• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.105-108
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• 1997

For the removal of heavy metals, Cd, Cu and Cr were used. The initial concentration of Cd and Cu were 1-10 ppm, the removal efficiency of Cd and Cu was 76.2-89.0% and 69.0-79.0%, respectively. The initial concentration of Cr were 1~5 ppm, and the-removal efficiency was low especially at high concentration. In general, the initial concentrations of heavy metals had no relation to the removal efficiency. At the beginning, the removal efficiency was very high, but it was maintained at constant concentration. The trends of accumulations of heavy metals in the stem increased in proportion to the initial concentration. The removal efficiency of heavy metals increased a little bit when nutrients existed in the solution. So that, the initial concentration of Cd and Cu were 1-10 ppm, the removal efficiency of Cd and Cu was 84.8-91.0% and 75.9-82.0%. The initial concentration of Cr were 1-5 ppm, the removal efficiency was 25.0-67.0%.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.201-206
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• 2019

In this study, we performed an electrowinning process for effective removal of metals (Cu and Ni) in solution and their recovery as solid forms. A complete removal of Cu and Ni (1,000 mg/L) was observed during four times recycling test, indicating that our electrowinning system can ensure the efficient metal removal with high stability and durability. In addition, we investigated effect of operation parameters (i.e., concentration of boric acid only for Ni, variation of pH, concentration of electrolyte ($H_2SO_4$), and cell voltage) on the efficiency of metal removal (Cu and Ni) during the electrowinning. The addition of boric acid significantly enhanced removal efficiency of Ni as the concentration of boric acid increased up to 10 g/L. Compared to negligible pH effect (pH 1, 2, and 4) on the Cu removal, we observed the increase in removal efficiency of Ni as the pH increased from 1 to 4. The electrolyte concentration did not significantly influence the removal of Cu and Ni in this study. We also obtained great removal rates of Cu and Ni at 2.5 V and 4.0 V, which were much faster than those at lower voltages. Finally, almost 99% of each Cu and Ni (1,000 mg/L) was selectively removed from the mixture of metals by adjusting pH and addition of boric acid after the completion of Cu removal. The findings in this study can provide a fundamental knowledge about effect of important parameters on the efficiency of metal recovery during the electrowinning.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.235-244
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• 2020

Copper (Cu), one of the main contaminants in the mine drainage from the closed mine area, needs to be removed before exposed to environment because of its toxicity even in the low concentration. In this study, passive treatment based field pilot experiments using limestone and compost media were conducted during 9 months for enhancing Cu removal efficiency of the mine water treatment facility of S mine located in Goseong, Gyeongsangnam-do in South Korea. The pH increase and Cu removal efficiency showed high value at Successive Alkalinity Producing System ( SAPS) > Reducing and Alkalinity Producing System (RAPS) > limestone reactor in a sequence. The compost media using in SAPS and RAPS contributed to raise pH by organic material decomposition with generating alkalinity, thus, Cu removal efficiency increased. Also, experimental results showed that Cu removal efficiency was proportional to pH increase, meaning that pH increase is the main mechanism for Cu removal. Moreover, Sulfate Reduction Bacteria (SRB) was identified to be most activated in SAPS. It is inferred that the sulfate reduction reaction also contributed to Cu removal. This study has the site significance in that the experiments were conducted at the place where the mine water generates. In the future, the results will be useful to select the more effective reactive media used in the treatment facility, which is most appropriate to remediate mine water from the S mine.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.80-84
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• 2006

The removal efficiency of Cu and Fe contaminants on the silicon wafer surface was examined to investigate the effect of cleaning solutions on the behavior of metallic impurities. Silicon wafers were intentionally contaminated with Cu and Fe solutions by spin coating and cleaned in different types of cleaning solutions based on $NH_4OH/H_2O_2/H_2O\;(SC1),\;H_2O_2/HCl/H_2O$ (SC2), and/or HCl/$H_2O$ (m-SC2) mixtures. The concentration of metallic contaminants on the silicon wafer surface before and after cleaning was analyzed by vapor phase decomposition/inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (VPD/ICP-MS). Cu ions were effectively removed both in alkali (SC1) and in acid (SC2) based solutions. When $H_2O_2$ was not added to SC2 solution like m-SC2, the removal efficiency of Cu impurities was decreased drastically. The efficiency of Cu ions in SC1 was not changed by increasing cleaning temperature. Fe ions were soluble only in acid solution like SC2 or m-SC2 solution. The removal efficiencies of Fe ions in acid solutions were enhanced by increasing cleaning temperature. It is found that the behavior of metallic contaminants as Cu and Fe from silicon surfaces in cleaning solutions could be explained in terms of Pourbaix diagram.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.517-524
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• 2016

In order to treat groundwater containing high levels of nitrate, nitrate reduction by nano sized zero-valent iron (nZVI) was studied using batch experiments. Compared to nitrate removal efficiencies at different mass ratios of $nitrate/Fe^0$, the removal efficiency at the mass ratio of 0.02% was the highest(54.59%). To enhance nitrate removal efficiency, surface modification of nZVI was performed using metallic catalysis such as Pd, Ni and Cu. Nitrate removal efficiency by Cu-nZVI (at $catalyst/Fe^0$ mass ratio of 0.1%) was 66.34%. It showed that the removal efficiency of Cu-nZVI was greater than that of the other catalysts. The observed rate constant ($k_{obs}$) of nitrate reduction by Cu-nZVI was estimated to $0.7501min^{-1}$ at the Cu/Fe mass ratio of 0.1%. On the other hand, TEM images showed that the average particle sizes of synthetic nZVI and Cu-nZVI were 40~60 and 80~100 nm, respectively. The results imply that catalyst effects may be more important than particle size effects in the enhancement of nitrate reduction by nZVI.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.253-259
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• 2018

