• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.252-260
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• 2011

BACKGROUND: Currently, national biomass inventory are being established for efficient management of the potential energy sources. Among the various types of biomass, agricultural wastes are considered to take the biggest portion of the total annual biomass generated in Korea, implying its importance. However, the currently estimated amount is not reliable because the old reference data are still used to estimate total annual amount of agricultural wastes. METHODS AND RESULTS: Therefore, to provide reliable estimation data, a correct conversion factor obtained by taking into account the current situation is required. For this, the current study was conducted to provide the conversion factors for each representative 8 crop through a field cultivation study. Also conversion factors for 18 crops were calculated using the average amount of each crop produced during 2004 and 2008, subsequently; total amount of agricultural wastes generated in 2009 was estimated using these conversion factors. The total biomass of rice straw and rice husk generated in 2009 were 6.5 and 1.1 million tons, respectively, which consist 75% of the total agricultural based wastes, while the total biomass of pepper shoots and apple pruning twigs were 1.0 and 0.6 million tons, respectively. Despite the high amount of rice-based biomass, their applicability for bio-energy production is low due to conventional utilization of these materials for animal feeds and beds for animal husbandry. In addition to exact estimation of the total biomass, temporal variations in both generated amount and the type of agricultural biomass materials are also important for efficient utilization; fruit pruning twigs (January to March); barley-, been-, and mustard-related waste materials (April to June); rice-related waste (September to October). CONCLUSION(s): Such information provided in this study can be used to establish a master plan for efficient utilization of the agricultural wastes on purpose of bio-energy production.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.27
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• pp.3-17
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• 1984

Anaerobic digestion has recently attracted all over the world and Korea also shows no exception. The major benefits of anaerobic digestion are energy production, water pollution control, pathogen reduction and effective manure production. In Korea it was recognized in late sixties that there was a positive need to find alternative energy for farmers household. The main traditional energy sources in rural area were crop residues and forestry products. Therefore Office of Rural Development through its Rural Guidance Bureau disseminated about 29,000 household biogas units from 1969 to 1975 to provide cooking fuel for farmers household and to improve the mode of farmers living standards. The units were welcomed by farmers at that time. Now, however, most of them are not using due to a number of reasons associated with cold winter and some techno-economical problems (in those day, fossil fuel was quite expensive to compare with other prices and since then farmers income was quickly increased). The author studied on bag type household biogas plant to solve some technical problems of existing household biogas plants, but this also has little appeal for the farmers. From 1977 author studied on village scale biogas plant with two pilot plants. From the viewpoint of energy production, COD removal, kill rate of pathogen and fertilizer value, the results obtained from the experiments were quite promising, but the construction cost of the village scale biogas plant was too high for the farmers in Korea. To find most suitable biogas plant for farmers in Korea through the simplifying the biogas digester, the author developed batch-load biogas plant. By feeding coarse crop residues and manures, total solids concentrations of the batch-load biogas plant are about 28 percent which is much higher than continous digester of 5-8 percent. The batch-load biogas plant was welcomed by many farmers in Korea when it was reported on TV and newspapers. The plant was disseminated 154 units in 1982, 766 units in 1983 and 812 units in 1984 as a promissing project. Besides these biogas plant experiments, studies were also conducted 1) to determine gas production rate with agricultural wastes, 2) to evaluate the effect of loading rate, dilution, retention time on biogas production, 3) to project the amount of potencial energy from agricultural wastes.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.193-199
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• 1983

Systematic bioconversion process for the production of xylose from agricultural wastes such as barley straw and corn cobs was studied. After the pretreatment in 1 % NaOH solution for 24 hours at 3$0^{\circ}C$, enzymatic hydrolysis of barley straw for 48 hours at 3$0^{\circ}C$ resulted in the liberation of 15.8% of reducing sugar which is equivalent to 87% of total D-xylose content. Among various agricultural wastes, corn cob as well as barley straw was demonstrated to be potent sources for the production of D-xylose by the process of enzymatic conversion.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.563-568
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• 2000

Animal waste is a major agricultural waste or wastewater that requires appropriate treatment to prevent environmental pollution. In this presentation, it is examined if incineration of manure compost is an alternative to treatment of animal waste. Heating values of selected biomass including manure compost were obtained using a bomb calorimeter. Based on heating values of manure and manure compost, ranging from 1200 - 1500 kcal/kg on wet base, incineration could be an alternative for animal waste treatment if available land is limited for land application and sufficient reduction of water content in manure compost.

• Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.54-58
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• 2000

In order to investigate the compost process and the evaporating phenomenon, a rotary reversing compost system has been tested in a swine farm. During the summer season, the compost temperature was varied in the range of 50~$60^{\circ}C.$ and the ash content was increased by 12.8 % with the average of 24.7 % at the end of phase. In the winter season, the compost temperature was varied in the range of 40~$57^{\circ}C.$ and the ash content was increased to 8.5 % showing the average of 18 % at the end of phase. In summer, the compost facility could handle all of the animal waste, but it could not handle 1/4~1/3 of the animal excrement during the winter. The required amount of sawdust by this method could be reduced to 1/3 than that of the mixing method at the beginning of compost process.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.233-239
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• 1983

Gasification of rice chaff has traditionally been used to produce a clean fuel suitable for lighting, heating and engine application. Since oil crisis, a series of experimental study has been performed to drive a farm engine by agricultural wastes. We produced a combustible gas from rice chaff with a fixed bed up-draught gasifier system, and applied it to a conventional farm kerosene engine. This experiment was quite successful one. We could drive the farm engine with maximum horse power of 9 PS by rice chaff gas which was fairly competitive to the continuous horse power of 10 PS obtained when kerosene was used. Problems of tar existence in gas have been discussed, but we are confident that these can be solved in near future. Development and application of the gasification process will help our farm economy, not only by conserving petroleum oil but by utilizing agricultural wastes.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.96-100
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• 2021

The era of mass production of agricultural and dairy systems inevitably causes a huge amount of biowastes during their processes. Modern consumption patterns of the general public also contribute to biowaste formation. Thus, processing biowastes has attracted much attention. The introduced black soldier fly (BSF) (Hermetia illucens) is considered as one of environmentally friendly management options for solving biowaste issues. However, an indigenous species, Ptecticus tenebrifer, is also a powerful decomposer that has been largely neglected. This species can be easily found on biowastes such as manure dump, agricultural wastes, and human food wastes. It can be also easily found in the field. It is even attracted to a food trap. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first ecological study on this species.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.375-380
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• 2020

The high intrinsic water content and salinity of food waste prevent a smooth composting process and consequently cause social, economic and environmental problems. In this study, we investigated the distribution of the water content and salinity in food wastes to obtain useful primary data to ensure adequate and quality recycling. A total of 300 food waste (FW) samples were collected from residential apartments (home generated FW), a wide range of restaurants, i.e., restaurant generated FW that included Korean, Chinese, Japanese and western FWs, and several places that included food waste processing facilities (dehydrated FW cakes). The collected food wastes were oven dried for 48 hours at 80℃ after which the water and salinity contents were analyzed. The results show that the average water content of the FWs was 72.45 ± 10.51%, and the average salinity content was 2.03 ± 0.57%. Furthermore, the salinity of the collected FWs was characterized by where the FW was generated. By location, the salinity concentration of home generated FW was 2.30% while western food had the lowest salinity concentration of 1.18%. However, dehydrated cakes had the highest salinity concentration of 2.84%. Especially, the distribution of the salinity content in food wastes can form the basis for improving the compost quality in food waste recycling.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.88-101
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• 2004

This paper aims to examin the channel of waste collection, as well as to clarify the relationship between collection types and regional characteristics. According to the analysis results, a kind of used paper and old metal are mainly collected in regions which have a large population size, high population increasing rates, high population composition rates of secondary industry and high degree of self-supporting in public finance. On the other hand, in regions which have a small population size, low population increasing rates or a decrease in population, and high population composition rates of primary industry and rates of agricultural household, there are high collection rates for others recyclable wastes, a kind of scrap iron, used paper, and used bottle. These results show that the collection types of recyclable domestic wastes are different depend on industry developed degree in region.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.52-59
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• 1996

In this study, the combined forces of electro-osmosis and compression were applied to cabbage dewatering and their effects were discussed. Nine treatments of combined forces consisting of three levels of voltage and compression were applied to chopped and macerated chinese cabbage placed in the experimental set-up consisted of cylinder-piston. The results showed that as both voltage and pressure increased the dewatering rates increased and the combined force of voltage and compression was a very effective means in the dewatering of chinese cabbage in which the largest dewatering rate difference, 72%, was found between the combined force of 30V with 68.2kPa and no voltage(0V) with 68.2kPa. However, no significant difference was found between the voltage of 0 and 10volts in 9.75kPa and the pressure of 68.2kP and 126.7kPa in 30volts. The maximum and minimum dewatering rate were 82% in the combined force of 30 volts of 126.7kPa and 8% in 0 volt of 9.75kPa, respectively. Within the experimental trials, it appeared that the best treatment combination would be pressure of 68.2kPa and voltage of 30V producing dewatering rate of 80ft in which the produced liquid contained about 1% solid. Employing this dewatering method as a pretreatment before drying process can contribute in considerable energy saving in agricultural wastes treatment.