• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.473-478
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• 2014

Microalgae is known as one alternative energy source of the fossil fuel with the small size of $5{\sim}50{\mu}m$ and negative charge. Currently, the cost of microalgae recovery process take a large part, about 20 - 30% of total operating cost. Thus, the microalgae recovery method with low cost is needed. In this study, the optimum current for Scenedesmus dimorphus recovery process using electrocoagulation techniques was investigated. Under the electrical current, Al metal in anode electrode is oxidized to oxidation state of $Al^{3+}$. In the cathode electrode, the water electrolysis generated $OH^-$ which combine with $Al^{3+}$ to produce $Al(OH)_3$. This hydroxide acts as a coagulant to harvest microalgae. Before applying in 1.5 L capacity electrocoagulation reactor, Scenedesmus dimorphus was cultured in 20 L cylindrical reactor to concentration of 1 OD. The microalgae recovery efficiency of electrocoagulation reactor was evaluated under different current conditions from 0.1 ~ 0.3 A. The results show that, the fastest and highest recovery efficiency were achieved at the current or 0.3 A, which the highest energy efficiency was achieved at 0.15 A.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.809-821
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• 2009

This paper proposes a new phase-shift full-bridge DC-DC converter by applying energy recovery circuits to a conventional full-bridge DC-DC converter in plasma display panel applications. The converter can achieve soft-switching in main-switches by an extra auxiliary resonant network even with the wide operating condition of both output load and input voltage. The un-coupled design guidelines to the main bridge-leg component parameters for soft-switching operation contribute to conduction loss reduction in the transformer primary side leading to efficiency improvement. The auxiliary switches in the resonant network also operate in zero-current switching. This paper analyzes the operation modes of the proposed scheme and presents the key design guidelines through steady state analysis. Also, the paper verifies the validity of the circuits by hardware experiments with a 1kW DC/DC converter prototype.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.399-401
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• 2005

A new high performance energy-recovery circuit (ERC) for a plasma display panel (PDP) is proposed. Two different ERCs are employed on both sides of the PDP, and slow falling and fast rising times are applied. It features a zero voltage switching (ZVS), low electromagnetic interference (EMI), low current stress, high efficiency, no severe voltage notch, reduced sustaining voltage, and high energy-recovery capability.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 1999

Various types of oil response equipments and oil recovery vessels are being developed in Korea from the 1990s to respond nil spill accidents. It should be considered prior to the selection of the oil skimmers to make the oil recovery system more efficient at early stage of oil spill accidents. Rotating baldes of vortex skimmer beneath the water surface concentrate oil and draw it into the weir, where it flows to a collection sump. In this study a recently developed Vortex-Disc skimmer(model : VDS-50) is introduced and the performance test results for the skimmer are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.121-131
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• 2018

Domestic sewage treatment plants (STPs) consume about 0.5 % of total electric energy produced annually, which is equivalent to 207.7 billion Korean won per year. To minimize the energy consumption and as a way of mitigating the depletion of energy sources, the sewage treatment strategy should be improved to the level of "energy positive". The core processes for the energy positive sewage treatment include A-stage for energy recovery and B-stage for energy-efficient nitrogen removal. The integrated process is known as the A/B-process. In A-stage, chemically enhanced primary treatment (CEPT) or high rate activated sludge (HRAS) processes can be utilized by modifying the primary settling in the first stage of sewage treatment. CEPT utilizes chemical coagulation and flocculation, while HRAS applies returned activated sludge for the efficient recovery of organic contents. The two processes showed organic recovery efficiencies ranging from 60 to 70 %. At a given recovery efficiency of 80 %, 17.3 % of energy potential ($1,398kJ/m^3$) is recovered through the anaerobic digestion and combustion of methane. Besides, anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) can recover 85% of organic contents and generate $1,580kJ/m^3$ from the sewage. The recovered energy is equal to the amount of energy consumption by sewage treatment equipped with anaerobic ammonium oxidation (ANAMMOX)-based B-stage, $810{\sim}1,620kJ/m^3$. Therefore, it is possible to upgrade STPs as efficient as energy neutral. However, additional novel technologies, such as, fuel cell and co-digestion, should be applied to achieve "energy positive" sewage treatment.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.97-104
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• 2011

