• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.705-715
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• 2010

The adoption of carbon foot print system is being activated mostly in the developed countries as one of the long-term response towards tightened up regulations and standards on carbon emission in the agricultural sector. The Korean Ministry of Environment excluded the primary agricultural products from the carbon foot print system due to lack of LCI (life cycle inventory) database in agriculture. Therefore, the research on and establishment of LCI database in the agriculture for adoption of carbon foot print system is urgent. Development of LCA (life cycle assessment) methodology for application of LCA to agricultural environment in Korea is also very important. Application of LCA methodology to agricultural environment in Korea is an early stage. Therefore, this study was carried out to find out the effect of lettuce cultivation on agricultural environment by establishing LCA methodology. Data collection of agricultural input and output for establishing LCI was carried out by collecting statistical data and documents on income from agro and livestock products prepared by RDA. LCA methodology for agriculture was reviewed by investigating LCA methodology and LCA applications of foreign countries. Results based on 1 kg of lettuce production showed that inputs including N, P, organic fertilizers, compound fertilizers and crop protectants were the main sources of major emission factor during lettuce cropping process. The amount of inputs considering the amount of active ingredients was required to estimate the actual quantity of the inputs used. Major emissions due to agricultural activities were $N_2O$ (emission to air) and ${NO_3}^-$/${PO_4}^-$ (emission to water) from fertilizers, organic compounds from pesticides and air pollutants from fossil fuel combustion in using agricultural machines. The softwares for LCIA (life cycle impact assessment) and LCA used in Korea are 'PASS' and 'TOTAL' which have been developed by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and the Ministry of Environment. However, the models used for the softwares are the ones developed in foreign countries. In the future, development of models and optimization of factors for characterization, normalization and weighting suitable to Korean agricultural environment need to be done for more precise LCA analysis in the agricultural area.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2007

The ultimate objective of this study is to develop oxygen-enriched combustion techniques applicable to the system of practical industrial boiler. To this end the combustion characteristics of lab-scale LNG combustor were investigated as a first step using the method of numerical simulation by analyzing the flame characteristics and pollutant emission behaviour as a function of oxygen enrichment level. Several useful conclusions could be drawn based on this study. First of all, the increase of oxygen enrichment level instead of air caused long and thin flame called laminar flame feature. This was in good agreement with experimental results appeared in open literature and explained by the effect of the decrease of turbulent mixing due to the decrease of absolute amount of oxidizer flow rate by the absence of the nitrogen species. Further, as expected, oxygen enrichment increased the flame temperatures to a significant level together with concentrations of $CO_2$ and $H_2O$ species because of the elimination of the heat sink and dilution effects by the presence of $N_2$ inert gas. However, the increased flame temperature with $O_2$ enriched air showed the high possibility of the generation of thermal $NO_x$ if nitrogen species were present. In order to remedy the problem caused by the oxygen-enriched combustion, the appropriate amount of recirculation $CO_2$ gas was desirable to enhance the turbulent mixing and thereby flame stability and further optimum determination of operational conditions were necessary. For example, the adjustment of burner with swirl angle of $30\sim45^{\circ}$ increased the combustion efficiency of LNG fuel and simultaneously dropped the $NO_x$ formation.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.19-37
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• 1996

