• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.25-30
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• 2011

Biogas obtained from the biodegradable organic wastes in an anaerobic digester consists of $CH_4$ and inert gases such as $CO_2$ and $N_2$. Since the composition of biogas varies by anaerobic digester conditions and the origin of wastes, it is necessary to respond to these variations so as to make stable combustion and accomplish high efficiency when it is used as a fuel for power generating SI engines. In this study, efforts have been made to investigate the effect of changes in the calorific values of biogas on the engine performance and exhaust characteristics. The biogas was simulated by supplying of $CH_4$ with $N_2$ dilution of various ratios, and ECM was developed to achieve accurate control of ignition and combustion. The results show that as the $CH_4$ concentration of the biogas decreases, the optimal spark timing is advanced due to the elevated thermal capacity and lowered $O_2$ concentration of the in-cylinder charge. Furthermore, since combustion temperature was reduced by increased inert gas, $NO_x$ emissions decreased, whereas THC emissions increased.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.184-196
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• 2013

We need to develop new renewable energy that could fundamentally replace fossil fuel, since the volume of economy and industry of our time becomes uncontrollably enormous. One of the alternative is to develop energy based on marine biomass, which would meet environment and energy needs at the same time. The marine bio-energy productions is supposed to occupy 50% to 500 million TOE in bio-energy production that is based on the Korean 3rd new renewable energy technology development, utilization, supply plan until 2030. This study attempts to apply input-output analysis to investigating the economic impacts of marine bio-energy development project in the Korean national economy. More specifically, this study shows what national economy effect of production-inducing effect, value-added inducing effect, employment-inducing effect, and R&D-inducing effect are explored with demand-driven model. Furthermore, this study attempts to define and classify the marine bio-energy development project sector from I-O table. Also, this study pays particular attention to marine bio-energy development project by taking the industry as exogenous specification and then investigating its economic impacts. The Marine bio-energy development project case 223 billion won, production-inducing effect, value-added inducing effect, and employment-inducing effect are 312 billion won, 87 billion won, 1,151 persons, and 5 billion won respectively. These quantitative information can be usefully utilized in the policy-making for the industrialization of marine bio-energy development project.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.207-214
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• 2013

A concerted effort to develop alternative forms of energy is underway due to fossil fuel shortages and its deleterious effects. Recently, bioenergy from microalgae has gained prominence and the use of municipal wastewater as a low cost alternative for a nutrient source has significant advantages. In this study, we have employed municipal wastewater directly after primary treatment (primary settling basin) in a small scale raceway pond (SSRP) for microalgal growth. Indigenous microalgae in the wastewater were encouraged to grow in the SSRP under optimal conditions. The mean removal efficiencies of TN, TP, and $NH_3-N$ after 6 days were 77.77%, 63.55%, and 89.02%, respectively. The average lipid content of the microalgae was 19.51% of dry cell weight, and linolenate and linoleate (18:n) were the predominant fatty acids. The 18S rRNA gene analysis and microscopic observations of the indigenous microalgae community revealed the presence of Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus obliquus as the dominant microalgae. These results indicate that untreated municipal wastewater, serving as an excellent nitrogen and phosphate source for microalgal growth, could be treated using microalgae in open raceway ponds. Moreover, microalgal biomass could be further profitable by the extraction of biodiesel.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.7
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• pp.461-468
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• 2014

Biochar is a carbon rich solid produced by the pyrolysis of biomass such as energy crops, forestry residues, and wood wastes. Biochar returned to soil is to mitigate climate change and the feedstock of wood wastes reduces fossil fuel consumption as well as disposal costs. This study was practiced to evaluate a biochar system by gasification in terms of global warming regarding the soil application of the produced biochar. Life cycle assessment methodology was used to analyze the environmental impacts of the system, and the functional unit was 1 tonne of wood wastes. The result shows that the biochar system by using wood wastes as feedstock produces 4.048E-01 $kgCO_2-eq$ from the pre-treatment process as chipping and drying, 4.579E-01 $kgCO_2-eq$ from the pyrolysis process, and 9.070E-02 $kgCO_2-eq$ from the spreading to agricultural land, therefore total 9.534E-01 $kgCO_2-eq$ are generated. About 252 kg of $CO_2$ is still stored in the produced biochar in soil after carbon offsetting of the system. Therefore, the net carbon of the system is -251 kg of $CO_2-eq$.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.381-389
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• 2015

