• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.8-18
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• 2023

Increasing of energy demand due to the rapid growth of global population and the development of world economy has inevitably resulted in the continuously increase of fossil fuel usage in the world. However, highly dependence on fossil fuels has necessarily brought about critical environmental issues and challenges such as severe air pollutions and rapid global warming. In order to settle these environmental and energy problems, clean energy generations in the conventional combustion processes have widely adapted in the world. In particular, novel thermochemical conversion processes such as pyrolysis and gasification have rapidly been applied for generating clean energy. Fluidized bed technologies having advantages such as various fuel use, easy continuous operation, high heat and material transfer, isothermal operation, and lower operation temperature are widely adopted and used because they are suitable for thermochemical energy conversion. The latest research trends and important findings in the thermo-chemical conversion process with fluidized bed technologies are summarized in this review. Also, the need for research such as layered materials and substances to reduce fine dust (biomass, natural resource waste, etc.) was suggested. Through this, it is intended to increase interest and understanding in fluidized bed technology and to present directions for solving future challenges in fluidized bed process technology development.

• Clean Technology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.327-332
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• 2023

This study investigated synthesis gas production via steam reforming of biogas. Ni-Al₂O₃ and Ni-CeO₂ catalysts were synthesized using the co-precipitation method, with controlled precipitation agent injection rates. Catalytic performances were tested at various temperatures, with a gas composition ratio of CH₄:CO₂:H₂O = 1:0.67:3 and a gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) of 647,000 mL h^-1 gcat^-1. The rate of precipitation agent injection influenced the characteristics of the catalysts depending on the type of support used. As the temperature increased, both the CO₂ reforming of methane and the reverse water gas shift reactions occurred. The Ni-Al₂O₃ catalyst, synthesized with a single injection of the precipitation agent, exhibited the best catalytic activity under conditions with sufficient steam supply among the prepared catalysts, due to its high Ni dispersion.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.152-168
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• 2019

The element arsenic, which is abundant in the Earth's crust, is used for various industrial purposes including materials for disease treatment and household goods. Various human activities, such as the disposal of soil waste, metal mining and smelting, and combustion of fossil fuels, have caused the pollution of the environment with arsenic. Recently, guidelines for arsenic in rice have been adopted by the Korean ministry of food and drug safety to prevent health risks based on rice consumption. Because of the exposure to arsenic and its accumulation in the human body through various channels, such as air inhalation, skin contact, ingestion of drinking water, and food consumption, integrated multimedia risk assessment is required to adopt appropriate risk management policies. Therefore, integrated human health risk assessment was carried out in this study using integrated exposure assessment based on multimedia (e.g., air, water, and soil) and multi-route (e.g., oral, inhalation, and dermal) scenarios. The results show that oral uptake via drinking water is the most common pathway of arsenic into the human body, accounting for 57%-96% of the total arsenic exposure. Among various age groups, the highest exposures to arsenic were observed in infants because the body weight of infants is low and the surface areas of infant bodies are large. Based on the results of the exposure assessment, the cancer and non-cancer risks were calculated. The cancer risk for CTE and RME is in the range of 2.3E-05 to 6.7E-05 and thus is negligible because it does not exceed the cancer probability of 1.0E-04 for all age groups. On the other hand, the cancer risk for RME varies from 6.4E-05 to 1.8E-04 and from 1.3E-04 to 1.8E-04 for infants and preschool children, exceeding the excess cancer risk of 1.0E-04. The non-cancer risks range from 5.4E-02 to 1.9E-01 and from 1.5E-01 to 6.8E-01, respectively. They do not exceed the hazard index 1 for all scenarios and all ages.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.223-230
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• 1994

A practical study on a drying and fermentation system equipped with a stirring machine operated mechanically, of pig manure was conducted to prove the efficiency of and practicability to an ordinary pig farm. The type of the drying bed was a round-shaped (r=3m) concrete structure and the stirring machine was adopted to stir and transfer dried pig manure to the fermentation tank. The dried pig manure was put into a fermentation tank ($V=18m^3$), which was aerated from pipe lines installed at the bottom. While water content of pig manure passing through a drying bed was remarkably reduced than before drying, the drying efficiency of this system decreased in winter. However, the temperature of pig manure piled up in the fermentation room in winter reached over $60^{\circ}C$ and excess water of pig manure was removed during the fermentation process. The reduction rate of water content of pig manure, to which dried pig manure was added as bulking material on the drying bed, was 52.1%, but when dried without bulking material it was only 19.7%. Although the content of $P_2O_5$ of dried pig manure was slightly higher than that of fresh pig manure, progressive changes in chemical composition between fresh and dried pig manure made no great difference. Among the contents of minerals of fresh and dried pig manure, CaO was the highest and the rest were in the decreasing order of $K_2O$, MgO, and $Na_2O$. Population density of E. coli and Streptococci of dried pig manure was reduced by 142 and 236 times that of fresh pig manure, respectively. The installation cost of this drying and fermentation system was 4,185,630 won (approximately 5,232 US $) and operating cost per year was 190,000 won (237.5US $) on the basis of self-labor condition.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.866-871
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• 2006

