• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.356-363
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• 2011

The accidental releases of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) due to oil spills frequently ended up with soil and ground water pollution. TPH may be degraded through physicochemical and biological processes in the environment but with relatively slow rates. In this study an attempt has been made to develop an integrated chemical and biological treatment technology in order to establish an efficient and environment-friendly restoration technology for the TPH contaminated soils. A Fenton-like reaction was employed as a preceding chemical treatment process and a bioaugmentation process utilizing a diesel fuel degrader consortium was subsequently applied as a biological treatment process. An efficient chemical removal of TPH from soils occurred when the surfactant OP-10S (0.05%) and oxidants ($FeSO_4$ 4%, and $H_2O_2$ 5%) were used. Bioaugmentation of the degrader consortium into the soil slurry led to an increase in their population density at least two orders of magnitude, indicating a good survival of the degradative populations in the contaminated soils ($10^8-10^9$ CFU/g slurry). TPH removal efficiencies for the Fenton-treated soils increased by at least 57% when the soils were subjected to bioaugmentation of the degradative consortium. However, relatively lower TPH treatment efficiencies (79-83%) have been observed in the soils treated with Fenton and the degraders as opposed to the control (95%) that was left with no treatment. This appeared to be due to the presence of free radicals and other oxidative products generated during the Fenton treatment which might inhibit their degradation activity. The findings in this study will contribute to development of efficient bioremediation treatment technologies for TPH-contaminated soils and sediments in the environment.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.231-242
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• 2011

Recently, the green spaces in the urban areas were greatly reduced due to urbanization and industrialization. As urban structures such as roads and buildings are built, the amount of impervious area within a watershed increases. High impervious surfaces are the common causes of high runoff volumes as the soil infiltration capacity decreases and the volume and rate of runoff increase thereby decreasing the groundwater recharge. These effects are causing many environmental problems, such as floods and droughts, climate change, heat island phenomenon, drying streams, etc. Most cities attempted to reduce sewer overflows by separating combined sewers, expanding treatment capacity or storage within the sewer system, or by replacing broken or decaying pipes. However, these practices can be enormously expensive than combined sewer overflows. Therefore, in order to improve these practices, alternative methods should be undertaken. A new approach termed as "Low Impact Development (LID)" technology is currently applied in developed countries around the world. The purpose of this study was to effectively manage runoff by adopting the LID techniques. Small Constructed Wetland(Horizontal Subsurface Flow, HSSF) Pilot-scale reactors were made in which monitoring and experiments were performed to investigate the efficiency of the system in removing pollutants from runoff. Based on the results of the Pilot-plant experiments, TSS, $COD_{Cr}$, TN, TP, Total Pb removal efficiency were 95, 82, 35, 91 and 57%, respectively. Most of the pollutants were reduced after passing the settling tank and the vertical filter media. The results of this study can contribute to the conservation of aquatic ecosystems and restoration of natural water cycle in the urban areas.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.359-365
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• 2017

Impermeable surfaces such as transportation land uses including roads and parking lots accumulate high heavy metals and particulate matters concentration especially during dry season which worsens the river water quality and distort the water circulation system during rainfall events. Recently, the government has been promoting policies to install Low Impact Development (LID) facilities such as permeable pavements or grass blocks in parking lots or pavements. However, transition of asphalt-paved surfaces to permeable pavement generated asphalt wastes which are detrimental to the environment and has cost implications due to its removal and disposal. Therefore this study was conducted to provide a method of constructing a cost-effective permeable pavement to reduce waste generation and cost. In this study, comparative analysis of the water circulation capacity and economic efficiency of the traditional construction method and new method proposed in this study through the lab-scale experiment. The proposed method was to make holes in existing asphalt pavements, layout geotextile fabric and permeable base media such as sand before compaction. After compaction, layout grass blocks on the compacted base media then layout sand in between each grass blocks before compaction. Apparently, there was no significant difference between the traditional installation method of permeable pavement and the proposed method in this study considering surface runoff, infiltrated volume, stored volume, and rainfall-runoff delay time. The proposed method in this study generated 86% less wastes compared to the traditional installation method and has 70% cost reduction considering asphalt removal and disposal. The construction method proposed in this study yielded similar performance compared to the traditional installation method and water circulation effect, but was proven to be less complicated and economical.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.854-862
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• 2016

