• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.41-47
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• 2009

Column experiments were performed in this study to investigate humic acid adhesion to iron oxide-coated sand (ICS) under different experimental conditions including influent humic acid concentration, flow rate, solution pH, and ionic strength/composition. Breakthrough curves of humic acid were obtained by monitoring effluents, and then column capacity for humic acid adsorption ($C_cap$), total adsorption percent (R), and mass of humic acid adsorbed per unit mass of filter media ($q_a$) were quantified from these curves. Results showed that humic acid adhesion was about seven times higher in ICS than in quartz sand at given experimental conditions. This indicates that humic acid removal can be enhanced through the surface charge modification of quartz sand with iron oxide coating. The adhesion of humic acid in ICS was influenced by influent humic acid concentration. $C_cap$ and $q_a$ increased while R decreased with increasing influent humic acid concentration in ICS column. However, the influence of flow rate was not eminent in our experimental conditions. The humic acid adhesion was enhanced with increasing salt concentration of solution. $C_cap$, $q_a$ and R increased in ICS column with increasing salt concentration. On the adhesion of humic acid, the impact of CaCl2 was greater than that of NaCl. Also, the humic acid adhesion to ICS decreased with increasing solution pH. $C_cap$, $q_a$ and R decreased with increasing solution pH. This study demonstrates that humic acid concentration, salt concentration/composition, and solution pH should be controlled carefully in order to improve the ICS column performance for humic acid removal from water.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.2 no.1_2
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• pp.13-16
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• 1987

The author obtained three kinds of humic acid from the soil of suburbs in the Wonju city, sediments of Wonju stream and Maeji reservoir in 29 April 1986. The yield of each humic acid was 7.23 g, 3.35 g and 4.61 g per sample 200 g. In the physicochemical characters, the COD varied from 65.9 ppm to 54.9 ppm and BOD showed 6.7～15.9 ppm, but the standard humic acid was COD 58.9 ppm and BOD 6.5 ppm in 0.01 % solution. Doses of the humic acids for 20% methemoglobin formation are as follows; 0.303 mg/m$\ell$ in St. A humic acid, 0.602 mg/m$\ell$ in St. B humic acid, 0.84 mg/m$\ell$ in St. C humic acid and 0.105 mg/m$\ell$ in standard humic acid.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.27 no.B
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• pp.109-114
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• 2007

Humic substances generally comprise 30-50% of the dissolved organic carbon in water. They can affect water quality adversely in several ways and they are important from a water treatment perspective due to their role as precursors for the formation of chlorination by-products such as trihalomethanes. The objectives of this research are to investigate the characteristics of organic matter using raw water of Chuncheon area, to isolate the humic substance fractions from natural water samples, and characterize the extracted humic substances. Humic substances were fractionated according to "isolation of IHSS aquatic humic and fulvic acids" using XAD resin adsorption technique. Characteristics of humic substances were analyzed through DOC, $UV_{254}$, $SUVA_{254}$, FT-IR spectra, fluorescence analysis.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.670-675
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• 2004

Humic acids are macromolecules originated from natural water, soil, and sediment. The characteristics of humic acid enable it to change the distribution of metals as well as many kinds of organic contaminants and to determine the sorption of them from soil solution. To see the effect of humic acid on the removal rate of organic contaminants and heavy metals, batch-scale experiments were performed. As a natural geosorbent, black shale was used as a sorbent media, which showed hight sorption capacity of trichloroethylene (TCE), lead, cadmium and chromium. The effect of sorption-desorption, pH, ionic strength and the concentration of humic acid was taken into consideration. TCE sorption capacity by black shale was compared to natural bentonite and hexadecyltrimethylammonium (HDTMA) modified bentonite. The removal rate was good and humic acid also sorbed onto black shale very well. The organic part of humic acid could effectively enhance the partition of TCE and it act as an electron donor to reduce Cr(VI) to Cr(III). Cationic metal of Pb(II) and Cd(II) also removed from the water by black shale. With 3 mg/L of humic acid, both Pb(II) and Cd(II) were removed more than without humic acid. That could be explained by sorption and complexation with humic acid and that was possible when humic acid could change the hydrophobicity and solubility of heavy metals. Humic acid exhibited desorption-resistivity with black shale, which implied that black shale could be an alternative sorbent or material for remediation of organic contaminants and heavy metals.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.139-148
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• 1998

The charge densities of humic acid and humic extract have been determined by back titration using spectrophotometry as the method of end point detection and several cationic polymers of different charge density(copolymers of acylamide and dimethylaminoethylacrylate and polydiallyidimethylammonium chloride, PDDA), and a cationic indicator o-toluidine blue(o-Tb). The charge densities of humic acid and humic extract obtained depend on the charge densities of cationic polymers used. When the polymers of lower charge density are used, lower apparent charge density values are obtained, but for polymers of high charge density(above 2.5 meq/g), the measured values are almost identical, but also are nearly the same as that obtained for PDDA which has a high charge density(about 6 meq/g). For polymers of lower charge density, it is considered that the optimum dosage does not correspond to 1 :1 charge neutralization between anionic and cationic groups. Polymers of high charge density should be used in order to achieve a complete charge neutralization. As humic acid and humic extract are dissociable acids, their ionization is heavily pH dependent and so higher charge density values are obtaines with increasing pH.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.38-46
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• 1998