In this study, the effects of moisture content and particles size of ground particles of torrefied larch chips on the pelletizing process were investigated depending on torrefaction conditions ($220^{\circ}C$-50 min, $250^{\circ}C$-50 min, $250^{\circ}C$-120 min). The moisture content in the torrefied chip decreased to 0.69~1.75%, while ash content and calorific value increased compared to untreated chip. In addition, weight loss significantly increased during torrefaction due to hemicellulose degradation. The carbon content in torrefied larch chip increased compare to untreated larch chip, while the hydrogen and oxygen contents decreased. The lignin and glucan contents in torrefied larch chip increased with increasing severity of the torrefaction condition, while hemicellulose decreased. In the particle size distribution of ground particles of torrefied larch chip, larch torrefied at severe conditions was found to produce smaller particles (~1 mm) than that of the larch torrefied at mild conditions. Macropore (over $500{\AA}$) in the torrefied particle was produced during torrefaction. During the pelletizing using ground particles of torrefied larch chip, the pressure needed in pelletizing decreased and pellet length increased with increasing moisture content, regardless of the particle size.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.17-24
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• 2019

The combustion properties of the flammable substance used in industrial fields include lower/upper flash point, lower/upper explosion limit, autoignition temperature(AIT), fire point, and minimum oxygen concentration(MOC) etc.. The accurate assessment of these characteristics should be made for process and worker safety. In this study, tert-amylalcohol(TAA), which is widely used as a solvent for epoxy resins, oxidizers of olefins, fuel oils and biomass, was selected. The reason is that there are few researches on the reliability of combustion characteristics compared to other flammable materials. The flash point of the TAA was measured by Setaflash, Pensky-Martens, Tag, and Cleveland testers. And the AIT of the TAA was measured by ASTM 659E. The lower/upper explosion limits of the TAA was estimated using the measured lower/upper flash points by Setaflash tester. The flash point of the TAA by using Setaflash and Pensky-Martens closed-cup testers were experimented at 19 ℃ and 21 ℃, respectively. The flash points of the TAA by Tag and Cleveland open cup testers were experimented at 28 ℃ and 34 ℃, respectively. The AIT of the TAA was experimented at 437 ℃. The LEL and UEL calculated by using lower and upper flash point of Setaflash were calculated at 1.10 vol% and 11.95 vol%, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.3.1-3.1
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• 2010

Water splitting reaction using photocatalysts is of great interest in the utilization of solar energy [1]. In the present work, visible light-responsive $TiO_2$ thin films (Vis-$TiO_2$) were prepared by a radio frequency magnetron sputtering (RF-MS) deposition method and applied for the separate evolution of $H_2$ and $O_2$ from water as well as the photofuel cell. Special attentions will be focused on the effect of HF treatment of Vis-$TiO_2$ thin films on their photocatalytic activities. Vis-$TiO_2$ thin films were prepared by an RF-MS method using a calcined $TiO_2$ plate and Ar as the sputtering gas. The Vis-$TiO_2$ thin films were then deposited on the Ti foil substrate with the substrate temperature at 873 K (Vis-$TiO_2$/Ti). Vis-$TiO_2$/Ti thin films were immersed in a 0.045 vol% HF solution at room temperature. The effect of HF treatments on the activity of Vis-$TiO_2$/Ti thin films for the photocatalytic water splitting reaction have been investigated. Vis-$TiO_2$/Ti thin films treated with HF solution (HF-Vis-$TiO_2$/Ti) exhibited remarkable enhancement in the photocatalytic activity for $H_2$ evolution from a methanol aqueous solution as well as in the photoelectrochemical performance under visible light irradiation as compared with the untreated Vis-$TiO_2$/Ti thin films. Moreover, Pt-loaded HF-Vis-$TiO_2$/Ti thin films act as efficient and stable photocatalysts for the separate evolution of $H_2$ and $O_2$ from water under visible light irradiation in the presence of chemical bias. Thus, HF treatment was found to be an effective way to improve the photocatalytic activity of Vis-$TiO_2$/Ti thin films. Furthermore, unique separate type photofuel cell was fabricated using a Vis-$TiO_2$ thin film as an electrode, which can generate electrical power under solar light irradiation by using various kinds of biomass derivatives as fuel. It was found that the introduction of an iodine ($I^-/{I_3}^-$) redox solution at the cathode side enables the development of a highly efficient photofuel cell which can utilize a cost-efficient carbon electrode as an alternative to the Pt cathode.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.499-503
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• 2008