This paper proposes a new alternating current driving method for highly capacitive loads such as plasma display panels or piezoelectric actuators, etc. In the proposed scheme, a current balance transformer, which has two windings with the same turn-ratio, provides not only a resonance inductance for energy recovery but also a current balance among all of the switching devices of the driver for current stress reduction. The smaller conduction loss than conventional circuits occurs due to the dual conduction paths which are parallel each other in the current balance transformer. Also, the leakage inductances of the transformer are utilized as resonant inductors for energy recovery by the series resonance to the capacitive load. Furthermore, the resonance contributes to the small switching losses of the switching devices by soft-switching operation. To confirm the validity of the proposed circuit, prototype hardware with a 12-inch mercury-free flat fluorescent lamp is implemented. The experimental results are compared with a conventional energy-recovery circuit from the perspective of luminance performances.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.447-452
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• 2016

It is imperative to develop an effective pathway to depolymerize lignin into liquid fuel that can be used as a bioheavy oil. Lignin can be converted into liquid products either by a solvent-free thermal cracking in the absence air, or thermo-chemical degradation in the presence of suitable solvents and chemicals. Here we show that the solvent-assisted liquefaction has produced promising results in the presence of metal-based catalysts. The supercritical ethanol is an efficient liquefaction solvent, which not only provides better solubility to lignin, but also scavenges the intermediate species. The concentrated sulfuric acid hydrolysis lignin (CSAHL) was completely liquefied in the presence of solid catalysts (Ni, Pd and Ru) with no char formation. The effective deoxy-liquefaction nature associated with scEtOH with aid hydrodeoxygenation catalysts, resulted in significant reduction in oxygen-to-carbon (O/C) molar ratio up to 61%. The decrease in oxygen content and increase in carbon and hydrogen contents increased the calorific value bio-oil, with higher heating value (HHV) of $34.6MJ{\cdot}Kg^{-1}$. The overall process is energetically efficient with 129.8% energy recovery (ER) and 70.8% energy efficiency (EE). The GC-TOF/MS analysis of bio-oil shows that the bio-oil mainly consists of monomeric species such as phenols, esters, furans, alcohols, and traces of aliphatic hydrocarbons. The bio-oil produced has better flow properties, low molecular weight, and high aromaticity.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.131-143
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• 2018

Phosphorus (P) is a limited, essential, and irreplaceable nutrient for the biological activity of all the living organisms. Sewage sludge ash (SSA) is one of the most important secondary P resources due to its high P content. The SSA has been intensively investigated to recover P by wet chemicals (acid or alkali). Even though $H_2SO_4$ was mainly used to extract P because of its low cost and accessibility, the formation of $CaSO_4$ (gypsum) hinders its use. Heavy metals in the SSA also cause a significant problem in P recovery since fertilizer needs to meet government standards for human health. Therefore, P recovery process with selective heavy metal removal needs to be developed. In this paper some of the most advanced P recovery processes have been introduced and discussed their technical characteristics. The results showed that further research is needed to identify the chemical mechanisms of P transformation in the recovery process and to increase P recovery efficiency and the yields.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.133-140
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• 2009

This paper presents the experimental study to analyze the pressure and production behavior using depressurization and thermal methods in order to evaluate the hydrate productivity in the 2-D multi-well, plate-type apparatus which has 80 md permeability and 30% hydrate saturation. Injecting methane gas through multi-well allowed to set up the highly saturated hydrate system and combining two different sorts of sands made possible to build up the low permeability system. In this system, both depressurization and electric stimulation methods were applied. When operating pressure was low, according to the depressurization experiments results, the gas recovery was high, however strong pulses which appeared at initial stage of production would damage the operation system. Moreover, cases that hydrate reformed have occurred by endothermic reaction. We have conducted experiments four and six times for the depressurization magnitudes of 140 psi and 320 psi, respectively, to analyze production behavior for the method more in detail. For the cases that the depressurization magnitude was set as 140 psi, the unstable period appears in the results, but stabilized soon. In the experiment results for 320 psi the discontinuous and intermittent behavior has been observed. Thermal stimulation experiments was conducted with depressurizing 80 psi which is the case that shows stable behavior and low recovery. In the results, the gas recovery was high and the energy efficiency was low for long stimulating time. The energy efficiency and gas recovery increased for the soaking time of 1 minute after 2 minute-preheating. In the cases of which the soaking time exceeds 1 minute, energy loss by long soaking time caused low gas recovery and poor energy efficiency.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.908-912
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• 2003

The waste heat recovery system using heat pipe was tested for the consideration of developing the high-efficiency waste heat recovery technology. Heat pipe, a effective device that can quickly transfer large amounts of heat energy using the phase change of the working fluid and the characteristics of Electric Heater Bars used for alternative heating system are introduced In this paper. In order to increase energy efficiency, the system which controls the status of electric heater bars and the temperature of heat pipe installed has developed.