• Clean Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.103-107
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• 2014

Acrylic acid is a commodity chemical which is applicable for various industries such as polymer and textile industry. Currently, it has been produced by chemical synthesis from petroleum. However, due to the high price of petroleum and global $CO_2$ emission, renewable materials such as sugar are interesting alternative carbon sources for the biological production of acrylic acid. For an economic production of acrylic acid from renewable carbon sources, a cost effective separation process for acrylic acid should be needed. In this study, reactive extraction by TOA (tri-n-octylamine) was used for the recovery of acrylic acid from its aqueous solutions. The effects of polarity of diluents and concentration of TOA on extraction equilibrium were investigated. The extraction efficiency was proportional to concentration of TOA and polarity of diluents and its value was more than 95% in the case of sufficient concentration of TOA. From IR spectroscopy, it was concluded that the ratio of (1,1) acid-amine complex was increased and the ratio of acid dimer was decreased with concentration of TOA. Equilibrium model based on IR spectroscopy was well fitted with experimental data.

• Clean Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.286-291
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• 2016

In this study we made fuel pellet from miscanthus biomass and investigated changes of physiological characteristics and electricity consumption of pelletizing process in comparison with fuel pellet made of pine sawdust. We also examined combustion characteristics including ash content and clinker forming ratio with fuel pellet made of mixing with micanthus biomass and lime powder. Bulk density of ground-miscanthus and pine sawdust were $158g\;L^{-1}$ and $187g\;L^{-1}$, respectively. Bulk density of ground miscanthus was lower than that of pine sawdust, but increased to $653g\;L^{-1}$ after pelletizing, which was similar to $656g\;L^{-1}$ of pine sawdust pellet. Moisture content in raw miscanthus and ground miscanthus were 17.0% and 11.8%, respectively. Moisture content in ground miscanthus was similar to that of pine saw dust and decreased to 6.73% after pelletizing, which was 7.7% lower than that of pine sawdust pellet. Although $27kWh\;ton^{-1}$ were required for compaction press that was an additional process in miscanthus pelleitizing, total required electricity was $193kWh\;ton^{-1}$ which was similar to $195kWh\;ton^{-1}$ of pine sawdust pellet pelleitizing. Pellet durability and pelletizing ratio of miscanthus were 98.0% and 99.7%, respectively, which were similar to 98.1% and 99.4% of pine sawdust pellet. When lime mixing ratio increased, ash melting degree and clinker forming ratio of miscanthus pellet increased. While higher heating value and clinker forming ratio of miscanthus pellet decreased.

• Clean Technology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.70-76
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• 2018

Pyrolysis of Saccharina japonica in an Auger reactor was conducted by varying the temperature and the auger speed and then physicochemical properties of the S. japonica-derived pyrolysis oil were analyzed. The maximum yield of S. japonica-derived pyrolysis oil (32 wt%) was obtained at a pyrolysis temperature of $412^{\circ}C$ and an auger speed of 20 rpm. Due to low carbon content and high oxygen content in the pyrolysis oil, the higher heating value of S. japonica-derived pyrolysis oil was $23.6MJ\;kg^{-1}$, which was about 60% that of conventional hydrocarbon fuels. By GC/MS analysis, 1,4-Anhydro-d-galactitol, dianhydromannitol, 1-hydroxy 2-propanone and isosorbide were identified as the main chemical compounds of S. japonica-derived pyrolysis oil. The bio-char has low higher heating value ($13.0MJ\;kg^{-1}$) due to low carbon content and high oxygen content and contains a large amount of inorganic components and sulfur.

