• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.141-155
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• 2017

In the present paper, we investigated the development status of precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) production using steel slag, which is one of mineral carbonation (MC) technologies, from the standpoint of $CO_2$ utilization. Principle, feature, and global and domestic development status of the mineral carbonation technology were discussed together with the overview of the production method and market of PCC. Mineral carbonation is known as stable and environmentally-friendly technology enabling economical treatment of industrials wastes. Typically, PCC is produced by the reaction of $CO_2$ with supernatant solution after Ca extraction from steel slag followed by the separation of solid and liquid. The development status of MC using steel slag is at the pilot stage (Slag2PCC at Aalto University), and there remains the process economics improvement for commercialization. Key technologies for the further development are efficient extraction of Ca ions from steel slag including impurities removal, valorization of PCC via shape and size control, usage development and value-addition of residual slag, and optimization of reaction conditions for continuous process setup, etc.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.3-18
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• 2019

Due to the increasing demand for clean energy, the consumption of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) is expected to grow steadily. Therefore, stable supply of lithium is becoming an important issue globally. Commercially, most of lithium is produced from the brine and minerals viz., spodumene, although various processes/technologies have been developed to recover lithium from other resources such as low grade ores, clays, seawaters and waste lithium ion batteries. In particular, commercialization of such recycling technologies for end-of-life LIBs being generated from various sources including mobile phones and electric vehicles(EVs), has a great potential. This review presents the commercial processes and also the emerging technologies for exploiting minerals and brines, besides that of newly developed lithium-recovery-processes for the waste LIBs. In addition, the future lithium-supply is discussed from the technical point of view. Amongst the emerging processes being developed for lithium recovery from low-grade ores, focus is mostly on the pyro-cum-hydrometallurgical based approaches, though only a few of such approaches have matured. Because of low recycling rate (<1%) of lithium globally compared to the consumption of lithium ion batteries (56% of lithium produced currently), processing of secondary resources could be foresighted as the grand opportunity. Considering the carbon economy, environment, and energy concerns, the hydrometallurgical process may potentially resolve the issue.

• Proceedings of the Korean Fiber Society Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.352-353
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• 2003

Clay 분산 유/무기 나노복합재 제조기술은 실리케이트 층상구조의 점토광물을 나노 스케일의 시트상의 기본 단위로 박리(exfoliation)하여 고분자수지에 분산시킴으로써 범용 고분자의 낮은 기계적 물성의 한계를 엔지니어링 플라스틱 수준으로까지 올리고자 하는 것으로서, 기존의 무기 충진재 및 강화재의 입자크기(〉1 $\mu\textrm{m}$)를 나노 스케일까지 분산시켜 기존 무기물 충진 복합재의 단점을 한층 보완하는 것을 목표로 하고 있어 성능 및 원가 면에서 매우 유리한 방법으로 21세기의 복합재료 생산시장의 판도에 상당한 변화를 가져오게 할 수 있는 핵심기술이라 할 수 있다. (중략)

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.83-93
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• 2021

NASA has a plan for the Artemis manned lunar mission in 2020. In 2030s, not only America but also other countries are considering to prepare for human to stay on the Moon at least for a month and necessary technology is currently being developed. With this plan, the mostly considered thing is lunar in-situ resource utilization. The most essential resources could be water and oxygen for sustain human life on the Moon. These resources are not supposed to be brought from the Earth, and it is economically sensible if they are obtained from the lunar surface. Because oxygen can be used as both oxidizer and propellent when a rocket departs from a lunar base directly to Mars, technology for extraction method of oxygen resource and its utilization has been being developed worldwide. This paper introduces oxygen distribution on the Moon and major oxygen extraction methods.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.612-620
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• 2016

