• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.65-72
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• 2020

The aims of this study were to compare the biomethanation of CO₂ through specific methanogenic activity (SMA) test which was inoculated with four different types of mixed microbial culture obtained from full-scale anaerobic digestion (AD) plants. The experimental results showed that CH₄ conversion was the highest in the samples inoculated by seed sludge taken from ADs of food waste and brewery; under this condition, the produced biomethane contains 89.3-91.9% of CH₄. Meanwhile, the lowest level was obtained in the sample from sewage sludge. The measured ratio of CH₄ production rate to CO₂ consumption rate in all reactors was higher than the theoretical value (1) in the middle of the period and soon dropped to 0.7-0.8. It might be due to changed metabolic pathways in the reactor by the degradation of residual organic matter and the increased activity of homoacetogenic bacteria.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.8
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• pp.561-569
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• 2014

This study was carried out to get the characteristics of anaerobic digestion for chemical/biological sludge produced from municipal sewage treatment plant for phosphorus. Anaerobic mesophilic batch tests showed that the ultimate biodegradability of waste activated sludge showed 31%, PACl sludge 24%, Alum sludge 26%, respectively. At the S/I 1.0, 75% of total biodegradable volatile solids (TBVS) of waste activated sludge was degraded with an initial rapid decay coefficient, k1 of $0.1129day^{-1}$ and 74% of TBVS of PACl sludge with k1 of $0.0998day^{-1}$, and 76% of TBVS of Alum sludge with k1 of $0.1091day^{-1}$ for 20 days. During the operation of SCFMRs, the 3 reactor (Control, PACl, Alum) pH maintained 6.7~7.0 and the reactor alkalinity maintained 1,800~ 2,200 mg/L as $CaCO_3$. The average biogas production rates of SCFMRs fed with PACl sludge and Alum sludge were 0.089 v/v-d and 0.091 v/v-d, respectively, which was 27~28% lower than that of the control (0.124 v/v-d) at an HRT (hydraulic retention times) of 20 days. And the methane content during the operation ranged 70~76% in 3 reactor. The average TVS removal efficiency of SCFMRs fed with PACl sludge and Alum sludge were 19.6% and 19.9%, respectively, at an HRT of 20 days, which showed 4% lower than that of the control (23.8%). The average BVS removal efficiency of SCFMRs fed with PACl sludge and Alum sludge were 25.8% and 26.9%, respectively, at an HRT of 20 days, which was 8~9% lower than that of the control (34.5%).

• KSBB Journal
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.403-408
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• 2001

Distillation condensate generated from downstream processing of microbial alcohol fermentation imposes a serious burden to biological wastewater treatment or anaerobic digestion due to its high contents of SS (suspended solids) and TN (total nitrogen), A pilot scale microfiltration of the stillage condensate with a stainless steel SCEPTER membrane of 0.1 ${\mu}$m pore size was carried out to remove SS which was mostly composed of microbial cell residue. A stable permeate flux was achieved when the decanter effluent containing 0.7% of SS was filtered under the conditions of X10 VCR (volume concentration ratio), 2.5 bar of TMP (transmembrane pressure), and 60$^{\circ}C$. When stillage condensate with 2.6% SS was treated directly with microfiltration, VCR below X3 was recommended for a long duration of filtration. The permeate and retentate obtained from microfiltration were recycled to make-up medium of fermentation. Adding permeate or retentate up to 30% of fermentation volume showed no distinguished undesirable influence during the course of alcohol fermentation. Although only slight improvements in the final amount of CO$_2$ evolution and alcohol content were observed, fermentation rate increased so that the required time to reach 450 L/ton of CO$_2$ evolution was shortened to 72% of that with normal media.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.17-28
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• 2011

