• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.1-6
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• 2021

Mercury, once released, is not destroyed but accumulates and circulates in the natural environment, causing serious harm to ecosystems and human health. In the United States, sulfur-impregnated activated carbon is being considered for the removal of vapor mercury from the flue gas of coal-fired power plants, which accounts for about 32 % of the anthropogenic emissions of mercury. In this study, a high-efficiency porous mercury adsorption material was developed to reduce the mercury vapor in the exhaust gas of coal combustion facilities, and the mercury adsorption characteristics of the material were investigated. As a result of the investigation of the vapor mercury adsorption capacity at 30℃, the silica nanotube MCM-41 was only about 35 % compared to the activated carbon Darco FGD commercially used for mercury adsorption, but it increased to 133 % when impregnated with 1.5 % sulfur. In addition, the furnace fly ash recovered from the waste copper regeneration process showed an efficiency of 523 %. Furthermore, the adsorption capacity was investigated at temperatures of 30 ℃, 80 ℃, and 120 ℃, and the best adsorption performance was found to be 80 ℃. MCM-41 is a silica nanotube that can be reused many times due to its rigid structure and has additional advantages, including no possibility of fire due to the formation of hot spots, which is a concern when using activated carbon.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.423-429
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• 2008

Currently, Ash-free clean coal producing process by solvent extraction is under development. The produced ash-free clean coal can be directly combusted in a gas turbine which results in substantial improvement of power generation efficiency. However, the clean coal produced by the solvent extraction still contain trace amount of alkali metal which may cause corrosion on turbine blades during the direct combustion. In present work ${\alpha},{\beta}$-metal (Zr and Ti) phosphates and H-Y zeolite were synthesized and their ion exchange characterizations were investigated for the application on alkali metal removal for clean coal production. $Na^+$ ion removal capacities of the metal phosphates and H-Y zeolite were measured and compared in both aqueous solution (100 ppmw, $Na^+$) and coal dissolved N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP, 12 ppmw $Na^+$) at elevated temperature. In aqueous solution, the ${\beta}$ form metal phosphates showed very high ion exchange capacities compared to ${\alpha}$ form. ${\beta}$ form metal phosphates also showed higher $Na^+$ removal capacities than H-Y zeolite. In ion exchange medium of NMP, all the ${\alpha}$ form metal phosphates showed over 90% of $Na^+$ ion removal efficiency in the temperature range of 200 to 400 while that of H-Y zeolite decreased as a half when the temperature was over 350. In addition, the regenerated metal phosphates by acid treatment showed no sign of degradation in $Na^+$ removal efficiency. Among the metal phosphates used, $Zr_{0.75}Ti_{0.25}(HPO_4)_2$ showed the best performance in $Na^+$ removal and is expected to be the most suitable inorganic ion exchanger for the alkali metal removal process.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.203-212
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• 2005

Cellulose insulation is primarily manufactured from recycled newsprint and treated with fire retardants for the fire resistance. Thanks to the fire retardants, it is not combustible and flammable. In addition to that, Its thermal resistance is much better than that of fiberglass or rock wool. It is made from waste paper and easily decayed when it is demolished, and it has small embodied energy. So it is very environment-friendly building material. For broader use of cellulose insulation in buildings in Korea, it is necessary to test its physical performance to compare the results with the requirements on the Korean Building Code. To this end, apparent thermal conductivity (ka) measurements of Korean-made loose-fill cellulose insulations were recently completed using equipment that was built and operated in accordance with ASTM C 518 and the fire resistance was tested in accordance with ASTM C 1485. Korean loose-fill cellulose has thermal conductivity about 5% greater than the corresponding U.S. product at the same density. This is likely due to differences in the recycled material being used. Both spray-applied and loose-fill cellulose insulation lose about 1.5% of their thermal resistivity for $5.5^{\circ}C$ increase in temperature. The fire resistance of cellulose insulation is increased in linear proportion to the increase of the rate of fire retardant. Thanks to the high fire resistance, cellulose insulation can be used as a substitution of Styrofoam or Urethane foam which is combustible. The thermal conductivity of cellulose insulation was $0.037-0.043W/m{\cdot}K$ at the mean specimen temperature from $4-43^{\circ}C$. It corresponds to the thermal resistance of "Na Grade" according to the Korean Building Code. The effect of chemical content on thermal conductivity was negligible for all but the chemical-free specimen which had the highest value for the thermal conductivity over the temperature range tested. The thermal resistance of cellulose insulation is better than that of fiberglass or rock wool, and its fire resistance is higher than that of Styrofoam or Urethane foam. Therefore it can be substituted for those above considering its physical performance. Cellulose insulation is no more expensive than Styrofoam or rock wool, so it is recommended to use it more widely in Korea.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.9-16
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• 2019

