• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.111-118
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• 2007

Global warming crisis due primarily to continued green house gas emission requires impending change to renewable alternative energy than continuously depending on exhausting fossil fuels. Bioenergy including biodiesel and bioethanol are considered good alternatives because of their renewable and sustainable nature. Bioethanol is currently being produced by using sucrose from sugar beet, grain starches or lignocellulosic biomass as sources of ethanol fermentation. However, grain production requires significant amount of fossil fuel inputs during agricultural practices, which means less competitive in reducing the level of green house gas emission. By contrast, cellulosic bioethanol can use naturally-growing, not-for-food biomass as a source of ethanol fermentation. In this respect, cellulosic ethanol than grain starch ethanol is considered a more appropriate as a alternative renewable energy. However, commercialization of cellulosic ethanol depends heavily on technology development. Processes such as securing enough biomass optimized for economic processing, pretreatment technology for better access of polymer-hydrolyzing enzymes, saccharification of recalcitrant lignocellulosic materials, and simultaneous fermentation of different sugars including 6-carbon glucose as well as 5-carbon xylose or arabinose waits for greater improvement in technologies. Although it seems to be a long way to go until commercialization, it should broadly benefit farmers with novel source of income, environment with greener and reduced level of global warming, and national economy with increased energy security. Mission-oriented strategies for cellulosic ethanol development participated by government funding agency and different disciplines of sciences and technologies should certainly open up a new era of renewable energy.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.78-86
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• 2012

In this study, dark fermentative hydrogen production (DFHP) from acid pretreated microalgal biomass was optimized with via statistical experimental design. Acid concentration and reaction time were varied from 0.1 to 3% (v/w) and 10 to 60 min with substrate concentration of 76 g dry cell weight (dcw)/L and initial pH of 7.4, respectively. During the fermentation, pH was not controlled. The optimal condition was found that at $H_{2}$ yield reached to 37.3 mL $H_{2}/g$ dcw at 1.2% HCl and 48 min. Through regression analysis, it was found that $H_{2}$ yield was well fitted by a quadratic polynomial equation ($R^{2}$=0.95). HCl concentration was the most significant factor influencing DFHP. The results of ANOVA verify that HCl concentration was the most significant factor influencing DFHP.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.318-326
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• 2014

This study was conducted to investigate the potential of non-used forest biomass residues as raw materials for making wood pellets with additives such as wood tar and starch and to evaluate fuel characteristics of the pellets. Wood tar, a by-product provided from the carbonization process of wood, could be a suitable additive for wood pellet production due to its higher calorific value and lower hazardous heavy metals, such as cadmium and mercury, compared to woody biomass. When the wood tar (10 wt%) was added, the calorific value was increased from 4,630 kcal/kg (wood pellet without additive) to 4,800 kcal/kg (wood pellet with additive). With the increase of additive amount into wood pellet, the length and individual density of wood pellet increased. In addition, bulk density of the pellets was increased, whereas the fine content was decreased. Consequently the overall productivity of wood pellets was improved by adding 2 w% additives into wood pellets; the percentage of productivity increase was 5.9% and 4.9% for adding starch and wood tar, respectively.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.258-264
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• 2023

The greenhouse gas (GHG) emission assessment of kenaf pellet, produced from locally generated kenaf residues in South Korea, has been studied based on the EU RED-II methodology for calculating GHG impact of biomass fuels. Based on the production pathway of kenaf residue pellet and emission coefficients from EU JRC report, the life cycle GHG emission of kenaf residue pellet is assessed as 3.0 gCO₂eq/MJ_pellet and the life cycle GHG emission of electricity generated from kenaf residue pellet is assessed as 11.9 gCO₂eq/MJ when electrical efficiency of final conversion is 25%. The potential GHG emission reduction of electricity produced from kenaf pellet is 90.3% compared to the domestic electricity emission factor 42.8 kgCO₂eq/MWh. Also, the electricity produced from kenaf pellet can reduce at least 59.6% of GHG emission compared to the electricity produced from imported wood pellets.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.211-224
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• 2012

Technology for energy recovery from waste can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. So recently, there are several companies using RDF, RPF, WCF instead of using only coal fuel and it's part of the fuel on the increase. In this study, we developed Wood chip fuel $CO_2$ emission factor through fuel analysis. It's moisture content is 23%, received net calorific value is 2,845 kcal/kg, and received basis carbon is 34%. The result of emission factor is $105ton\;CO_2/TJ$, it's 5.9% lower than 2006 IPCC guideline default factor $112ton\;CO_2/TJ$. The gross GHG(Greenhouse gases) emissions of plant A is $178,767ton\;CO_2 eq./yr$, and Net GHG emissions is $40,359ton\;CO_2 eq./yr$. Therefore, the reduction of GHG emissions is $138,408ton\;CO_2/yr$ through using WCF, and I accounts for 77% of all GHG emissions.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.559-569
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• 2018

Catalytic supports made of carbon have many advantages, such as high coking resistance, tailorable pore and surface structures, and ease of recycling of waste catalysts. Moreover, they do not require pre-reduction. In this study, ash-free coal (AFC) was obtained by the thermal extraction of carbonaceous components from raw coal and its performance as a carbon catalytic support was compared with that of well-known activated carbon (AC). Nickel was dispersed on the carbon supports and the resulting catalysts were applied to the steam reforming of toluene (SRT), a model compound of biomass tar. Interestingly, nickel catalysts dispersed on AFC, which has a very small surface area (${\sim}0.13m^2/g$), showed higher activity than those dispersed on AC, which has a large surface area ($1,173A/cm^2$). X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the particle size of nickel deposited on AFC was smaller than that deposited on AC, with the average values on AFC ${\approx}11nm$ and on AC ${\approx}23nm$. This proved that heteroatomic functional groups in AFC, such as carboxyls, can provide ion-exchange or adsorption sites for the nano-scale dispersion of nickel. In addition, the pore structure, surface morphology, chemical composition, and chemical state of the prepared catalysts were analyzed using Brunauer-Emmett-Taylor (BET) analysis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and temperature-programmed reduction (TPR).

