• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.101-111
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• 2006

In the present work, life cycle assessments (LCA) of various waste-plastic recycling methods (material recycling, refused derived fuel (RDF), recycling on furnace, and pyrolytic oil production) were carried out to investigate their impacts on the environment. Six types of impacts were considered. While the impact on global warming was found to be significant, the impact on others were negligible. The impact values on the global warming caused by the material recycling, RDF, and the recycling on furnace were negative, which implied that their impacts could be noticeably reduced when waste-plastic are used as an alternative to newly drawn plastics. The pyrolytic oil production, however, showed positive value, which may be due to the carbon dioxide produced during electric power generation. The pyrolytic oil production had the largest impact on the ozone layer destruction, which was due to ozone depleting substances produced from the process itself. These results can be used as a useful data for the enhancement of waste-plastic recycling.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.113-121
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• 2017

In flight particulate matter particularly emissions generated by incomplete combustion processes has become a subject of global concern due to the health problems and environmental impacts associated with them. This has compelled most countries to set standards for coarse and fine particles due to their conspicuous impacts on environment and public health. This contribution therefore explores forest fire emissions and how its particulates affects air quality, damage to vegetation, water bodies and biological functions as architects for lung diseases and other degenerative illnesses such as oxidative stress and aging. Soot was collected from simulated forest fire using a clean glass surface and carefully transferred into amber vials for analysis. Volatile components of soot were collected over 10 mL dichloromethane and analyzed using a QTOF Premier-Water Corp Liquid Chromatography hyphenated to a mass selective detector (MSD), and Gas Chromatograph coupled to a mass spectrometer (GC-MS). To characterize the size and surface morphology of soot, a scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used. The characterization of molecular volatiles from simulated forest fire emissions revealed long chain compounds including octadec-9-enoic acid, octadec-6-enoic acid, cyclotetracosane, cyclotetradecane, and a few aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene and naphthalene). Special classes of organics (dibenzo-p-dioxin and 2H-benzopyran) were also detected as minor products. Dibenzo-p-dioxin for instance in chlorinated form is one of the deadliest environmental organic toxins. The average particulate size of emissions using SEM was found to be $11.51{\pm}4.91{\mu}m$. This study has shown that most of the emissions from simulated forest fire fall within $PM_{10}$ particulate size. The molecular by-products of forest fire and particulate emissions may be toxic to both human and natural ecosystems, and are possible precursors for various respiratory ailments and cancers. The burning of a forest by natural disasters or man-made fires results in the destruction of natural habitats and serious air pollution.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.437-457
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to explain the causes of the phenomenon that the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis suggests that the increasing the emissions level of environmental pollutants starting to decrease as a certain income level is reached, associating microeconomic variables such as awareness level. Effects of the level of awareness differs depending on the characteristics of the impacts of pollutants- either regional or global. Furthermore, the study identifies that the impacts on the change in emissions inventory differ. The study empirically examines and concludes that the turning point where the emission level of environmental pollutants starts to decrease is over- or under-estimated if the differing responses between the level of awareness and its effect on pollutants are ignored. In addition, the level of emissions starts to decrease at a lower level of income in case of regional effect from pollutant than the global effect from it. Finally, the study implies that investing more efforts and resources to improve the level of people's awareness on environmental quality is effective if the government is to alter the increasing path of emission level.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.515-522
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• 2014

In order to quantitatively evaluate the effect of fly ash (FA) as partial replacement of cement on the life-cycle environmental impact of concrete, a comprehensive database including 4023 laboratory mixes and 2120 plant mixes was analyzed. The environmental loads on the life-cycle assessment were quantitatively converted into environmental impact indicators through categorization, characterization, normalization and weighting process. The life-cycle environmental impacts of concrete could be classified into three categories including global warming, photochemical oxidant creation and abiotic resource depletion. Furthermore, these environmental impacts of concrete was decreased with the increase of the replacement level of FA and governed by the unit content of ordinary portland cement (OPC). As a result, simple equations to assess the environmental impact indicators could be formulated as a function of the unit content of binder and the replacement level of FA.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.609-621
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• 2020

