremediation of this pollutant from environments.