• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.164-172
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• 2021

Titanium is the ninth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and is the fourth most abundant structural metal after aluminum, iron, and magnesium. It exhibits a higher specific strength than steel along with an excellent corrosion resistance, highlighting the promising potential of titanium as a structural metal. However, titanium is difficult to extract from its ore and is classified as a rare metal, despite its abundance. Therefore, the production of titanium is exceedingly low compared to that of common metals. Titanium is conventionally produced as a sponge by the Kroll process. For powder metallurgy (PM), hydrogenation-dehydrogenation (HDH) of the titanium sponge or gas atomization of the titanium bulk is required. Therefore, numerous studies have been conducted on smelting, which replaces the Kroll process and produces powder that can be used directly for PM. In this review, the Kroll process and new smelting technologies of titanium for PM, such as metallothermic, electrolytic, and hydrogen reduction of TiCl₄ and TiO₂ are discussed.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.700-716
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• 2010

This paper examines the development of smelting reduction process in POSCO from 1990 to 2007 with the perspective of post catch-up technological innovation. POSCO paid attention to smelting reduction process as a sort of next-generation iron and steel technology, and implemented COREX (coal ore reduction) by the cooperation with V$\"{o}$oest. In addition to this, POSCO started to develop FINEX (fine iron ore reduction) which can use abundant powder ore, and FINEX was developed through model plant, pilot plant, demo plant, and commercial facility. POSCO came up to innovation leader beyond fast follower by securing almost technologies concerning FINEX. The case of smelting reduction process shows various characteristics including appropriate technological choice, successive scale-up, spiral development system, complementary technological cooperation, long-tenn investment, the existence of top management's leadership, and Korean government's support in early stage. This case can be interpreted as a path-revealing innovation in the middle of technological paradigm change.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.204-209
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• 2007

Agricultural area in the vicinity of the ${\triangle}{\triangle}$ smelting factory in Kyeongbuk province, the third largest zinc smelting factory in the world, was contaminated by high concentration of heavy metals. However, the heavy metals source was not yet directly traced and thus, resulted to a conflict between the factory and residents within its vicinity. In order to determine the level of heavy metal contamination in the arable lands located at the north eastern part of the factory, soils were sampled systematically. To find out the major reason for the occurrence of this problem, waters and aerosols were sampled with constant intervals to the upward and downward direction from the factory and were analyzed to find out the heavy metal concentrations. Cadmium (Cd) and zinc (Zn) of the heavy metals were highly accumulated more than the Korean warning criteria (Cd 1.5, Zn 300 mg $kg^{-1}$) with mean values 1.7 and 407 mg $kg^{-1}$, respectively, at the surface soils (0-20 cm), and heavy metal concentration significantly decreased with increasing soil depth In addition, the concentration of both metals slightly decreased with increasing distance from the factory to the surface soils. Cadmium and Zn were detected in the upward stream water with low concentration and concentrations increased significantly in the downstream after passing across the factory. Aerosol samples also showed traces of Cd and Zn which could be attributed to the contamination of the water system and the surface soils. Conclusively, Cd and Zn emitted from the ${\triangle}{\triangle}$ smelting factory moved with the aerosol in the atmosphere and thus, contaminated the agricultural areas and the water system within it vicinity.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.519-532
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• 2017

Studies on ancient ironmaking technologies are primarily based on archaeological surveys and scientific analysis data, and technological systems are examined by comparing the results of restorative experiments. In this study, to examine the ancient iron production technologies such as smelting and smithing in the Jungwon area, a restoration experiment was conducted based on archaeological data, and the iron and slag, etc. produced in the experiment were analyzed. Further, the changes in physicochemical properties due to the smelting of the raw material, specifically, iron ore were determined, and the smithing process, which involves fabrication of ironwares, was analyzed along with the characteristics of each step. In the case of smelting, increasing recovery rates and production of high-quality primary iron material were important for the following processes. For the iron bars produced through the smithing process, it was found that quality improvements made by reducing physical defects such as inclusions or gas holes were more important than the composition of the iron itself. The study also yielded comparative study data for various byproducts, such as smithing slag, which could be utilized in other ironmaking technology studies.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.768-774
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• 2010

This study was conducted to provide a technical solution to treat effectively perchlorate from inorganic wastewater of zinc smelting. Despite an inhibition dissolved inorganic substances in the wastewater discharged from zinc smelting has demonstrated with the activity of microbes, biological treatment technology could reduce perchlorate to a satisfactory level under such stressful conditions. It was found that either conductivity or $SO{_4}^{2-}$ concentration of the wastewater was able to be used as the adequate index and the values were $2,450{\mu}S/cm$ and 1,200 ppm respectively. When $SO{_4}^{2-}$ increased from 0 to 16,000 ppm (conductivity : $428{\rightarrow}24,800{\mu}S/cm$), perchlorate biodegradation rate was reduced due to 1/10 times from 0.0365 to 0.0033/h, however, most of perchlorate was removed under the condition of hydraulic retention time (HRT) at 0.5day and mixed liquor volatile suspended solid (MLVSS) at 2,000 ~ 3,000 ppm.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.3-13
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• 2021

