• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.644-651
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• 2013

The fermented manure derivative known as Preparation 500 is traditionally used as a field spray in biodynamic agriculture for maintaining and increasing soil fertility. This work aimed at characterizing the product from a microbiological standpoint and at assaying its bioactive properties. The approach involved molecular taxonomical characterization of the culturable microbial community; ARISA fingerprints of the total bacteria and fungal communities; chemical elemental macronutrient analysis via a combustion analyzer; activity assays for six key enzymes; bioassays for bacterial quorum sensing and chitolipooligosaccharide production; and plant hormone-like activity. The material was found to harbor a bacterial community of $2.38{\times}10^8$ CFU/g dw dominated by Gram-positives with minor instances of Actinobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria. ARISA showed a coherence of bacterial assemblages in different preparation lots of the same year in spite of geographic origin. Enzymatic activities showed elevated values of ${\beta}$-glucosidase, alkaline phosphatase, chitinase, and esterase. The preparation had no quorum sensing-detectable signal, and no rhizobial nod gene-inducing properties, but displayed a strong auxin-like effect on plants. Enzymatic analyses indicated a bioactive potential in the fertility and nutrient cycling contexts. The IAA activity and microbial degradation products qualify for a possible activity as soil biostimulants. Quantitative details and possible modes of action are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.84-91
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• 2017

Recent years have witnessed the increased usage of flammable metals, such as aluminum or magnesium, in wide range of high-tech industries. These metals are indispensable for the improvement of physical properties of materials as well as the design capability of the final product. During the process, unwanted metal dusts could be released to the environment. This can lead to an occupational health and safety issues. Due to their flammable nature, more serious problem of an explosion can happen in extreme cases. The explosion is the combustion of tiny solid particles and vapor mixture, caused by pyrolysis. This complex composition makes engineering analysis more difficult, compared to simple gas explosions or vapor cloud combustions. The study was conducted to assess this light metal dust explosion in an effort to provide the bases for a risk assessment. Dust explosion characteristics of each material was carefully evaluated and an appropriate analysis tool was developed. A comprehensive database was also constructed and utilized for the calibration of the developed response model and the verification for its accuracy. Subsequently, guidelines were provided to prevent dust explosions that could occur in top-notch industrial processes.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.507-516
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• 2010

Stationary combustion sources such as coal-fired power plants, waste incinerators, industrial manufacturing, etc. are recognized as major sources of mercury emissions. Due to rapid economic growth, zinc production in Korea has increased significantly during the last 30 years. Total zinc production in Korea exceeded 739,000 tons in 2008, and Korea is currently the third largest zinc producing country in the world. Previous studies have revealed that zinc smelting has become one of the largest single sectors of total mercury emissions in the World. However, studies on this sector are very limited, and a large gap in the knowledge regarding emissions from this sector needs to be bridged. In this paper, Hg emission measurements were performed to develop emission factors from zinc smelting process. Stack sampling and analysis were carried out utilizing the Ontario Hydro method and US EPA method 101A. Preliminary data showed that $Hg^0$ concentrations in the flue gas ranged from 4.56 to $9.90\;{\mu}g/m^3$ with an average of $6.40\;{\mu}g/m^3$, Hg(p) concentrations ranged from 0.03 to $0.09\;{\mu}g/m^3$ with an average of $0.04\;{\mu}g/m^3$, and RGM concentrations ranged from 0.23 to $1.17\;{\mu}g/m^3$ with an average of $6.40\;{\mu}g/m^3$. To date, emission factors of 7.5~8.0 g/ton for Europe, North America and Australia, and of 20 or 25 g/ton for Africa, Asia and South America are widely accepted by researchers. In this study, Hg emission factors were estimated using the data measured at the commercial facilities as emissions per ton of zinc product. Emission factors for mercury from zinc smelting pross ranged from 4.32 to 12.96 mg/ton with an average of 8.31 mg/ton. The emission factors that we obtained in this study are relatively low, considering Hg contents in the zinc ores and control technology in use. However, as these values are estimated by limited data of single measurement of each, the emission factor and total emission amount must be updated in future.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.231-236
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• 2014

