• KSBB Journal
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.615-620
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• 1998

The readily fermentable carbon sources in swine were acetic acid, propionic acid and butyric acid at the average concentrations of 7.2 g/L, 2.2 g/L and 2.7 g/L, respectively. The swine waste also contained excess nitrogen and other mineral sources. In shake flask experiments, the optimal range of cell growth for Azotobacter vinelandii UWD were 1.0∼3.5 g/L of acetic acid, 0.7∼2.0 g/L of propionic acid and 0.5∼2.0 g/L of butyric acid. A mixture of these three acids simulating two times diluted swine waste supported the best cell growth but the amount of carbon sources was limited. In shake flask and fermentor experiments, an addition of 30 g/L of glucose increased the final cell dry weight 8 times while the final poly (3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) concentration increased 86 times compared with using acid mixture only. A. vinelandii UWD preferred organic acids in the sequence of acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, and valeric acid.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.202-206
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• 2009

In many countries including China and U.S., researchers are developing methods to use sweetpotato as raw material for biofuel. We consider the sweetpotato is not only a source of green fuel, it eventually will provide various material including paper, adhesives, biodegradable plastics, and secondary metabolites. Sweetpotato is one of the high efficiency crop because it yields more calories per unit area than either maize or potato, and it requires the shortest growing cycle of the root crops grown in the tropics. Sweetpotato is the most useful crop for the coming starchbased industry era. Sweetpotato genetic resources are collected, characterized, evaluated, and maintained by U.S., China, Japan, and the International Potato Center. New varieties of sweetpotato using the proper genetic resources and molecular breeding will be developed to cope with the global food and energy in 21st century.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.297-302
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• 2015

With the intention to solve environmental problems caused by synthetic plastics from petroleum resources, biodegradable polyurethane foams and thermosetting moldings were prepared from biomass, such as wood and wheat bran by liquefaction method. Biodegradability of these biomass-based polymeric materials was investigated. In activated sludge, polyurethane foams from liquefied wheat bran and thermosetting molding from phenolated wood were decomposed approximately 14% and 29% for 20 days, respectively. One of the wood fungi, Coriolus versicolor was able to grow without supplemental nutrition, only with distilled water and polyurethane foam as a nutrition source. Risk assessments were also conducted and results showed that estrogenicity, mutagenicity, and carcinogenicity were not observed in the extractives of biomass- based polymeric materials.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.379-380
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• 2002

Biodegradable polymers have been regarded as a good alternative to solve the plastic waste problems caused by nondegradable synthetic polymers such as polyethylene and polystyrene. In the soil environment, plastics are mainly being used as a mulching film for agricultural purposes. In this research, the miscibility, tensile properties and biodegradation effect of poly-${\varepsilon}$-caprolactone(PCL) with polyvinyl chloride(PVC) have been studied. After 8 weeks of biodegradation, PCL/PVC(9/91) blend surface showed newly formed many holes. Consequently, the antiplasticization phenomenon and biodegradation were observed in the PCL/PVC blends. It was confirmed that a test for general biodegradation condition can be applied to plastic biodegradation in soil.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF PACKAGING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.25-32
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• 2009

It is now widely recognized that the disposal of packaging waste is an increasing environmental concern. Recent interest in polymer waste management of packaging materials has added incentive to the research. Poly(vinyl alcohol) is a readily biodegradable water-soluble polymer. However, this polymer cannot be processed by conventional extrusion technologies because the melting point of PVA is close to its decomposition temperature. Therefore, PVA films have been mostly prepared by solvent casting from water. Applications of PVA include sizing, binders, fibers, and films for agricultural chemicals and hospital laundry bags. A better understanding of PVA films, which also play important roles in the degradation of plastics, will expand the usage of PVA. Composite films based on PVA generally exhibit better mechanical and thermal properties than pure PVA. The aim of this review article is to review types, formation, and properties of PVA films and PVA based composite films used in packaging related researches.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.92-97
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• 2022

Plastics are classified into 7 types such as PET (PETE), HDPE, PVC, LDPE, PP, PS, and Other for separation and recycling. Recently, large corporations advocating ESG management are replacing them with bioplastics. Incineration and landfill of disposal of plastic waste are responsible for air pollution and destruction of the ecosystem. Because it is not easy to accurately classify plastic materials with the naked eye, automated system-based screening studies using various sensor technologies and AI-based software technologies have been conducted. In this paper, NIR scanning devices considering the NIR wavelength characteristics that appear differently for each plastic material and a system that can identify the type of plastic by learning the NIR spectrum data collected through it. The accuracy of plastic material identification was evaluated through a decision tree-based SVM model for multiclass classification on NIR spectral datasets for 8 types of plastic samples including biodegradable plastic.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.115-124
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• 2020