In today's global energy market, the importance of green energy is emerging. Hydrogen energy is the future clean energy source and one of the pollution-free energy sources. In particular, the fuel cell method using hydrogen enhances the flexibility of renewable energy and enables energy storage and conversion for a long time. Therefore, it is considered to be a solution that can solve environmental problems caused by the use of fossil resources and energy problems caused by exhaustion of resources simultaneously. The purpose of this study is to efficiently produce hydrogen using plasma, and to study the optimization of DME reforming by checking the reforming reaction and yield according to temperature. The research method uses a 2.45 GHz electromagnetic plasma torch to produce hydrogen by reforming DME(Di Methyl Ether), a clean fuel. Gasification analysis was performed under low temperature conditions ($T3=1100^{\circ}C$), low temperature peroxygen conditions ($T3=1100^{\circ}C$), and high temperature conditions ($T3=1376^{\circ}C$). The low temperature gasification analysis showed that methane is generated due to unstable reforming reaction near $1100^{\circ}C$. The low temperature peroxygen gasification analysis showed less hydrogen but more carbon dioxide than the low temperature gasification analysis. Gasification analysis at high temperature indicated that methane was generated from about $1150^{\circ}C$, but it was not generated above $1200^{\circ}C$. In conclusion, the higher the temperature during the reforming reaction, the higher the proportion of hydrogen, but the higher the proportion of CO. However, it was confirmed that the problem of heat loss and reforming occurred due to the structural problem of the gasifier. In future developments, there is a need to reduce incomplete combustion by improving gasifiers to obtain high yields of hydrogen and to reduce the generation of gases such as carbon monoxide and methane. The optimization plan to produce hydrogen by steam plasma reforming of DME proposed in this study is expected to make a meaningful contribution to producing eco-friendly and renewable energy in the future.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.165-174
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• 2010

The numerical modeling of a coal gasification reaction occurring in an entrained flow coal gasifier is presented in this study. The purposes of this study are to develop a reliable evaluation method of coal gasifier not only for the basic design but also further system operation optimization using a CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics) method. The coal gasification reaction consists of a series of reaction processes such as water evaporation, coal devolatilization, heterogeneous char reactions, and coal-off gaseous reaction in two-phase, turbulent and radiation participating media. Both numerical and experimental studies are made for the 1.0 ton/day entrained flow coal gasifier installed in the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER). The comprehensive computer program in this study is made basically using commercial CFD program by implementing several subroutines necessary for gasification process, which include Eddy-Breakup model together with the harmonic mean approach for turbulent reaction. Further Lagrangian approach in particle trajectory is adopted with the consideration of turbulent effect caused by the non-linearity of drag force, etc. The program developed is successfully evaluated against experimental data such as profiles of temperature and gaseous species concentration together with the cold gas efficiency. Further intensive investigation has been made in terms of the size distribution of pulverized coal particle, the slurry concentration, and the design parameters of gasifier. These parameters considered in this study are compared and evaluated each other through the calculated syngas production rate and cold gas efficiency, appearing to directly affect gasification performance. Considering the complexity of entrained coal gasification, even if the results of this study looks physically reasonable and consistent in parametric study, more efforts of elaborating modeling together with the systematic evaluation against experimental data are necessary for the development of an reliable design tool using CFD method.