Sawdust, produced as an wood by-product, is usable biomass as liquid fuels if decomposed to monomer unit, because the chemical structure are similar to high octane materials found in gasoline. In this study, parameters of thermochemical degradation by acetone-solvolysis reaction of sawdust such as the effect of reaction temperature, reaction time and type of solvent on conversion yield and degradation products were investigated. The liquid products by acetone-solvolysis from sawdust produced various kind of ketone, phenol and furan compounds. The optimum sawdust conversion was observed to be 88.7% at $350^{\circ}C$, 40min. Combustion heating value of liquid products from thermochemical conversion processes was as high as 7,824 cal/g. The energy yield and mass yield in acetone-solvolysis of sawdust was 60.8% and 36.4 g-oil/100g-sawdust after 40 min of reaction at $350^{\circ}C$, respectively. The major components of the acetone-solvolysis products, that could be used as liquid fuel, were 4-methyl-3-pentene-2-one, 1,3,5-trimethylbezene, 2,6-dimethyl-2,5-heptadiene-4-one, 3-methyl-2-cyclopenten-1-one as ketone compounds.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.347-354
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• 2014

Economic evaluation of the manufacturing technology of high-value chemicals through the carbonation reaction of carbon dioxide contained in the flue gas was performed, and analysis of the IRR (Internal Rate of Return) and whole profit along the production plan of the final product was conducted. Through a carbonation reaction with sodium hydroxide that is generated from electrolysis and by using carbon dioxide in the combustion gas that is generated in the power plant, it is possible to get a high value products such as sodium bicarbonate compound and also to reduce the carbon dioxide emission simultaneously. The IRR (Internal Rate of Return) and NPV (Net Present Value) methods were used for the economic evaluation of the process which could handle carbon dioxide of 100 tons per day in the period of the 20 years of plant operation. The results of economic evaluation showed that the IRR of baseline case of technology was 67.2% and the profit that obtained during the whole operation period (20 years) was 346,922 million won based on NPV value. When considering ETS due to the emissions trading enforcement that will be activated in 2015, the NPV was improved to a 6,000 million won. Based on this results, it could be concluded that this $CO_2$ carbonation technology is an cost-effective technology option for the reduction of greenhouse gas.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.62-66
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• 2009

Utilization and interest of unconventional fuel and process residue such as oil sand and its residue, oil sand coke, have been increased because of the continuous rise of fuel price and conventional fuel availability. In this study, the gasification of oil sand coke produced from coking process of oil sand was performed to utilize as an energy resource using lab-scale fixed bed gasification system. The combustion characteristics of oil sand bitumen and oil sand coke were investigated by using TGA and lab-scale gasification system was applied to reveal the characteristics of produced syngas composition with oxygen/fuel ratio, temperature and steam injection rate. Oil sand coke shows a high carbon content, heating value and sulfur content and low ash content and reactivity. In case of oil sand coke gasification, generally with increasing temperature, the amount of steam introduced and decreasing oxygen injection rate, $H_2$ content in product gas increased while the $CO_2$ content decreased. The calorific value of syngas shows about $2100kcal/Nm^3$ and this result indicates that the oil sand coke can be used as a resource of hydrogen and fuel.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.663-668
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• 2017

Dye waste water generated in the dye industry is categorized as hazardous waste water that requires appropriate treatment. The pilot scale experimental trials were carried out using dye waste water as an effective additive for the selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) of NOx in combustion flue gases. The additives were waste liquor obtained from the dye industry and several purification steps were taken to make a standardized reagents. The dye waste water was shown to possess valuable SNCR qualities (at least 87% NOx reduction efficiency) considering its availability as a waste product, which has to be strictly treated, and have little effects on CO removal. The results indicated that the NO removal efficiency increased first and then decreased with increasing temperature within $750-1150^{\circ}C$. The maximum NO reduction efficiency was approximately 87% at the optimal reaction temperature. A more than 10% increase in NO reduction was achieved in the presence of 1000 ppm Na-additives (dye waste water) compared to that without additives. The Na-based additives have also a significant promoting effect on $N_2O$ reduction and within the SNCR temperature window.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.131-138
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• 2010

