• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.186-194
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• 2009

Understanding the environmental fate of human and animal pharmaceuticals and their risk assessment are of great importance due to their growing environmental concerns. Although there are many potential pathways for them to reach the environment, effluents from sewage treatment plants (STPs) are recognized as major point sources. In this study, the removal efficiencies of the 43 selected priority pharmaceuticals in a conventional STP were evaluated using two simple models: an equilibrium partitioning model (EPM) and STPWIN$^{TM}$ program developed by US EPA. It was expected that many pharmaceuticals are not likely to be removed by conventional activated sludge processes because of their relatively low sorption potential to suspended sludge and low biodegradability. Only a few pharmaceuticals were predicted to be easily removed by sorption or biodegradation, and hence a conventional STP may not protect the environment from the release of unwanted pharmaceuticals. However, the prediction made in this study strongly relies on sorption coefficient to suspended sludge and biodegradation half-lives, which may vary significantly depending on models. Removal efficiencies predicted using the EPM were typically higher than those predicted by STPWIN for many hydrophilic pharmaceuticals due to the difference in prediction method for sorption coefficients. Comparison with experimental organic carbon-water partition coefficients ($K_{ocs}) revealed that log KOW-based estimation used in STPWIN is likely to underestimate sorption coefficients, thus resulting low removal efficiency by sorption. Predicted values by the EPM were consistent with limited experimental data although this model does not include biodegradation processes, implying that this simple model can be very useful with reliable Koc values. Because there are not many experimental data available for priority pharmaceuticals to evaluate the model performance, it should be important to obtain reliable experimental data including sorption coefficients and biodegradation rate constants for the prediction of the fate of the selected pharmaceuticals.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.133-136
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• 2000

In recent years, hybrid neural network approaches which combine neural networks and mechanistic models have been gaining considerable interests. These approaches are potentially very efficient to obtain more accurate predictions of process dynamics by combining mechanistic and neural models in such a way that the neural network model properly captures unknown and nonlinear parts of the mechanistic model. In this work, such an approach was applied in the modeling of a full-scale coke wastewater treatment process. First, a simplified mechanistic model was developed based on the Activated Sludge Model No.1 and the specific process knowledge, Then neural network was incorporated with the mechanistic model to compensate the errors between the mechanistic model and the process data. Simulation and actual process data showed that the hybrid modeling approach could predict accurate process dynamics of industrial wastewater treatment plant. The promising results indicated that the hybrid modeling approach could be a useful tool for accurate and cost-effective modeling of biochemical processes.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.21-39
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• 2016

Wastewater process models are the essential tools for understanding relevant aspects of wastewater treatment system. Wastewater process modeling provides more options for upgrades and better understanding of new plant design, as well as improvements of operational controls. The software packages (BioWin, GPS-X, Aqua designer, etc) solve a series of simulated equations simultaneously in order to propose several solutions for a specific facility. Research and implementation of wastewater process modeling in combination with computational fluid dynamics enable testing for improvements of flow characteristics for WWTP and at the same time exam biological, physical, and chemical characteristics of the flow. Application of WWTP models requires broad knowledge of the process and expertise in modeling. Therefore, an efficient and good modeling practice requires both experience and set of proper guidelines as a background.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.257-264
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• 2006

In this study, the treatment of domestic wastewater in a field-scale membrane submerged intermittently aerated activated sludge process($210m^3/day$) was investigated under difference aeration methods. Operating temperature was 5.4 to 25.0 and membrane used in this study is a polyethylene hollow fiber membrane(pore size $0.4{\mu}m$). The range of operating flux was $9.7{\sim}24.4l/m^2-h$ and membrane permeates periodically operated for 7min followed idle for 3 min. The results showed that MIA(modified intermittent aeration) was more efficient in nitrogen and phosphorus removal. The removal efficiencies of T-N and T-P were 73.0% and 69.6% for CIA(conventional intermittent aeration) and 57.5%, 58.6% for MIA (modified intermittent aeration). With application of modified intermittent aeration, DO reached nearly Omg/l within 10 minutes after air off. Organics of influent could be entirely consumed to the denitrification and the P-release without the influence by remained DO in intermittent aeration reactor. Therefore, newly developed KSMBR(Kowaco-KMS-Ssangyoung Membrane Bio-Reactor) process with modified intermittent aeration can be one of the useful process for stable nitrogen and phosphorus removal.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.55-63
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• 1996

Nitrification reaction consists of two reactions: nitritification which oxidizes ammonia nitrogen to nitrite nitrogen and nitratification which oxidizes nitrite nitrogen to nitrate nitrogen. Each reaction is carried out by Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter, respectively. The effective maximum growth rates for both bacteria have to be determined to design aeration tank whenever the aeration tanks have to nitrify ammonia nitrogen in influent. And these values are very important to use mathematical models such as IAWPRC model to simulate nitrification in activated sludge. There are several methods to determine these valves, however, the Fed-Batch experiments can determine these values within 72 hours. In this study, the mathematical equations and experimental procedures for Fed-Batch test are presented. Also, the experimental data and reported values are compared. The estimated mean values of maximum specific growth rates for Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter are $0.5010day^{-1}$ and $0.6704day^{-1}$, respectively.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.737-742
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• 2002