Cu(II) can cause health problem for human being and phosphate is a key pollutant induces eutrophication in rivers and ponds. To remove of Cu(II) and phosphate from solution, chitosan as adsorbent was chosen and used as a form of hydrogel bead. Due to the chemical instability of hydrogel chitosan bead (HCB), the crosslinked HCB by glutaraldehyde (GA) was prepared (HCB-G). HCB-G maintained the spherical bead type at 1% HCl without a loss of chitosan. A variety of batch experiment tests were carried out to determine the removal efficiency (%), maximum uptake (Q, mg/g), and reaction rate. In the single presence of Cu(II) or phosphate, the removal efficiency was obtained to 17 and 16%, respectively. However, the removal efficiency of Cu(II) and phosphate was increased to 50~55% at a mixed solution. The maximum uptake (Q) for Cu(II) and phosphate was enhanced from 11.3 to74.4 mg/g and from 3.34 to 36.6 mg/g, respectively. While the reaction rate of Cu(II) and phosphate was almost finished within 24 and 6 h at single solution, it was not changed for Cu(II) but was retarded for phosphate at mixed solution.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.737-741
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• 2005

In this study, the effect of copper content on the NO removal efficiency by Cu/MCM-41 has been investigated. MCM-41 was prepared by hydrothermal synthesis using a gel mixture of colloidal silica solution and cetyltrimethylammonium. Cu/MCM-41 was manufactured with copper content (5, 10, 20, and 40%) in Cu(II) acetylacetonate. The surface properties of MCM-41 were investigated by using pH, XRD, and FT-IR analyses. $N_2/77K$ adsorption isotherm characteristics, including the specific surface area and micropore volume were studied by BET's equation and Boer's t-plot methods. NO removal efficiency was confirmed by gas chromatography technique. From the experimental results, the MCM-41 was analyzed to have the surface functional groups of Si-OH and Si-O-Si and the characteristic diffraction lines (100), (110), (200), and (210) corresponding to a hexagonal arrangement structure. The copper content supported on MCM-41 appeared to increase the NO removal efficiency in spite of decreasing the specific surface areas or micropore volumes. Consequently, it was found that the copper content in Cu/MCM-41 played an important role in improving the NO removal efficiency, which was mainly attributed to the catalytic reactions.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.561-568
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• 2019

Objectives: The most commonly detected heavy metals in rocks and soils, including Pb, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn and As, are representative pollutants discharged from abandoned mines and have been listed as potential sources of contamination in drinking water. This study focused on increasing the removal efficiency of heavy metals from drinking water resources by surface modification of natural adsorbents to reduce potential health risks. Methods: Iron oxide coating and graft polymerization with zeolites and talc was conducted for bipolar surface modification to increase the combining capacity of heavy metals for their removal from water. The removal efficiency of heavy metals was measured before and after the surface modification. Results: The removal efficiency of Pb, Cu, and Cd by surface modified zeolite showed 100, 92, and 61.5%, respectively, increases compared to 64, 64, and 38% for non-modified zeolite. This implies that bipolar surface modified natural adsorbents have a good potential use in heavy metal removal. The more interesting finding is the removal increase for As, which has both cation and anion characteristics showing 27% removal efficiency where as non-modified zeolite showed only 2% removal. Conclusions: Zeolite is one of the most widely used adsorptive materials in water treatment processes and bipolar surface modification of zeolite increases its applicability in the removal of heavy metals, especially As.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.339-346
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• 2019

In this research, applicability of electrochemical technology in removing nitrogenous compounds from solid waste landfill leachate was examined. Novel cathode material was developed at laboratory by introducing a Cu layer on Al substrate (Cu/Al). Al and mild steel (MS) anodes were investigated for the efficiency in removing nitrogenous compounds from actual leachate samples collected from two open dump sites. Al anode showed better performances due to the effect of better electrocoagulation at Al surface compared to that at MS anode surface. Efficiency studies were carried out at a current density of $20mA/cm^2$ and at reaction duration of 6 h. Efficiency of removing nitrate-N using Al anode and developed Cu/Al cathode was around 90%. However, for raw leachate, total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency was only around 30%. This is due to low ammonium-N removal as a result of low oxidation ability of Al. In addition to the removal of nitrogenous compounds, reactor showed about 30% removal of total organic carbon. Subsequently, raw leachate was diluted four times, to simulate pre-treated leachate. The diluted leachate was treated and around 88% removal of TN was achieved. Therefore, it can be said that the reactor would be good as a secondary or tertiary treatment step in a leachate treatment plant.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.73-82
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• 2003

Various forest humic substances were collected at different climate regions with different forest types, and adsorption of heavy metals such as Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II) and Cr(III) were characteristically conducted to obtain optimal adsorption conditions and to evaluate the removal efficiency of heavy metals by each forest humic substance. The adsorption isotherms for Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II) and Cr(III) conformed to Langmuir's equation. In the stirred reactor, the removal efficiencies of Cu(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II) by forest humic substances were more than 90% but that of Cr(III) was less than 60%. The adsorption capacities of heavy metals in the stirred reactor were considerably varied depending on the type of forest humic substances. Among humic substances, the one from deciduous forest at subtropical region showed the highest removal efficiency for Cu(II). There was no significant difference in removal efficiency by each heavy metal depending on reaction temperature ranged from 20 to 50oC except for Cr(III), and the adsorptions of Cu(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II) were occurred rapidly in the incipient stage within 10 min, while Cr(III) needed more reaction time to be adsorbed. The stirred and packed bed column reactors showed similar adsorption characteristics of heavy metals by humic substances, but the removal efficiency was considerably higher in the packed bed column reactor than in the stirred reactor. Therefore, in actual operation process, a continuous packed bed column reactor was more economical.