Aqueous mineral carbonation process, in which $CO_2$ is captured through the reaction with aqueous calcium oxide (CaO) solution, is one of CCU technology enabling the stable sequestration of $CO_2$ as well as economic value creation from its products. In order to enhance the carbon capture efficiency, it is required to maximize the dissolution rate of solid reactants, CaO. For this purpose, the proper design of a reactor, which can achieve the uniform distribution of solid reactants throughout the whole reactor, is essential. In this paper, the effect of internal reactor designs on the solid dispersion quality is studied by using CFD (computational fluid dynamics) techniques for the pilot-scale reactor which can handle 40 ton of $CO_2$ per day. Various combination cases consisting of different internal design variables, such as types, numbers, diameters, clearances and speed of impellers and length and width of baffles are analyzed for the stirred tank reactor with a fixed tank geometry. By conducting sensitivity analysis, we could distinguish critical variables and their impacts on solid distribution. At the same time, the reactor design which can produce solid distribution profile with a standard deviation value of 0.001 is proposed.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.517-523
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• 2016

South Korea is the 8th biggest greenhouse gas emitter in the world due to its phenomenal economic growth based on manufacturing, and it is ranked first among OECD members for the rate of increase in emissions. Thus, the Korea government has voluntarily presented a reduction target and demonstrated global leadership. For the reduction of nation's GHG emission, importance of CCU(Carbon Capture and Utilization) along with CCS(Carbon Capture and Storage) technology development is increased. CCU technology is $CO_2$ utilization technology for the usage of $CO_2$ from flue gas and it can create a new economic value while reducing $CO_2$ emission. Therefore, with continued technology development, the number of application of CCU technology is increasing globally.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.675-692
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• 2023

This study used a Chatbot, a generative artificial intelligence (AI), to analyze the interaction between the Chatbot and students when exploring critical minerals from an epistemological aspect. The results, issues to be kept in mind in the teaching and learning process using AI were discussed in terms of the role of the teacher, the goals of education, and the characteristics of knowledge. For this study, we conducted a three-session science education program using a Chatbot for 19 high school students and analyzed the reports written by the students. As a result, in terms of form, the students' questions included search-type questions and non-search-type questions, and in terms of content, in addition to various questions asking about the characteristics of the target, there were also questions requiring a judgment by combining various data. In general, students had a questioning strategy that distinguished what they should aim for and what they should avoid. The Chatbot's answer had a certain form and consisted of three parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. In particular, the conclusion included commentary or opinions with opinions on the content, and in this, value judgments and the nature of science were revealed. The interaction between the Chatbot and the student was clearly evident in the process in which the student organized questions in response to the Chatbot's answers. Depending on whether they were based on the answer, independent or derived questions appeared, and depending on the direction of comprehensiveness and specificity, superordinate, subordinate, or parallel questions appeared. Students also responded to the chatbot's answers with questions that included critical thinking skills. Based on these results, we discovered that there are inherent limitations between Chatbots and students, unlike general classes where teachers and students interact. In other words, there is 'limited interaction' and the teacher's role to complement this was discussed, and the goals of learning using AI and the characteristics of the knowledge they provide were also discussed.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.194-201
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• 2021

Induced polarization (IP) effect is known to be caused by electrochemical phenomena at interface between minerals and pore water. Spectral induced polarization (SIP) method is an electrical survey to localize subsurface IP anomalies while injecting alternating currents of multiple frequencies into the ground. This method was effectively applied to mineral exploration of various ore deposits. Titanomagnetite ores were being produced by a mining company located in Gonamsan area, Gwanin-myeon, Pocheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Because the ores contain more than 0.4 w% vanadium, the ore deposit is called as Gwanin vanadiferous titanomagnetite (VTM) deposit. The vanadium is the most important of materials in production of vanadium redox flow batteries, which can be appropriately used for large-scale energy storage system. Systematic mineral exploration was conducted to identify presence of hidden VTM orebodies and estimate their potential resources. In geophysical exploration, laboratory geophysical measurement of rock samples is helpful to generate reliable property models from field survey data. Therefore, we performed laboratory SIP data of the rocks from the Gwanin VTM deposit to understand SIP characteristics between ores and host rocks and then demonstrate the applicability of this method for the mineral exploration. Both phase and resistivity spectra of the ores sampled from underground outcrop and drilling cores were different of those of the host rocks consisting of monzodiorite and quartz monzodiorite. Because the phase and resistivity at frequencies below 100 Hz are mainly dependent on the SIP characteristics of the rocks, we calculated mean values of the ores and the host rocks. The average phase values at 0.1 Hz were ores: -369 mrad and host rocks: -39 mrad. The average resistivity values at 0.1 Hz were ores: 16 Ωm and host rocks: 2,623 Ωm. Because the SIP characteristics of the ores were different of those of the host rocks, we considered that the SIP survey is effective for the mineral exploration in vanadiferous titanomagnetite deposits and the SIP characteristics are useful for interpreting field survey data.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.313-331
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• 2022