Sustainable plastics can be mainly categorized into (1) biodegradable plastics decomposed into water and carbon dioxide after use, and (2) biomass-derived plastics possessing the carbon neutrality by utilizing raw materials converted from atmospheric carbon dioxide to biomass. Recently, biomass-derived engineering plastics (EP) and natural nanofiber-reinforced nanocomposites are emerging as a new direction of the industry. In addition to the eco-friendliness of natural resources, these materials are competitive over petroleum-based plastics in the high value-added plastics market. Polyesters and polycarbonates synthesized from isosorbide and 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid, which are representative biomass-derived monomers, are at the forefront of industrialization due to their higher transparency, mechanical properties, thermal stability, and gas barrier properties. Moreover, isosorbide has potential to be applied to super EP material with continuous service temperature over 150 ℃. In situ polymerization utilizing surface hydrophilicity and multi-functionality of natural nanofibers such as nanocellulose and nanochitin achieves remarkable improvements of mechanical properties with the minimal dose of nanofillers. Biomass-derived tough-plastics covered in this review are expected to replace petroleum-based plastics by satisfying the carbon neutrality required by the environment, the high functionality by the consumer, and the accessibility by the industry.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.265-272
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• 2008

Biodegradable polybutylene succinate(PBS) is an environment friendly plastics for fisheries, because it can mitigate the ghost fishing problem caused by gill-net and trap fisheries. To evaluate photodegradability of PBS monofilament in comparison with polyamide(PA) and polyethylene(PE) monofilament, these 3 types of monofilaments were spun and exposed to ultraviolet light(UV) of weather-ometer for 900 hours, and then their modification, crystal structure, strength, and extensibility were analysed. PBS monofilament did not show any crack and maintained its crystal structure after 900 hour exposure to UV whereas PE monofilament began showing cracks and structure modification after 600 hour exposure. Under UV exposure, the strength and extensibility decreased more rapidly in PBS than in PA and PE. We estimate that gill nets made of PBS monofilament can endure for about 1 year. The breaking strength and elongation decreased linearly with the exposure time for the 3 types of monofilaments. The derived regression equations of the residual tenacity(RT, kg/$mm^2$) and the residual extensibility(RE, %) with the exposure time in year(Y) for each monofilament were; PBS : RT=48.598 - 8.6437Y($R^2=0.93$), RE=28.165 - 7.3233Y($R^2=0.98$), P A : RT=59.771 - 8.6437Y($R^2=0.98$), RE=32.198 - 5.2772Y($R^2=0.92$), P E : RT=60.898 - 5.6528Y($R^2=0.98$), RE=11.887 - 0.7188Y($R^2=0.98$).

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.140-145
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• 2019

In view of environmental considerations, the control of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is one of important issues in the film and coating industries. Therefore, UV-curable system has been developed due to minimize emissions of VOCs and reduce CO₂ emission due to low energy consumption from fast curing. Also, biodegradable polymers economically are attractive because of environmental and economic concerns associated with huge waste plastics. In this study, UV-curable polyurethane acrylates with different compositions of biodegradable polylactide (PLA) diol and poly(ethylene glycol) as diols were synthesized and curing reaction of their end-capped acrylates was performed by UV exposure. Tensile strength, elongation, and Tg of the UV-cured polyurethane acrylates increased with PLA diol content in the diol while their hydrophilicity and thermal stability increased with the PEG content. These results indicated a property of UV-cured polyurethane acrylates could be controlled by environment-friendly diols.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.318-322
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• 2004

Lactic acid is an environmentally benign organic acid that could be used as a raw material for biodegradable plastics if it can be inexpensively produced by fermentation. Two genes (ldhL and ldhD) encoding the L-(+) and D-(-) lactate dehydrogenases (L-LDH and D-LDH) were cloned from Lactobacillus sp., RKY2, which is a lactic acid hyper-producing bacterium isolated from Kimchi. Open reading frames of ldhL for and ldhD for the L and D-LDH genes were 962 and 998 bp, respectively. Both the L(+)- and D(-)-LDH proteins showed the highest degree of homology with the L- and D-lactate dehydrogenase genes of Lactobacillus plantarum. The conserved residues in the catalytic activity and substrate binding of both LDHs were identified in both enzymes.