• Membrane Journal
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.101-119
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• 2021

The demand for clean water is virtually present in all modern human societies even as our society has developed increasingly more advanced and sophisticated technologies to improve human life. However, as global climate change begins to show more dramatic effects in many regions in the world, the demand for a cheap, effective way to treat wastewater or to remove harmful bacteria, microbes, viruses, and other solvents detrimental to human health has continued to remain present and remains as important as ever. Well-established synthetic membranes composed of polyaniline (PANI), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), and others have been extensively studied to gather information regarding the characteristics and performance of the membrane, but recent studies have shown that making these synthetic membranes conductive to electrical current by doping the membrane with another material or incorporating conductive materials onto the surface of the membrane, such as allotropes of carbon, have shown to increase the performance of these membranes by allowing the adjustability of pore size, improving antifouling and making the antibacterial property better. In this review, modern electrically conductive membranes are compared to conventional membranes and their performance improvements under electric fields are discussed, as well as their potential in water filtration and wastewater treatment applications.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.5-12
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• 2022

In this study, we investigated the UV/H₂O₂ process to treat organic compound-spilled water. In consideration of usage and properties, benzene, toluene, phenol, and methyl ethyl ketone were selected as representative organic compounds. The selected material was first removed by natural volatilization and aeration that simulated the pretreatment of the prcoess. After that, UV/H₂O₂ oxidation experiments were conducted under various H₂O₂ concentration conditions. Benzene and toluene were mostly volatilized before reaching the oxidation process due to high volatility. Considering the volatility, oxidation experiments were performed at an initial concentration of 5 mg/L for benzene and toluene. The UV/H₂O₂ oxidation process achieved 100% of benzene and toluene removal after 20 minutes under all hydrogen peroxide concentration conditions. The phenol was rarely removed from the volatile experiments and oxidation tests were performed at an initial concentration of 50 mg/L. The process showed 100 % phenol removal after 30 minutes under 0.12 v/v% of hydrogen peroxide concentration condition. Methyl ethyl ketone was removed 58 % after 2 hours of volatile experiments. The process showed 99.7% Methyl ethyl ketone removal after 40 minutes under 0.08 v/v% of hydrogen peroxide concentration condition. It was confirmed that the UV/H₂O₂ process showed high decomposition efficiency for the four selected organic compounds, and identified the amount of hydrogen peroxide in classified organic contaminants.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.221-230
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• 2016

Multi-functional floating wetland island (mFWI) was developed in order to prevent algal bloom and to improve water quality through several unit purification processes. A test bed was applied in the stagnant watershed in an urban area, from the summer to the winter season. For the advanced treatment, an artificial phosphorus adsorption/filtration medium was applied with micro-bubble generation, as well as water plants for nutrient removal. It appeared that the efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total phosphorus (T-P) removal was higher in the warmer season (40.9%, 45.7%) than in the winter (15.9%, 20.0%), and the removal performance (suspended solid, chlorophyll a) in each process differs according to seasonal variation; micro-bubble performed better (33.1%, 39.2%) in the summer, and the P adsorption/filtration and water plants performed better (76.5%, 59.5%) in the winter season. From the results, it was understood that the mFWI performance was dependent upon the pollutant loads in different seasons and unit processes, and thus it requires continuous monitoring under various conditions to evaluate the functions. In addition, micro-bubbles helped prevent the formation of anaerobic zones in the lower part of the floating wetland. This resulted in the water circulation to form a new healthy aquatic ecosystem in the surrounding environment, which confirmed the positive influence of mFWI.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.459-466
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• 2012

In order to improved treatment performance of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma, plasm + UV process and gas-liquid mixing method has been investigated. This study investigated the degradation of N, N-Dimethyl-4-nitrosoaniline (RNO, indicator of the generation of OH radical). The basic DBD plasma reactor of this study consisted of a plasma reactor (consist of quartz dielectric tube, titanium discharge (inner) and ground (outer) electrode), air and power supply system. Improvement of plasma reactor was done by the combined basic plasma reactor with the UV process, adapt of gas-liquid mixer. The effect of UV power of plasma + UV process (0~10 W), gas-liquid mixing existence and type of mixer, air flow rate (1~6 L/min), range of diffuser pore size (16~$160{\mu}m$), water circulation rate (2.8~9.4 L/min) and UV power of improved plasma + UV process (0~10 W) were evaluated. The experimental results showed that RNO degradation of optimum plasma + UV process was 7.36% higher than that of the basic plasma reactor. It was observed that the RNO decomposition of gas-liquid mixing method was higher than that of the plasma + UV process. Performance for RNO degradation with gas-liquid mixing method lie in: gas-liquid mixing type > pump type > basic reactor. RNO degradation of improved reactor which is adapted gas-liquid mixer of diffuser type showed increase of 17.42% removal efficiency. The optimum air flow rate, range of diffuser pore size and water circulation rate for the RNO degradation at improved reactor system were 4 L/min, 40~$100{\mu}m$ and 6.9 L/min, respectively. Synergistic effect of gas-liquid mixing plasma + UV process was found to be insignificant.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.762-767
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• 2009