Biogas production and utilization are an emerging alternative energy technology. Biogas is produced from the biological breakdown of organic matter through anaerobic digestion. Biogas can be utilized for various energy sectors such as space heating, electricity generation and vehicle fuel. Especially, to be utilized as vehicle fuel, raw biogas needs to be upgraded that is mainly the removal of carbon dioxide to increase the methane content up to more than 95 ~ 97 vol% in some cases, similar to the composition of fossil-based natural gas. Usage of Biogas as a fuel of vehicles have an effect of reducing $CO_2$ emission compared to fossil fuels. Biomethane which is produced by upgrading of biogas is regarded as a good alternative energy and usage of clean energy is encouraged to deal with air pollution and waste management as well as production of clean energy. Recently, biogas projects for vehicle fuel are newly being launched and Korea government have also announced a plan for investment to develop biogas as a transport fuel. In this study, it is aimed to examine the potential feasibility of biomethane as a transport fuel. As a results, the status of biomethane, quality standard, quality characteristics, and upgrading technology of biogas were investigated to evaluate of biogas as a vehicle fuel of transportation.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.137-147
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• 2020

A direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) was applied to treat strong nitrogenous wastewater of anaerobic digestion supernatant (ADS) and human urine (HU). The ammonia transfer was evaluated in terms of specific ammonia transfer (SAT) value, which is the ratio of total ammoniacal nitrogen divided by the amount of water transferred. The acidification resulted in low SAT values and high quality of produced water. The ammonia transfer control in the acidic condition was stronger for HU than ADS due to higher alkalinity (pH 8.8) and ammonia concentration (5700 mg-N/L) of HU. Acidified HU at pH 4 exhibited a SAT value of 1.64 × 10^-5, which was significantly smaller than the SAT value of 3.00 × 10^-3 for the original HU. The low pH enhanced the water flux for ADS, but HU showed a steep decrease in water flux due to enhanced fouling. It was considered that the fouling intensity in acidic conditions depends on the characteristics of the wastewater source. The major foulants on the MD membrane were NaCl, CaCO₃ and CuSO₄ as recognized by the SEM-EDS. Acidified ADS and HU at pH 4 showed relatively high N content of 8.18 % and 28.03 %, respectively, as organic fouling.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.239-244
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• 2020

Prior to utilization of energy and power generation, the biogas from anaerobic digestion of sewage treatment plant(46,000㎡/d) should be purified particularly hydrogen sulfide among the various kinds of impurities. This study has focused on the methane decreasing rate and the removal of both hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide. In the case of partial circulation, 59.7% of methane gas was decreased to 57.4% in spite of oxidation process with micro-bubble. Carbon dioxide was removed from 38% to 32% and 76.1% of hydrogen sulfide was removed where 1,400ppm was introduced to the DIWS system, which indicated that DIWS system can be of use for the hydrogen sulfide removal of biogas from sewage treatment plant.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.14-20
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• 2012

Biogas can be obtained from biogenic materials through an anaerobic digestion process. Since biogas has low calorific value and its composition significantly varies, appropriate combustion strategies need to be established to obtain stable combustion in engine applications. In this study, efforts have been made to investigate the effects of inert gas composition variations on engine performance and emissions. Results show that the MBT spark timing was advanced and $NO_x$ was reduced as the inert gas in the biogas rose. Moreover, $NO_x$ emission drop in $CO_2$ diluted biogas was more significant than that of $N_2$ due to higher heat capacity of $CO_2$, while THC emissions showed the opposite tendency. Thermal efficiency was increased in $N_2$ case with elevation of $N_2$ due to the decreased heat loss and PMEP. However, there is no difference in $CO_2$ case because of deteriorated flame propagation speed.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.43-52
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• 2020

As the membrane gas separation technology grows, various models were developed by numerous researchers to describe the separation process. In this work, the counter-current model was compared thoroughly with experimental data. Experimentally, hollow fiber membrane using CA module was prepared for the separation of biogas. The pure gas permeation properties of membrane module for methane, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide were measured. The permeance of CO2 and CH4 were 25.82 GPU and 0.65 GPU, respectively. The high CO2/CH4 selectivity of 39.7 was obtained. the separation test for three different simulated mixed gases were carried out after pure gas test, and the gas concentration of the permeate at various stage-cut were measured from CA membrane module. Results showed that the experimental data agreed with the numerical simulation. A mathematical model has implemented in this study for the separation of biogas using a membrane module. The finite difference method (FDM) is applied to calculate the membrane biogas separation behaviors. Futhermore, the counter-current model can be considered as a convenient model for biogas separation process.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.209-217
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• 2015

