• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.391-407
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• 2013

Micropollutants emerge in surface water through untreated discharge from sewage and wastewater treatment plants (STPs and WWTPs). Most micropollutants resist the conventional systems in place at water treatment plants (WTPs) and survive the production of tap water. In particular, pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors (ECDs) are micropollutants frequently detected in drinking water. In this review, we summarized the distribution of micropollutants at WTPs and also scrutinized the effectiveness and mechanisms for their removal at each stage of drinking water production. Micropollutants demonstrated clear concentrations in the final effluents of WTPs. Although chronic exposure to micropollutants in drinking water has unclear adverse effects on humans, peer reviews have argued that continuous accumulation in water environments and inappropriate removal at WTPs has the potential to eventually affect human health. Among the available removal mechanisms for micropollutants at WTPs, coagulation alone is unlikely to eliminate the pollutants, but ionized compounds can be adsorbed to natural particles (e.g. clay and colloidal particles) and metal salts in coagulants. Hydrophobicities of micropollutants are a critical factor in adsorption removal using activated carbon. Disinfection can reduce contaminants through oxidation by disinfectants (e.g. ozone, chlorine and ultraviolet light), but unidentified toxic byproducts may result from such treatments. Overall, the persistence of micropollutants in a treatment system is based on the physico-chemical properties of chemicals and the operating conditions of the processes involved. Therefore, monitoring of WTPs and effective elimination process studies for pharmaceuticals and ECDs are required to control micropollutant contamination of drinking water.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.41-45
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• 2014

The biological aerated filter (BAF) reactor is regarded as an effective biological wastewater treatment method. It can remove pollutants by carrier filtration and biodegradation. Due to its advantages, which include high biomass retention, tolerance to toxicity, excellent removal efficiency, and slurry separation, BAF has been widely used to remove COD, $NH_4{^+}-N$, phosphorus, and other harmful organic substances. In this study, the BAF reactor was used to remove organic contaminants of domestic wastewater of Korea at both the benchand pilot-scale. The main objectives of this study are to: (i) investigate the removal efficiency of organic contaminants (ex. COD, nitrate, phosphorus) in BAF reactors at both scales; (ii) characterize the small-scale wastewater treatment plant using the BAF reactor. The concentration of COD in the influent increased from 69 to 246 mg/L. During the operation period, the final effluent concentration of COD remained maximum 4.0 mg/L, and the average removal efficiency was above 88%. The present study investigated the removal efficiencies of COD, TN, TP and $NH_4{^+}-N$ from smelting wastewater by BAF system. When treating wastewater in both bench and pilot-scale reactors, the BAF worked well.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.122-127
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• 2000

A stream purification system was applied to the upper reaches of the Masan Reservoir to improve the water quality. This system consisted of two channels which were constructed on both sides of the stream, one side packed with crushed gravels and the other with plastic filter media. The system operated under low pollutant concentrations and high hydraulic loadings during a dry season to avoid clogging of the filter media. Removal rate and efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the channel packed with crushed gravel were $14.8g/m^3/d$ and 11.5%, and for the channel with plastic filter media, $50.1g/m^3/d$ and 13.5%, respectively. Removal efficiencies of total phosphorus (T-P) were 6.6% (gravel) and 10.0% (plastic media). These results indicated plastic filter media having relatively high specific surface areas were more efficient than crushed gravels in removing pollutants. However, due to low influent water quality during dry season, the removal efficiencies were low. The proportion of nitrate nitrogen to total nitrogen (T-N) of the inflow was high but, as the system operated under aerobic condition, nitrate nitrogen could not denitrified. Accordingly, total nitrogen was not attenuated with this system. To improve the reservoir water quality effectively, this system should be able to treat the storm runoff containing higher pollutant loadings. When the filter materials are clogged by the storm runoff instead of backwashing, it would be more efficient to replace them, Therefore, the use of natural materials which are light, easily obtaining and replaceable, and have high specific surface areas is recommended.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.9-18
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• 1994

Activated sludge pilot plant testing was conducted to determine the ability of a well-designed activated sludge treatment system to remove chromic toxicity from the bleached kraft pulp mill effluent. Removals of conventional(BOD and SS) and nonconventional(resin and fatty acids, color, AOX) pollutants were estimated. The pilot plant was operated at steady state for about 10 weeks at an F/M of 0.28 and a sludge age of 8.4 days. The average MLSS concentration was 4,309mg/l, of which volatile fraction was 57%. During the operation period, the BOD removal reaction rate(k) was determined to be 8.2/day at $30^{\circ}C$. The BOD removal was 84 percent, which was 3 to 6 percent lower than expected for full-scale treatment. The chronic toxicity of the activated sludge effluent was tested by employing both Dinnel and the BML protocols. It was found that the pilot plant could achieve in excess of 90 percent reduction in chronic echinoderm toxicity. The data show slight reduction of color and AOX across the activated sludge system. The pilot system, however, demonstrated on excellent removal of resin and fatty acids.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.601-608
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• 2015

Pollutants removal efficiency in pretreatment(GAC filter, multi-media filter, disk filter) and RO facilities was investigated for the Jeju Samyang spring water source where raw water intake has been stopped due to sea water intrusion. In addition, preliminary feasibility analysis was conducted between RO and groundwater intake systems. Turbidity removal in 4 different pretreatment processes was less than 25% due to low concentration of turbidity(i.e., less than 0.21 NTU), while multi-media filter is recommended for the pretreatment facility based on the low organic content in raw water as well as cheaper operation and maintenance cost. The average concentration of $Cl^-$ in raw water was 691.4 mg/L, while that of RO permeate was 9.1 mg/L(i.e., removal efficiency was 98.4%). In addition, TDS removal efficiency was 98.1%, which was quite high. The production cost for RO system($Q=4,000m^3/d$) was $362.1won/m^3$ considering installation, operation and maintenance cost for 30 years. While that of groundwater was $262.6won/m^3$ which was low compared to the RO system. However, it is recommended to introduce RO system for Samyang water source rather than new groundwater development because Samyang water source has been discharged to the sea without any usage, while groundwater can be used for other purpose as a sustainable water source.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.43-50
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• 2005