This paper aims at examining the regional difference of changes in the business organization of retailing in the Seoul metropolitan areas, as an attempt to understand regional structure of retailing within metropolitan areas showing the trend of suburbanization. On the national level, retail sales have concentrated on the large metropolitan areas, especially on the Seoul metropolitan area, with the concentration of population and income. Within metropolitan areas, the suburbanization of retailing has made the larger structure of retail and multi-store retail appeared. In order to confirm such phenomenon, this paper is to analyze and to compare the industrial composition of retailing using industry data of 1979 and 1991. And this paper is to analyze the regional changes in the characteristics of business organization of retailing, with the index including the percentages of establishments with less than under four employees, juridical establishments, employees of ordinary times, and the annual sales per establishment of detailing. The characteristics of business organization of retailing in analyzed by principal components analysis, and the types with component in each district (city, county, ward) is analyzed by cluster analysis(Ward method). The data of 1979 were obtained from the statistics in the Census of Wholesale and Retail Trade published by the National Bureau of Statistics of Economic Planning Board, and that of 1991 were obtained from the statistics in the Report on Establishment Census (Vol.3 Wholesale and Retail Trade) published by the National Statistics Office. The following are resultant findings. 1. In Seoul metropolitan area, changes in the industrial composition of retailing with annual sales from, 1979 to 1991 show very higher composition rates of 'general merchandise stores' and 'retailing of personal transport equipment and gasoline service stations', but comparatively lower composition rates of 'retailing of food, beverages and tobacco', 'retailing of textiles, clothing, footwear and apparel accessaries', 'general retail trade, n.e.c.',and 'retailing of household fuel'. 2. The characteristics of business organization of retailing in Seoul metropolitan area presents the prevailence of small, personal business organization and especially larger employees of ordinary times. 3. Business components of retailing by principal components analysis in Seoul metropolitan area are follows: 1 All retaining industries are larger business scale. 2. Larger business take the 'retailing of taxtiles, clothing, footwear and apparel accessories', 'retailing of furniture, home furnishing and equipment', and 'retailing of jewellery and watches' is main characteristic legal organization and employees of ordinary times. 4. Types changes in business organization of retailing in Seoul metropolitan area represent legal organization and employees of ordinary times taking the 'retailing of textiles, clothing, footwear and apparel accessories', 'retailing of furniture, home furnishing and equipment',and 'retailing of jewellery and equipment', and 'retailing of jewellery and watches', and legal organization taking 'general retail trade, n.e.c.' in 1979. All retailing industries are changed into larger business scale, in 1991. These phenomena of business changes appeared southeastern regions in Kyunggi-do(province). And larger business scale taking the 'retailing of textiles, clothing, footwear and apparel accessories', 'retailing of jewellery and watches', and 'general retail trade, n.e.c.; are appeared in the legal organization in 1979. 'Retailing of personal transport equipment and gasoline service stations' are appeared in employees of ordinary times in 1991. These phenomena of business changes in appeared in eastern and northern regions in Kyunggi-do. 5. Changes in the business organization of retailing in Seoul metropolitan area is appeared in legal organization and employees of ordinary times for some industries in 1979, larger business scale of retailing and employees of ordinary times in 'retailing of personal transport equipment and gasoline service stations' are the characteristics in 1991.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.233-248
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• 2012

The national emission from energy sector accounted for 84.7% of all domestic emissions in 2007. Of the energy-use emissions, the emission from mobile source as one of key categories accounted for 19.4% and further the road transport emission occupied the most dominant portion in the category. The road transport emissions can be estimated on the basis of either the fuel consumed (Tier 1) or the distance travelled by the vehicle types and road types (higher Tiers). The latter approach must be suitable for simultaneously estimating $CO_2$, $CH_4$, and $N_2O$ emissions in local administrative districts. The objective of this study was to estimate 31 municipal GHG emissions from road transportation in Gyeonggi Province, Korea. In 2008, the municipalities were consisted of 2,014 towns expressed as Dong and Ri, the smallest administrative district unit. Since mobile sources are moving across other city and province borders, the emission estimated by fuel sold is in fact impossible to ensure consistency between neighbouring cities and provinces. On the other hand, the emission estimated by distance travelled is also impossible to acquire key activity data such as traffic volume, vehicle type and model, and road type in small towns. To solve the problem, we applied a hierarchical cluster analysis to separate town-by-town road patterns (clusters) based on a priori activity information including traffic volume, population, area, and branch road length obtained from small 151 towns. After identifying 10 road patterns, a rule building expert system was developed by visual basic application (VBA) to assort various unknown road patterns into one of 10 known patterns. The expert system was self-verified with original reference information and then objects in each homogeneous pattern were used to regress traffic volume based on the variables of population, area, and branch road length. The program was then applied to assign all the unknown towns into a known pattern and to automatically estimate traffic volumes by regression equations for each town. Further VKT (vehicle kilometer travelled) for each vehicle type in each town was calculated to be mapped by GIS (geological information system) and road transport emission on the corresponding road section was estimated by multiplying emission factors for each vehicle type. Finally all emissions from local branch roads in Gyeonggi Province could be estimated by summing up emissions from 1,902 towns where road information was registered. As a result of the study, the GHG average emission rate by the branch road transport was 6,101 kilotons of $CO_2$ equivalent per year (kt-$CO_2$ Eq/yr) and the total emissions from both main and branch roads was 24,152 kt-$CO_2$ Eq/yr in Gyeonggi Province. The ratio of branch roads emission to the total was 0.28 in 2008.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.18-24
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• 2018