Nickel is widely used due to its excellent toughness, malleability and enhanced corrosion resistance. Therefore, nickel is indispensable in our daily lives, and it is widely used in basic to advanced applications such as stainless steel, super alloys and electronic devices. Recently, nickel has been widely used as the major material in secondary batteries and capacitors. The use of nickel continues to rise and has increased from 800 thousand tonnes per year worldwide in the 1970s to about 2 million tonnes in the 2010s. However, nickel is a representative rare metal and ranks 23rd among the abundant elements in the earth's crust. This study reviews the current status of the nickel smelting processes as well as the trend in production amount and use. Nickel is extracted by a wide variety of smelting methods depending on the type of ore. These smelting methods are essential for the development of new recycling processes that can extract nickel from secondary nickel resources.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.507-516
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• 2010

Stationary combustion sources such as coal-fired power plants, waste incinerators, industrial manufacturing, etc. are recognized as major sources of mercury emissions. Due to rapid economic growth, zinc production in Korea has increased significantly during the last 30 years. Total zinc production in Korea exceeded 739,000 tons in 2008, and Korea is currently the third largest zinc producing country in the world. Previous studies have revealed that zinc smelting has become one of the largest single sectors of total mercury emissions in the World. However, studies on this sector are very limited, and a large gap in the knowledge regarding emissions from this sector needs to be bridged. In this paper, Hg emission measurements were performed to develop emission factors from zinc smelting process. Stack sampling and analysis were carried out utilizing the Ontario Hydro method and US EPA method 101A. Preliminary data showed that $Hg^0$ concentrations in the flue gas ranged from 4.56 to $9.90\;{\mu}g/m^3$ with an average of $6.40\;{\mu}g/m^3$, Hg(p) concentrations ranged from 0.03 to $0.09\;{\mu}g/m^3$ with an average of $0.04\;{\mu}g/m^3$, and RGM concentrations ranged from 0.23 to $1.17\;{\mu}g/m^3$ with an average of $6.40\;{\mu}g/m^3$. To date, emission factors of 7.5~8.0 g/ton for Europe, North America and Australia, and of 20 or 25 g/ton for Africa, Asia and South America are widely accepted by researchers. In this study, Hg emission factors were estimated using the data measured at the commercial facilities as emissions per ton of zinc product. Emission factors for mercury from zinc smelting pross ranged from 4.32 to 12.96 mg/ton with an average of 8.31 mg/ton. The emission factors that we obtained in this study are relatively low, considering Hg contents in the zinc ores and control technology in use. However, as these values are estimated by limited data of single measurement of each, the emission factor and total emission amount must be updated in future.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.297-312
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• 2017

In the ancient iron-making process, a slag former was often added so that iron and other minerals in the ore could be smoothly separated. However, there are insufficient data for judging whether a slag former was added. Thus, in this study, we conducted a smelting experiment to understand the material characteristics of a steel structure that differed depending on the addition of a slag former. It was found that the steel structure produced in the first experiment had a total Fe content of 39.45-52.94 wt%, which decreased to 34.89-38.92 wt% in the second and third experiments. CaO compounds such as calcite, gehlenite, and hercynite appeared, in addition to iron oxides, after the addition of a slag former. As a result of an assessment of whether a slag former was added by comparing the ratio between the components, it was found that the ratio of $CaO/SiO_2$ was 0.42. From a comparative analysis of $Al_2O_3/SiO_2$ and $CaO/SiO_2$, it was judged that the ratio of $Al_2O_3$ and $SiO_2$ can be utilized as an index to judge similar systems of smelting process (ore, furnace wall, and fuel).

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.210-216
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• 2007

The cadmium (Cd) and zinc (Zn) contamination of soils and cultivated crop plants by zinc smelting activities was studied. In the study area of the vicinity of ${\triangle}{\triangle}$ zinc smelting factory in Korea, soils and corn plants were sampled at corn harvesting stage and analyzed Cd and Zn concentration as well as Cd and Zn fraction and chemical properties in soils. At 600 m radius of studied area, Cd and Zn were highly accumulated in the surface soils (0 - 20 cm) showed greater than the Korean warning criteria (Cd 1.5, Zn 300 mg $kg^{-1}$) with corresponding values 1.7 and 407 mg $kg^{-1}$, respectively. The leaf part gave higher Cd concentration with the corresponding value of 9.5 mg $kg^{-1}$ as compared to the stem and grains pare (1.6 and 0.18 mg $kg^{-1}$), respectively. Higher Zn concentration was also obtained from the leaf part of the corn plant which gave the value of 1,733 mg $kg^{-1}$. The stem and grain part gave corresponding values of 547 and 61 mg $kg^{-1}$. The order of the mean Cd concentration in fractions is F3 (oxidizable fraction) > F2 (reducible fraction) > F4 (residual fraction) > F1 (exchangeable + acidic fraction). A highly positive correlation is observed between F2 and concentration of Cd and Zn in both plant pare, leaf and grain. Highly positive correlations are shown in the pH exchangeable Ca and Mg, and CEC when correlated with Cd and Zn bound to F4 fractions. To reduce Cd and Zn uptake by corn plant in an arable land heavily contaminated with Cd and Zn as affected by smelting factory, an efficient and effective soil management to increase soil pH and CEC is thus recommended.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.87-95
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• 2019

This study investigated the effect of process variables for smelting of recovery of valuable metal in the sludge generated from PCB. The moisture and organics in the sludge was removed by preteatment process. The phase equilibria and slag system was selected by thermodynamic phase calculation program and the process variable of pyro-metallurgical process such as reductant. Smelting temperature and holding time for a recovery of valuable metal was studied.