• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.603-610
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• 2009

This research was performed to improve removal efficiency of toluene and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) using Candida tropicalis, one of the yeast species. An airlift loop bioreactor (ALB) was employed to enhance the capability of mass transfer for toluene and MEK from the gas phase to the liquid, microbial phase. Polymer gel media made from PAC, alginate and PEG was applied for the effective immobilization of the yeast strain on the polymer gel media. The experimental results indicated that the mass transfer coefficient of toluene without polymer gel media was 1.29 $min^{-1}$ at a gas retention time of 15 sec, whereas the KLa value for toluene was increased to 4.07 $min^{-1}$ by adding the media, confirming the enhanced mass transfer of volatile organic compounds between the gas and liquid phases. The removal efficiency of toluene and MEK by using yeast-immobilized polymer gel media in the ALB was greater than 80% at different pollutant loading rates (5, 10, 19 and 37 g/$m^3$/hr for toluene, 4.5, 8.9, 17.8 and 35.1 g/$m^3$/hr for MEK). In addition, an elimination capacity test conducted by changing inlet loading rates stepwise demonstrated that maximum elimination capacities for toluene and MEK were 70.4 and 56.4 g/$m^3$/hr, respectively.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.101-114
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• 1998

Soil vapor extraction (SVE) is known to be an effective process to remove the contaminants from the soils by enhancing the vaporization of organic compounds using forced vapor flows or applying vacuum through soils. Experiments are carried out to investigate the effects of the organic contaminants, types of soils, and water contents on the removal efficiency with operating time. In the study, simulated soils include the glass bead which has no micropore, sand and molecular sieve which has a large volume of micropores. As model organic pollutants, toluene, methyl ethyl ketone, and trichloroethylene are selected. Desorption experiments are conducted by flowing nitrogen gas. Under the experimental conditions, it is found that there are linear relationships between logarithm of removal efficiency and logarithm of number of pore volumes. The number of pore volumes are defined as the total amount of air flow through the soil column divided by the pore volume of soil column. For three organic compounds studied, the removal rate is slow for no water content, while the number of pore volumes for removal of organic compounds are notably reduced for water contents up to 37%. For the removal of dense organic compound, such as trichloroethylene, a large number of pore volumes are needed. Also, the effects of the characteristics of simulated soils on the removal efficiency of organic compounds are studied. After the characterization of soil surface, porosity of soil columns and types of contaminants, the results could provide a basis for the design of SVE process.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.21 no.1 s.96
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• pp.34-41
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• 2006

The aim of this study is the development of biological removal process of methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) in odor gas, which is generated from the waste food recycling process. To develop the removal process of odor gas, MEK, the selection of proper biofilter support was carried out. When the biofilter equipment was passed by synthetic odor gas composed of 250 ppm of MEK, the maximum removal was achieved to $586.6g-MEK/m^3\;hr$ for polypropylene fibril as support. Under the same experimental conditions, the maximum removal in polyurethane support was obtained to $359.7 g-MEK/m^3\;hr$. Finally, the maximum removal in volcanic stone support was $56.2g-MEK/m^3\;hr$.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.84-90
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• 2018

Chemical accidents occur in various forms, such as explosions, leaks, spills, and fires. In particular, chemical accidents caused by fires seriously affect the surrounding air environment due to soot, causing anxiety to the residents. Therefore, it is important to identify the causative substances quickly and examine the influence of air quality in the surrounding area. In this paper, proton transfer reaction-time of flight mass spectrometry(PTR-ToFMS) was used to identify the causative material in a fire and monitor the air quality in real time. This analyzer is capable of real-time analysis with a rapid response time without sample collection and pretreatment. In addition, it is suitable for quantitative and qualitative analysis of most volatile organic compounds with high hydrogen affinity, to identify the cause of fire and examine the influence of ambient air. In April 2018, when a local fire occurred, methanol, acetone, and methyl ethyl ketone were the main causative agents in PTR-ToFMS.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.328-334
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• 2022

For the study of environmental application of natural zeolites (NZ) and red mud (RM), which are discharged from various industrial fields, the catalytic ozonation of 2-butaone (methyl ethyl ketone, MEK) was performed using the Mn-loaded NZ prepared according to the Mn content of 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10 wt%. By the addition of Mn to NZ, the BET (Brunaure-Emmett-Teller) specific surface area of Mn/NZ catalysts decreased while the ratio of Mn³⁺/[Mn³⁺+Mn⁴⁺] intensively increased. Besides, the addition of Mn component to NZ increased the ratio of adsorbed oxygen (O_adsorbed) toward lattice oxygen (O_lattice), O_adsorbed/O_lattice from 0.076 of NZ to 0.465 of 10 wt% Mn/NZ according to the amount of Mn. It is known that the proportion of two species, Mn³⁺ and O_adsorbed, would greatly affect the catalytic activity. However, the balancing between the paired species, Mn³⁺ vs. Mn⁴⁺ and O_adsorbed vs. O_lattice might be more essential for the catalytic ozonation of MEK at room temperature. Among the Mn-loaded NZ catalysts, the 3 wt% Mn/NZ showed the best activity for the removal of MEK and ozone. The 5, 7, and 10 wt% Mn/NZ catalysts are slightly inferior to the 3 wt% Mn/NZ. Compared to the pristine NZ, the Mn/NZ catalysts showed better activity for the catalytic ozonation of MEK. In addition, the 3 wt% Mn/NZ was confirmed to have the most available acid sites among them by the analysis of NH₃-TPD (temperature programmed desorption). This might be the major reason for the best catalytic activity of 3 wt% Mn/NZ together with the adjusted distribution ratios of Mn³⁺/Mn⁴⁺ and O_adsorbed/O_lattice. Considering the result of 3 wt% Mn/NZ, the 3 wt% Mn/RM was prepared to perform the catalytic activity for the removal of MEK and ozone, but the efficiency of 3 wt% Mn/RM was significantly lower than that of the 3 wt% Mn/NZ.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.127-136
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• 1994