The policy-making and technological development of eco-friendly automobiles designed to increase their supply is ongoing, but the internal combustion engine still accounts for about 95% of the automobiles in use. Also, in order to meet the stricter emission regulations of internal combustion engines based on fossil fuels, the proportion of after-treatments for vehicles and (ocean going) vessels is gradually increasing. Natural gas is a clean fuel that emits few air pollutants and has been used mainly as a fuel for city buses. In the long term, we intend to develop a new NGOC/LNT+NGCO/SCR combined system that simultaneously reduces the toxic gases, $CH_4$ and NOx, emitted from CNG buses. The objective of this study is to investigate the characteristics of $de-CH_4/NOx$ according to the ceramic and metal substrates of the SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) catalysts mounted downstream of the combined system. The V and Cu-SCR catalysts did not affect the $CH_4$ oxidation reaction, the two NGOC/SCR catalysts each coated with two layers began to oxidize $CH_4$ at $400^{\circ}C$, and the amount of $CH_4$ emitted was reduced to about 20% of its initial value at about $550^{\circ}C$. The two NGOC/SCR catalysts each coated with two layers showed a negative (-) NOx conversion rate above $350^{\circ}C$. The ceramic-based combined system reached LOT50 at $500^{\circ}C$, which was about 20% higher in terms of the $CH_4$ conversion rate than the metal-based combined system, showing that the combined system of NGOC/LNT+Cu-SCR is a suitable combination.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.753-767
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• 2013

Soil contamination has continuously increased worldwide, thus the remediation for the contaminated soils has risen steadily. However, the consideration of ecological safety for the remediated soils and their agricultural uses has been very limited. Therefore, this study was to investigate the influences of selected environmentally-friendly agricultural materials, organic by-product fertilizer (OF), charcoal (CC), and biochar (BC), as soil conditioners for improving poor chemical properties of fuel-oil removed soil by land farming technique. Two different remediated soils, remediated soil A (RSA) and remediated soil B (RSB), were selected. Soil texture of both RSA and RSB was sandy loam. The chemical properties of RSA and RSB were as follows: soil pHs of 8.5 and 8.7, soil organic matter contents of 7.4 and 5.5g $kg^{-1}$, total nitrogen contents of 0.26 and 0.10g $kg^{-1}$, available phosphorus concentrations of 7.2 and 4.4mg $kg^{-1}$, and exchangeable calcium concentrations of 14.8 and $11.7cmol_c$ $kg^{-1}$, respectively. Results of the properties were not reached for the optimal values for cultivating crops that were recommended by National Academy of Agricultural Science at Rural Development Administration in Korea. However, after applying OF, CC, and BC, the chemical properties of soils were selectively improved, which were that soil organic matter content and available phosphorus concentration increased, whereas the soil pH were not changed. In particular, the chemical properties were positively changed more with the application of 5.0% biochar. Thus, continuous management of the remediated soils with applying the eco-friendly agricultural materials can improve the quality of reme-diated soils.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.211-218
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• 2015

