• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.556-562
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• 2015

In order to remove the organic substances and the nitrate-nitrogen contained in wastewater, some researchers have studied the simultaneous removal of organics and nitrogen by using different biocathode microbial fuel cells (MFCs). The operating conditions for removing the contaminants in the MFCs are the external resistances, HRTs, the concentration of the influent wastewater, and other factors. This study aimed to determine the effect of the external resistors and organic loading rates, from the changing HRT, on the removal of the organics and nitrogen and on the production of electric power using the Denitrification Biocathode - Microbial Fuel Cell (DNB-MFC). As regards the results of the study, the removal efficiencies of $SCOD_{Cr}$ did not show any difference, but the nitrate-nitrogen removal efficiencies were increased by decreasing the external resistance. The maximum denitrification rate achieved was $129.2{\pm}13.54g\;NO_3{^-}-N/m^3/d$ in the external resistance $1{\Omega}$, and the maximum power density was $3,279mW/m^3$ in $10{\Omega}$. When the DNB-MFC was operated with increasing influent organic and nitrate loading by reducing the HRTs, the $NO_3{^-}-N$ removal efficiencies were increased linearly, and the maximum nitrate removal rate was $1,586g\;NO^3{^-}-N/m^3/d$ at HRT 0.6 h.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.134-142
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• 2006

The treatment of high-strength swine wastewater by anaerobic digestion combined with an aquatic plant system was investigated. Anaerobic digestion of swine wastewater gave volatile solids (VS) removal efficiencies of 43.3%, 52.1% and 54.5% for hydraulic retention times (HRTs) of 20, 30, 40 days, respectively. The removal efficiencies of VS, total chemical oxygen demand (TCOD) and soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) decreased with increasing VS volumetric loading rate (VLR). Higher organic removal efficiency was observed at longer HRTs for the same VS volumetric loading rate. As VS volumetric loading rate increased, biogas production increased and the methane content of the biogas decreased. Experiments using duckweed (Lemna species) as an aquatic macrophyte gave the following results. In the case of nitrogen, removal efficiency was above 60% and effluent concentration was below 10.0 mg/L when the influent ammonia-N loading was about $1.0\;g/m^2/day$. In the case of phosphorus, removal efficiency was above 55% and effluent concentration was below 2.0 mg/L when the influent $PO_4$-P loading was about $0.15\;g/m^2/day$. In addition, crude protein and phosphorus content of duckweed biomass increased from 15.6% to 41.6% and from 0.8% to 1.6%, respectively, as the influent nutrient concentration increased. The treatment of high-strength swine wastewater by anaerobic digestion combined with an aquatic plant system offers good performance in terms of organics and nutrient removal for relatively low operation and maintenance costs. The results indicate that under appropriate operational conditions, the effluent quality is within the limits set by Korean discharge criteria.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.104-116
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• 1996

Anaerobic digestion is generally used for the treatment of volatile organic solids such as manure and sludge from waste water treatment plants. However, the reaction rate of anaerobic process is slow, and thus it requires a large reactor volume. To minimize such a disadvantage, physical and chemical pre-treatment is generally considered. Another method to reduce the reactor size is to adopt different reactor system other than CSTR. In this paper, the effects of heat pre-treatment and reactor configurations on the anaerobic treatability of volatile solids was studied. Carrot, kale, primary sludge, and waste activated sludge was chosen as the test materials, and the BMP method was used to evaluate the maximum methane production and first order rate constants from each sample. After the heat treatment at $130^{\circ}C$ for 30min., the measured increase in SCOD per gram VS was up to 394 mg/L for the waste activated sludge. However, the methane production potential per gram VS was increased for only primary and waste activated sludge by 17-23%, remaining the same for carrot and kale. The overall methane production process for the tested solids can be described by first order reactions. The increased in reaction constant after heat pre-treatment was also more significant for the primary and waste activated sludge than that for carrot and kale. therefore, the heat pre-treatment appeared to be effective for the solids with high protein contents rather than for the solids with high carbohydrate contents. Among the four reactor systems studied, CSTR, PFR, CSTR followed by PFR, and PFR with recycle, CSTR followed by PFR appeared to be the best choice considering methane conversion rate and the operational stability.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.85-92
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• 2010

