• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.133-139
• /
• 2022

As the issue of reducing greenhouse gases is emerging due to global warming and extreme weather, research on materials capable of radiative cooling without energy consumption is being actively conducted. Among them, silk is known as a natural self-cooling material, but in the conventional mixing process using chemically powdered silk, there is a problem that the radiative cooling effect disappears by the collapses of the intrinsic crystal structure of silk fibroin, so it is difficult to manufacture it in the form of a film or coating agent for radiative cooling. In this study, various types of membranes were manufactured using silk powder that went through a physical pulverization process that does not damage the intrinsic structure of silk fibroin, and the study was conducted to examine its applicability as a coating agent. Electrospun membranes and flat sheet membranes were prepared by using silk fibroin powder for this purpose, and it was observed that the viscosity of the solution had a significant effect on the membrane fabrication and its properties.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.94-109
• /
• 2023

1,3-Dioxolane is an exciting material that has attracted widespread interest in the chemical, paint, and pharmaceutical industries as a solvent, electrolyte, and reagent because 1,3-dioxolane is not toxic, carcinogenic, explosive, auto-flammable, and multifunctional, and due to their excellent miscibility in most organic and aqueous solvent conditions. Recently, this material has received increasing attention as a CO₂-selective polymer precursor to separating CO₂ from flue gas and natural gas mixtures. Poly(1,3-dioxolane) (PDXL) possesses higher ether oxygen content than polyethylene oxide (PEO), which demonstrates superior membrane CO₂/N₂ separation properties owing to their polar ether oxygen groups exhibiting strong affinity toward CO₂. Thus, PDXL-based membranes displayed an outstanding CO₂ solubility selectivity over non-polar (N₂, H₂, and CH₄) gases. However, the polar groups of PDXL, like PEO, promote chain packing efficiency and cause polymer crystallization, thereby reducing its gas permeability, which should be improved. In this short review, we discuss the recent advancement and limitations of PDXL membranes in gas separation applications. To conclude, we provide future perspectives for inhibiting the limits of 1,3-dioxolane-based polymers in the CO₂ separation process.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.39 no.6_1
• /
• pp.1505-1515
• /
• 2023

As extreme weather events caused by climate change are occurring around the world, blue carbon has recently been gaining attention as a carbon sink. Blue carbon has been officially recognized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a means of reducing greenhouse gases, and various studies are underway to discover new blue carbon sources both domestically and internationally. Domestic blue carbon research is centered on carbon absorption and storage in tidal flats, which account for most of the coastal wetlands, but there is a lack of research on spatial information. This study utilized the carbon storage of tidal flats from previous studies and converted it into location and spatial information for each basin of the Geumgang and Nakdong rivers. In addition, a proxy value of carbon storage per area by basin was calculated to compare and analyze the total carbon storage of various tidal flats in Korea and abroad. As a result of the analysis, both the Geumgang and Nakdong River basins showed different amounts of carbon storage depending on the tidal flats data, with the highest amount in the Geumgang basin coming from the National Ocean Survey (469,810.1 Mg C) and the highest amount in the Nakdong River basin coming from the Ministry of Environment (217,145.01 Mg C). The results of this study can be used as a basis for future research on the establishment of domestic blue carbon spatial information.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.45 no.6
• /
• pp.1143-1152
• /
• 2012

We established a top-down methodology to estimate carbon footprint as national mean value (reference) with the statistical data on agri-livestock incomes in 2007. We also established LCI (life cycle inventory) DB by a bottom-up methodology with the data obtained from interview with farmers from 4 large-scale farms at Gunsan, Jeollabuk-do province to estimate carbon footprint in 2011. This study was carried out to compare top-down methodology and bottom-up methodology in performing LCA (life cycle assessment) to analyze the difference in GHGs (greenhouse gases) emission and carbon footprint under conventional rice cultivation system. Results of LCI analysis showed that most of $CO_2$ was emitted during fertilizer production and rice cultivation, whereas $CH_4$ and $N_2O$ were mostly emitted during rice cultivation. The carbon footprints on conventional rice production system were 2.39E+00 kg $CO_2$-eq. $kg^{-1}$ by top-down methodology, whereas 1.04E+00 kg $CO_2$-eq. $kg^{-1}$ by bottom-up methodology. The amount of agro-materials input during the entire rice cultivation for the two methodologies was similar. The amount of agro-materials input for the bottom-up methodology was sometimes greater than that for top-down methodology. While carbon footprint by the bottom-up methodology was smaller than that by the top-down methodology due to higher yield per cropping season by the bottom-up methodology. Under the conventional rice production system, fertilizer production showed the highest contribution to the environmental impacts on most categories except GWP (global warming potential) category. Rice cultivation was the highest contribution to the environmental impacts on GWP category under the conventional rice production system. The main factors of carbon footprints under the conventional rice production system were $CH_4$ emission from rice paddy field, the amount of fertilizer input and rice yield. Results of this study will be used for establishing baseline data for estimating carbon footprint from 'low carbon certification pilot project' as well as for developing farming methods of reducing $CO_2$ emission from rice paddy fields.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.29 no.9
• /
• pp.1027-1034
• /
• 2007