Sorption and desorption is an important phenomenon to determine the fate of halogenated aliphatic hydrocarbons in the aqueous phase. This study was conducted to develope a predictive equation capable of estimating the sorption and desorption potentials of halogenated aliphatic hydrocarbons onto the sludge from activated process, sediment, and clay. It has shown that the sorption and desorption parameters can be accurately estimated using Quantitative Structural Activity Relationship(QSAR) models based on molecular connectivity indexes of test compounds. The QSAR model could be applied to predict the sorption and desorption capacity of the other halogenated aliphatic hydrocarbons. The QSAR modeling would provide a useful tool to predict the sorption and desorption capacity without time-consuming experiments.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.610-618
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• 2008

It is not easy to compare the treatment processes and find an optimum operating condition by the experiments due to influent conditions, treatment processes, various operational conditions and complex factors in real wastewater treatment system and also need a lot of time and costs. In this paper, the activated sludge models are applied to four principal biological wastewater treatment processes, $A_2O$(anaerobic/anoxic/oxic process), Bardenpho(4 steps), VIP(Virginia Initiative Plant) and UCT(University of Cape Town), and are used to compare their environmental and economic assessment for four key processes. In order to evaluate each processes, a new assessment index which can compare the efficiency of treatment performances in various processes is proposed, which considers both environmental and economic cost. It shows that the proposed index can be used to select the optimum processes among the candidate treatment processes as well as to find the optimum condition in each process. And it can find the change of economic and environmental index under the changes of influent flowrate and aerobic reaction size and predict the optimum index under various operation conditions.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.58-72
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• 2009

In this study, the organic matter and biomass was characterized by using respirometry based on ASM No.2d (Activated Sludge Model No.2d). The activated sludge models are based on the ASM No.2d model, published by the IAWQ(International Association on Water Quality) task group on mathematical modeling for design and operation of biological wastewater treatment processes. For this study, OUR(Oxygen Uptake Rate) measurements were made on filtered as well as non-filtered wastewater. Also, GC-FID and LC analysis were applied for the estimation of VFAs(Volatile Fatty Acids) COD(S_A) in slowly bio-degradable soluble substrates of the ASM No.2d. Therefore, this study was intended to clearly identify slowly bio-degradable dissolved materials(S_S) and particulate materials(X_I). In addition, a method capable of determining the accurate time to measure non-biodegradable COD(S_I), by the change of transition graphs in the process of measuring microbial OUR, was presented in this study. Influent fractionation is a critical step in the model calibrations. From the results of respirometry on filtered wastewater, the fraction of fermentable and readily biodegradable organic matter(S_F), fermentation products(S_A), inert soluble matter(S_I), slowly biodegradable matter(X_S) and inert particular matter(X_I) was 33.2%, 14.1%, 6.9%, 34.7%, 5.8%, respectively. The active heterotrophic biomass fraction(X_H) was about 5.3%.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.1706-1709
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• 2010

Sewerage Treatment Plants(STPs) are complexes systems in which a range of physical, chemical and biological processes occur. Since Activated Sludge Model(ASM) No.1 was published, a number of new mathematical models for simulating biological processes have been developed. However, these models have disadvantages in cost and simplicity due to the laboriousness and tediousness of their procedures. One of the major difficulties of these mathematical model based tools is that the field-operators mostly don't have the time or the computer-science skills to handle there models, so it mainly remains on experts or special engineers. In order to solve these situations and help the field-operators, the $KM^2BM$(K-water & More-M Mass Balance Model) based on the dynamic-mass balance model was developed. This paper presents $KM^2BM$ as a simulation tools for STPs design and optimization. This model considers the most important microbial behavioral processes taking place in a STPs to maximize potential applicability without increasing neither model parameter estimation nor wastewater characterization efforts.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.1-15
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• 1983

This paper has concentrated on estimating the possibility and mathematical analysis for the application of BFB to the treatment of nightsoil with low dilution rate. The experiment for the study of this purpose was conducted by continuous type reactor at $20^{\circ}C$, varying F/M ratio from 0.12 to 0.37 and dilution ratio from 2 to 10, and in it provided matted reticulated polypropylene sheets for the solid supports. The obtained results showed that the application of BFB to the treatment of nightsoil would be more effective than any other biological treatment process. Also, it has observed that the optimum dilution ratio was about 5 times and the optimum HRT was about 17 hours, and then it was estimated that the reactor volume and the quantity of weak water could be reduced to the extent of 70 percent and 80 percent. The experimental results of BFB could be analysed by the mathematical models applied to complete mixing activated sludge process. The substrate removal rates which were obtained by McKinney's($K_m$) and EcKenfelder's($K_e$) equation was 1.784/hr and $2.0{\times}10l/mg{\cdot}day$, and substrate was removed very rapidly compared to those of conventional type biological treatment processes. The biomass yield coefficient($a_5$), the endogeneous respiration rate(b), the synthesis oxygen demand rate($a{_5}^{\prime}$), and the endogeneous respiration oxygen demand rate(b') were 0.349, 0.0237/day, 0.495 and 0.0336, respectively.