• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.39 no.4 s.118
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• pp.489-497
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• 2006

The feasibility of the Natural and Ecological Wastewater treatment System (NEWS) was examined for rural wastewater treatment in Korea. The intermittent trickling biofilter with high hydrophilic filter media was used for pretreatment for suspended solids and organic pollutants. The subsequent constructed wetland with porous granule materials was used for promoting nutrient removal. The results show that the removal efficiencies of the system were high with respect to the water quality parameters except COD. Even if the effluent from the biofilter did not meet the guidelines for wastewater treatment plant effluent in Korea in terms of $BOD_5$ and TN, the final effluent of the system meets the guidelines us to good performance of the constructed wetland. The regression analysis between pollutant loading rate and removal rate indicated that the system could have stable removal for SS, $BOD_5$, TN, and TP in the given influent ranges. The analysis in the winter period indicated that the wetland covered with transparent polycarbonate glass had the statble performance during the winter period dus to increase of temperature inside the wetland without any heating system. With the stable performance, effective poilutant removal, low maintenance, and cost-effectiveness, the NEWS could be considered as an alternative treatment system for decentralized regions and rural communities in Korea.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.149-154
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• 2012

The adsorption and desorption behavior of biofilter-medium was investigated on the performance of an adsorption column. Continuous flow-isothermal adsorption experiments were performed to treat waste air containing such a VOC as ethanol under the same condition of > 90% relative humidity as the condition of the feed to a biofilter process. In case of feeding waste air containing ethanol of 1,000 ppmv (or 2,050 mg ethanol/$m^3$) to the adsorption system at the rate of 2 L/min, the onsets of its breakthrough and reaching the state of dynamic equilibrium at the exit had been delayed 10 and 3 times, respectively, later than those at the 1st stage sampling port. Moreover, in case of 2,000 ppmv (or 4,100 mg ethanol/$m^3$), they had been delayed 9 and 3 times, respectively. Thus, regardless of feeding concentration, the ratios of delaying period were observed to be quite consistent each other at the exit of the adsorption column. With regard to the period of desorption, the ratios of delaying period were consistent each other to be 1.5 for both cases. In addition, the effect of microbial activity and sterilization-process was studied on adsorption equilibrium. The ethanol concentration in the vapor phase of vials packed with sterilized granular activated carbon (GAC) was quite consistent to that with unsterilized GAC. However, the ethanol concentrations in the vapor phase of vials packed with unsterilized compost and the unsterilized mixture of GAC and compost were higher than those with sterilized compost and the sterilized mixture of GAC and compost, respectively.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.240-246
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• 2014

A semi-pilot biofilter inoculated with the microbes consortium of Bacillus cereus DAH-1056 and Arthrobacter sp. KDE-0311 was operated under various operating conditions in order to treat malodorous waste air containing both hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. When both hydrogen sulfide and ammonia contained in malodorous waste air were treated simultaneously by semi-pilot biofilter inoculated with Thiobacillus sp. IW and return-sludge, the removal efficiencies of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia were ca. 80% and ca. 50%, respectively. On the other hand, in this study, the removal efficiencies of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia were ca. 90% and ca. 60%, respectively. Therefore, the removal efficiencies of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia were enhanced by ca. 13% and 20%, respectively, compared to the semipilot biofilter inoculated with Thiobacillus sp. IW and return-sludge. In addition, in this study, the maximum elimination capacities of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia were enhanced by ca. 15% ($8g/m^3/h$) and 10~17% ($3{\sim}5g/m^3/h$), respectively. In this study, it was observed either that in case of even a same inlet load of hydrogen sulfide, a higher concentration of hydrogen sulfide causes more difficulties in treating ammonia containing in waste air than a lower one, or that in case of even a same inlet load of ammonia, a lower concentration of ammonia results in higher removal efficienciy and elimination capacity than a higher one. Even though hydrogen sulfide and ammonia were treated simultaneously by a biofilter in this study, the maximum elimination capacity of hydrogen sulfide in this study exceeded or was similar to that in previous study of biofilter treating only hydrogen sulfide. In addition, this study showed the higher maximum elimination capacity of ammonia than other previous investigation of biofilter treating hydrogen sulfide and ammonia simultaneously.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.11
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• pp.1161-1169
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• 2008

The removals of TCE and PCE vapor with or without a supply of toluene as a primary substrate were compared in a biofiltration process, and the variations of microbial communities associated with the removal were also investigated. As a result of investigations on the removals of TCE/PCE in a biofilter B within which TCE/PCE-acclimated sludge was attached on the surface of media without a supply of primary substrate, and those in another biofilter A where toluene-acclimated sludge was attached with a supply of toluene as a primary substrate, followings were found: (i) parts of microbes responsible to the decomposition of toluene vapor participate in the removal of chlorinated VOCs such as TCE and PCE, and (ii) effective biological removals of TCE and PCE vapor do not necessarily need cometabolism. Sequencing of 16S rDNA obtained from the band profile of DGGE (Denaturating Gradient Gel Electrophoresis), it was confirmed that: (i) uncultured alpha proteobacterium, uncultured Desulfitobacterium, uncultured Rhodobacteraceae bacterium, Cupriavidus necator, and Pseudomonas putida were found to be toluene-decomposing microbes, (ii) alpha proteobacterium HTCC396 is a TCE-removing microbe, (iii) Desulfitobacterium sp. is a PCE-decomposing microbe, and (iv) particularly, uncultured Desulfitobacterium sp. is probably a microbe decomposable not only toluene but also various chlorinated VOC vapor including TCE and PCE.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.989-996
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• 2009

