• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.2-4
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• 1998

Proliferation of Nocardia amarae cells in activated sludge has often been associated with the generation of nuisance foams. Despite intense research activities in recent years to examine the causes and control of Nocardia foaming in activated sludge, the foaming continued to persist throughout the activated sludge treatment plants in United States. In addition to causing various operational problems to treatment processes, the presence of Nocardia may have secondary effects on the fate of heavy metals that are not well known. For example, for treatment plants facing more stringent metal removal requirements, potential metal removal by Nocardia cells in foaming activated sludge would be a welcome secondary effect. In contrast, with new viosolid disposal regulations in place (Code o( Federal Regulation No. 503), higher concentration of metals in biosolids from foaming activated sludge could create management problems. The goal of this research was to investigate the metal sorption property of Nocardia amarae cells grown in batch reactors and in chemostat reactors. Specific surface area and metal sorption characteristics of N. amarae cells harvested at various growth stages were compared. Three metals examined in this study were copper, cadmium and nickel. Nocardia amarae strain (SRWTP isolate) used in this study was obtained from the University of California at Berkeley. The pure culture was grown in 4L batch reactor containing mineral salt medium with sodium acetate as the sole carbon source. In order to quantify the sorption of heavy metal ions to N amarae cell surfaces, cells from the batch reactor were harvested, washed, and suspended in 30mL centrifuge tubes. Metal sorption studies were conducted at pH 7.0 and ionlc strength of 10-2M. The sorption Isotherm showed that the cells harvested from the stationary and endogenous growth phase exhibited significantly higher metal sorption capacity than the cells from the exponential phase. The sequence of preferential uptake of metals by N. amarae cells was Cu>Cd>Ni. The specific surFace area of Nocardia cells was determined by a dye adsorption method. N.amarae cells growing at ewponential phase had significantly less specific surface area than that of stationary phase, indicating that the lower metal sorption capacity of Nocardia cells growing at exponential phase may be due to the lower specific surface area. The growth conditions of Nocardia cells in continuous culture affect their cell surface properties, thereby governing the adsorption capacity of heavy metal. The comparison of dye sorption isotherms for Nocardia cells growing at various growth rates revealed that the cell surface area increased with increasing sludge age, indicating that the cell surface area is highly dependent on the steady-state growth rate. The highest specific surface area of 199m21g was obtained from N.amarae cell harvested at 0.33 day-1 of growth rate. This result suggests that growth condition not only alters the structure of Nocardia cell wall but also affects the surface area, thus yielding more binding sites of metal removal. After reaching the steady-state condition at dilution rate, metal adsorption isotherms were used to determine the equilibrium distributions of metals between aqueous and Nocardia cell surfaces. The metal sorption capacity of Nocardia biomass harvested from 0.33 day-1 of growth rate was significantly higher than that of cells harvested from 0.5- and 1-day-1 operation, indicatng that N.amarae cells with a lower growth rate have higher sorpion capacity. This result was in close agreement with the trend observed from the batch study. To evaluate the effect of Nocardia cells on the metal binding capacity of activated sludge, specific surface area and metal sorption capacity of the mixture of Nocardia pure cultures and activated sludge biomass were determined by a series of batch experiments. The higher levels of Nocardia cells in the Nocardia-activated sludge samples resulted in the higher specific surface area, explaining the higher metal sorption sites by the mixed luquor samples containing greater amounts on Nocardia cells. The effect of Nocardia cells on the metal sorption capacity of activated sludge was evaluated by spiking an activated sludge sample with various amounts of pre culture Nocardia cells. The results of the Langmuir isotherm model fitted to the metal sorption by various mixtures of Nocardia and activated sludge indicated that the mixture containing higher Nocardia levels had higher metal adsorption capacity than the mixture containing lower Nocardia levels. At Nocardia levels above 100mg/g VSS, the metal sorption capacity of activate sludge increased proportionally with the amount of Noeardia cells present in the mixed liquor, indicating that the presence of Nocardia may increase the viosorption capacity of activated sludge.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.472-480
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• 2019