In summer 2010, we measured the concentration of dissolved oxygen (DO) and nutrients in the water collected at the bottom of Cheonsu Bay, off the west coast of Korea. We also measured nutrient fluxes across the sediment-water interface by deploying a fully-automated benthic lander, which collected time-series water samples inside a benthic chamber. We confirmed on-going hypoxia in the northern parts of the bay where polluted lake water was discharged. DO content in the water at the bottom was 2 mg/l, compared to 5 mg/l at the mouth of the bay in the south. Nutrient concentrations showed a trend that was opposite to that of DO. The variation of N/P ratios implies phosphate desorption and a release of nutrients caused by hypoxia. The organic carbon oxidation rate and oxygen consumption rate in the northern parts of the bay were about twice as fast as those at the mouth of the bay. Benthic fluxes of nutrients in the northern part of the bay were 4 to 6 times higher than those at the mouth. Our results imply that it is important to understand the role of hypoxia events to make an accurate estimation of material fluxes across the sediment-water interface.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.139-154
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• 2008

The nearly 75% of animal feed materials used for livestock production are imported every year in Korea. Most of imported feed ingredients are concentrated feeds such as com, wheat, soybean, soybean meal, etc. and they are used as the source materials for the production of assorted feed. The imported concentrated feeds are high in nitrogen and phosphorus. Therefore, the consistent import of feed ingredients may cause an increase of nutrient deposit in our agricultural ecosystem. In the current review, it was discussed with the situation of the feed importation and its nutritional composition to evaluate the nutrient load by the imported feeds onto agricultural ecosystem. The nutrient load caused by imported feeds in agricultural environment was compared with the nutrient demand for crop production. The amounts of N, $P_2O_5\;and\;K_2O$ introduced by the imported fteds in Korea were 371, 140 and 143 Ktons. And, the N, $P_2O_5\;and\;K_2O$ loads excreted from imported feeds in livestock were 148, 84 and 86 Ktons of N, $P_2O_5\;and\;K_2O$ and These nutrient loads by the imported feeds are at the percentage of N 52%, $P_2O_5$ 52% and $K_2O$ 42% in the comparison of total nutrient amounts excreted from livestock animals in Korea. The 82.3% of nutrients excreted from livestock was recycled to crop land as compost and liquid fertilizer, and the others were discharged to river after water treatment processing or disposed to ocean. Also, passing through the recycling process far the production of compost and liquid fertilizer, the amount of nutrients was reduced by the ammonia vaporization of livestock feces and urine. Accordingly, N 81, $P_2O_5$ 74 and $K_2O$ 76 Ktons in the nutrients excreted from livestock were estimated to be utilized in the crop land. Consequently, it was estimated that 44, 48 and 69 Ktons of N, $P_2O_5\;and\;K_2O$ were taken up with crops in the consideration of the ratio of mineralization, and the amounts of leached or deposited N, $P_2O_5\;and\;K_2O$ in crop land were estimated to be 37, 27 and 7 Ktons, respectively. It is estimated that 12%, 34% and 48% of N, $P_2O_5\;and\;K_2O$ introduced by the imported feeds were used by crops, and 10%, 34% and 5% of N, $P_2O_5\;and\;K_2O$ were leached or deposited in agricultural ecosystem. Therefore, considering the leached and deposited amounts of N, $P_2O_5\;and\;K_2O$ originated from the imported feed ingredients, the consistent import of feeds may gradually increase the nutrient load onto agricultural ecosystem.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.431-440
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• 2014

To propose the improvement and management plans to strengthen the pollutant removal efficiency of dam reservoir's constructed wetlands(CWs), the operation status and configuration of CWs (including water depth, operational flow, water flow distribution, residence time, and pollutant removal efficiency, aspect ratio, open water/vegetation ratio etc.) were analyzed in 10 major wetlands constructed in dam reservoirs. The pollutant concentrations in the inflows of the studied CWs were lower than those of American and European constructed wetlands. Especially, organic matter concentrations in all of inflows were below 3 mg/L(as BOD) due to advanced treatment of sewage disposal plant and an intake of low concentration water during dry and normal seasons. The average removal efficiency of total nitrogen(TN) and total phosphorus(TP) for 10 CWs ranged from 7.6~67.6%(mean 24.9%) and -4.9~74.5%(mean 23.7%), respectively, showing high in wetlands treating municipal wastewater. On the other hand, the removal efficiency of BOD was generally low or negative with ranging from -133.3 to 41.7%. From the analysis of the operation status and configuration of CWs, it is suggested that the low removal efficiency of dam reservoir's CWs were caused by both structural (inappropriate aspect ratio, excessive open water area) and operational (neglecting water-level management, lack of facilities and operation for first flush treatment, lake of monitoring during rainy events) problems. Therefore, to enable to play a role as a reduction facility of non-point source(NPS) pollutants, an appropriate design and operation manuals for dam reservoir's CW is urgently needed. In addition, the monitoring during rainy events, when NPS runoff occur, must be included in operation manual of CW, and then the data obtained from the monitoring is considered in estimation of the pollutant removal efficiency by dam reservoir's CW.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.29-38
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• 2015

