• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.102-109
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• 2012

In this study, the four different filter media (sponge, volcanic stone, activated carbon and magnesium hydroxide) were tested for the removal of algae and phosphorus in the two eutrophic water samples (natural water and artificial algal culture with BG-11 medium). These filter media were used in the column device as single or combined applications. The effect of the $Mg(OH)_2$ on phosphorus removal was examined using different particle sizes (<2 mm and >2 mm) and concentrations (0, 10, 50 and 100 g $L^{-1}$) of magnesium hydroxide. The removal efficiency of phosphate by magnesium hydroxide was increased with longer experimental time and higher concentration. However, there was no significant difference in the degree of phosphorus removal between any two particle sizes (1 mg P $L^{-1}$: F=0.109, P=0.685; 10 mg P $L^{-1}$: F=1.542, P=0.355). Among the four media, activated carbon showed the most potent effect on the removal of both algae and phosphorus. The highest removal efficiency of algae and phosphorus was obtained by combining four columns of each filter medium. Interestingly, integration of four filter columns showed higher removal efficiency than activated carbon alone. The highest removal efficiency by integrated filter columns seemed to be caused by a synergistic effect of combined activated carbon and magnesium hydroxide.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.135-146
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• 2020

This study was aimed to investigate the possibility of using raw and anaerobically-digested piggery wastewater as culture media for a green microalga Chlorella vulgaris (C. vulgaris). Due to high concentration of ammonia and dark color, the microalga did not grow well in this wastewater. In order to solve this problem, air stripping and NaOCl-treatment were applied to reduce the concentration of NH₃-N and the color intensity from the wastewater. Algal growth was monitored in terms of specific growth rate, biomass productivity, and nutrient removal efficiency. As a result, C. vulgaris grew without any sign of inhibition in air-stripped and 10-folds diluted anaerobically-digested piggery wastewater with enhanced biomass productivity of 0.57 g/L·d and nutrient removal of 98.7-99.8% for NH₃-N and 41.0-62.5% for total phosphorus. However, NaOCl-treatment showed no significant effect on growth of C. vulgaris, although dark color was removed greatly. Interestingly, despite that the soluble organic concentration after air stripping was still high, the biomass productivity was 4.4 times higher than BG-11. Moreover, air stripping was identically effective for raw piggery wastewater as for anaerobic digestate. Therefore, it was concluded that air stripping was a very effective method for culturing microalgae and removing nutrients from raw and anaerobically-digested piggery wastewaters.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2021

Eutrophication and algal blooms can lead to increase of taste and odor compounds and health problems by cyanobacterial toxins. To cope with these eco-social issues, Ministry of Environment in Korea has been reinforcing the effluent standards of wastewater treatment facilities. As a result, various advanced phosphorus removal processes have been adopted in each wastewater treatment plant nation-widely. However, a lot of existing advanced wastewater treatment processes have been facing the problems of expensive cost in operation and excessive sludge production caused by high dosage of coagulant. In this study, the sedimentation and dissolved air flotation (SeDAF) process integrated with sedimentation and flotation has been developed for enhanced phosphorus removal in wastewater treatment facilities. Design and operating parameters of the SeDAF process with the capacity of 100 ㎥/d were determined, and a demonstration plant has been installed and operated at I wastewater treatment facility (located in Gyeonggi-do) for the verification of field applicability. Several empirical evaluations for the SeDAF process were performed at demonstration-plant scale, and the results showed clearly that T-P and turbidity values of treated water were to satisfy the highest effluent standards below 0.2 mg/L and 2.0 NTU stably for all of operation cases.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.1013-1020
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• 2008

To evaluate the pollutant removal efficiency and clarify the cause of low removal efficiency of the wetland, temporal and spacial distributions of water quality were investigated at 16 sites in the Sihwa constructed wetland. The removal efficiency showed a tendency to decrease since the construction of the wetland, except for TN. In addition, the efficiency was largely varied with season, especially BOD and TP. No removal efficiency of BOD was observed in April and July when algal bloom was occurred in lower part open water of the wetland. On the other hand, TP showed no removal efficiency from April to August showing -291% of removal efficiency in August. From the horizontal distribution in closed water regions, SS concentration for the central area was significantly higher than for left and right areas(p = 0.013, center > left > right areas). From the results of this study, we infer that anaerobic condition due to the excessive accumulation of organic matters and lack of uniformity of water flow distribution are major factors of the low removal efficiency of the wetland.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.523-529
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• 2008

Algal blooms in a local eutrophic lake often produces the musty and earthy taste & odor problems. Since the odor causing compounds(OCCs) including geosmin and 2-MIB have their own volatility, the OCCs can be removed from water by air stripping methods. Removal of TON(threshold odor number) as an index for OCCs could be fitted well with the first order equations($R^2=0.9$ above), where the air stripping coefficient of TON, k was in the range between 0.0055 and 0.0097 according to the aeration time. k within 30min aeration tests was 0.0097, while it was 0.0055 where the aeration time extended to 150min. With 15 mg/L of PAC, removal of TON was not simulated with 1st order equation within 30min aeration. Within 30min aeration, OCCs rather than geosmin and/or 2-MIB could be removed easily by air stripping or PAC adsorption, while OCCs such as geosmin and/or 2-MIB could be removed slowly by air stripping after 30min aeration. Geosmin and 2-MIB were not readily removed by air stripping(k of them were 0.0018~0.0047 and 0.0018~0.0034, respectively at different air flow rates). Geosmin could be removed by air stripping a little better than 2-MIB.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.979-985
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• 2002