Selection of the plant material for planting to reduce fine dust should comprehensively consider the visual characteristics, such as the shape and texture of the plant leaves and form of bark, which affect the adsorption function of the plant. However, previous studies on reduction of fine dust through plants have focused on the absorption function rather than the adsorption function of plants and on foliage plants, which are indoor plants, rather than the outdoor plants. In particular, the criterion for selection of fine dust reduction species is not specific, so research on the selection criteria for plant materials for fine dust reduction in urban areas is needed. The purpose of this study is to identify the priorities of eight indicators that affect the fine dust reduction by using the fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making model (MCDM) and establish the tree selection criteria for the urban planting to reduce fine dust. For the purpose, we conducted a questionnaire survey of those who majored in fine dust-related academic fields and those with experience of researching fine dust. A result of the survey showed that the area of leaf and the tree species received the highest score as the factors that affect the fine dust reduction. They were followed by the surface roughness of leaves, tree height, growth rate, complexity of leaves, edge shape of leaves, and bark feature in that order. When selecting the species that have leaves with the coarse surface, it is better to select the trees with wooly, glossy, and waxy layers on the leaves. When considering the shape of the leaves, it is better to select the two-type or three-type leaves and palm-shaped leaves than the single-type leaves and to select the serrated leaves than the smooth edged leaves to increase the surface area for adsorbing fine dust in the air on the surface of the leaves. When considering the characteristics of the bark, it is better to select trees that have cork layers or show or are likely to show the bark loosening or cracks than to select those with lenticel or patterned barks. This study is significant in that it presents the priorities of the selection criteria of plant material based on the visual characteristics that affect the adsorption of fine dust for the planning of planting to reduce fine dust in the urban area. The results of this study can be used as basic data for the selection of trees for plantation planning in the urban area.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.141-154
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• 2020

The accidents of toxic chemical spill into rivers are increasing in recent years due to expansion of heavy industries in Korea. In order to respond to the chemical spills, accident response systems have been established for both main rivers and tributary rivers. However, since these accident response system adopted the water quality models imported from the foreign countries, it is difficult to acquire the model parameters and to calibrate and validate the water quality models. Therefore, this study developed a depth-averaged two-dimensional river water quality model to analyze the behavior of hazardous chemicals in rivers and proposed an efficient simulation execution framework by identifying the significant reaction mechanisms considering the characteristics of the toxic chemicals. The depth-averaged two-dimensional river water quality model CTM-2D was upgraded by adding reaction terms representing mechanisms of the adsorption, desorption, and volatilization of toxic chemicals. In order to verify the model, the analytical solution was compared with the numerical solution, and results showed that the error was less than 0.1%. In addition, the model was applied to a virtual scenario which is a water pollution accident at the confluence of the Nakdong River - Kumho River, and model results showed that an efficient simulation could be carried out by activating only significant reactions which were assessed by the sensitivity analysis.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.344-350
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• 2004

This study was conducted to develop and assess the applicability of mixed-bed ion exchange resin capsules for water quality monitoring in small agricultural watershed. Recoveries of resin capsules for inorganic N and P ranged from 96 to 102%. The net activation energies and pseudo-thermodynamic parameters, such as ${\Delta}G^{o\ddag},\;{\Delta}H^{o\ddag},\;and\;{\Delta}S^{o\ddag}$ for ion adsorption by resin capsules, exhibited relatively low values, indicating the process might be governed by chemical reactions such as diffusion. However, those values increased with temperature coinciding with the theory. The reaction reached pseudo-equilibrium within 24 hours for $NH_4-N\;and\;NO_3-N$, and only 8 hours for $PO_4-P$, respectively. The selectivity of resin capsules were in the order of $NO_3\;^-\;>\;NH_4\;^+\;>\;PO_4\;^{3-}$, coinciding with that of encapsulated Amberlite IRN-150 resin. At the initial state of equilibrium, the resin adsorption quantity was linearly proportional to the mass of ions in the streams, but the rate of movement leveled off, following Langmuir-type sorption isotherm. The overall results demonstrated that the resin capsule system was suitable for water quality monitoring in small agricultural watershed, judging from the reaction mechanism(s) of the resin capsule and the significance of model in field calibration.

• Clean Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.39-49
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• 2000

Ultra Rapid Coagulation (URC) can dramatically remove pollutants loaded in wastewater by adding weighted coagulation additives (WCA) and recycling sludge into the coagulation basin to increase settling velocity and surface adsorption ability of floc. Also settling chamber together with lamella plates offers the high rate settling velocity, which can economically treat a considerable amount of pollutants like as combined sewage overflow (CSO) during the heavy rainfall and reduce the pollutants load into the receiving water for securing water source. It was estimated optimal configuration of settling chamber by using fluent model and the possibilities of reusing the sludge generated in this system.