The purpose of this study is to evaluate and compare the effective coagulation of commercial humic acid which is well known as major precursor of trihalomethane, with LAS and PAC and to quantify the residual aluminum in the treated water. Then the optimum pH, the dosage of coagulant were determined. 1. Humic acid concentrati6n, UV absorbance and color were well correlated and UV absorbance(254 nm) and color seem to be used in quntificative analysis of humic acid of same kind. 2. Optimal dosage of LAS and PAC increase as humic acid concentration increases. And optimal pH range for coagulation using LAS is pH 5.5-7.0 and pH 3.5-6.5 for PAC. Within these ranges the removal efficiency is 90-99%. 3. The results of quantification of residual aluminum in treated water shows that minimal aluminum remains on the optimal coagulation condition. But the residual aluminum increses as the dosage of coagulant is beyond the optimal range. Thus the dosage of coagulant should be chosen with the condition on which humic acid removal is maximum and the residual aluminum concentration is minimum. 4. In the water treatment process the raw water pH range is 6.5-8.0, and it seems to be possible to remove humic acid by charge neutralization not by sweep floc. But it should be considered that different commercial humic acids have different physical and chemical characteristics.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.239-245
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• 1998

To investigate the formation of bound residue with soil organic materials by oxidative coupling, nitroaromatics and their reduced metabolites, the insecticide parathion and the herbicide asulam were incubated with oxidoreductase, laccase or horseradish peroxidase, in the presence or absence of humic monomers. Most of aminotoluenes and amino-nitrophenols were completely transformed while most of nitrotoluenes and nitrophenols remained unchanged by a lactase or horseradish peroxidase in the presence or absence of humic monomers. Amino-nitrotoluenes were not transformed without humic monomers, but the addition of various humic monomers caused a considerable difference in the transformation of amino-nitrotoluenes by a lactase or horseradish peroxidase. Amino-nitrotoluenes were most transformed in the presence of catechol, syringaldehyde and protocatechuic acid. The insecticide parathion with nitro group and its metabolite were not mostly transformed in the presence or absence of humic monomers. The herbicide asulam with amino group remained unchanged without humic monomers as well, but the stimulating effect on the transformation of asulam was caused by the addition of catechol, syringaldehyde, protocatechuic acid or caffeic acid with a lactase.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1478-1483
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• 2006

This experiment was carried out to determine the effects of supplementation of L-carnitine and humic substances alone or in combination in laying hen diets on performance, egg traits and blood parameters. A total of 180 IGH type brown laying hens aged 22 weeks were employed in a completely randomized block design with one control group and three treatment groups. Each group was divided into five replicates as subgroups, each comprising 9 hens. The diets of the first, second and third treatment groups were supplemented with 0.1 g/kg L-carnitine, 1.5 g/kg humic substances (Farmagulator$^{(R)}$ Dry Plus) and 0.1 g/kg L-carnitine+1.5 g/kg humic substances, respectively. The experimental period lasted 18 weeks. Feeding supplemental carnitine, humic substances or carnitine+humic substances resulted in increases in body weight gain (p<0.05). Dietary treatments did not significantly affect daily feed intake, daily metabolizable energy intake, egg production, egg weight, feed efficiency, mortality, egg shape index, egg breaking strength, egg shell thickness, egg albumen index, egg yolk index, egg Haugh unit and the percentages of egg shell, albumen and yolk. Supplementation of humic substances reduced egg yolk cholesterol as mg per g yolk and mg per yolk (p<0.05). Blood serum parameters were not affected by the supplementation of carnitine, humic substances or carnitine+humic substances. The results in this study demonstrated that humic substances supplementation reduced egg cholesterol without adverse effects on performance, egg traits and blood parameters of laying hens. It was concluded that the usage of L-carnitine alone or in combination with humic substances in diets had no beneficial effects in laying hens.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.737-742
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• 1999

This study was conducted for the two purposes; one was removal of dissolved humic acid, the well-known precursor of trihalomethanes (THMs), by physicochemical treatment processes such as ozone oxidation, coagulation and activated carbon adsorption. The other was qualitative identification of by-products in chlorination of the dissolved humic acid. When ozone oxidation was applied to remove the dissolved humic acid, pH was abruptly decreased. It was indicated that humic acid was not perfectly converted to $CO_2$ and $H_2O$, but to low fatty acid. In coagulation process, the coagulant was polyaluminumchloride which was widely used for drinking water treatment in recent years. With the dosage of 160 mg/L, total organic carbon(TOC), $COD_{Cr}$ and color were removed with 23%, 24% and 5% respectively. Color was effectively removed by ozone oxidation process, which was the first order reaction, with the reaction rate constant of $0.067min^{-1}$. In activated carbon adsorption process, preozonation process could remove more effectively the dissolved humic acid than that without preozonation. When the dissolved humic acid and sodium hydrochloride were reacted with 1 mg-NaOCl/mg-TOC, only trihalomethanes were detected.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.454-459
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• 2009

In this paper, we have performed an experimental study to simultaneously remove humic acid (RA) and heavy metals (Cu, Mn, and Zn) from the river water using potassium ferrate(VI), a multi-purpose and environment-friendly chemical. In the experiments for treating three 0.1 mM single heavy metals using 0.03${\sim}$0.7 mM (as Fe) ferrate, the removal efficiencies ranged 28${\sim}$99% for Cu, 22${\sim}$73% for Mn, and 18${\sim}$100% for Zn. In addition, humic acid and heavy metals could be very efficiently removed at the same time using 0.03${\sim}$0.7 mM (as Fe) ferrate: for example, 49${\sim}$81% (humic acid), 93${\sim}$100% (Cu), 22${\sim}$86% (Mn), and 20${\sim}$100% (Zn). The removal efficiencies of humic acid and heavy metals in the mixture of humic acid and heavy metals were higher than that in the solution of single humic acid or heavy metal. It can be explained by the fact that, before adding ferrate to the mixed solution, part of solutes were already removed by the complexation between the negatively-charged functional groups of humic acid and heavy metal cations.