The nutrient recovery in phosphate crystallization process was investigated by using laboratory scale uptlow reactors, adopting sequencing batch type configuration. The industrial waste lime was used as potential cation source with magnesium salt($MgCl_2$) as control. The research was focused on its successful application in a novel integrated sludge treatment process, which is comprised of a high performance fermenter followed by a crystallization reactor. In the struvite precipitation test using synthetic wastewater first, which has the similar characteristics with the real fermentation effluent, the considerable nutrient removal(about 60%) in both ammonia and phosphate was observed within $0.5{\sim}1$ hr of retention time. The results also revealed that a minor amount(<5%) of ammonia stripping naturally occurred due to the alkaline(pH 9) characteristic in feed substrate. Stripping of $CO_2$ by air did not increase the struvite precipitation rate but it led to increased ammonia removal. In the second experiment using the fermentation effluent, the optimal dosage of magnesium salt for struvite precipitation was 0.86 g Mg $g^{-1}$ P, similar to the mass ratio of the struvite. The optimal dosage of waste lime was 0.3 g $L^{-1}$, resulting in 80% of $NH_4-N$ and 41% of $PO_4-P$ removal, at about 3 hrs of retention time. In the microscopic analysis, amorphous crystals were mainly observed in the settled solids with waste lime but prism-like crystals were observed with magnesium salt. Based on mass balance analysis for an integrated sludge treatment process(fermenter followed by crystallization reactor) for full-scale application(treatment capacity Q=158,880 $m^3\;d^{-1}$), nutrient recycle loading from the crystallization reactor effluent to the main liquid stream would be significantly reduced(0.13 g N and 0.19 g P per $m^3$ of wastewater, respectively). The results of the experiment reveal therefore that the reuse of waste lime, already an industrial waste, in a nutrient recovery system has various advantages such as higher economical benefits and sustainable treatment of the industrial waste.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.434-441
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• 2014

This study is purposed to measure airborne asbestos concentrations at demolition sites and surrounding areas of asbestos containing buildings in Seoul and examine whether the measurement results correspond with allowable exhaust standard for asbestos of the Asbestos Safety Control Act. The airborne asbestos concentrations for 37 sites were below the detection limit ($7fiber/mm^2$) in 101 (35%) out of 288 samples. The whole average airborne asbestos concentration in 37 sites was $0.003{\pm}0.002f/cc$(max 0.0013 f/cc) and almost the whole airborne asbestos concentrations were satisfied with allowable exhaust standard for asbestos, 0.01 f/cc, of the Asbestos Safety Control Act. So possibility of asbestos exposure is not yet a major concern at current levels for sites demolished of asbestos containing buildings in Seoul. Looking at each sampling point, the average airborne asbestos concentrations in boundary line of site, entrance of sanitation, around the workplace (in), around the workplace (out), negative pressure units, storage area for waste, outlet for waste and residential area of residents were respectively $0.002{\pm}0.002f/cc$, $0.004{\pm}0.002f/cc$, $0.004{\pm}0.002f/cc$, $0.004{\pm}0.002f/cc$, $0.004{\pm}0.002f/cc$, $0.005{\pm}0.004f/cc$, $0.005{\pm}0.003f/cc$ and $0.003{\pm}0.002f/cc$. As a result, all sampling points of study were satisfied with allowable exhaust standard for asbestos, 0.01 f/cc, of the Asbestos Safety Control Act.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.31-37
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• 2010

Livestock manures have a potential to be a valuable resource with an efficient treatment. In Korea, 42 million tons of livestock manure were generated in 2008, and 84 % of them were used for compost and liquid fertilizer production. Recently recycling of livestock manure for biogas production through anaerobic digestion is increasing, but its utilization in agriculture is still uncertified. In this study, there was applied co-digestate to the paddy for rice cultivation based on N supplement. Co-digestate was fertilizer fermented with pig slurry and food waste combined with the ratio of 70:30(v:v) in its volumetric basis. For assessing the safety of co-digestate, it was monitored the contents of co-digestate for seasonal variation, resulted in no potential harm to the soil and plant by heavy metals. The results showed that soil applied with co-digestate was increased in exchangeable potassium, copper and zinc mainly due to the high rate of pig slurry in co-digestate applied. Considering high salt content due to the combination with food waste, strict quality assurances are needed for safe application to arable land though it has valuable fertilizer nutrient. Leachate after treatment showed that the concentration of nitrate nitrogen washed out within two weeks. Considering the salt accumulation results in soil, it is highly recommended that the application rate of co-digestate should not exceed the crop fertilization rate based on N supplement. With these results, it was concluded that co-digestate could be used as an alternative fertilizer for chemical fertilizer. More study is needed for the long-term effects of co-digestate application on the soil and water environment.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.65-72
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• 2008