Natural or native abiotic molecular hydrogen (H₂) is a major component in natural gas, however yet its importance in the global energy sector's usage as clean and renewable energy is underestimated. Here we review the occurrence and geological settings of native hydrogen to demonstrate the much widesprease H₂ occurrence in nature by comparison with previous estimations. Three main types of source rocks have been identified: (1) ultramafic rocks; (2) cratons comprising iron (Fe²⁺)-rich rocks; and (3) uranium-rich rocks. The rocks are closely associated with Precambrian crystalline basement and serpentinized ultramafic rocks from ophiolite and peridotite either at mid-ocean ridges or within continental margin(Zgonnik, 2020). Inorganic geological processes producing H₂ in the source rocks include (a) the reduction of water during the oxidation of Fe²⁺ in minerals (e.g., olivine), (b) water splitting due to radioactive decay, (c) degassing of magma at low pressure, and (d) the reaction of water with surface radicals during mechanical breaking (e.g., fault) of silicate rocks. Native hydrogen are found as a free gas (51%), fluid inclusions in various rock types (29%), and dissolved gas in underground water (20%) (Zgonnik, 2020). Although research on H₂ has not yet been carried out in Korea, the potential H₂ reservoirs in the Gyeongsang Basin are highly probable based on geological and geochemical characteristics including occurrence of ultramafic rocks, inter-bedded basaltic layers and iron-copper deposits within thick sedimentary basin and igneous activities at an active continental margin during the Permian-Paleogene. The native hydrogen is expected to be clean and renewable energy source in the near future. Therefore it is clear that the origin and exploration of the native hydrogen, not yet been revealed by an integrated studies of rock-fluid interaction studies, are a field of special interest, regardless of the presence of economic native hydrogen reservoirs in Korea.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.296-303
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• 2013

Lysyl oxidase (LOX), extracellular matrix enzyme, is catalyzing lysine-derived crosslinks in collagen and elastin. Recently, several LOX-like proteins (LOXL, LOXL2, LOXL3 and LOXL4) have been identified in human but their specific functions are still largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the function of the LOX family genes during odontoblastic differentiation of human dental pulp (HDP) cells induced with odontogenic supplement (OS). The messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of LOX family genes and differentiation markers was assessed by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction analysis (RT-PCR). The formation of mineralization nodules was evaluated by alrizarin red S staining. Amine oxidase activity of HDP cells was measured by peroxidase-coupled fluormetric assay. The expressions of differentiation markers, such as alkaline phosphatase (ALP), osteopontin (OPN), osteocalcin (OCN), dentin matrix protein1 (DMP1), dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSPP) in HDP cells were increased after treatment with OS media. The LOX and LOXL mRNA expression were gradually increased in OS media, whereas LOX enzyme activities were markedly detected on day 7. The mRNA expression and LOX enzyme activity of collagen type I was very similar to the pattern of LOX gene. In this study, the expression of LOX and its isoforms, and activity of LOX were highly regulated during odontoblastic differentiation. Thus, these results suggest that LOX plays a key role in odontoblastic differentiation of HDP cells.