• Clean Technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.132-138
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• 2016

The emission of SO₂ is inevitable in case of combustion of most fossil fuels except LNG in commercial power plant which has a bad effect on the durability of SCR catalyst. To develop a low temperature SCR catalyst which has a high NOx removal performance and excellent durability to SO₂, V₂O₅/TiO₂ catalysts were prepared by coating on the metal foam substrate with the impregnation amount of Sb₂O₃ as promotor. This study has evaluated the NOx removal performance and the durability to SO₂ on a laboratory scale atmospheric reactor and analyzed the properties of the prepared catalysts by means of porosimeter, BET, SEM (scanning electron microscope), EDX (energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer), XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy). It was found that the surface area of catalyst increased with the impregnation amount of Sb₂O₃ and the NOx removal performance showed the highest value at the 2 wt% impregnation of Sb₂O₃. This results was considered to be due to the optimum active site on the catalyst surface. And also, Sb₂O₃ impregnated catalysts presented that NOx removal performance was maintained despite the exposure to SO₂ for 5 hours. Therefore it was confirmed that metal foam SCR catalyst for low temperature could be manufactured with the optimum control of Sb₂O₃ impregnation according to the SO₂ presence or not.

• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.341-349
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• 2021

In combustion facilities, the nitrogen and sulfur in fossil fuels react with oxygen to generate air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (NO_X) and sulfur oxides (SO_X), which are harmful to the human body and cause environmental pollution. There are regulations worldwide to reduce NO_X and SO_X, and various technologies are being applied to meet these regulations. There are commercialized methods to reduce NO_X and SO_X emissions such as selective catalytic reduction (SCR), selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) and wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD), but due to the disadvantages of these methods, many studies have been conducted to simultaneously remove NO_X and SO_X. However, even in the NO_X and SO_X simultaneous removal methods, there are problems with wastewater generation due to oxidants and absorbents, costs incurred due to the use of catalysts and electrolysis to activate specific oxidants, and the harmfulness of gas oxidants themselves. Therefore, in this research, microbubbles generated in a high-pressure disperser and reducing agents were used to reduce costs and facilitate wastewater treatment in order to compensate for the shortcomings of the NO_X, SO_X simultaneous treatment method. It was confirmed through image processing and ESR (electron spin resonance) analysis that the disperser generates real microbubbles. NO_X and SO_X removal tests according to temperature were also conducted using only microbubbles. In addition, the removal efficiencies of NO_X and SO_X are about 75% and 99% using a reducing agent and microbubbles to reduce wastewater. When a small amount of oxidizing agent was added to this microbubble system, both NO_X and SO_X removal rates achieved 99% or more. Based on these findings, it is expected that this suggested method will contribute to solving the cost and environmental problems associated with the wet oxidation removal method.

• Clean Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.256-262
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• 2019

Hydroxylammonium nitrate (HAN)-based liquid propellants are attracting attention as environmentally friendly propellants because they are not carcinogens and the combustion gases have little toxicity. The catalyst used to decompose the HAN-based liquid propellant in a thruster must have both low temperature activity and high heat resistance. The objective of this study is to prepare an Ru/alumina/metal foam catalyst by supporting alumina slurry on the surface of NiCrAl metal foam using a washing coating method and then to support a ruthenium precursor thereon. The decomposition activity of a HAN aqueous solution of the Ru/alumina/metal foam catalyst was evaluated. The effect of the number of repetitive coatings of alumina slurry on the physical properties of the alumina/metal foam was analyzed. As the number of alumina wash coatings increased, mesopores with a diameter of about 7 nm were well-developed, thereby increasing the surface area and pore volume. It was optimal to repeat the wash coating alumina on the metal foam 12 times to maximize the surface area and pore volume of the alumina/metal foam. Mesopores were also well developed on the surface of the Ru/alumina/metal foam catalyst. It was found that the metal form itself without the active metal and alumina can promote the decomposition reaction of the HAN aqueous solution. In the case of the Ru/alumina/metal foam-550 catalyst, the decomposition onset temperature was significantly lowered compared with that of the thermal decomposition reaction, and ${\Delta}P$ could be greatly increased in the decomposition of the HAN aqueous solution. However, when the catalyst was calcined at $1,200^{\circ}C$, the catalytic activity was lowered inevitably because the surface area and pore volume of the catalyst were drastically reduced and Ru was sintered. Further research is needed to improve the heat resistance of Ru/alumina/metal foam catalysts.