The purpose of the HLW deep geological disposal is to isolate and to delay the radioactive material release to human beings and the environment for a long time so that the toxicity does not affect to the environment. The main requirements for the HLW repository design is to keep the buffer temperature below $100\;^{\circ}C$ in order to maintain its integrity. So the cooling time of spent fuels discharged from the nuclear power plant is the key consideration factors for efficiency and economic feasibility of the repository. The disposal tunnel/disposal hole spacing, the disposal area and thermal capacity required for the deep geological repository layout which satisfies the temperature requirement of the disposal system is analyzed to set the optimized spent fuels cooling time. To do this, based on the reference disposal concept, thermal stability analyses of the disposal system have been performed and the derived results have been compared by setting the spent fuels cooling time and the disposal tunnel/disposal hole spacing in various ways. From these results, desirable spent fuels cooling time in view of disposal area is derived. The results shows that the time reaching the maximum temperature within the design limit of the temperature in the disposal site is likely shortened as the cooling time of spent fuels becomes short. Also it seems that the temperature-rising and-dropping patterns in the disposal site are of smoothly varying form as the cooling time of spent fuels becomes long. In addition, it is revealed that a desirable cooling time of spent fuels is approximately 40-50 years when spent fuels are supposedly disposed in the deep geological disposal site with its structural scale under consideration in this study.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.179-187
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• 2008

After Canada has struggled with a radioactive waste problem over for 20 years, the Canadian government finally found out that its approach by far has been lack of social acceptance, and needed a program such as public and stakeholder engagement (PSE) which involves the public in decision-making process. Therefore, the government made a special law, called Nuclear Fuel Waste Act (NFWA), to search for an appropriate nuclear waste management approach. NFWA laid out three possible approaches which were already prepared in advance by a nuclear expert group, and required Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) to be established to report a recommendation as to which of the proposed approaches should be adopted. However, NFWA allowed NWMO to consider additional management approach if the other three were not acceptable enough. Thus, NWMO studied and created a fourth management approach after it had undertaken an comparison of the benefits, risks and costs of each management approach: Adaptive Phased Management. This approach was intended to enable the implementers to accept any technological advancement or changes even in the middle of the implementation of the plan. The Canadian PSE case well shows that technological R&D are deeply connected with social acceptance. Even though the developments and technological advancement are carried out by the scientists and experts, but it is important to collect the public opinion by involving them to the decision-making process in order to achieve objective validity on the R&D programs. Moreover, in an effort to ensure the principles such as fairness, public health and safety, security, and adoptability, NWMO tried to make those abstract ideas more specific and help the public understand the meaning of each concept more in detail. Also, they utilized a variety of communication methods from face-to-face meeting to e-dialogue to encourage people to participate in the program as much as possible. Given the fact that Korea has been also having a hard time in dealing with spent nuclear fuel management, all of these efforts that Canada has made with a PSE program would give good lessons and implications to the Korean case. In conclusion, as a deliberative participation program, PSE could be a possible breakthrough approach for the Korean spent nuclear fuel management.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.38 no.10
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• pp.908-913
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• 2001

Paper sludge Ash (PA) and Fly Ash (FA) wastes are usually land-filled for reclamation or substituted for cements as a resource. It could also offer some advantages when they are substituted for clay to preserve the environment. To recycle those wastes, the sintered specimen made of PA-FA-Clay system were examined to find the microstructure and physical properties. The ratio of clay to wastes was fixed as 30:70 by wt%, while PA to FA within waste portion were varied in the range of $1:6{\sim}7:0$. Those specimens were fired in $1150{\sim}1350^{\circ}C$. It was found that the relative density of sintered specimen was increased with amount of PA added at low sintering temperature (i.e, $1150{\sim}1200^{\circ}C$). This is due to increased amount of liquid during sintering. It is shown, however that at high sintering temperature ($1250{\sim}1350^{\circ}C$), the relative density of specimens was decreased with amount of PA added. This is because of overfiring phenomenon which may be able to induce an inhomogeneous microstructure and increased porosity. The mechanical properties of sintered specimen were depended upon the homogeneity of microstructure in accordance with SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) and pore size distribution analysis. For example, the compressive strength of 10PA-60FA-30Clay specimen sintered at $1225^{\circ}C$ was twice higher than that of 70PA-30Clay specimen even thought the relative density of those specimen was similar. This decreased strength of 70PA-30Clay specimen appears to be an inhomogeneity of microstructure due to overfiring.