In this study, the feasibility of using vegetable oil extracted from tropical crop seed as a biodiesel feedstock was investigated by producing biodiesel and analysing the quality parameters as a transport fuel. In order to produce biodiesel efficiently, two step reaction process(pre-treatment and transesterificaion) was required because the tropical crop oil have a high content of free fatty acids. To determine the suitable acid catalyst for the pre-esterification, three kinds of acid catalysts were tested and sulfuric acid was identified as the best catalyst. After constructing the experimental matrix based on RSM and analysing the statistical data, the optimal pre-treatment conditions were determined to be 26.7% of methanol and 0.982% of sulfuric acid. Trans-esterification experiments of the pre-esterified oil based on RSM were carried out, then discovered 1.24% of KOH catalyst and 22.76% of methanol as the optimal trans-esterification conditions. However, the quantity of KOH was higher than the previously established KOH concentration of our team. So, we carried out supplemental experiment to determine the quantity of catalyst and methanol. As a result, the optimal transesterification conditions were determined to be 0.8% of KOH and 16.13% of methanol. After trans-esterification of tropical crop oil, the produced biodiesel could meet the major quality standard specifications; 100.8% of FAME, 0.45 mgKOH/g of acid value, 0.00% of water, 0.04% of total glycerol, $4.041mm^2/s$ of kinematic viscosity(at $40^{\circ}C$).

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.333-340
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• 2010

Wastewater treatment using algal communities and biodiesel production from wastewater-cultivated algal biomass is a promising green growth technology. In literature, there are many studies providing information on algal species producing high content of lipid. However, very little is known about adaptability and wastewater treatability of such high-lipid algal species. In this study, we attempted to characterize algal biomass production and wastewater treatability of high-lipid algal species under municipal wastewater condition. For this, four known high-lipid algal strains including Chlorella vulgaris AG 10032, Ankistrodesmus gracilis SAG 278-2, Scenedesmus quadricauda, and Botryococcus braunii UTEX 572 were individually inoculated into municipal wastewater where its indigenuous algal populations were removed prior to the inoculation, and the algae-inoculated wastewater was incubated in the presence of light source (80${\mu}E$) for 9 days in laboratory batch reactors. During the incubations, algal biomass production (dry weight) and the removals of dissolved organics (COD), nitrogen and phosphorous were measured in laboratory batch reactors. According to algal growth results, C. vulgaris, A. gracilis and S. quadricauda exhibited faster growth than indigenuous wastewater algal populations while B. braunii did not. The wastewater-growing strains exhibited efficient removals of total-N, ${NH_4}^+$-N, Total-P and ${PO_4}^{3-}$-P which satisfy the Korea water quality standards for effluent from municipal wastewater treatment plants. A. gracilis and S. quadricauda exhibited efficient and stable treatability of COD but C. vulgaris showed unstable treatability. Taken together with the results, A. gracilis and S. quadricauda were found to be suitable species for biomass production and wastewater treatment under municipal wastewater condition.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.181-190
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• 2023

Domestic hop (Humulus lupulus L.) production has been suspended since the early 1990s due to foreign imports, but interest in local production is rising due to the recent craft beer boom in Korea. This study was conducted focusing on the development of growth characteristics and propagation technology for 6 introduced hop cultivars as a basic study for domestic hop production and breeding program. In the hop growth survey conducted in 2021 and 2022, the 5-year-old plants after planting generally showed a tendency to increase the height of strobile setting, strobile size, number and weight of strobile per hill compared to the 4-year-old plants. As a result of the experiment with hop vine cuttings, the average rooting rate of all cultivars was as high as 88% even in only water treatment that were not added with Atonik (Atonik, Arysta, Japan), a rooting agent. There were differences between cultivars in rooting length and rooting rate according to the Atonik treatment method. When checking the survival rate of the rooted cuttings seedlings after transplanting into the soil, it was confirmed that the survival rate of the cuttings in the tissue culture room was significantly lower than that of the cuttings in the greenhouse. However, in transplanting step, cutting plants from culture room condition was strongly inhibited plant growth because of changing environment conditions. As a results of tissue culture, the thidiazuron (TDZ) 1 ㎎/L treatment in the media generated 6 to 9 shoots/explant, while the 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) 1 ㎎/L treatment generated only 1 to 2 shoots/explant. Therefore, it is more effective to culture by adding TDZ rather than BAP. These results indicated that the development of technology to manage stably after transplanting of cutting or micropropagating plants into potting soil is important for mass propagation of hops.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1280-1286
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• 2006