Diffusional sampling devices offer many advantages for measuring concentration levels of industrial contaminants than the conventional pump and charcoal tubes because they are lightweight, require no power, pump or tubing. This study designed to evaluate and compare the sampling performance of passive sampler to charcoal tube from mixed organic solvent workplace with 181 organic solvent using workers working in different concentration of organic solvents. All study workers kept both devices in their breathing zone simultaneuosly in the workplaces, and the sampling analytical results were compared with those of charcoal tube. The results obtained are as follows: 1. The concentrations of toluene and xylene measured by passive sampler were slightly higher than those of charcoal tube, but there were no significant statistical differences between two methods. 2. The concentrations of MEK and cyclo-hexanone measured by passive sampler in low exposure workplace (below 0.20 of MEK TLV levels and 0.1 of cyclo-hexanone TLV levels) were about 2 times higher than that of charcoal tube sampling. While, absorption efficiency of passive sampler was reduced according to increasing concentration measurements of MEK and cyclo-hexanone in air. 3. The ratios of concentrations of toluene, xylene, MEK and cyc1o-hexanone measured by passive sampler over those measured by charcoal tube were 1.11, 1.07, 1.63 and 3.65 respectively. 4. The percentages of concentration of passive samplers within 0.75 and 1.25 of charcoal tube value as a reference value of 1.0 were 57% in toluene, 74% in xylene, 34% in MEK and 32% in cyclo-hexanone respectively. 5. The correlation coefficients of toluene, xylene, MEK and cyclo-hexanone between passive sampler and charcoal tube sampler were 0.963, 0.957, 0.943 and 0.562 with statistical significance.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.12
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• pp.89-97
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• 1969

These studies were made on coating of fresh fruits and vegetables with PVC under view on preservation of fresh fruits and vegetables due to restrain water evaporation of them and control gas metabolisms. The results obtained, as selection of PVC materials availble for preservation of them, procedure of the coating, useful organic solvents, concentration of PVC solution and the time of dipping, and effects of the preservation of them, were summarized as follows: 1) PVC powder 222 and PVC powder 443 were surveyed as suitable materials for coating apple, and later was excellent in lustrous aspect. 2) The coating procedure which dipt into PVC solution was suitable to treat much within a short space of time, and using of ventillator accelerate rather evaporation of the organic solvent. 3) Aceton and methyethylketon as solvent of the PVC were, in purpose of storage only, avaible, while aceton was, in view ef taste, better. 4) 10% of the PVC solutions were better to preserve the freshness of apple and 5, 4, 1 and 0.5% of them in order were gradually decreased in preservability, and 15% of them as high concentration were looked like fermentation in one week after the coating. 5) The dipping time was also better n minute than 10 seconds in a preservation but 1-2 minutes could be applied owing to be not affected of the taste due to coating. 6) The freshness of treatment groups were extend about 48 days after coating in room temperature but control lost market value with 12 days. 7) Weight of control was decreased to 10-13% but treatment which was dipped into 10% of coating solution for one minute was decreased to 3.5-4.6% and treatment for four minutes was did to 2.9-3.0%. 8) Change in respiration was less is treatment groups than control in exhaustion of $CO_2$, and water soluble sugar, reduced sugar and pH were not changed almost due to coating. 9) Pannel discussion of the taste was indicated that control was better than treatments soon after coating, but treatments were rather than control last period of storage and treatment with aceton solvent specially was better than others.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.491-498
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• 2009

We studied to develop high-efficiency removal system of odor and VOCs(Volatile Organic Compounds) from environmental infrastructure facilities and oil refineries, painting facilities and so on. It can replace RTO and RCO. We tried an removal experiment for VOCs (toluene, xylene, benzene, MEK(methyl ethyl ketone), ethanol, formalin etc. and odor compounds (hydrogen sulfide, etc.). In process, as pre-treatment we used the scrubber with vortex flow (Multi-scrone) to remove the hydrophilic VOCs and as post-treatment, used fibrous bio-filter to remove the hydrophobic VOCs. This hybrid system remove with high efficiency both the hydrophilic VOCs and hydrophobic VOCs. And we tried to make this system to be compact. In experiment using Multi-scrone, contact time is 2~3 seconds and absorption scrubbing water is diaphragm-type electrolysis water. hydrophilic VOCs like ethanol and relatively hydrophilic odor compounds like hydrogen sulfide is excellent, these substances has been removed almost completely, respectively 95~99%, 93~97%. And for MEK, formalin also Showed a high removal efficiency, respectively 78~90%, 72~85%. But in experiment using Multi-scrone, the hydrophobic VOCs like BTX showed a low removal efficiency, respectively 16~22%, 12~18%, 8~16%. In hydrophobic VOCs, toluene removal experiment using fibrous bio-filter, early efficiency was low but after 10days, adaptation period showed high efficiency 85~95%. but in the mixed phase, toluene and MEK efficiency reduced 5~10%. this show microorganism treat first MEK easy to remove. The removal efficiency for MEK using the fibrous biofilter was stable, 80~92%. This hybrid system is also high economical efficiency for RTO. This system reduce more than 50% the cost of equipment and maintenance. As a result, we expect this technology is in the limelight as high efficiency treatment of VOCs in mid-low price.