This research was focused on the selective separation of $CO_2$ or $CH_4$ from mixture of these gases, by controlling the size of pore or pore gate. Pitch based activated carbon fibers(ACF) were used as adsorbents. The size of pore gate was controlled by the molecule having similar size to that of pore opening. After the adsorption of adsorbate on pore surface, planar molecules such as benzene and naphthalene covered the pore gate. The slow release of adsorbate from the pores covered by planar molecules makes apertures between planar molecules covering pore gate and this structure can be fixed by rapid pyrolysis. The control of pore gate using benzene as covering molecules could not accomplished due to the simultaneous volatilization of benzene and adsorbate$(CO_2)$ caused by similar temperatures of benzene volatilization and adsorbate desorption. Therefore we replaced benzene with naphthalene looking for the stability at a $CO_2$ desorption temperature. The naphthalene molecule was adsorbed on the ACF up to 15% of ACF weight and showed no desorption until $100^{\circ}C$, indicating that the molecule could be used as a good cover molecule. Naphthalene could cover almost all the pore gate, reducing BET surface area from 753 $m^2/g$ to 0.7 $m^2/g$. A mixed gas$(CO_2:CH_4=50:50)$ was adsorbed on the naphthalene treated OG-7A ACF. The amount of $CO_2$ adsorption increased with total pressure, whileas thai of $CH_4$ was not so much influenced on the pressure, indicating that $CO_2$ made more compounds on the ACF surface along with total pressure increase. The most $CO_2$ and the least $CH_4$ were adsorbed in the condition of 0.4 atm, resulting in the highly pure $CH_4$ left in ACF.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.53 no.1
• /
• pp.31-38
• /
• 2015

At present, carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) emission, which causes global warming, is a major issue all over the world. To reduce $CO_2$ emission directly, commercial deployment of $CO_2$ separation processes has been attempted in industrial plants, such as power plant, oil refinery and steelmaking plant. Besides, several studies have been done on indirect reduction of $CO_2$ emission from recycle of reducing gas (carbon monoxide or hydrogen containing gas) in the plants. Unlike many competing gas separation technologies, pressure swing adsorption (PSA) and membrane filtration are commercially used together or individually to separate a single component from the gas mixture. However, there are few studies on operation of sequential separation process of multi-component gas which has more than two target gas products. In this paper, process simulation model is first developed for two available configurations: $CO_2$ PSA-CO PSA-$H_2$ PSA and $CO_2$ PSA-CO PSA-$H_2$ membrane. Operation optimization and economic evaluation of the processes are also performed. As a result, feed gas contains about 14% of $H_2$ should be used as fuel than separating $H_2$, and $CO_2$ separation should be separated earlier than CO separation when feed gas contains about 30% of $CO_2$ and CO. The simulation results can help us to find an optimal process configuration and operation condition for separation of multicomponent gas with $CO_2$, CO, $H_2$ and other gases.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.472-481
• /
• 2000

This experiment used the enclosed bench-scale reactors was conducted to find out optimal aeration rate for reducing the emission of odors and producing the good-quality compost with the mixture of dairy manure and rice straw. The reactors with gas sampler were aerated at four different rates of 0.09, 0.18, 0.90 and $1.79l\;min^{-1}kg^{-1}$dry solids for 574 hours. The oxygen content within composting pile instantly decreased after aeration. Oxygen limitation(below 15%) in the treatments of $0.90l\;min^{-1}kg^{-1}$ and less was exponentially negative relationship with aeration rates and in the range of 35 to 300 hours after aeration. However, the treatment of $1.79l\;min^{-1}kg^{-1}$ didn't show the oxygen limitation. The oxygen consumption rate and the cumulative amount of oxygen consumed by different aeration rates was ranged in $0.80{\sim}1.57O_2g\;h^{-1}\;kg^{-1}VS^{-1}$, $460{\sim}900O_2g\;kg^{-1}VS^{-1}$, respectively, and they were high in the order of 0.90, 1.79, 0.18, $0.09l\;min^{-1}kg^{-1}$. The maximum oxygen consumption rate was estimated in the range of $1.2{\sim}1.3lmin^{-1}kg^{-1}$. The emission concentrations of sulfur compounds such as hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and methylmercaptan were remarkably high in the initial composting time. Then they were rapidly decreased with the passing of composting time and clearly with increasing aeration rates. Their average concentrations were in the range of 0.03~2.18, 0~0.50, $0.07{\sim}3.38mg\;kg^{-1}$, respectively and high in the order of methylmercaptan, hydrogen sulfide, and sulfur dioxide. Concentrations of sulfur compounds emitted from composting showed exponentially negative relationship at 1% statistically with the oxygen concentration. It was estimated that hydrogen sulfide and methylmercaptan suddenly increased in the level of 5% oxygen concentration and below, that they were little emitted in 15% and over but sulfur dioxide was emitted in the level of 20% oxygen.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.145-150
• /
• 2020