• Clean Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.19-32
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• 2019

As regional air pollution gets worse by the sulfur oxides emitted from various types of vessels passing through the many countries, the International Maritime Organization establishes the emission control areas and regulates sulfur dioxide in those areas. In order to satisfy these regional regulations, the fuel selection method and the exhaust gas post-treatment device are applied to the ships. Due to the economic reasons, the post-treatment method of exhaust gas for reducing the amount of sulfur oxides discharged is mainly preferred. The scrubber which is dominantly used in the ships are the spray type system where the sprayed liquid drops used for capturing the soluble sulfur dioxides in the exhaust gas. The performance of the spray type system depends on the size distribution of the sprayed droplets. In order to evaluate this performance, we designed counterflow type scrubber and cyclone scrubber and evaluated the desulfurization efficiency and the amount of droplet evaporation according to the size of each droplet by using computational fluid dynamics. The Eulerian-Eulerian analysis method was used because the scrubber had a gas-liquid two-phase flow inside the scrubber. When the diameter of the droplet was $100{\mu}m$, $300{\mu}m$, $500{\mu}m$ and $700{\mu}m$. As a result, both of scrubbers showed high desulfurization efficiency and low evaporation amount at $500{\mu}m$ and $700{\mu}m$.

• Clean Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.179-188
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• 2019

Upon the combustion of coal particles in a coal-fired power plant, fly ash (80%) and bottom ash (20%) are unavoidably produced. Most of the ashes are, however, just dumped onto a landfill site. When the landfill site that takes the fly ash and bottom ash is saturated, further operation of the coal-fired power plant might be discontinued unless a new alternative landfill site is prepared. In this study, wet flotation separation system (floating process) was employed in order to recover unburned carbon (UC), ceramic microsphere (CM) and cleaned ash (CA), all of which serving as useful components within fly ash. The average recovered fractions of UC, CM, and CA from fly ash were 92.10, 75.75, and 69.71, respectively, while the recovered fractions of UC were higher than those of CM and CA by 16% and 22%, respectively. The combustible component (CC) within the recovered UC possessed a weight percentage as high as 52.54wt%, whereas the burning heat of UC was estimated to be $4,232kcal\;kg^{-1}$. As more carbon-containing UC is recovered from fly ash, UC is expected to be used successfully as an industrial fuel. Owing to the effects of pH, more efficient chemical separations of CM and CA, rather than UC, were obtained. The average $SiO_2$ contents within the separated CM and CA had a value of 53.55wt% and 78.66wt%, respectively, which is indicative of their plausible future application as industrial materials in many fields.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.332-339
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• 2021

Recently, due to concerns about the depletion of fossil fuels and the emission of greenhouse gases, the importance of hydrogen energy technology, which is a clean energy source that does not emit greenhouse gases, is being emphasized. Water electrolysis technology is a green hydrogen technology that obtains hydrogen by electrolyzing water and is attracting attention as one of the ultimate clean future energy resources. In this study, the surface properties of the porous transport layer (PTL), one of the cell components of the proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE), were controlled using a sandpaper to reduce overvoltage and increase performance and stability. The surfaces of PTL were sanded using sandpapers of 400, 180, and 100 grit, and then all samples were finally treated with the sandpaper of 1000 grit. The prepared PTL was analyzed for the degree of hydrophilicity by measuring the water contact angle, and the surface shape was observed through SEM analysis. In order to analyze the electrochemical characteristics, I-V performance curves and impedance measurements were conducted.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.915-921
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• 2020

Thermoacoustic instability caused by air conditioning in a combustion chamber has emerged as a problem that must be solved to establish a stable combustion system. Thermoacoustic instability is largely divided into primary and secondary acoustic instability. In this study, an experimental study of the effects of heat losses was conducted to investigate the mechanism of secondary acoustic instability. To generate the secondary acoustic instability, a quarter-wavelength resonator with one open end and one closed end was used, and the inside of the resonator was filled with premixed gases. Subsequently, secondary acoustic instability with downward-propagating flames could be realized via thermal expansion on the burnt side. To control heat losses qualitatively, an additional co-axial tube was installed in the resonator with air or nitrogen supply. Therefore, additional diffusion flames can be formed at the top of the resonator depending on the injection of the oxidizer into the co-axial tube when rich premixed flames are used. Consequently, secondary acoustic instability could not be achieved by increasing heat losses to the ambient when the additional diffusion flame was not formed, and the opposite result was obtained with the additional diffusion flame.

• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.69-78
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• 2021

Vegetable oils, such as palm oil and cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL), are used as major raw materials for bio-diesel in transportation and bio-heavy oil in power generation in South Korea. However, due to the high unsaturation degree caused by hydrocarbon double bonds and a high content of oxygen originating from the presence of carboxylic acid, the range of applications as fuel oil is limited. In this study, hydrotreating to saturate unsaturated hydrocarbons and remove oxygen in mixed bio-oil containing 1/1 v/v% palm oil and CNSL on monometallic catalysts (Ni and Cu) and bimetallic catalysts (Ni-Zn, Ni-Fe, Ni-Cu Ni-Co, Ni-Pd, and Ni-Pt) was perform under mild conditions (T = 250 ~ 400 ℃, P = 5 ~ 80 bar and LHSV = 1 h-1). The addition of noble metals and transition metals to Ni showed synergistic effects to improve both hydrogenation (HYD) and hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) activities. The most promising catalyst was Ni-Cu/��-Al2O3, and in the wide range of the Ni/Cu atomic ratio of 9/1~1/4, the conversion for HYD and HDO reactions of the catalysts were 90-93% and 95-99%, respectively. The tendency to exhibit almost constant reaction activity in these catalysts of different Ni/Cu atomic ratios implies a typical structure-insensitive reaction. The refined bio-oil produced by hydrotreating (HDY and HDO) had significantly lower iodine value, acid value, and kinetic viscosity than the raw bio-oil and the higher heating value (HHV) was increased by about 10%.

• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.93-103
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• 2021

As the seriousness and necessity of responding to climate change and reducing carbon emissions increases, countries around the world are continuing their efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. Among various efforts, research on CCUS, capturing and utilizing carbon dioxide generated when using carbon-based fuels, is actively being conducted. Studies on pressurized oxy-fuel combustion (POFC) that can be used with CCUS are also being conducted by many researchers. The purpose of this study is to analyze basic information related to the flame structure and pollutant emissions of pressurized oxy-fuel combustion. For this, a counter-flow diffusion flame model was used to analyze the combustion characteristics according to pressure and oxygen concentration. As the pressure increased, the flame temperature increased and the flame thickness decreased due to a reaction rate improvement caused by the activation of the chemical reaction. As oxygen concentration increased, both the flame temperature and the flame thickness increased due to an improvement to the reaction rate and diffusion because of a change in oxidizer momentum. Analyzing the related heat release reaction by dividing it into three sections as the oxygen concentration increased showed that the chemical reaction from the oxidizer side was subdivided into two regions according to the mixture fraction. In addition, the emission index of NO classified according to the NO formation mechanism was analyzed. The formation trend of NO according to each analysis condition was presented.

• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.124-131
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• 2021

As declarations of carbon neutrality are spreading throughout the world, much research is being conducted on biodegradable polymers. In this study, nanocellulose, which comprises the largest amount of natural polymer currently available in the world, was proposed as a substitute for non-biodegradable polymers. We chose to modify the surface functional group of crystalline nanocellulose using glycidoxypropyl trimethoxysilane (GPTMS), which is a silane coupling agent, and the product was then used to form a film with low density polyethylene (LDPE). We then conducted measurements using a Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FT-IR) in addition to measuring hydrophilic/lipophilicity of the surface functional group modification of crystalline nitrocellulose as well as that of a polymer composite using the hybrid nanocellulose (H-NC). For compatibility with petroleum-based polymers, the best tensile strength and transparency was found when the H-NC was reacted at pH 14 and 1 wt% compared with LDPE. From the test results, we found that it is possible to modify the surface functional groups of nanocellulose using a silane coupling agent. In addition, the high compatibility of nanocellulose with petroleum-based polymers is expected to help in reaching carbon neutrality by reducing the use of fossil fuels.