This study identified the impacts of organizational commitment on medical service reduction rates by lifestyles of medical institution workers with a medium of environmental factors in a medical institution, and it conducted a survey targeting 300 medical institution workers in Jeolla-do, South Korea. The results are as follows. First, there was a significant difference in an organizational commitment by sociodemographic characteristics based on age, academic career, gender, marital status, occupational description, monthly earnings, the years of employment, and the type of hospital. Second, there was a significant difference in environmental factors by sociodemographic characteristics based on marital status, the years of employment, and the type of hospital. Third, there was a significant difference in the inpatient reduction rate based on the occupational description, years of employment, and the type of hospital. In the outpatient reduction rate, a significant difference was shown based on age, marital status, occupational description, the years of employment, and the type of hospital. Fourth, when analyzing the relationship between organizational commitment, environmental factors, and the reduction rate, there was a significant positive correlation between inpatient reduction rate and outpatient reduction rate. Fifth, when analyzing the impacts on the inpatient reduction rate by deploying organizational commitment and environmental factors at the same time, it was shown that the environmental factors mediated partially in organizational commitment and inpatient reduction rate. In the case of outpatient reduction rate, it was shown that the environmental factors mediated completely in organizational commitment and outpatient reduction rate. The present study is aimed to contribute to providing the baseline data for an efficient operational plan and effective workforce management of medical institutions.

• Proceedings of the Korea Air Pollution Research Association Conference
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.509-510
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• 2007

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• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.74-83
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• 2018

This study conducted the Life Cycle Assessment(LCA) on waste rubber recycling technology for recovering rubber product from the waste tires. Environmental impacts were assessed for the five categories of impacts: global warming, resource depletion, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical oxide production, and ozone layer depletion. When recycling 1ton of waste tire containing rubber, global warming impact was 1.77E+02 kg $CO_2-eq.$, resource depletion impact was 1.23E+00 kg Sb-eq., acidification impact was 5.92E-01 kg $SO_2-eq.$, eutrophication impact was 1.23E-01 kg $PO{_4}^{3-}-eq.$, photochemical oxide production impact was 3.42E-01 kg $C_2H_4-eq.$, and ozone layer depletion impact was 1.87E-04 kg CFC11-eq. In terms of overall environmental impacts, carbon, softener and electricity the greatest impact, so it is necessary to compare the environmental impacts of the raw materials to replace carbon and softener, and a method to reduce the filler usage in the process is needed. In addition, it is necessary to improve energy efficiency, change to low-energy sources, and apply renewable energy.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.420-426
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• 2016

Climate change imposes a huge treat on the sustainability of our environment. One of the major reasons for the increasing impacts of climate change is the emission of greenhouse gases. Therefore, cooperative greenhouse gas emission reduction schemes with a general consensus are needed in order to reduce the impacts of climate change. Due to the strong link between greenhouse gas emission and economic development there is disagreement among countries on the designing and implementation of emission reduction plans. In this paper the authors proposed a two-stage concession game to analyze emission reduction plans and determine a balanced emission range that improves the utilities of the bargaining parties. Furthermore the game was applied to a hypothetical example. Our results from the case study indicated that even though the utilities of the bargaining parties is highly affected by emission reductions, after making concessions their utilities can be improved given their emission reductions are within in a certain desirable range. The authors hope that this article provides insights which could be useful for understanding emission reduction plans and their consequences on the negotiating parties.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.136-136
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• 2017

In agriculture, the rice is the one of important things. Many farmers and scientists have long tried to increase the yield of rice. So many technologies have been developed these days. One type of technology has given rise to a host of concerns and questions, namely Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). The increasing cultivation of GM crops has raised a wide range of concerns with respect to food safety, environmental effects and socio-economic issues and now commercially planted on about 100 million hectares in some 22 developed and developing countries. The scientific evidence concerning the environmental and health impacts of GMOs is still emerging, but so far there is no conclusive information on the definitive negative impacts of GMOs on health or the environment. Nevertheless, public perceptions about GMOs in food and agriculture are divided with a tendency toward avoiding GM food and products in many developed and developing countries. Also Korea is one of that country and is not allow the GMOs now. So I studied whether these GMOs are actually dangerous for environment and whether there are differences in cultivar characteristics such as germination test with TTC tetrazolium, germination test in frozen soil and gene-flow test with glufosinate and strip-bar test. With these experiments, we evaluated the agricultural safety of GM rice and to identify and assess environmental risks.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.627-634
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• 2017

In this study, Material life cycle evaluation was performed to analyze the environmental impact characteristics of TiN-ZrCo membrane manufacturting process. Gabi was used as software. The Eco-Indicator 99 methodology was used to evaluate the 11 impact categories and the 10 impact categories using the CML 2001 methodology. Precursor TiN was synthesized by sol-gel method and zirconium was coated by ball mill method. The metallurgical, physical and thermodynamic characteristics of the membranes were analyzed by using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDS), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Thermo Gravimetry/Differential Thermal Analysis (TG/DTA), Brunauer, Emmett, Teller (BET) and Gas Chromatograph System (GP). As a result of the characterization and normalization, the environmental impacts of each category of impacts were GWP 100 years with the highest environmental impact of 99.9%.