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is one of the six greenhouse gases, and it is essential to reduce N₂O by showing a global warming potential (GWP) equivalent to 310 times that of carbon dioxide (CO₂). Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is a technology that converts ammonia into harmless N₂ and H₂O by using ammonia as a reducing agent to remove NOx, one of the air pollutants; the process also produces high denitrification efficiency. In this study, the Fe-BEA catalyst was steam-treated at 100 ℃ for 2 h before Fe ion exchange in the fixed bed reactor in order to investigate the effect of the steam-treated Fe-BEA catalyst on the NH₃-SCR reaction. NH₃-SCR reaction test of synthesized catalysts was performed at WHSV = 180 h^-1, 370 to 400 ℃ in the fixed bed reactor. The Fe-BEA(100) catalyst steam-treated at 100 ℃ showed a somewhat higher activity than the Fe-BEA catalyst at 370 to 390 ℃. The catalysts were characterized by BET, ICP, NH₃-TPD, H₂-TPR, and ²⁷Al MAS NMR in order to determine the cause affecting NH₃-SCR activity. The H₂-TPR result confirmed that the Fe-BEA(100) catalyst had a higher reduction of isolated Fe³⁺ than the Fe-BEA catalyst, and that the steam treatment increased the amount of isolated Fe³⁺ as an active species, thus increasing the activity.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.81-89
• /
• 2019

The major problem encountered during the storage of pig slurry (PS) is the release of huge amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs), which are dominated by methane ($CH_4$). To reduce this, concentrated sulfuric acid has been used as an additive to control the pH of pig slurry to 5.0-6.0. However, other low-risk substitutes have been developed due to some limitations to its use, such as corrosiveness, and hazards to animal and human health. In this study, sugar addition was proposed as an eco-friendly approach for limiting $CH_4$ emission from PS during storage. The pH of PS has been reduced from $7.1{\pm}0.1$ (control) to $5.8{\pm}0.1$, $4.6{\pm}0.1$, $4.4{\pm}0.1$, $4.1{\pm}0.1$, and $4.0{\pm}0.1$, by the addition of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 g sugar/L, respectively. Lactate, acetate, and propionate were detected as the dominant organic acids and at sugar concentration above 20 g/L, lactate concentration represented 42-72% (COD basis) of total organic acids. For 40 d of storage, $20.6{\pm}2.3kg\;CO_2\;eq./ton\;PS$ was emitted in the control. Such emission, however, was found to be reduced to $8.7{\pm}0.4$ and $0.4{\pm}0.1kg\;CO_2\;eq./ton\;PS$ at 10 and 20 g/L, respectively. Small amount of $CH_4$ from PS at 10 g/L was emitted until 30 d of storage, while for rest of storage period, it has increased to $8.7{\pm}0.4kg\;CO_2\;eq./ton\;PS$ ( 40% of the control) when methanogens have recovered by increasing pH to 7.0. By the end of storage, VS and COD removal in the control reached 24% and 27%, while their ranges reached 15-4% and 12-17% in the sugar added experiments, respectively. It was found that more than 90% of COD removal was done by aerobic biological process.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.46 no.6
• /
• pp.85-96
• /
• 2018

Developed nations have implemented various policies to reduce greenhouse gases since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol in order to minimize the effects of global warming. Korea should also reduce energy consumption in the industrial sector, and the transportation and building sectors in order to achieve its greenhouse gas reduction target of 37 percent compared to the Business As Usual levels. The government implements various laws and regulations for reducing energy consumption. To reduce energy consumption in the building sector, in particular, the Energy Conservation Design Standards are enforced according to the 'Enforcement Support for Green Building Construction'. The amount of electricity used to maintain room temperature at $28^{\circ}C$ in these buildings have a 30% reduction (measured on the walls and rooftop) in power usage compared to buildings not required to meet these standards. Although the effect of these energy savings on landscaping is proven, this demonstration is not effective for energy saving since it is not a suitable method for the 'Energy Saving Design Standards of Buildings'. For landscaping to be effective as far as a component of energy reduction, the perfusion rate of the building should be calculated based on the thermal conductivity of the component materials for the energy saving designs with respect to the basis of Article 14 of the Green Building Act. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to ensure that the planting-based mats currently being widely used in the landscape industry can have insulating performance suitable for the 'Energy Saving Design Standards' of Buildings according to the 'Enable Green Building Construction Methods'.