The possibility of microalgal nitrogen treatment was tested in wastewaters with a low carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio. Chlorella kessleri was cultured in the two different artificial wastewaters with nitrate as a nitrogen source: one contained glucose for an organic carbon source and the other without organic carbon sources. The growth rates of the two cultures were almost identical when the aeration rate was over 1 vvm. These results suggest that microalgae could successfully remove nitrogen from wastewater, as far as the mass transfer of $CO_2$, was not limited. Nitrate was successfully reduced to below 2 mg $NO_3^-$-N/ml from the initial nitrate concentration of 140 mg $NO_3^-$-N/ml in 10 days, even in the wastewater with no organic carbon source. Similar results were obtained when ammonium was used as the sole nitrogen source instead of nitrate. Higher concentrations of nitrogen of 140, 280, 560 and 1,400 mg/ml were also tested and similar amounts of nitrogen were removed by algal cultures without showing any substrate inhibition.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.36 no.3 s.104
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• pp.375-380
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• 2003

For some decades eutrophication poses a great problem in water quality management in fresh-waters. To solve this problem, studies based on "bottom-up" hypothesis have been mostly carried out worldwidely unlike biomanipulation. This implies that not only fish but also fish stock playa key role down to other food web components in pelagic ecosystem. It is generally accepted that biomanipulation becomes a potent tool for eutrophication control. For a practical application of this, however, further development and understanding of the food web under the specific lake condition on a whole-lake scale are needed. The question is how can we maintain the positive effects resulted from biomanipulation (fortuitous or planned) for a long period.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.166-171
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• 1999

This study was conducted to investigate the removal rate of nitrogen and phosphorus, and lipid production from a swine wastewater by Botryococcus braunii UTEX 572 in an outdoor photobioreactor. B. braunii successfully predominated in competition with bacteria and other algae, especially Oscillatoria, which were grown spontaneously in a secondary-treated swine wastewater, under the conditions of incubation temperature at $25^{\circ}C$ and increased inoculum amount at 287mg/l. There was a significant relationship between dry weight of B. braunii and absorbance of culture solution at 680mn(r2=0.967), suggesting that the latter is as good as the former commonly used for the measurement of algal biomass which is considerably time-consuming. The removal rates of COD, TOC, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus from the swine wastewater were 33.2$\pm$2.6% and 32.8$\pm$3.2, respectively, which showing no different between them. These results suggested that the mass cultivation of B. braunii in an outdoor photobioreactor could be used for the advanced treatment of swine wastewater and lipid production.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.103-110
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• 1996

Excessive phosphorus (P as orthophosphate) is one of the major pollutants in natural water that are responsible for algal blooms and eutrophication. P removal by slag is an attractive solution if the P sorption capacity of the slag is significant. To design an efficient land treatment facility, basic information on the behaviour of P in the media-water environment is required. In this study, detailed column experiments were conducted to study the P transport under dynamic condition, and mathematical models were developed to describe this process. The column experiments conducted with dust and cake waste products (slag) from BHP steel industry in Australia as adsorbing media indicated that they had higher sorption capacity of P than that of a sandy loam soil from North Sydney, Australia. P transport in the dust and cake columns exhibited characteristics S-shaped or curvilinear breakthrough curves. The simulated results from a dynamic physical non-equilibrium sorption model (DPNSM) and Freundlich isotherm constants satisfactorily matched the corresponding experimental breakthrough data. The mobility of P is restricted proportionally to the adsorbent's sorption capacity.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.41 no.spc
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• pp.93-98
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• 2008

We investigated the effect on the removal of BOD, SS, TN and TP and algal growth inhibition of Vegetated Artificial Floating Island (VAFI), by examining microorganism activity and nutrient uptake in the batch test of various conditions: (1) Blank (Control group), (2) VAFI of $0.25m^2$, (3) AFI of $0.25m^2$ which has no vegetation, (4) buoyant plate of $0.25m^2$, (5) buoyant plate of $0.25m^2$ with linear media. The proportion of BOD removal in the VAFI, AFI, buoyant plate and buoyant plate with media were 82.7, 80.8, 45.2% and 59.6% respectively. TN removal in the VAFI, AFI and buoyant plate with media were 51.2, 31.7% and 25.1% respectively. TP removal in the VAFI, AFI, buoyant plate and buoyant plate with media were 23.3, 16.7, 10.0% and 13.3% respectively. Chlorophyll-${\alpha}$ removal in the VAFI was 97.9%. The factors of chlorophyll-${\alpha}$ removal in the VAFI accounted for the shading effect of 35.1%, microorganisms activity of 61%, and plant root of 1.8%.