• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.67-76
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• 2021

Biogasification is a technology that produces environmentally friendly fuel using methane gas generated in the process of stably decomposing and processing organic waste. Biogasification is the most used method for energy conversion of organic waste with high moisture content, and is a useful method for organic waste treatment following the prohibition of direct landfill (2005) and marine dumping (2013). Due to African Swine Fever (ASF), which recently occurred in Korea, recycling of wet feed is prohibited, and consumers such as dry feed and compost are negatively recognized, making it difficult to treat food waste. Accordingly, biogasification is attracting more attention for the treatment and recycling of food waste. Korea's energy consumption amounted to 268.41 106toe, ranking 9th in the world. However, it is an energy-poor country that depends on foreign imports for about 95.8% of its energy supply. Therefore, in Korea, the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS) is being introduced. The domestic RPS system sets the weight of the new and renewable energy certificate (REC, Renewable energy certificate) of waste energy lower than that of other renewable energy. Therefore, an additional incentive system is required for the activation of waste-to-energy. In this study, the operation of an anaerobic digester that treats food waste, food waste Leachate and various organic wastes was confirmed. It was intended to be used as basic data for preparing the waste-to-energy incentive system through precise monitoring for a certain period of time. Four sites that produce biogas from organic waste and use them for power generation and heavy gas were selected as target facilities, and field surveys and sampling were conducted. Basic properties analysis was performed on the influent sample of organic waste and the effluent sample according to the treatment process. As a result of the analysis of the properties, the total solids of the digester influent was an average of 12.11%, and the volatile solids of the total solids were confirmed to be 85.86%. BOD and CODcr removal rates were 60.8% and 64.8%. The volatile fatty acids in the influent averaged 55,716 mg/L. It can be confirmed that most of the volatile fatty acids were decomposed and removed with an average reduction rate of 92.3% after anaerobic digestion.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.28-37
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• 2022

The lignite and bituminous coal are mainly used in thermal power plant. They exhaust green house gas (GHG) such as CO₂, and become deplete, thus require alternative energy resources. To solve the problem, the hydrochar production from biomass is suggested. In this study, both hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) and solvothermal carbonization (STC) were used to produce high quality hydrochar. To improve the reactivity of water solvent process in HTC, STC process was conducted using ethanol solution. The experiments were carried out by varying the solid-liquid ratio (1:4, 1:8, 1:12), reaction temperature (150~300 ℃) and retention time (15~120 min) using kenaf. The characteristic of hydrochar was analyzed by EA, FT-IR, TGA and SEM. The carbon content of hydrochar increased up to 48.11%, while the volatile matter decreased up to 39.34%. Additionally, the fuel characteristic of hydrochar was enhanced by reaction temperature. The results showed that the kenaf converted to a fuel by HTC and STC process, which can be used as an alternative energy source of coal.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.203-218
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• 2009

The development of lithium-ion battery (LIB) technologies and their application in the field of large-scale power sources, such as electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid EVs, and plug-in EVs require enhanced reliability and superior safety. The main components of LIBs should withstand to the inevitable heating of batteries during high current flow. Carbonate solvents that contribute to the dissociation of lithium salts are volatile and potentially combustible and can lead to the thermal runaway of batteries at any abuse conditions. Recently, an interest in nonflammable materials is greatly growing as a means for improving battery safety. In this review paper, novel approaches are described for designing highly safe electrolytes in detail. Non-flammability of liquid electrolytes and battery safety can be achieved by replacing flammable organic solvents with thermally resistive materials such as flame-retardants, fluorinated organic solvents, and ionic liquids.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.373-384
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• 2017

A new era with the $4^{th}$ Industrial Revolution certainly brings new opportunities for human to explore human's activities outside of the Earth. After the Apollo program, exploration for lunar resources and establishment of lunar base seem to be in reality. This could be due to new findings by the LCROSS and LRO proving the advanced scientific development and new scientific results about the moon from Asian countries including China with Chang'E missions. It is expected that fossil fuels will be in shortage in the near future and at this time, Helium-3 could be an energy resource as a replacement of the fossil fuels. At present it is well known that countries like Russia, USA, and Europe will continue to investigate on lunar exploration especially with landers toward future human activities on the moon to establish a lunar base. With this point of view, it is important for human to understand lunar resources and prepare for prospective utilization of lunar resources. This review paper considers on a point of view in both lunar resource exploration and establishment of lunar base.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.26-35
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• 2023

Generally, solvent-type coatings generate a large amount of volatile organic chemicals(VOC), which are carcinogenic substances, in the manufacturing process, and their use is regulated due to environmental problems. There is also the problem of resource depletion due to limited fossil fuels. Therefore, in this study, UV-curable urethane acrylate oligomers were synthesized with different contents of isosorbide, which is a biomass material, and proceeded to evaluate the physical properties of coatings. As the isosorbide contents increased, the viscosity, glass transition temperature, tensile strength, stain resistance, and pencil hardness increased, but elongation and flexibility decreased, and BOI-3 showed the best adhesion. The isosorbide content of the oligomer fixed at 20%, UV-curable urethane acrylate oligomer was synthesized according to the content ratio of polycaprolactone diol(PCL) and Ecoprol H1000(Ecoprol). As the PCL/Ecoprol content ratio increased, the glass transition temperature, elongation, and flexibility increased, but the tensile strength and pencil hardness decreased. It was confirmed that the adhesion and stain resistance increased by improving the surface bonding strength of PCL. All films of oligomers synthesized were transparent without discoloration.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.248-254
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• 2016

