• Clean Technology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2022

Electrochemical carbon dioxide (CO₂) reduction technology, one of the promising solutions for climate change, can convert CO₂, a representative greenhouse gas (GHG), into valuable base chemicals using electric energy. In particular, carbon monoxide (CO), among various candidate products, is attracting much attention from both academia and industry because of its high Faraday efficiency, promising economic feasibility, and relatively large market size. Although numerous previous studies have recently analyzed the GHG reduction potential of this technology, the assumptions made and inventory data used are neither consistent nor transparent. In this study, a comparative life cycle assessment was carried out to analyze the potential for reducing GHG emissions in the electrochemical CO production process in a more transparent way. By defining three different system boundaries, the global warming impact was compared with that of a fossil fuel-based CO production process. The results confirmed that the emission factor of electric energy supplied to CO₂-electrolyzers should be much lower than that of the current national power generation sector in order to mitigate GHG emissions by replacing conventional CO production with electrochemical CO production. Also, it is important to disclose transparently inventory data of the conventional CO production process for a more reliable analysis of GHG reduction potential.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.37-45
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• 2022

The development of the electrical, electronic, and telecommunication industries has increased the share of electricity in total energy consumption. With the enforcement of the Act on the Promotion of the Development, Use, and Diffusion of New and Renewable Energy in 2021, the mandatory supply ratio of new and renewable energy is expected to expand, and the amount of waste cables generated in the stage of replacing and discarding cables used in the industry is also expected to increase. The purpose of this study was to quantify the environmental burden of waste cable recycling through the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. The results showed that the higher the amount of glue contained in the waste cable, the greater was the amount of fine dust and greenhouse gases generated. In addition, by assigning weights to 10 environmental burden items, it was confirmed that the marine aquatic eco-toxicity potential (MAETP) and human toxicity potential (HTP) had the greatest environmental burden. The main causes were identified as heptane and ethanol, which were the glue contained in the waste cable and the cleaning solutions used to remove them. Therefore, it is necessary to refrain from using glue in the cable production process and reduce the environmental burden by reducing the use of waste cable cleaning solutions used in the recycling process or using alternative materials.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2024.07a
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• pp.1329-1329
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• 2024

As global imperatives shift toward sustainability and carbon neutrality, the construction industry faces an urgent need to address its environmental impact, particularly within steel construction. Despite the increasing adoption of sustainable practices, a detailed understanding of the entire lifecycle emissions of structural steel, especially within the rapidly evolving Chinese market, remains a significant gap. This study introduces a comprehensive life-cycle assessment (LCA) approach to map the carbon footprint of structural steel construction, with a focus on Chinese structural steel as a case study. By adopting a cradle-to-cradle perspective, the research aims to highlight and address the environmental impact across the entire lifecycle of steel used in construction. Specifically, this study will 1) develop a detailed LCA model that encapsulates the environmental impacts of structural steel from production, use, and recycling phases, 2) dentify and analyze carbon hotspots and inefficiencies within the lifecycle of Chinese structural steel, and 3) evaluate and suggest strategies for stakeholders to minimize carbon emissions, moving towards carbon-neutral steel construction. Leveraging a process-based LCA framework, this study captures the material, energy, and emissions flows associated with the lifecycle of structural steel, including steel production, fabrication, transportation, construction, and recycling, in the context of Chinese construction practices. The model is enriched with data from current Chinese steel construction projects, ensuring its accuracy and applicability. Through systematic analysis, the study pinpoints critical phases where carbon emissions can be significantly reduced. Preliminary Results show significant carbon emission sources within the production, fabrication, and transportation phases of Chinese structural steel. These insights are crucial for devising targeted reduction strategies, such as improving production and fabrication efficiency, optimizing logistics, and enhancing material recyclability. The anticipated impact of this research is multi-faceted: providing a robust framework for assessing and managing the carbon footprint of steel construction, guiding industry and policy-makers towards sustainable practices, and setting a precedent for carbon management in steel construction worldwide. This research marks a significant step towards achieving carbon neutrality in steel construction, with a particular focus on Chinese structural steel. Through a comprehensive LCA model, this study offers a deep dive into the lifecycle emissions of steel construction, paving the way for actionable strategies to reduce the environmental impact, contributing to the global endeavor towards carbon-neutral construction.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.1265-1272
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• 2010

In view of the frequent start-ups and load changes in the recent past, there is a need for fossil-fuel power plants to be more efficient and reliable for long-term operation. Under high-temperature and high-pressure conditions, severe creep and fatigue damages can occur in major plant facilities, particularly, turbines and boilers. For highly stable operation and better maintenance, various techniques that facilitate a systematic assessment of the service life of critical facilities have been developed. However, to date, in Korea, to evaluate the remaining life of major facilities of fossil power plant, qualitative or semiquantitative analyses are carried out without following any standard guidelines or procedure. In this study, a standard code for assessing the remaining life of major plant facilities is proposed. This code takes into account creep and fatigue damage, which are generally accepted as dominant causes of damage to facilities. KEPIC (Korea Electric Power Industry code) is scheduled to include this guideline in 2010.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.4
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• pp.455-464
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• 2020