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.252.2-252.2
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• 2010

Biomass is considered to be a major potential fuel and renewable resource for the future. In fact, there is high potential to produce the large amount of energy from biomass around the world. In this study, to obtain basic data for practical application of wood pellet and wood pellet boiler system as heating system in agriculture, agricultural biomass resources were surveyed, pellet was made of agricultural by-product such as stem of rape, oat and rice, ricehusk and sawdust and wood pellet boiler system with capacity of 116 kW was manufactured and installed in greenhouse of $38.5m{\times}32m$. High heating value, bulk density and ash content of pellet made of agricultural by-product and efficiency and heating performance of this system was estimated. Rice straw was the largest agricultural biomass in 2005 and the total amount of rice straw converted into energy of $131.71{\times}10^{11}$ kJ. And in 2005, total amount of forest' by-product converted into energy of $29,277.05{\times}10^{11}$ kJ. High heating values of pellets made of agricultural by-products of stem and seed of rape, stem of oat, rice straw and rice husk were 16,034, 16,026, 16,089, 15,650, 15,044 kJ/kg respectively. High heating values of pellets made of agricultural by-products were 83.6% compared to that of wood pellet. Average bulk density of pellets made of agricultural by-products of stem and seed of rape, stem of oat, rice straw and rice husk was 1,400 $kg/m^3$. Ash contents of the pellets were 6.6, 7.0, 6.2, 5.5, 33% respectively. Ash content of rice husk pellet was the largest compared to other kind of pellets. To increase efficiency of agricultural pellet boiler, the boiler adopted secondary heat exchanger. The agricultural pellet boiler designed and manufactured in this study had high efficiency of 84.2% compared to the conventional agricultural pellet boiler, when water flow rate, exhaust gas temperature and average combustion furnace temperature were 39L/min, $180^{\circ}C$, $680^{\circ}C$ respectively. And pellet supplying and pausing time were 13, 43 seconds respectively. In March of 2010, prices of wood pellet, agricultural tax free diesel, diesel, kerosene were 350 won/kg, 811 won/L, 1,422 won/L, 976 Won/L respectively. Also in terms of energy, prices per same heating value were 77.8, 90.1, 158, 108.4 Won/Mcal. Energy saving rate of wood pellet was 16, 50, 39% compared to agricultural tax free diesel, diesel and kerosene respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.588-598
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• 2017

Currently, bioethanol, a fuel additive for transportation, is produced mainly by using biomass (first generation) such as corn and sugar canes. First generation biomass can cause various problems in terms of increase in agricultural prices and ethical reasons. To address these problems, a nonedible lignocellulosic biomass can be utilized. Agricultural byproducts such as straw, bagasse, and forest byproducts from the wood processing industry. Therefore, production of wood based bioethanol can be an effective utilization route of second generation biomass, and its raw materials are more abundant than first generation resources. Furthermore, it is possible to secure cheap raw materials. One of the biggest advantages of using biofuels is that it contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gases by minimizing the environmental impact, unlike fossil fuels. In this study, we investigated the greenhouse gas reduction effects that can be achieved through the use of Lignocellulosic bioethanol and government policies on renewable energy currently being implemented in ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines). In these four countries, policies and incentives related to biofuels have been developed. It is expected that the reduction ratio of carbon dioxide emission and the mixed biofuel will be gradually increased in the future.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.55-61
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• 2018

This study evaluated if the selected samples meets the Solid Refuse Fuel quality criteria in Korea. Biomass and plastic wastes generated in D City were mixed in diverse ratio. When the biomass content was about 40%, the moisture content was close to the SRF criteria and was measured to be 9.8%. The ash contents were analyzed up to 4.19%, and the lower calorific values based on Steuer, Dulong Equation and Bomb Calorimeter were at least 4,851, 4,181 and 3,847 kcal/kg, respectively. As a result of the elemental analysis, sulfur and chloride content were measured up to 0.05%. Those values satisfied the SRF criteria. Also, heavy metals(Hg, Cd, Pb, As) were analyzed to be below the SRF criteria. This makes it possible to use efficiently the wood byproducts abandoned in the woods, and the physical properties of wood being weak to moisture can be supplemented with plastics. Consequently, if plastic and biomass were well mixed and made into SRF, it would overcome the problem of shortening the life span of incineration facilities due to the high temperature of plastic wastes in the incinerator.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.125-131
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• 2006

Dimethyl ether (DME) is a new clean fuel as an environmentally-benign energy resource. DME can be manufactured from various energy sources including natural gas, coal, biomass and spent plastic. In addition to its environmentally friendly properties, DME has similar characteristics to those of LPG. Therefore, it is considered as an excellent substitute fuel for LPG, fuel cells, power plant, and especially diesel and is expected to be the alternative fuel by 2010. The experimental study of the direct synthesis of DME was investigated under various conditions over a temperature range of $220{\sim}280^{\circ}C$, syngas ratio 1.2~3.0. All experiments were carried out with a hybrid catalyst, composed of a methanol synthesis catalyst ($Cu/ZnO/Al_2O_3$) and a dehydration catalyst (${\gamma}-Al_2O_3$). The observed reaction rate follows qualitatively a Langmiur-Hinshellwood model as the reaction mechanism. Such a mechanism is considered with three reactions; methanol synthesis, methanol dehydration and water gas shift reaction. From a surface reaction with dissociative adsorption of hydrogen, methanol, and water, individual reaction rate was determined.