• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.597-603
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• 1996

This study was carried out to examine degradation characteristics of microalgae Chlorella vulgaris in methane fermentation. We measured COD and VS reduction, gas and methane productivity, VFA (volatile fatty acid), respectively. Then we calculated material balance and hydrolysis rates in soluble and solid material. The substrate concentration was controlled from 14 gCOD$_{cr}$/l to 64 gCOD$_{cr}$/l in batch cultures, and HRT (hydraulic retention time) controlled from 2 days to 30 days in continuous experi- ments. The results were as follows. In batch culture, accumulated gas productivity increased with the increase of the substrate concentration. The SS and VSS was removed all about 30% increase of substrate concentration and the most of the degradable material removed during the first 10 days. The curve of gas and methane production rate straightly increased until substrate concentration is 26 gCOD$_{cr}$/l. In continuous culture experiments, the removal rates at HRT 10days were 20% for total COD and TOC, respectively. At longer HRT, there was no increase in the removal efficiency. At HRT 15 days, the removal rates were 30% for SS and VSS, respectively. Soluble organic materials were rapidly degraded, and so there was no accumulated. Soluble COD concentration was not increase regardless of HRT-increasing. That meaned the hydrolysis was one of the rate-limiting stage of methane fermentation. The first-order rate constants of hydrolysis were 0.23-0.28 day$^{-1}$ for VSS, and 0.07-0.08 day$^{-1}$ for COD.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.269-277
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• 2022

Human activities account for approximately two-thirds of global methane emissions, wherein the livestock sector is the single massive methane emitter. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas of over 21 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide. In the rumen, methanogens produce methane as a by-product of anaerobic fermentation. Methane released from ruminants is considered as a loss of feed energy that could otherwise be used for productivity. Economic progress and growing population will inflate meat and milk product demands, causing elevated methane emissions from this sector. In this review, diverse approaches from feed manipulation to the supplementation of organic and inorganic feed additives and direct-fed microbial in mitigating enteric methane emissions from ruminant livestock are summarized. These approaches directly or indirectly alter the rumen microbial structure thereby reducing rumen methanogenesis. Though many inorganic feed additives have remarkably reduced methane emissions from ruminants, their usage as feed additives remains unappealing because of health and safety concerns. Hence, feed additives sourced from biological materials such as direct-fed microbials have emerged as a promising technique in mitigating enteric methane emissions.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.155-161
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• 2012

A simple in-situ methane enrichment system in mesophilic anaerobic digestion was developed to take advantage of the differing solubilities of $CO_2$ and methane. The methane enhancement systems consisted of low solids plug-flow maize digester coupled with a leachate recycle loop to an external $CO_2$ stripper. The effects of leachate recycle rate (LRR) and reactor alkalinity on the resulting offgas $CH_4$ contents, biogas productivity and TVS removal efficiency were quantitively evaluated. The results showed that offgas $CH_4$ contents of over 94% was achieved at 3 volume of leachate recycle per volume of reactor per day (3 v/v-d) and at the reactor alkalinity of 4 g/L as $CaCO_3$, as the optimum operating conditions. The TVS removal efficiency of the methane enhancement system was 79% which corresponds to 94% of the control reactor and the methane productivity appeared to be 0.71 v/v-d. Offgas methane contents correlated well with LRR. However excessively high LRR led to the decrease in TVS removal efficiency.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.375-380
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• 2015

Recently, methane has attracted much attention as an alternative carbon feedstock since it is the major component of abundant shale and natural gas. In this work, we produced methanol from methane using whole cells of Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b as the biocatalyst. M. trichosporium OB3b was cultured on NMS medium with a supply of 7:3 air/methane ratio at 30℃. The optimal concentrations of various methanol dehydrogenase inhibitors such as potassium phosphate and EDTA were determined to be 100 and 0.5 mM, respectively, for an efficient production of methanol. Sodium formate (40 mM) as a reducing power source was added to enhance the conversion efficiency. A productivity of 49.0 mg/l·h, titer of 0.393 g methanol/l, and conversion of 73.8% (mol methanol/mol methane) were obtained under the optimized batch condition.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.34-41
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• 2010

Gas hydrates are solid solutions when water molecules are linked through hydrogen bonding and create host lattice cavities that can enclose many kinds of guest(gas) molecules. There are plenty of methane(gas) hydrate in the earth and distributed widely at offshore and permafrost. Several schemes, to produce methane hydrates, have been studied. In this study, depressurization method has been utilized for the numerical model due to it's simplicity and effectiveness. IMPES method has been used for numerical analysis to get the saturation and velocity profile of each phase and pressure profile, velocity of dissociation front progress and the quantity of produced gas. The values calculated for the sample length of 10m, show that methane hydrates has been dissolved completely in approximately 223 minutes and the velocity of dissociation front progress is 3.95㎝ per minute. The volume ratio of the produced gas in the porous media is found to be about 50%. Analysing the saturation profile and the velocity profile from the numerical results, the permeability of each phase in porous media is considered to be the most important factor in the two phase flow propagation. Consequently, permeability strongly influences the productivity of gas in porous media for methane hydrates.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.302-313
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• 2012