Efficacious wastewater treatment is essential for increasing sewage sludge volume and implementing strict environmental regulations. The operation cost of sludge treatment amounts up to 50% of the total costs for wastewater treatment plants, therefore, an economical sludge destruction method is crucially needed. Amid several destruction methods, wet air oxidation (WAO) can efficiently treat wastewater containing organic pollutants. It can be used not only for sludge destruction but also for useful by-product production. Volatile fatty acids (VFAs), one of many byproducts, is considered to be an important precursor of biofuel and chemical materials. Its high reaction condition has instituted the study of gravity pressure reactor (GPR) for an economical process of WAO to reduce operation cost. Simulation of subcritical condition was conducted using Aspen Plus with predictive Soave-Redlich-Kwong (PSRK) equation of state. Conjointly, simulation analysis for GPR depth, oxidizer type, sludge flow rate and oxidizer injection position was carried out. At GPR depth of 1000m and flow rate of 2 ton/h, the conversion and yield of VFAs were 92.02% and 0.17g/g, respectively.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.460-467
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• 2016

A filamentous cyanobacterium, Limnothrix sp. KNUA012, was axenically isolated from a freshwater bloom sample in Lake Hapcheon, Hapcheon-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea. Its morphological and molecular characteristics led to identification of the isolate as a member of the genus Limnothrix. Maximal growth was attained when the culture was incubated at 25℃. Analysis of its lipid composition revealed that strain KNUA012 could autotrophically synthesize alkanes, such as pentadecane (C₁₅H₃₂) and heptadecane (C₁₇H₃₆), which can be directly used as fuel without requiring a transesterification step. Two genes involved in alkane biosynthesis－an acyl-acyl carrier protein reductase and an aldehyde decarbonylase－were present in this cyanobacterium. Some common algal biodiesel constituents－myristoleic acid (C_14:1), palmitic acid (C_16:0), and palmitoleic acid (C_16:1)－were produced by strain KNUA012 as its major fatty acids. A proximate analysis showed that the volatile matter content was 86.0% and an ultimate analysis indicated that the higher heating value was 19.8 MJ kg⁻¹. The isolate also autotrophically produced 21.4 mg g⁻¹ phycocyanin－a high-value antioxidant compound. Therefore, Limnothrix sp. KNUA012 appears to show promise for application in cost-effective production of microalga-based biofuels and biomass feedstock over crop plants.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.39-52
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• 2007

Quantitative analysis on release behavior of the $^{85}Kr\;and\;^{14}C$ fission gases from the spent fuel material during the voloxidation and OREOX process has been performed. This thermal treatment step in a remote fabrication process to fabricate the dry-processed fuel from spent fuel has been used to obtain a fine powder The fractional release percent of fission gases from spent fuel materials with burn-up ranges from 27,000 MWd/tU to 65,000 MWd/tU have been evaluated by comparing the measured data with these initial inventories calculated by ORIGEN code. The release characteristics of $^{85}Kr\;and\;^{14}C$ fission gases during the voloxidation process at $500^{\circ}C$ seem to be closely linked to the degree of conversion efficiency of $UO_2\;to\;U_3O_8$ powder, and it is thus interpreted that the release from grain-boundary would be dominated during this step. The high release fraction of the fission gas from an oxidized powder during the OREOX process would be due to increase both in the gas diffusion at a temperature of $500^{\circ}C$ in a reduction step and in U atom mobility by the reduction. Therefore, it is believed that the fission gases release inventories in the OREOX step come from the inter-grain and inter-grain on $UO_2$ matrix. It is shown that the release fraction of $^{85}Kr\;and\;^{14}C$ fission gases during the voloxidation step would be increased as fuel burn-up increases, ranging from 6 to 12%, and a residual fission gas would completely be removed during the OREOX step. It seems that more effective treatment conditions for a removal of volatile fission gas are of powder formation by the oxidation in advance than the reduction of spent fuel at the higher temperature.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.487-496
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to develop the preliminary source fingerprints of volatile organic compounds (VOC). The source categories studied were vehicles, gasoline vapor, gasoline storage tank, coating, dry cleaning and road covering. The source samples were collected using 6L electro-polished stainless steel canisters for about 20 seconds. From this study, the main component emitted from VOC sources in Korea was toluene. The toluene proportion for road covering, vehicles, coating and gasoline vapor were 35, 18, 16 and 5%, respec- tively. The C$_2$-C$\sub$5/ alkane and alkene compounds were mainly emitted from vehicles, gasoline vapor and gasoline storage tank. The main compounds of coating were m/p-xylene(34%), toluene(16%), 1,2,4-TMB(10%) and o-xylene(9%), which are aromatic hydrocarbons. In the case of dry cleaning, nonane(41%), 1,2,4-TMB (22%) and 1,3,5-TMB(13%) were mainly emitted.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.400-407
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• 2016

A unicellular green alga, Chlorella vulgaris KNUA027, was isolated from the roots of Panax ginseng seedlings and its biotechnological potential was investigated. The results of GC/MS analysis showed that C. vulgaris KNUA027 was rich in nutritionally important polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) such as alpha-linolenic acid (C_18:3 ω3, 45.8%, 50.8 mg/g) and hexadecatrienoic acid (C_16:3 ω3, 11.8%, 13.1 mg/g). Therefore, this Korean indigenous microalga may have potential as a source of omega-3 PUFAs. It was also found that the saturated palmitic acid (C_16:0, 37.1%, 41.2 mg/g), which is suitable for biodiesel production, was one of the major fatty acids produced by strain KNUA027. The proximate analysis showed that the volatile matter content was 88.5%, and the ultimate analysis indicated that the higher heating value was 19.8 MJ/kg. Therefore, the results from this research with C. vulgaris KNUA027 may provide the basis for the production of microalgae-based biofuels and biomass feedstock.