Development of food industry and increased city life induced enlarged generation of food waste which is currently reused in a wide range of way. In this study, treatment of food waste generated from the public agricultural product wholesale markets (they are categorized as business places which imposes the duty for reducing the food waste discarded) in Korea was investigated, and subsequently, a scheme for improving the food waste recycling business was suggested. The food waste treatment plants are mainly located in Kyeongki-do at 39.5% of total plants in Korea and the other provinces have less than 10% of the total numbers, among which public treatment plant was 38.0% and private plant was 62.0%. The treatment methods included recycling as animal feed at 47.5%, as compost at 36.4%, and the rest of food waste (12.6%) was treated in other ways. Remarkably, it was noticed that the amount of food waste treated in anaerobic digestion have been increased up to 5.4% since 2011. This implied that food waste treated in anaerobic digestion method is gradually increased according to government policy. Amongst 33 public agricultural product wholesale markets distributed all over the country, the trading volume dealt in Garakdong market in Seoul, Gangseo market in Seoul, Daegu market in Daeju, Eomgung market in Busan, Guri market in Guri accounted for 34.67, 7.47, 6.98, 5.41, and 5.30% of the total trading volume in Korea, respectively. 2.65% of the total trading agricultural products dealt in the markets were remained as food waste and treated. In 2006, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs implemented the package policy for radish and Chinese cabbage in order to reduce the amount of food waste and indeed, food waste generated in Garakdong market declined to one third of the food waste before the package policy implementation. In 2010, the food waste amount treated by 'dehydration', 'discarding as raw materials', and 'drying after dehydration' accounted for 56.3%, 33.7%, and 10.0% of the total food waste generated in the public agricultural product wholesale market. However, in 2013, discarding as raw materials accounted for the most at 56.3% followed by dehydration at 37.5%, and by drying after dehydration at 6.3%. The remarkable increment of the food waste discarded as raw materials was attributed to the increase of them in Garakdong market in Seoul. In general, the agricultural food waste contains high amount of moisture at 88% in average and low amount of salt at 0.02% in average. Therefore, it is highly recommended to treat the agricultural food waste through drying after dehydration in order for improving the treatment capability. Also, this recommendation can be supported by the fact that the end-products via drying after dehydration can be utilized as compost material. Overall, the agricultural food waste recycling business can be developed through integration of the treatment via 'drying after dehydration' and compost production.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.781-788
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• 2008

This study shows how to find out optimum co-substrate conditions and continuous operating parameters for maximum acidification of three different organic wastes - livestock wastewater, sewage sludge and food waste. Design of experiments and statistical analysis were revealed as appropriate optimization schemes in this study. Analyses of data obtained from batch tests demonstrated the optimum substrate mixing ratio, which was determined by maximum total volatile fatty acids(TVFA) increase and soluble chemical oxygen demand(SCOD) increase simultaneously. Suggested optimum mixing ratio of livestock wastewater, sewage sludge and food waste was 0.4 : 1.0 : 1.1 based on COD, respectively. Response surface methodology(RSM) contributed to find out optimum operating parameter - hydraulic retention time(HRT) and substrate concentration - for the semi-continuous acidogenic fermentation of mixed organic wastes. The optimum condition for maximum TVFA increase was 2 days of HRT and 29,237 mg COD/L. Empirical equations obtained through regression analysis could predict that TVFA increase would be 73%. To confirm the validity of the statistical experimental strategies, a confirmation experiment was conducted under the obtained optimum conditions, and relative error between theoretical and experimental results was within 4%. This result reflects that using statistical and RSM technique can be effectively used for the optimization of real waste treatment processes.