• Clean Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.90-94
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• 2013

We investigated one-dimensional thermal conduction for gypsum objects incorporating oyster shell powder. We presumed that according to the portion of oyster shell in the hybrid structure conductive characteristics of that would also change as some physicochemical properties such as volatile organic compound (VOC) adsorption were found to be changed considerably. Based on Fourier's 2nd law of heat conduction an analytical analysis in a flat slab (one axis perpendicular to an infinite plane) was performed. We found that composition of oyster shell and conduction-related coefficients and parameters could greatly influence on the thermal profile of that conduction, and some model experiments also served for it in the affirmative.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.143.2-143.2
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• 2016

The influence of electric field on CO adsorbed on Pt(111) was investigated with reflection-absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS) in ultrahigh vacuum system. The ice film capacitor method was used to apply electric field to the amorphous ice film with CO on Pt(111). Two systems were compared by measuring the change of the CO stretching vibrational mode under applied electric field; one is CO on Pt(111), and the other is CO buried inside an ice film on Pt(111). By comparing them, we were able to calculate the additional effect of adsorption of CO on Pt(111) on peak shift. The CO adsorbed on Pt(111) has shown larger peak shift than CO adsorbed with H2O when we applied stronger electric field. Additionally, the differences were observable when the applied electric field exceeds $1{\times}10V/m^8$.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.768-774
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• 2017

Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) catalyzes the oxidation of aromatic compounds by hydrogen peroxide via insoluble polymer formation, which can be precipitated from the wastewater. For HRP immobilization, poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) fine carrier supports were produced by using the Nano Spray Dryer B-90. Immobilized HRP was used to remove the persistent 2,4-dichlorophenol from model wastewater. Both extracted (9-16 U/g) and purified HRP (11-25 U/g) retained their activity to a high extent after crosslinking to the PLGA particles. The immobilized enzyme activity was substantially higher in both the acidic and the alkaline pH regions compared with the free enzyme. Optimally, 98% of the 2,4-dichlorophenol could be eliminated using immobilized HRP due to catalytic removal and partly to adsorption on the carrier supports. Immobilized enzyme kinetics for 2,4-dichlorophenol elimination was studied for the first time, and it could be concluded that competitive product inhibition took place.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.316-320
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• 1997

Phenolic acids are regarded as harmful materials in food and environment science but recently, as useful materials, and thus adsorption is recommended as an effective separation technique to recover or remove phenolic acids from diluted solution. If the adsorbed phenolic compounds were useful materials, the materials should be recovered through desorption. Desorption using supercritical carbon dioxide(SC-$CO_2$) was tried to separate food-borne phenolic acids from charcoal in single solute system. In the comparisons of desorption amounts, gallic acid had the lowest lolubiligy to SC-$CO_2$. Gallic acid has more hydroxy functional groups than the other phenolic acids, which was immiscible with nonpolar SC-$CO_2$. Ferulic acid was yielded more than p-coumaric acid, because ferulic acid had much bigger molecular weight, which was affected more by van der Waas force. It was found that the most affecting factor on desorption amounts was the solubility of phenolic acids to SC-$CO_2$. The second affecting factor was van der Waals force. Response surface methodology(RSM) was conducted to read the trend of desorption. Increasing density of SC-$CO_2$ raised solubility of phenolic acids.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.153-157
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• 2014

Natural biopolymers such as collagen and fibrin have been widely used in bone regenerative applications. Despite the frequent use, their comparative biological propertiesis are largely unknown. In a previous study, we found the superiority of fibrin to collagen in the adsorption of serum proteins and the proliferation and differentiation of cultured osteoblasts. In this study, we used an in vivo model to evaluate how effectively fibrin supports bone regeneration, as compared with collagen. Collagen and fibrin were placed in critical size defects made on rat calvarial bones. Compared with collagen, fibrin supported substantially more new bone tissue formation, which was confirmed by micro-CT measurement and histological analyses. The cells in the regenerative tissues of the fibrin-filled defects were immunostained strongly for Runx2, while collagen-placed defects were stained weakly. These in vivo results demonstrate that fibrin is superior to collagen in supporting bone regeneration.