The bioethanol for use as a liquid fuel by fermentation of renewable biomass as an alternative to petroleum is important from the viewpoint of global environmental protection. Recently, many scientists have attempted to increase the productivity of bioethanol process by developing specific microorganism as well as optimizing the process conditions. In the present study, which is based on our previous investigation on the pretreatment process, theproductivity of bioethanol obtained from simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) process was compared between various domestic materials including barley, brown rice, corn and sweet potato. Additionally, Solid glucoamylase (SGA; developed in Changhae Co.), from modified strain with UV, was used. The result was compared to commercial glucoamylase (GA). It was observed that the fermentation rate was increased together with the yield which can be derived from the final ethanol concentration. Especially, in the case of brown rice, compared to the experimental results using GA, the final ethanol concentration was 1.25 times higher and 18.4 g/L of the yield was increased. Also, the time required for reaching 95% of the maximum ethanol concentration is significantly reduced, which is approximately 36 hours, compared to 88 hours using GA. It means that SGA has excellent saccharogenic power.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.26-34
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• 2014

Due to the rapid energy consumption and fossil fuel abundance reduction, the world is progressively in need of alternative and renewable energy sources such as biodiesel. Biodiesel from microalgae offers high hopes to the scientific world for its potential as well as its non-competition with arable lands. Taking consideration to reduce the cost of production as well as to attain twin environmental goals of treatment and use of animal waste material the microalgal cultivation using piggery manure has been tested in this study. Unialgal strains such as Chlorella sp. JK2, Scenedesmus sp. JK10, and an indigenous mixed microalgal culture CSS were cultured for 20 days in diluted piggery manure using Small Scale Raceway Pond (SSRP). Biomass production and lipid productivity of CSS were $1.19{\pm}0.09gL^{-1}$, $12.44{\pm}0.38mgL^{-1}day^{-1}$, respectively and almost twice that of unialgal strains. Also, total nitrogen and total phosphorus removal efficiencies of CSS was 93.6% and 98.5% respectively and 30% higher removal efficiency compared to the use of unialgal strains. These results indicate that the piggery manure can provide microalgae necessary nitrogen and phosphorus for growth thereby effectively treating the manure. In addition, overall cost of microalgal cultivation and subsequently biodiesel production would be significantly reduced.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.151-158
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• 2010

In order to measure the deposition velocity of $I_2$ vapor for radish plants and its translocation factor for their roots, radish plants were exposed to $I_2$ vapor for 80 min. at different growth stages between 29 and 53 d after sowing. The exposure was performed in a transparent chamber during the morning time. Deposition velocities ($ms^{-1}$) were on the whole in the range of $1.0{\times}10^{-4}{\sim}2.0{\times}10^{-4}$ showing an increasing tendency with an increase in the biomass density. The results showed some agreement with existing reports that a higher relative humidity would lead to a higher deposition velocity. The acquired deposition velocities were lower than by factors of several tens than some field measurements probably due to a very low wind speed (about $0.2\;ms^{-1}$) in the chamber. Translocation factors (ratio of the total iodine in the roots at harvest to the total plant deposition), estimated in a more or less conservative way, were $1.3{\times}10^{-3}$ for an exposure at 29 d after sowing and $5.0{\times}10^{-3}$ for an exposure at 53 d after sowing. In using the present experimental data, meteorological conditions and chemical and physical forms of iodine need to be carefully considered.