Three different virgin activated carbons made of each coal(Calgon), coconut(Samchully) and wood(Picabiol) based activated carbon(AC) were tested for an adsorption performance of 1,4-dioxane in a continuous adsorption column. Breakthrough behavior was Investigated that the breakthrough points of coal, coconut and wood based AC were observed as 3600 bed volumn(BV), 1440 BV and 144 BV respectively. Adsorption capacity(X/M) of coal, coconut and wood based AC was observed. The reported results of adsorption capacity showed that coal based AC was highest(578.9 ${\mu}g/g$), coconut based AC was intermediate(142.3 ${\mu}g/g$) and wood based AC was lowest(7.4 ${\mu}g/g$) due to increasing specific surface area. Moreover, carbon usage rates(CURs) for coal, coconut and wood based AC had been shown as 0.48 g/day, 1.41 g/day and 6.9 g/day respectively. The constant characteristic of the system, k of coal based AC was found to be 91.5 and k of coconut based AC was found to be 17.9. Removal efficiencies of 1,4-dioxane with different ozonation dosages(2 and 5 mg/L) for 20 min ozonation had been shown 38% and 87% respectively. There was no observation for biological removal of 1.4-dioxane by attached micro-organisms when used(3.1 years and over 5 years) biological activated carbon(BAC) without pretreatment of oxidation were employed. When a combination of ozonation(2 mg/L and 5 mg/L) and BAC process for $10{\sim}30$ min was applied, removal efficiency for 1,4-dioxine increased only $2{\sim}6%$ compared to only applying ozonation. Therefore removal efficiency of BAC process prior to using oxidation was proven to negligible. Consequently, the results presented in this paper provide a better insight into the adsorption performance of 1,4-dioxane. This observation suggests that using virgin activated carbon made of coal is the best selection for removal of 1,4-dioxane in the water treatment for an advanced treatment. It is clear from this research that longer EBCT for ozonation or higher ozone concentration are more effective operation methods for removal of 1,4-dioxane than longer EBCT in the BAC process.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.7
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• pp.890-899
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• 2014

Austenitic stainless steel is widely used in various industries due to its excellent corrosion resistance. However, Cr carbides precipitation along the grain boundaries after heat treatment or welding may develop Cr depleted zone, which acts as a preferential site for intergranular corrosion attack. To resolve this, carbon stabilizing element such as Ti or Nb are added to suppress formation of Cr carbides. However, there are few reports on corrosion characteristics under seawater environment of the stabilized stainless steel. This study investigated the effects of alloying contents on the electrochemical characteristics in seawater of stainless steel containing stabilizing element(Ti and Nb). To achieve this, the changes on the microstructure due to alloying were observed with microscope, and the electrochemical characteristics were determined by measurement of natural potential and potentiodynamic polarization experiments. The microscopic observation revealed that all specimens had inclusions other than the austenite matrix phase due to the addition of alloying elements. Such inclusions are considered to have different electrochemical characteristics from those of the matrix, and thus a clear distinction was found according to the type of stabilizers and the contents. The results of this study suggest that it is important to consider the effects of alloying contents on the electrochemical characteristics in seawater with the addition of Ti or Nb into austenitic stainless steel.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.196-201
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• 2018

Soil is the main nitrogen (N) provider for plants but N in soil is not all available to advanced plants. Mineralization is a critical biological process for transferring organic N to inorganic N that can be used by plants directly. To investigate the effect of different levels of soil temperature and water content to soil mineralization, a field experiment was established on three different sites (A, B and C). We measured soil temperature, moisture and electrical conductivity once daily after swine slurry application. Average soil moisture and temperature in site A is the highest among three sites (40.9% and $9.7^{\circ}C$, respectively). Following is in site C (37.3% and $9.6^{\circ}C$) and the lowest is in site B (28.0% and $9.0^{\circ}C$). Ammonium N (NH4+-N) and nitrate N (NO3--N) were determined on the first and fifth day after treatment. Compared with site B and C, site A always had the highest soil total N content (1.54 g N kg-1 on day one; 1.22 g N kg-1 on day five) and highest NO3-- N content (93.18 mg N kg-1 on day one; 16.22 mg N kg-1 on day five) and a significant decrease on day five. Content of NH4+-N in site B and C reduced while in site A, it increased by 6.7%. Results revealed that net N mineralization positively correlated with soil temperature (P<0.5, $r=0.675^*$) and moisture (P<0.01, $r=0.770^{**}$), suggesting that to some extent, higher soil moisture and temperature contribute more to inorganic N that can be used by plants.