Reinforcement corrosion is one of the major problems in the durability of reinforced concrete structures exposed to aggressive environments. Deterioration caused by reinforcement corrosion reduces the durability and the safety margin of concrete structures, causing excessive costs in managing these structures safely. This paper aims to investigate the effects of reinforcement corrosion on the load bearing capacity deterioration of the corroded reinforced concrete structures. A new analytical method is proposed to predict the crack growth of cover concrete and evaluate the residual strength of concrete structures with corroded reinforcement failing in bond. The structural performance indicators, such as concrete crack growth and flexural strength deterioration rate, are assumed to be a stochastic process for lifetime distribution modelling of structural performance deterioration over time during the life cycle. The Weibull life evolution model is employed for analysing lifetime reliability and estimating remaining useful life of the corroded concrete structures. The results for the worked example show that the proposed approach can provide a reliable method for lifetime performance assessment of the corroded reinforced concrete structures.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.277-290
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to identify the problems of environmental impact assessment(EIA) and to suggest new EIA technology. The problems of EIA in Korea can be summarized as follows. First, the EIA does not reflect the impact of policy, plan and program on environment. Second, the project EIA does not consider the cumulative impacts such as additive impacts, synergistic impacts, threshold/saturation impacts, induced and indirect impacts, time-crowded impacts, and space-crowded impacts. Third, the EIA techniques in Korea are not standardized. Finally, the present EIA suggests only alternatives to reduce adverse impacts. To solve above-mentioned problems, the development of new EIA technology is essential. First, the new EIA technology should be developed toward pollution prevention technology and comprehensive and integrated environmental management technology. Second, new fields of EIA for pollution prevention contain strategic environmental assessment, cumulative impacts assessment, socio-economic impact assessment, cyber EIA and EIA technology necessary after the reunification of Korean Peninsula. Third, EIA technology for integrated environmental management contains the development of integated environment assessment system and the development of packaged EIA technology. The EIA technology for integrated environmental assessment system contains (1) development of integrated impact assessment technology combining air/water quality model, GIS and remote sensing, (2) integrated impact assessment of EIA, traffic impact assessment, population impact assessment and disaster impact assessment. (3) development of integrated technology combining risk assessment and EIA (4) development of integrated technology of life cycle assessment and EIA, (5) development of integrated technology of spatial planning and EIA, (6) EIA technology for biodiversity towards sustainable development, (7) mathematical model and GIS based location decision techniques, and (8) environmental monitoring and audit. Furthermore, there are some fields which need packaged EIA technology. In case of dam development, urban or industrial complex development, tourist development, landfill or combustion facilities construction, electric power plant development, development of port, road/rail/air port, is necessary the standardized and packaged EIA technology which considers the common characteristics of the same kind of development project.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.267-274
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• 2011

The environmental impacts of 95% remediation of a total petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soil were evaluated using life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA of two remediation systems, soil vapor extraction (SVE) and biopile, were conducted by using imput materials and energy listed in a remedial system standardization report. Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results showed that the environmental impacts of SVE were all higher than those of biopile. Prominent four environmental impacts, human toxicity via soil, aquatic ecotoxicity, human toxicity via surface water and human toxicity via air, were apparently found from the LCIA results of the both remedial systems. Human toxicity via soil was the prominent impact of SVE, while aquatic ecotoxicity was the prominent impact of biopile. This study also showed that the operation stage and the activated carbon replacement stage contributed 60% and 36% of the environmental impacts of SVE system, respectively. The major input affecting the environmental impact of SVE was electricity. The operation stage of biopile resulted in the highest contribution to the entire environmental impact. The key input affecting the environmental impact of biopile was also electricity. This study suggested that electricity reduction strategies would be tried in the contaminated-soil remediation sites for archieving less environmental impacts. Remediation of contaminated soil normally takes long time and thus requires a great deal of material and energy. More extensive life cycle researches on remedial systems are required to meet recent national challenges toward carbon dioxide reduction and green growth. Furthermore, systematic information on electricity use of remedial systems should be collected for the reliable assessment of environmental impacts and carbon dioxide emissions during soil remediation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.1291-1292
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• 2012

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Resources Recycling Conference
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• 2001.05b
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• pp.69-73
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• 2001

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.103-112
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• 1997

The object of this study is the introduction and the application of Ecological Footprint(EF) for sustainability of regional people activities. It is a tool for the evaluation of specific projects through various lifestyles or consumption to area of broad policy and budgets. But in Korea there is no assessment for consumption level of human activities by EF. Therefore this study try to analyse ecologically productive land for human activities of Cheju-island in order to assess the sustainability in Cheju and compares with another industrized countries. We analyze the human activities level of Cheju-island then the EF is about 0.9(ha/cap). This value is not more than another countries like Canada and United States. EF assists in choosing technologies, policies and Life Cycle Assessment(LCA) which can perform a certain task with the smallest ecological footprint. It will help society to avoid collapse and move towards sustainability and ecological efficiency.