Experimental and numerical studies were conducted to investigate the thermal and chemical characteristics of heptane fires in a full-scale ISO 9705 room. Representative fire conditions were considered for over-ventilated fire (OVF) and under-ventilated fire (UVF). Fuel flow rate and doorway width were changed to create OVF and UVF conditions. Detailed comparisons of temperature and species concentrations between experimental and numerical data were presented in order to validate the predictive performance of FDS (Fire Dynamic Simulator). The OVF and UVF were explicitly characterized with distributions of temperature and product formation measured in the upper layer, as well as combustion efficiency and global equivalence ratio. It was shown that the numerical results provided a quantitatively realistic prediction of the experimental results observed in the OVF conditions. For the UVF, the numerically predicted temperature showed reasonable agreement with the measured temperature. The predicted steady-state volume fractions of $O_2$, $CO_2$, CO and THC also agreed quantitatively with the experimental data. Although there were some limitations to predict accurately the transient behavior in terms of CO production/consumption in the UVF condition, it was concluded that the current FDS was very useful tool to predict the fire characteristics inside the compartment for the OVF and UVF.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.625-633
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• 2014

The Aquistore project is the world's first commercial capture, transportation, utilization and storage project of post-combustion $CO_2$ from a coal-fired thermo electric power plant, and the proposed storage is a saline aquifer at a depth of about 3,500 m. Deep saline aquifer, compared to hydrocarbon reservoir, provides the great volumetric potential for storage of $CO_2$ anywhere in the world, therefore the research results from the project may be exported globally to other sites. Geological $CO_2$ storage characterization for saline aquifer instead of hydrocarbon reservoir needs to estimate the geophysical properties of subsurface geology. This study calculated the geophysical property of water-saturated formation by applying amplitude variation analysis developed from oil and gas exploration. We correlated horizon tops at the well logs to seismic traveltime of 1,815 and 1,857 ms as Winnipeg and Deadwood formations. Gradient analysis from seismic traces showed correlation coefficient of 45 - 81 % on amplitude variation with respect to incident angle. Crossplot of intercept and gradient shows the inverse proportional trend which represents typical water saturated sediments. Product attribute of intercept and gradient described the base of wet sediment. Poisson's ratio change attribute increased at the top of target area satisfying with wet sediment and decreased at the top of basement in a dry rock bed.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.267-274
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• 2018

Though the wet bottom ash has been used as a type of lightweight aggregate, dry bottom ash, new type bottom ash from coal combustion power plant, has scarcely researched. It is excellent lightweight aggregate in the view point of construction material. This study is performed to check the applicability of dry bottom ash as a fine aggregate in lightweight aggregate concrete, by analyzing various properties of fresh and hardened concrete. We get results that the slump of concrete is within the target range at less than 75% replacement rate of dry bottom ash, the air content is not affected by the replacement rate of dry bottom ash, the bleeding capacity is less than $0.025cm^3/cm^2$ at 75% under of the replacement rate of dry bottom ash, and the compressive strength of concrete show 90% or more comparing the base mix while initial strength development is a little low. Oven dry unit weight of concrete is reduced by 8.9% when replaced 100% dry bottom ash, and dry shrinkage tends to decrease depending on increase of replacement rate of dry bottom ash. Modulus of elasticity of concrete shows no decease at 50% over of the replacement rate of dry bottom ash, while modulus of elasticity of concrete decreases when the replacement rate increases further. The dry bottom ash, when used as a fine aggregate in lightweight concrete, can be used effectively without any deterioration in quality.