The reaction rates of ZIRLO cladding hulls with cross-section openings were investigated using a thermo-gravimetric analysis system in order to identify whether selective recovery of Zr from oxidized cladding hulls is possible. The experimental results showed that an oxidized ZIRLO cladding hull was not reactive with chlorine gas at 400℃. However, providing fresh cross-sections on one or both ends of the ZIRLO hulls enabled a chlorination reaction. This reaction was completed after 8 hours; a 14% increase on the 7 hours seen with a bare ZIRLO cladding hull. The Sharp-Hancock plot analysis results revealed that the contracting volume model is the best for describing the reaction between the cross-section opened ZIRLO hulls and chlorine gas under the condition of this work. It was concluded that the chlorination process can be employed for oxidized ZIRLO cladding hulls by providing cross-section openings.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.235-242
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• 2015

A commercially available copper mesh was investigated as an iodine off-gas capturing medium for pyroprocessing, with an aim to replace costly silver based adsorbents. Theoretical calculation results suggested that the reaction between metallic copper and gaseous iodine will occur spontaneously to produce copper iodide in the temperature range of 100 ~ 500℃. The effect of the reaction temperature on iodine capturing efficiency was investigated by experimentation, and it was found that 5 and 6 wt% of iodine (initial mass 2.0 g) was captured by a single copper mesh (0.26 g) at 300 and 400℃, respectively. The repeated experimental results also suggested that copper utilization can be increased with the help of the spontaneous detachment of the reaction product (CuI) from a copper mesh. The formation of the CuI phase was confirmed using the X-ray diffraction technique, and the surface morphology of the reaction product was observed using scanning electron microscopy.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.171-180
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• 2015

This study was performed on the removal of Cs, one of the main high- radioactive nuclides contained in the high-radioactive seawater waste (HSW), by adsorption with IE911 (crystalline silicotitanate type). For the effective removal of Cs and the minimization of secondary solid waste generation, adsorption of Cs by IE911 (hereafter denoted as IE911-Cs) was effective to carry out in the m/V (ratio of absorbent weight to solution volume) ratio of 2.5 g/L, and the adsorption time of 1 hour. In these conditions, Cs and Sr were adsorbed about 99% and less than 5%, respectively. IE911-Cs could be also expressed as a Langmuir isotherm and a pseudo-second order rate equation. The adsorption rate constants (k₂) were decreased with increasing initial Cs concentrations and particle sizes, and increased with increasing ratios of m/V, solution temperatures and agitation speeds. The activation energy of IE911-Cs was about 79.9 kJ/mol. It was suggested that IE911-Cs was dominated by a chemical adsorption having a strong bonding form. From the negative values of Gibbs free energy and enthalpy, it was indicated that the reaction of IE911-Cs was a forward, exothermic and relatively active at lower temperatures. Additionally, the negative entropy values were seen that the adsorbed Cs was evenly distributed on the IE911.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.18 no.2_spc
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• pp.227-235
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• 2020

In this study, we discussed the limitations of gross alpha measurements for the characterization of radioactive wastes produced in nuclear facilities through experimental tests and Monte Carlo N-particle transport simulations. The determination of gross alpha is essential for the disposal of radioactive waste produced in nuclear facilities in Korea. The measurements of gross alpha are easy to perform and yield rapid analytical results, but it cannot be used for quantitative analysis. The error of counting efficiency for gross alpha with various masses of the deposit on planchets using KCl and ²⁴¹Am was determined. The relative deviation of the counting efficiency in samples having the same mass was 20%. Uranium was extracted from the soil through acid leaching and extraction chromatography, and the concentration of U determined by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was compared with the results for gross alpha. The gross alpha was underestimated by 50% compared to the U concentration by ICP-MS. The counting efficiency depended on the energy from the alpha emitters, which differed by up to three times in determination of the counting efficiency depending on the kinds of alpha radionuclides of interest. Therefore, the gross alpha is not compatible with the sum of radioactivity for each alpha emitter and is suitable as a screening method.