In this study, odorous compounds emitted from various wastewater treatment were treated with using the non-thermal plasma reaction, and the effluent gas from the plasma reactor was introduced to a waste sludge reactor to achieve simultaneous sludge reduction. Hydrogen sulfide, the model odorous compound, was removed at 70% using the plasma reaction, and greater than 99% removal efficiency was observed when treated by the sludge reactor. In addition, the sludge reactor showed a high efficiency of ozone removal. As ozone reacted with sludge, oxidation with organic matters took place, and total COD decreased by 50~60% and soluble COD increased gradually. As a result, the integrated process consisting of the non-thermal plasma and the sludge reactor can be successfully applied for the simultaneous treatment of malodorous gas and waste sludge.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.256-262
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate the performances of organic removal and methane recovery by using a full scale two-phase anaerobic system. The full scale two-phase anaerobic process was consists of an acidogenic anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) and a methanognic upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor. The volumes of acidogenic and methanogenic reactors were designed to $28.3m^3$ and $75.3m^3$. The two-phase anaerobic system represented 60-82% of COD removal efficiency when the influent COD concentration was in the range of 7,150 to 16,270 mg/L after screening (average concentration is 10,280 mg/L). After steady-state, the effluent COD concentration in the methanogenic reactor showed $2,740{\pm}330 mg/L$ by representing average COD removal efficiency was $71.4{\pm}8.1%$ when the operating temperature was in the range of $19-32^{\circ}C$. The effluent SCOD concentration was in the range of 2,000-3,000 mg/L at the steady state while the volatile fatty acid concentration was not detected in the effluent. Meanwhile, the COD removal efficiency in the acidogenic reactor showed less than 5%. The acidogenic reactor played key roles to reduce a shock-loading when periodic shock loading was applied and to acidify influent organics. Due to the high concentration of alkalinity and high pH in the effluent of the methanogenic reactor, over 80% of methane in the biogas was produced consistently. More than 70% of methane was recovered from theoretical methane production of TCOD removed in this research. The produced gas can be directly used as a heat source to increase the reactor temperature.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.290-295
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• 2004

In this study, ozone was adopted for the reduction and stabilization of waste sludge from the municipal sewage treatment plant. The waste sludge used in the experiments was primary sludge, excess sludge and a mixture of the two. The sludge cells and flocs were disrupted by ozonation resulting in the reduction of TSS and VSS concentrations. In the case of the primary sludge with a concentration of 20 gTS/L, the TSS and VSS concentrations were reduced 28%, 33% and the TCOD concentration was reduced 20% respectively. The consumption of ozone was $0.18gO_3/gSS$. In the case of the excess sludge with a concentration of 7.5 gTS/L, the TSS and VSS concentrations were reduced 37%, 41%, and the TCOD concentration was reduced 19% respectively. The consumption of ozone was $0.33gO_3/gSS$. In the case of the mixed sludge of 9.3 gTS/L, the TSS and VSS concentrations were reduced by 45%, 53%, and the TCOD was reduced 26% respectively. The desirable consumption of ozone was $0.27gO_3/gSS$. As ozonation proceeded, the level of SCOD increased due to the release of intracellular materials. However TCOD was reduced due to mineralization resulting from the transformation of organic materials to inorganic materials.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.299-307
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of low temperature thermal pre-treatment on biodegradation of waste activated sludge for anaerobic digestion as a countermeasure for increasing sludge generation. The experimental condition was accomplished in 2 %, 4 %, and 6 % TS concentration, and $70^{\circ}C$, $80^{\circ}C$, $90^{\circ}C$ of temperature for a maximum of 120 minutes retention time. Then, it was followed by analysis of physical/chemical properties, BMP test and composition of biogas. The biogas characteristic was evaluated by applying the modified Gomperz model. As a result, solubility of dissolved substrate, such as $SCOD_{Cr}$, soluble carbohydrate, and soluble protein, and biogas production increased as temperature increased. Solubilization efficiency at $90^{\circ}C$ was 18.4 %, 17.03 % and 16.88% in 2 %, 4 %, and 6 % TS concentration respectively. Also, solubilization rates of carbohydrate and protein similarly increased. BMP test results also showed that methane production in excess sludge increased to 0.194, 0.187 and $0.182m^3/kg$ VS. respectively, and lag phase decreased to 0.145, 0.220, 0.351 day due to acceleration of the hydrolysis step. Consequently, low-temperature thermal pre-treatment could increase biodegradability of sludge, positively affecting biogas production and sludge reduction.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.362-369
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• 2019

