• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.209-217
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• 2011

Archaeal communities were investigated using 454 pyrosequencing technology based on 16S rRNA gene in 11 samples collected from six different full-scale anaerobic digesters. Observed operational taxonomic units (OTUs) estimated from the archaeal 16S rRNA gene sequences were 13-55 OTUs (3% cutoff) which was corresponded to 29-89% of Chao1 richness estimates. In the anaerobic digesters there were archaeal sequences within the orders Thermoproteales, Thermoplasmatales, Desulfurococcales as well as within the orders Methanomicrobiales, Methanobacteriales, Methanococcales, Methanosarcinales, and Methanocellales, which are known to produce methane. Among these orders, Methanococcales known to produce methane using hydrogen was the predominant taxon and constituted 51.8-99.7% of total sequences. All samples showed a very similar community structure (Pearson correlation coefficient=0.99) except for one sample based on a heat map analysis. In addition, canonical correspondence analysis correlating archaeal communities to the environmental variables demonstrated that digester temperature and total solids removal rate were the two important explanatory variables. Overall results suggested that environmental and operational variables of anaerobic digester are important factors determining archaeal diversity and community structure.

• 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.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.125-136
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• 1997

Digestion of a municipal wastewater sludge by the anaerobic sequencing batch reactor(ASBR) was investigated to evaluate the performance of the ASBR process at a critical condition of high-solids-content feed. The reactors were operated at an HRT of 10 days with an equivalent loading rate of 0.8-1.5 gVS/L/d at $35^{\circ}C.$ The main conclusions drawn from this study were as follows: 1. Digestion of a municipal wastewater sludge was possible using the ASBR in spite of high concentration of settleable solids in the sludge. The ASBRS with 3- and 4-day cycle period showed almost identical high digestion performances. 2. No adverse effect on digestion stability was observed in the ASBRS in spite of withdrawal and replenishment of $30\%\;or\;40\%$ of liquid contents. A conventional anaerobic digester could be easily converted to the ASBR without any stability problem. 3. Flotation thickening occurred in thicken step of the ASBRS throughout steady state, and floating bed volume at the end of thicken period occupied about $70\%$ of the working volume of the reactor. Efficiency of flotation thickening in the ASBRS could be comparable to that of additional gravity thickening of a completely mixed digester. 4. Solids were accumulated rapidly in the ASBR during start-up period. Solids concentrations in the ASBRS were 2.6 times higher than that in the completely mixed control reactor at steady state. Dehydrogenase activity had a strong correlation with the solids concentration. Dehydrogenase activity of the digested sludge in the ASBR was 2.9 times higher than that of the sludge in the control reactor, and about 25 times higher than that of the subnatant in the ASBR. 5. Remarkable increase in equivalent gas production of $52\%$ was observed at the ASBRS compared with the control reactor in spite of similar Quality of clarified effluent from the ASBRS and control reactor. The increase in gas production from the ASBRS was believed to be combined results of accumulation of microorganisms, higher driving force applied, and additional long-term degradation of organics continuously accumulated.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.112-121
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• 2009

To obtain basic design criteria for underground anaerobic digestion and enhance biogas production from swine slurry, a $20m^3$ underground anaerobic digester (UGAD) was constructed and operated at mesophilic ($31{\sim}37^{\circ}C$) temperature with an organic loading rate (OLR) at $23.6kgVS/m^3/day$. The average biogas and $CH_4$ production rate were observed at 8.62 and $5.78m^3/day$, respectively. The mean percentile of $CH_4$ and $CO_2$ were also observed at 67.5% and 19.6%. The relative biogas yield was explored at $733L/kg\;VS_{added}$ and $CH_4$ yield was at $495L/kg\;VS_{added}$ respectively. The removal rate of biochemical constituents and pathogens were noticed considerably at 68%, 74%, 79%, 86%, 89%, 81%, 55%, 79%, 98% and 100% on TS, VS, TSS, $BOD_5$, $TCOD_{cr}$, $SCOD_{cr}$, $NH_3-N$, available P, fecal coliforms and Salmonella, respectively. This study suggested that, the modified UGAD system is a greatly desirable for anaerobic digestion for swine slurry with regards to high methane yield and biodegradability.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.82-88
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• 2017

MET (Microbial Electrochemical Technology), such as MFC (Microbial Fuel Cell) and MEC (Microbial Electrolysis Cell), is a promising technology for producing sustainable biogas from an anaerobic digester (AD). At current stage, however, the most likely limiting factors, large internal resistances, should be overcome for successful scale up of this technology. Various researchers reported that application of electrode materials containing high current density, increase of ion strength and conductivity, configuration of electrode are good methods for minimizing internal resistances. Recently, stainless steel is receiving great attention because of not only high performance and durability but also low cost. Therefore, in this study, we evaluate electrochemical characteristics and biogas production rate using various electrode materials and configuration (graphite carbon coated with catalysts ($GC-C_M$) or not (GC), stainless steel mesh (SUS-M) and plate (SUS-P)). As the results, current densities of $GC-C_M$, GC, SUS-P, SUS-M were 2.03, 1.36, 1.04, $1.13A/m^2$, respectively. Methane yields of $GC-C_M$, GC, SUS-P, SUS-M were 0.27, 0.14, 0.19, 0.21 $L-CH_4/g-COD_{rem}$., respectively. Stainless steel shows high current density and methane yield, which are similar as graphite carbon coated with catalysts.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.229-234
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• 2008

Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) has started the nation's first biogas-microturbine project in the city of Gongju as an effort to encourage the utilization of wasted biogas containing useful energy source in the form of $CH_4$. The goal of the project is to set up the biogas microturbine co-generation system for utilizing biogas as an energy source and improving the economics of the wastewater treatment plant. Wastewater treatment processes were investigated in depth to find improvement possibility. Changes in internal recirculation ratio and pre-treatment degree are needed to optimize plant operation and biogas production. Biogas pre-treatment system satisfies Capstone's fuel condition requirement with the test result of 99.9% and 90.2% of hydrogen sulphide and ammonia is removal performance. Installation of microturbine and manufacture of heat exchanger to warm anaerobic digester has been done successfully. Expected economic profit produced by the system is coming from energy saving including electricity 115,871kWh/year and heat contained in exhaust gas 579GJ/year.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.73-82
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• 1996

The removal efficiencies of organic substrates, nitrogen and phosphorus in the anaerobic-aerobic biological phosphorus removal process were investigated by addition of acetic acid, propionic acid and butyric acid which are normal volatile fatty acids contained in anaerobic digester supernatants. Substrate utilization coefficients for the phosphorus release and uptake were also estimated. The effect of a VFA, which showed higher phosphorus removal efficiency than the other VFAs did, was also studied in an anaerobic-aerobic-anoxic biological nutrient removal process. For the anaerobic-aerobic process added by VFA, the phosphorus removal efficiencies were up to about 68%, 55% and 61% for the reactors of acetic acid, propionic acid and butyric acid added, respectively, which indicates the efficiencies were increased by about 8-21%, comparing to that of 47% for the reactor with no VFA added. There were no significant difference in removal efficiencies for organic substrate and $NH_3-N$ without regard to addition of VFA. However, the removal efficiency of total nitrogen was increased in the case of VFA added, since $NO_3-N$ was less produced. For the anaerobic-aerobic-anoxic process added VFA, the removal efficiencies for $NH_3-N$ and $PO{_4}^{3-}-P$ were increased by 5% and 13%, respectively, comparing with them in the reactors not added VFA.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.13-19
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• 2017

Relatively low efficiency in anaerobic digestion process is mainly caused by unproper mixing method. In this study, tray motion type agitator was applied in actual anaerobic digestion tank in order to improve the digestion efficiency, equalize the flow velocity distribution and energy saving. The impeller of tray motion type agitator was reciprocated vertically. Gas lift type agitator and tray motion type agitator appears almost same mixing efficiency include digestion rates. However, tray motion type agitator have shown that lower energy consumption compared to the conventional gas lift type agitator. Implementation of tray motion type agitator in the anaerobic digestion tanks contributed to the stabilization of mixing environment, efficiency and energy efficiency of the tank.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.1 no.2 s.2
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• pp.60-72
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• 2005

The effect of alkaline pre-treatment on the solubilization of waste activated sludge(WAS) was investigated, and the biodegradability of WAS, pretreated WAS, [PWAS], food waste and two types of mixture were estimated by biochemical methane potential [BMP] test at $35^{\circ}C$. The biodegradability of PWAS and mixture waste were significantly improved due to the effect of alkaline hydrolysis of WAS. An alkaline pre-treatment was identified to be one of the useful pre-treatment for improving biodegradability of WAS and mixture waste. In high-rate anaerobic co-digestion system coordinate with an alkaline pre-treatment in process, the digesters were operated at the HRT of 5, 7, 10 and 13 days with a mixture of FW $50\%\;and\;PWAS\;50\%,\;$In term of $CH_4$ content, VS removal and specific methane production [SMP] which are the parameters in the performance of digester, the optimum operating condition was found to be a HRT of 7 days and a OLR of 4.20g/L-day with the highest SMP of 0.340 L $CH_4/g$ VS.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.103-109
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• 2011

This work experimentally determined the effect of thermal and microwave pretreatments on the anaerobic digestion of mixtures of municipal primary and secondary sludges in semi-continuous mesophilic digesters at hydraulic retention times (HRT) of 20, 15, 10, 7, and 5 days. The ratio of soluble chemical oxygen demand (COD) to total COD in thermally pretreated and microwaved sludges at $80^{\circ}C$ was 2.7 and 3.2 times higher than that of raw sludge, respectively. The volatile solids (VS) and COD removal efficiencies in all three digesters fed with raw (control), thermally pretreated (TM), and microwaved (MW) sludges decreased as the HRT was reduced. The highest relative improvement in VS removal compared to the control occurred at the HRT of 5 days in the TM and MW (29 and 41% higher than the control, respectively). At this HRT, improvement in the COD removal efficiencies in the TM and MW compared to the control was 28 and 53%, respectively. Improvements in biogas production compared with the control increased in both the TM and MW as the HRT was reduced to 5 days. The relative improvement in daily biogas production compared to the control from the TM and MW was 33 and 53% higher than the control at the HRT of 5 days, respectively. The results show that microwave pretreatment is more effective than thermal pretreatment in increasing the solubilization degree and mesophilic anaerobic biodegradability of sewage sludge.