Purpose: The biogas productivity potential of fish waste (FW) was evaluated. Methods: Batch trials were carried out in 1.3 L glass digesters kept in a temperature controlled chambers at $36.5^{\circ}C$. The first order kinetic model and the modified Gompertz model were evaluated for biogas production. The Chen and Hashimoto model was used to determine the critical hydraulic retention time (HRT $_{Critical}$) for FW under mesophilic conditions. The feasibility of co-digestion of FW with animal manure was studied. Results: The biogas and methane potential of FW was found to be 757 and 554 mL/g VS, respectively. The methane content in the biogas produced from FW was found to be 73% and VS removal was found to be 77%. There was smaller difference between measured and predicted biogas production when using the modified Gompertz model (16.5%) than using first order kinetic model (31%). The time period for 80%-90% of biogas production ($T_{80-90}$) from FW was calculated to be 50.3-53.5 days. Similarly, the HRT $_{Critical}$ for FW was calculated to be 13 days under mesophilic conditions. The methane production from swine manure (SM) and cow manure (CM) digesters could be enhanced by 13%-115% and 17%-152% by mixing 10%-90% of FW with SM and CM, respectively. Conclusions: The FW was found to be highly potential substrate for anaerobic digestion for biogas production. The modified Gompertz model could be more appropriate in describing anaerobic digestion process of FW. It could be promising for co-digestion of FW with animal manure.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.32-40
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• 2022

BACKGROUND: Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) has been proposed for sustainable agriculture and food security in an agricultural ecosystem disturbed by climate change. However, scientific approaches to local agricultural ecosystems to realize CSA are rare. This study attempted to evaluate the weather condition, rice production, and greenhouse gas emissions from the rice cultivation in Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do to fulfill CSA of the rice cultivation. METHODS AND RESULTS: Over the past 3 years (2017~2019), Chucheong rice cultivar yield and methane emissions were analyzed from the rice field plot (37°13'15"N, 127° 02'22"E) in the Gyeonggi-do Agricultural Research and Extension Services located in Gisan-dong, Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do. Methane samples were collected from three automated closed chambers installed in the plot. The weather data measured through automatic weather station located in near the plot were analyzed. CONCLUSION(S): The rice productivity was found to vary with weather environment in the agricultural ecosystem. And methane emissions are high in a favorable weather condition for rice growth. Therefore, it is necessary to minimize the trade-off between the greenhouse gas emission target for climate change mitigation and productivity improvement for CSA in a local rice cultivation.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.228-231
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• 2012

In this work, the mixture of sewage sludge incubated in an anaerobic bioreactor for 35 days and paperboard sludge was treated in a batch anaerobic digester equipped with a ultrasonicator, and methane production during the treatment was investigated. The Soluble Chemical Oxygen Demand (SCOD) increased with increasing the amplitude of ultrasonicator, which help solubilizing paperboard sludge more effectively. The optimum amplitude of ultrasonicator for the enhancing methane productivity was found to be $142.5\;{\mu}m$ and the methane production amount increased as the anaerobic digestion period became longer. In addition, the anaerobic digestion was performed with various biomass (6000, 9000 and 12000 mg/L) and methane production increased with higher cell mass. These results will be used as valuable data to enhance the methane production from anaerobic digestion of the high concentration of organic wastes containing the paperboard sludge and sewage sludge.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.145-154
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• 2022

Complex geological conditions have a great influence on the mining of coalbed methane (CBM), which affects the extraction efficiency of CBM. This investigation analyzed the complicated geological conditions in the Liujia CBM block of Fuxin. A geological model of heterogeneities CBM reservoirs was established to study the influence of strike direction of igneous rocks and fault structures on horizontal well layout. Subsequently, the dual-porosity and dual-permeability mathematical model was established, which considers the dynamic changes of porosity and permeability caused by gas adsorption, desorption, pressure change. The results show that the production curve is in good agreement with the actual by considering gas seepage in matrix pores in the model. Complicated geological structures affect the pressure expansion of horizontal wells, especially, the closer to the fault structure, the more significant the effect, the slower the pressure drop, and the smaller the desorption area. When the wellbore extends to the fault, the pressure expansion is blocked by the fault and the productivity is reduced. In the study area, the optimal distance to the fault is 70 m. When the horizontal wellbore is perpendicular to the direction of coal seam igneous rock, the productivity is higher than that of parallel igneous rock, and the horizontal well bore should be perpendicular to the cleat direction. However, the well length is limited due to the dense distribution of igneous rocks in the Liujia CBM block. Therefore, the horizontal well pumping in the study area should be arranged along the direction of igneous rock and parallel plane cleats. It is found that the larger the area surrounded by igneous rock, the more favorable the productivity. In summary, the reasonable layout of horizontal wells should make full use of the advantages of igneous rock, faults and other complex geological conditions to achieve the goal of high and stable production.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.849-859
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• 2000

This study was conducted to identify the characteristics of methane fermentation and lysis effects of pre-treated microalgae. Chemical compositions of microalgae showed that the VS(volatile solid) was 86.1% of TS(total solid), and the protein was 63.5% of VS. These values were higher than those of activated sludge. The cell lysis test of raw microalgae biomass was conducted by many physicochemical methods. presenting that the degree of cell lysis was affected by following order: ultrasonic(100min.), alkali(pH 13), ultrasonic(10min), thermal($120^{\circ}C$), thermal($50^{\circ}C$), and acidic(pH 3) treatment. Methane fermentation with many pre-treated samples was performed, showing that the concentration of acetic acid was the highest. followed by propionic acid, butylic acid and valerie acid among all VFA(volatile fattic acid). In methane production. ultrasonic samples were only more effective than untreated one in total gas and methane productivity. but other samples were less effective. Especially. the alkalic sample had an inhibitation effect on methanogens.