• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.76-82
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• 2012

Biomass and coal are great potential energy sources for gasification process. These solids can be gasified to produce syngas and bio-oil which can be upgraded further to transportation fuel. Two biomass and three coals have been gasified with steam in a thermobalance reactor under atmospheric pressure in order to evaluate their kinetic rate information The effects of gasification temperature ($600{\sim}850^{\circ}C$) and partial pressure of steam (30~90 kPa) on the gasification rate have been investigated. The three different types of gas-solids reaction models have been applied to the experimental data to compare their predictions of reaction behavior. The modified volumetric reaction model predicts the conversion data well, thus that model was used to evaluate kinetic parameters in this study. The gasification reactivity of five solids has been compared. The obtained activation energy of coal and biomass gasification were well in the reasonable range. The expression of apparent reaction rates for steam gasification of five solids have been proposed as basic information for the design of coal gasification processes.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.267-273
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• 2006

The biomass of Pinus densiflora stands burnt out by the 2005 Yangyang forest fire was estimated based on the grades of fire severity; light, moderate and heavy. In order to measure the post-fire ground biomass in kg/ha, the ground fuels including shrub layer were collected and weighted and the crown biomass was estimated using allometric regressions and leaf area index for dry weight of P. densiflora. The pre-fire biomass was assumed to be equal to that of non-damaged P. densiflora stands having the same characteristics. The results indicated that the forest fire burnt out fuels of stands; 3,693 kg/ha in the light-damaged, 8,724 kg/ha in the moderately-damaged, and 17,451 kg/ha in the heavily-damaged forest stands.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.296-300
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• 2011

In this work, various wood biomasses were used to determine the combustion characteristics for the fuel of cogeneration plant. Combustion characteristics of four types, i.e., (i) forest products, (ii) recycled wood, (iii) empty fruit bunch, and (iv) palm kernel shell, were examined via thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA) in air atmosphere and coal was used as a comparison group. From the TGA results, the combustion of the wood biomass was occurred in the range of 280 to $420^{\circ}C$, which was lower than that of coal. Forest product showed the lowest activation energy (0.4 kJ/mol) compared to that of other wood biomasses (about 6 to 14 kJ/mol) and coal (64 kJ/mol). In addition, the reaction rate constant of the wood biomass was lower than that of coal. These results indicate the higher combustion initiation rate of wood biomass due to the high content of volatile matter, which had a low boiling point.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.1-9
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• 2022

This study analyzed the anticipated supply-and-demand of forest biomass energy (through wood pellets) until 2050, in South Korea. Comparing the utilization rates of forest resources of five countries (United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Japan, and S. Korea), it was found that S. Korea does not nearly utilize its forest resources for energy purposes. The total demand for wood pellets in S. Korea (based on a power generation efficiency of 38%) was predicted to be 3,629 and 4,371 thousand tons in 2034 and 2050, respectively. The anticipated total wood pellet power generation ratio to target power consumption is 1.13% (5,745 GWh), 1.17% (6,336 GWh), and 1.25% (7,631 GWh) in 2020, 2030, and 2050, respectively. Low value-added forest residues left unattended in forests are called "Unused Forest Biomass" in S. Korea. From the analysis, the total annual potential amount of raw material, sustainably collectible amount, and available amount of wood pellet in 2050 were estimated to be 6,877, 4,814, and 3,370 thousand tons, respectively. The rate of contribution to Nationally Determined Contributions was up to 0.64%. Through this study, the authors found that forest biomass energy will contribute to a carbon neutral society in the near future at the national level.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.688-696
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• 2011

Hydrogen is one of the few long-term sustainable clean energy carriers, emitting only water as by-products during its combustion or oxidation. The use of fossil fuels to produce hydrogen makes large amount of carbon dioxide (>7 kg $CO_{2}$/kg $H_{2}$) during the reforming processes. Hydrogen production can be environmentally benign only if the energy and the resource to make hydrogen is sustainable and renewable. Biomass is an attractive alternative to fossil fuels for carbon dioxide because of the hydrogen can be produced by conversion of the biomass and the carbon dioxide formed during hydrogen production is consumed by biomass generation process. Hydrogen production using solar energy also attracts great attention because of the potential to use abundance natural energy and water.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.152-158
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• 2011