In this study, biodegradation efficiency improvement of mixed sludge for the anaerobic digestion process in wastewater treatment plant was investigated. In order to release the organic material contained in the sludge cell and promote the hydrolysis step, mixed sludge of 7% TS (Total Solids) was physically shear-treated at a shear strength of 1,000 ~ 4,000 rpm and a maximum of 120 mins. As a result of the comparison between mixed sludge before and after the treatment, the concentration of $SCOD_{Cr}$(Soluble Chemical Oxygen Demand-chromium method) was increased through the conversion of granular organic matter into dissolved organic matter as shear strength and treatment time increases. The solubilization efficiency increased rapidly after 30 min of solubilization application time, and they were 11.23 %, 20.10 %, 22.52 % and 25.43% at 120 min for each shear strength conditions, respectively. Additionally, the BMP(Biochemical Methane Potential) test was conducted with the optimized samples to determine the increase of methane production by the shear pre-treatment. Consequently, methane production of each samples were 0.275, 0.310, 0.323 and $0.335m^3/kg\;VS_{add}$, which indicates that methane production was increased to a maximum of 21.28% compared to the control without the solubilization process ($0.262m^3/kg\;VS_{add}$). As a result, the physical shear-treatment is a promising process for sewage sludge pre-treatment to reduce the organic waste and increase the energy production.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.524-531
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• 2012

The objective of this study was to investigate the organic solubilization (SCOD) and improvement of methane production for pig slurry by thermal hydrolysis. A sludge cake was pretreated by thermal hydrolysis at different reaction temperatures (200, 220, 250, $270^{\circ}C$). Ultimate methane potential (Bu) was determined at several substrate and inoculum (S/I) ratios (1:9, 3:7, 5:5, 7:3 in volume ratio) by biochemical methane potential (BMP) assay for 73 days. Pig slurry SCOD were obtained with 98.4~98.9% at the reaction temperature of $200{\sim}270^{\circ}C$. Theoretical methane potentials ($B_{th}$) of thermal hydrolysates at the reaction temperature of $200^{\circ}C$, $220^{\circ}C$, $250^{\circ}C$, $270^{\circ}C$ were 0.631, 0.634, 0.705, $0.748Nm^3\;kg^{-1}-VS_{added}$, respectively. $B_u$ of $200^{\circ}C$ thermal hydrolysate were decreased from $0.197Nm^3\;kg^{-1}-VS_{added}$ to $0.111Nm^3\;kg^{-1}-VS_{added}$ with the changes of S/I ratio from 1:9 to 7:3, and also $B_u$ of different thermal hydrolysates ($220^{\circ}C$, $250^{\circ}C$, $270^{\circ}C$) showed same tendency to $B_u$ of $200^{\circ}C$ thermal hydrolysate according to the changes of S/I ratio. Anaerobic biodegradability ($B_u/B_{th}$) of $200^{\circ}C$ thermal hydrolysate at different S/I ratios was decreased from 32.2% for S/I ratio of 1:9 to 17.6% for S/I ratio of 7:3. $B_u/B_{th}$ of $220^{\circ}C$, $250^{\circ}C$, and $270^{\circ}C$ thermal hydrolysat were decreased from 36.4% to 9.6%, from 31.3% to 0.8%, and from 26.6% to 0.8%, respectively, with the S/I ratio change, respectively. In this study, the rise of thermal reaction temperature caused the decrease of anaerobic digestibility and methane production while organic materials of pig slurry were more solubilized.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.355-361
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• 2006

In this study, effects of influent C/N(COD/Nitrate) ratio and dissolved oxygen(DO) concentration on biological nitrate removal from groundwater were investigated in the fixed-type biofilter. Influent nitrate of 30 mg/L was removed completely by biological denitrification at the C/N ratio of 10 and 4.0, while residual nitrate of 5 mg/L occurred at the C/N ratio of 2.0, which resulted from deficiency of organic electron donor. Furthermore, nitrite was accumulated up to about 5 mg/L as the C/N ratio decreased to 2.0. Increase in DO concentration also inhibited denitrification activity at the relatively high C/N ratio of 5.0, which decreased the nitrate removal efficiency. Although the influent DO concentration was reduced as low as 0.3 mg/L using sodium sulfite($Na_2SO_3$), effluent nitrite was up to 3.6 mg/L. On the other hand, nitrate was completely removed without detection of nitrite at the DO concentration of 0.3 mg/L using nitrogen gas($N_2$) sparging. The organic matter for denitrification in biofilter were in the range from 3.0 to $3.5gSCOD/g{NO_3}^--N$, while utilized these values increased at the high DO concentration of 5.5 mg/L. In addition to the high DO concentration and the low influent C/N ratio, DO control by chemical such as sodium sulfite affected on biological denitrification, which resulted in the reduction of nitrate removal efficiency and nitrite build-up in a biofilter.