Wetlands can transform or remove pollutants from water body, such as nitrogen, phosphate, and organics. Many researches were conducted in relation to uptake process by aquatic plants in wetlands. However, water purification processes in wetlands are the results of physical, chemical and biological, especially microbiological reactions. As such, understanding on microbial processes is of great importance. In this study, we used pondor marsh-type wetland microcosms for investigating the water purification capacity and microbial functions, namely, extracellular enzyme activities, nitrification and denitrification. In a pond system, removal efficiencies of $NO_3{^-}$ and $PO{_4}^{3-}$ were 96% and 100 % respectively, while those in a marsh system were 94%, 100% respectively. These high removal efficiencies appeared to be caused by high adsorption ability to soils and microbial functions in wetland.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2008

Nitrogen is one of the major pollutants that should be removed by wastewater treatment systems. Biological nitrogen removal (BNR) is a key technology in advanced wastewater treatment systems operated by bacterial populations. Nitrification is the first step of microbiological processes in BNR system. Ammonia is oxidized to nitrite by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and then nitrite is subsequently oxidized to nitrate by nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB). The diversity of NOB in nitrification reactors of 3 BNR systems, Edited biological aerated filter system, Nutrient removal laboratory system, and the Rumination type sequencing batch reactor system, was investigated by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of 16S rRNA genes. Cluster analysis of T-RF profiles showed that communities of Nitrobacter group in each system were different depending upon the process of systems. However, the clusters of Nitrospira group were divided by the habitat of aqueous and solid samples.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.83-89
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• 2000

In general, livestock wastewater consists of many pollutants such as nitrogen, phosphorus, carbonic compounds and inorganic substances. Most carbonic and organic compounds are sufficiently removed by conventional secondary processes, but nitrogen, phosphorus and soluble inorganic compounds are little removed by traditional clarification process. These remained substances in wastewater, for instances, phosphorus and nitrogen are efficiently eliminated by advanced wastewater treatment or botanical removing process. Concentrations of $BOD_s$, SS, T-N and T-P in influent livestock wastewater used in this study were 126mg/l, 115mg/l, 45mg/l and 13mg/l, respectively. The hydraulic retention time(HRT) of wastewater was about 10 days in the pond packed with aquatic plants. A water-hyacinth and a water-dropwort were used as an experimental stuff plant. The removal ratios of nitrogen was 44.3% for the water-hyacinth and 40.2% for the water-dropwort. The removal efficiency of phosphorus in experimental ponds reached by 57.9% for the water-hyacinth and 58.5% for the water-dropwort for 10 days, respectively. Removal ratios of BODs and SS of livestock wastewater for 10 days were reached by 80.1%, 91.0% for he water-hyacinth, respectively. At the same condition, the removal ratios of BODs and SS were reached by 75.0%, 87.6% for the water-dropwort, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.242-247
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• 2005

In this study, we investigated the removal efficiencies of pollutants and permeate fluxes depending on chemistry of feed water, various molecular weight cut-offs (MWCOs) and materials of membrane, operating pressure. We used seven MWCO membranes of YC0.5, YM1, YM3, YM10, YM30, YM100 and PM30, humic acid solution and surface water as feed water, and examined variation in permeate flux. Results of TOC removal experiment demonstrate that MWCO lower 1,000daltons could remove humic acid effectively. As increasing solution pH and decreasing divalent cations ($Ca^{2+}$) concentration, TOC removal increased. But $UV_{254}$ removal efficiency increased with higher divalent cation concentration and solution pH. Membrane fouling increased with increasing electrolyte (NaCl), divalent cation concentration and decreasing solution pH. In spite of initial permeate flux of the hydrophobic membrane (PM30) was higher than that of the hydrophilic membrane (YM30), flux decline of PM30 was significant during operation. At higher operating pressure, compactness of the cake layer on the membrane surface increased, resulting in gradual increase in hydraulic resistance.

• Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.2394-2402
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• 2018

Textile dyes are some of the pollutants which have received the most attention because of the large volume of wastewater generated by the textile industry. Removal by means of adsorption is one of the most versatile alternatives to treat these effluents. Even though different adsorbents such as activated carbons and mineral materials have been proposed, polymeric adsorbents are a viable alternative. This work reports for the first time the use of polyelectrolyte PTZ and macroelectrolyte MTZ containing tetrazole groups as adsorbents useful in the textile dyes removal present in aqueous solutions and wastewater. Because of the anionic character of the tetrazole group, MTZ exhibits selective adsorption capabilities for cationic dyes of up to $156.25mg{\cdot}g^{-1}$. The kinetic study of the process of adsorption shows that PTZ and MTZ fit a pseudo second-order model. MTZ also shows utility as a flocculant agent in the treatment of wastewater containing dyes Indigo Blue and Reactive Black. The results showed that PTZ and MTZ may be used in the treatment of wastewater in a process of coagulation-flocculation followed by the treatment by adsorption. This two-stage treatment removed up to 95% of the dye present in the wastewater. As well as removing the dyes, the values for COD, suspended solids, pH, and color of the wastewater decreased, thus significantly improving its quality.