Fast pyrolysis of biomass is one of the most promising technologies for converting biomass to liquid fuels. The pyrolysis oil, also known as the bio crude oil (BCO), have been regarded as an alternative fuel for petroleum fuels to be used in diesel engine. However, the use of BCO in diesel engine requires modifications due to low energy density, high water contents, low acidity, and high viscosity of the BCO. One of the easiest way to adopt BCO to diesel engine without modifications is the use of BCO/diesel emulsions. In this study, a diesel engine operated with diesel, bio diesel (BD), and BCO/diesel emulsion was experimentally investigated. Performance and emission characteristics of a diesel engine fuelled by BCO/diesel emulsion were examined. Results showed that stable engine operation was possible with emulsion and engine output power was comparable to diesel and bio diesel operation. Long term validation of adopting BCO in diesel engine is still needed because the oil is acid, with consequent problems of corrosion especially in the injection system.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.79-84
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• 2016

Biofuel has been considered as promising renewable energy to solve various problems that result from increasing usage of fossil fuels since the early 20th century. In terms of chemical and physical properties as fuel, biobutanol has more merits than bioethanol. It could replace gasoline for transportation and industrial demand is increasing significantly. Production of butanol can be achieved by chemical synthesis or by microbial fermentation. The water hyacinth, an aquatic macrophyte, originated from tropical South America but is currently distributed all over the world. Water hyacinth has excellent water purification capacity and it can be utilized as animal feed, organic fertilizer, and biomass feedstock. However, it can cause problems in the rivers and lakes due to its rapid growth and dense mats formation. In this study, the potential of water hyacinth was evaluated as a lignocellulosic biomass feedstock in biobutanol fermentation by using Clostridium beijerinckii. Water hyacinth was converted to water hyacinth hydrolysate medium through pretreatment and saccharification. It was found that productivity of water hyacinth hydrolysate medium on biobutanol production was comparable to general medium.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.136-151
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• 2021

Biomass lignin, a waste produced during the paper and bio-ethanol production process, is a cheap material that is available in large quantities. Thus, the interest in the valorization of biomass lignin has been increasing in industrial and academic areas. Over the years, lignin has been predominantly burnt as fuel to run pulping plants. However, less than 2% of the available lignin has been utilized for producing specialty chemicals, such as dispersants, adhesives, surfactants, and other value-added products. The development of value-added lignin-derived co-products should help make second generation biorefineries and the paper industry more profitable by valorizing lignin. Another possible approach towards value-added applications is using lignin as a component in plastics. However, blending lignin with polymers is not simple because the polarity of lignin molecules results in strong self-interactions. Therefore, achieving in-depth insights on lignin characteristics and structure will help in accelerating the development of lignin-based products. Considering the multipurpose characteristics of lignin for producing value-added products, this review will shed light on the potential applications of lignin and lignin-based derivatives on polymeric composite production. Moreover, the challenges in lignin valorization will be addressed.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.49-57
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• 2020

Due to the sewage sludge's characteristics of high water content and low calorific value, it is hard to use sewage sludge as an energy source. In this study, we investigated production of bio-solid fuel which is mixed both sewage sludge and woody biomass in order to improve the sewage sludge's characteristics and replace fossil fuels. A thermogravimetric analysis was used to investigate the co-combustion characteristics of the mixed coal and bio-solid fuel of 5%, 10%, 15%, respectively. The analysis was carried out under non-isothermal conditions by raising the internal temperature of 25℃ to 900℃ with an increment of 10℃/min. In the case of comparing single coal sample and mixture sample of coal and bio-solid fuel, the initiation combustion temperature has slightly changed. However, both the maximum combustion temperature and the termination start combustion temperature were hardly noticeable. The initiation combustion was occurred between 200~315℃ and the thermal decomposition causing a significant weight change occurred between 350~700℃. As a result of the kinetic analysis of the co-combustion, the activation energy was decreased as the mixing rate was higher. Therefore, it is able to co-combust the mixed coal and bio-solid fuel in power plants.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.102 no.2
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• pp.247-254
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• 2013

The objective of this study was to assess the canopy fuel characteristics of five major coniferous species in Korea. This study was also developed allometric equations for the canopy fuel load and canopy base height of the major coniferous species using the allomeric equations of biomass developed by the Korea Forest Research Institute and the data from the $5^{th}$ National Forest Inventory. Among the major coniferous fuel types, Pinus koraiensis stands had the highest mean canopy bulk density, 0.34 kg/$m^3$, followed by Gangwon region Pinus densiflora stands 0.28 kg/$m^3$, Pinus thunbergii stands 0.24 kg/$m^3$, Pinus rigida stands 0.15 kg/$m^3$, Central region Pinus densiflora stands 0.12 kg/$m^3$ and Larix leptolepis stands 0.09 kg/$m^3$. The adjusted multiple coefficient of determination of the developed models ranged from 0.6321 to 0.9950 for canopy fuel load and 0.6390 to 0.8539 for canopy base height.