Cyanide can be leached out from the cyanidation method which has been used to extract high-purity gold and silver from ores, and it becomes a variety of cyanide complexes associated with heavy metals contained in ores. Such cyanide complexes are considered as persistent and non-degradable pollutants which cause adverse effects on humans and surrounding environments. Based on binding force between heavy metals and cyanide, cyanide complexes can be categorized weak acid dissociable (WAD) and strong acid dissociable (SAD). This study comparatively evaluated the performance of photo-catalytic process with regard to forms of cyanide complexes. In particular, both effects of UV LED wavelength and surface modification of photo-catalyst on the removal efficiency of cyanide complexes were investigated in detail. The results indicate that the performance of photo-catalytic oxidation is significantly affected by the form of cyanide complexes. In addition, the effect of UV LED wavelength on the removal efficiency was quite different between free cyanide and cyanide complexes associated with heavy metals. The results support that the surface modification of photo-catalyst, such as doping can improve overall performance of photo-catalytic oxidation of cyanide complexes.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.140-147
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• 2005

We investigated the interactions between coastal waters of the Yeongil Bay, Korea, and oceanic waters of the Eastern Sea, as wet 1 as the development mechanism of vertical circulation currents in the bay. The oceanic waters of the bay have an average water temperature of $12.2{\sim}18.4^{\circ}C$ and salinity of $33.32{\sim}34.43$ PSU. Results of spectral analysis have shown that the period of revolution between oceanic and coastal waters is about 0.84-0.91 years in the surface waters and 1.84 years in the bottom layer. The wind direction in the bay shifts between SW and NE, with the main wind direction being SW during the winter period, and water mass movement is influenced by such seasonal variations in wind direction. Vertical circulation currents in the bay are structured by two phenomena: the surface riverine outflow layer from the Hyeong-san River into the open sea and the bottom oceanic inflow layer with high-temperature and salinity into the bay. These phenomena start the spring when the water mass is stable and become stronger in the summer when the surface cold water develops over a 10-day period. Consequently, tidal currents have little influence in the bay; rather, these vertical and horizontal circulation currents play an important role in the transport of the pollutant load from the inner bay to the open sea.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.63-68
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• 2014

Manufacturing facility for non-alcoholic drink, the parts of the food industry, disposes wastewater which includes high organic concentration and low nitrogen, phosphorus concentration. For this kind of wastewater, the treatment plant consists mainly of aerobic reactor and chemical coagulation process. And sand-filter or activated carbon process is normally installed further. However, aerobic reactor must have long HRT to treat high concentration of organic contaminant included in this wastewater, so the large site area is required. And settling tank which is normally applied for wastewater treatment facility has some problems such as water quality degradation caused by the sludge spill. To solve these problems, we applied MBR system for the wastewater. And the MBR pilot plant was installed nearby the wastewater treatment facility of W food factory and operated during long term to evaluate treatment efficiency. This plant was operated about 3 months and than the result was 97% of organic removal rate on conditions of flow rate $20m^3/day$, HRT 29 hr, recycle 4Q. However, contaminant removal ratio of bio-reactor decreased and TMP of membrane increased rapidly on more conditions.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.4B
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• pp.343-352
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• 2011

The water quantity by intake station as well as the tributary flow discharge acting as sink or source were added to the main flow rate in the present study and RMA-2 and RMA-4 models were applied to the reach from Pal-dang dam to Jam-sil submerged weir to investigate the influence of water supply withdrawal on the river flow and water quality. The numerical results revealed that the water supply withdrawal from 5 intake stations located upstream of Jam-sil submerged weir changed the total flow rate and therby induced different hydraulic characteristics in terms of water surface elevation and velocity. The changed flow field by the inclusion of water intake quantity led to the variation of water quality. By the consideration of the water supply withdrawal, the velocity structure was significantly disturbed by the outflowing flow condition nearby Gu-ui, Ja-yang, and Pung-nap intake stations. Furthermore, the mean velocity was lowered by 25% and the stage upstream of Gu-ui station rose upto 1.5 cm compared with the result by exclusion of water intake. In case of no water withdrawal, the distribution of BOD concentration was parallel throughout the domain. However, when the water withdrawal is considered, the distribution of BOD concentration nearby the Gu-ui, Am-sa, and Ja-yang station was signifiantly changed. In addition, the BOD concentration including the intake stations showed higher value at the downstream of the reach due to the loss of the discharge by water withdrawal effect. It is concluded that both the inflow and outflow discharges from tributaries and water intake stations should be included in the numerical simulation to analyze the hydrodynamic behaviors and mixing characteristics more accurately.