In this study, the effects of biofilter media type (three different activated carbons and anthracite), empty bed contact time (EBCT) and temperature on the removal of four aldehyde species (formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, glyoxal and methylglyoxal) in BAC filters were investigated. Experiments were conducted at three water temperature (5, 15 and $25^{\circ}C$) and four EBCTs (5, 10, 15, and 20 min). The experimental results indicated that the coal based BAC retained more bacterial biomass on the surface of the activated carbon than the other BACs, and increasing EBCT or increasing water temperature also increased the four aldehyde species removal in BAC filters. To achieve above 80% of removal efficiency for four aldehyde species in a BAC filter, above 15 min EBCT at $5^{\circ}C$ and 10 min EBCT at above $15^{\circ}C$ were required. The kinetic analysis indicated a first-order reaction rate for the biodegradation of four aldehyde species at various water temperatures. Data obtained from the BAC filters at various temperatures were also used to evaluate pseudo first-order rate constants for four aldehyde species. The half-lives evaluated for formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, glyoxal and methylglyoxal in the coal-based BAC ranging from 0.89 to 3.19 min, from 0.75 to 3.35 min, from 2.16 to 4.72 min and from 1.49 to 3.86 min, respectively, could be used to assist water utilities in designing and operating BAC filters.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.94-105
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• 2021

Two vertical flow biofilters in series (BFS) employing synthetic fiber (FBF) followed by woodchip (WBF) was investigated in order to assess its potential as an alternative to the typical vertical-horizontal flow configuration in removing nonpoint source pollutants specifically nutrients and organics. These lab-scale column biofilters were operated for 176 days alongside three other columns that were added for control and sampling purposes. The biofilter columns were fed with either a semi-artificial piggery stormwater or artificial stormwater with specific ammonia and nitrate contents. Results reveal that the BFS was more effective than a single biofilter in removing pollutants especially nitrogen. FBF was found to remove up to 100% of ammonia from the stormwater with corresponding increase in nitrate in the outflow which shows evidence of active nitrification. Meanwhile, the succeeding vertical WBF was able to subsequently remove 77% of the nitrate. The effective reduction of nitrate in a vertical flow biofilter was believed to be due to the use of woodchip which can provide a carbon source that is required for denitrification. However, further investigation is needed to support this claim. Nonetheless, the study shows the potential of vertical flow BFS as a nitrogen removal mechanism especially in areas where enough land space for horizontal flow biofilters is limited.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.379-388
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• 2006

Two mesophilic trickling bed bioreactors filled with two different types of media, hydrophilic- and hydrophobic-cubes, were designed and conducted for hydrogen production under the anaerobic fermentation of sucrose. Each bioreactor consisted of the column packed with polymeric cubes and inoculated with heat-treated sludge obtained from anaerobic digestion tank. A defined medium containing sucrose was fed by the different hydraulic retention time(HRT), and recycle rate. Hydrogen concentrations in gas-phase were constant, averaging 40% of biogas throughout the operation. Hydrogen production rate was increased till $10.5\;L{\cdot}h^{-1}{\cdot}L^{-1}$ of bioreactor when influent sucrose concentrations and recycle rates were varied. At the same time, the hydrogen production rate with hydrophobic media application was higher than its hydrophilic media application. No methane was detected when the reactor was under a normal operation. The major fermentation by-products in the liquid effluent of the both trickling biofilters were acetate, butyrate and lactate. In order to run in the long term operation of both reactor filled with hydrophilic and hydrophobic media, biofilm accumulation on hydrophilic media and biogas produced should be controlled through some process such as periodical backwashing or gas-purging. Four sample were collected from each reactor on the opposite hydrogen production rate, and their bacterial communities were compared by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of PCR products generated using bacterial 16s rRNA gene primers (8f and 926r). It was expressed a marked difference in bacterial communities of both reactors. The trickling bed bioreactor with hydrophobic media demonstrates the feasibility of the process to produce hydrogen gas. A likely application of this reactor technology can be hydrogen gas recovery from pre-treatment of high carbohydrate-containing wastewaters.

• KCID journal
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.31-38
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• 1999

Recently, biofilm reactors have been considered as an efficient small scale sewage treatment system in Korean rural areas because of easy operation and cost effectiveness. The objective of this study was to select a more effective filter medium of the bio

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.141-142
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• 2003

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.75-86
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• 2007

This process which has a connection of biofilter and sulfur-limestone has been developed to treat organic substances including BOD, COD and SS etc. and to treat sulfur-limestone is for denitrification.. The whole process consists of chemical reaction tank, sedimentation tank, trickling filter, denitrification tank The trickling filter is equipped with a reactor filled with absorptive filter, and the sulfur denitrification tank is filled with sulfur-limestone mixed media. After setting up practical facilities whose capacity is 60 tons a day, we have observed the removal efficiencies of pollutants through 60 experiments during Summer and Winter seasons. The average concentration of polluted water was BOD for 3.6 mg/L, $COD_{Mn}$ for 11.3 mg/L, SS for 2.8 mg/L, T-N for 8.6 mg/L, and T-P for 0.8 mg/L, and the rate of treatment efficiencies 96.5%, 84.7%, 96.5%, 79.2%, and 80.8%, respectively was found through the experiments. The average treatment efficiency for BOD and $COD_{Mn}$ was 85.0% and 55.7%, respectively and the average removal efficiency for NH4+-N was 84.9% in the trickling filter. The removal efficiency in the denitrification tank is as follows; The removal rate of $NO_3^--N$ was as high as 93.2% within the compass of pH 6.3 to 7.3 through $16.8{\sim}37.0mg/L$ flown into $NO_3^--N$ and $0.1{\sim}8.3mg/L$ outflown. It had observed that this process has implemented highly efficient and advanced treatment without external carbon sources and internal recycle during its process. In conclusion, this process is suitable for a sewerage in a small village due to the merits of low power consumption and easy maintenance.