• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.310-315
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• 2011

BACKGROUND: Heavy-metal pollution represents an important environmental problem due to the toxic effects of metals, and their accumulation throughout the food chain leads to serious ecological and health problems. METHODS AND RESULTS: Optimum conditions in continuous-flow stirred tank reactor (CSTR) and packedbed column contactor (PBCC) using brown seaweed biosorbent were investigated. Under optimum conditions from both lab-scale biosorbent systems, removal efficiency of copper (Cu) in a large-scale PBCC system was investigated. Removal capacity of Cu using brown seaweed biosorbent in a lab-scale CSTR system was higher than that in a lab-scale PBCC system. On the other hand, over 48 L/day of flow rate in Cu solution, removal efficiency of Cu in a lab-scale PBCC system was higher than that in a lab-scale CSTR system. Optimum flow rate of Cu was 24 L/day, optimum Cu solution concentration was 100 mg/L. Removal capacity of Cu at different stages was higher in the order of double column biosorption system > single column biosorption system. Under different heavy metals, removal capacities of heavy metal were higher in the order of Pb > Cr > Ni > Mn ${\geq}$ Cu ${\geq}$ Cd ${\fallingdotseq}$ Zn ${\geq}$ Co. Removal capacity of Cu was 138 L in a large-scale PBCC system. Removal capacity of Cu a large-scale PBCC system was similar with in a lab-scale PBCC system. CONCLUSION(s): Therefore, PBCC system using brown seaweed biosorbent was suitable for treating heavy metal wastewater.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.253-259
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• 2012

Disposal of high amount of coal combustion by-products, such as fly ash and bottom ash, is of a great concern to the country, due to the huge treatment cost and land requirement. On the other hand, those coal-ash wastes are considered to have desirable characteristics that may improve physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils. Especially, compared with fly ash, bottom ash has a larger particle size, porous surface area, and usable amount of micronutrients. In the present study, we examined bottom as a soil amendment for mitigating $CO_2$ emission and enhancing carbon sequestration in soils fertilized with organic matter (hairy vetch, green barely, and oil cake fertilizer). Through laboratory incubation, $CO_2$ released from the soil was quantitatively and periodically monitored with an enforced-aeration and high-temperature respirometer. We observed that amendment of bottom ash led to a marked reduction in $CO_2$ emission rate and cumulative amount of $CO_2$ released, which was generally proportional to the amount of bottom ash applied. We also found that the temporal patterns of $CO_2$ emission and C sequestration effects were partially dependent on the relative of proportion labile carbon and C/N ratio of the organic matter. Our results strongly suggest that amendment of bottom ash has potential benefits for fixing labile carbon as more stable soil organic matter, unless the bottom ash contains toxic levels of heavy metals or other contaminants.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.505-517
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• 2000

This study was undertaken to provide a drinking water quality on the basis of physicochemical properties. In this study, the 25 samples of supply waters of the Taejon area were sampled twice (February and August in 1999). Hydrochemistry of the supply water belongs to the $Ca^{2＋}$-${HCO_3}^{-1}$ type, whereas the supply water was characterized by the relatively significant enrichment of ${Ca}^{2+}$, ${Na}^{2+}$, ${K}^{2+}$, ${Cl}^{2+}$ ions and heavy metals compared to the original water from the Daecheong lake. Generally, the supply water has a mean values for $10.7^{\circ}C$ of temperature, 6.86 of pH, -12 mV of Eh, 88 ${\mu}S$/cm of EC and 70.379 mg/l of TDS in February, whereas the waters of the same sites in August are a slightly high temperature ($26.1^{\circ}C$), TDS (78.069 mg/l) and extremely high EC (442 ${\mu}S$/cm) value. These values are similar with physicochemical properties of the original lake water depending on the seasonal differences. Results of speciation calculation indicate that potentially toxic ions might exist mainly in the forms of free metal (${Cu}^{2+}$ or ${Zn}^{2+}$) and a small amount of ${CO_3}^{2-}$and ${OH}^{-}$in the supply water. The water seemed to be in equilibrium with kaolinite field of the normal stability diagrams for the natural water. Based on enrichment parameter of the supply water normalized by original lake water composition, the average value of those parameter can be calculated with nearly 1.00, but the those values for Cu＋Zn possible source of decrepit pipe lines are 126.75 in February and 115.63 in August samples. The parameter values varied with sampling sites, however, do not exceed by chemistry of drinking water standard. Solid compounds remained on the membrane filter papers after filtration are adhered to pale yellow or yellowish brown colored dissolved solids and precipitates, which are coated by 0.02 to 0.35 mm thick per 500 ml with colloidal particles of about 1 to 2${\mu}m$ size. The particles are mainly Fe-Cu-Zn compounds and partly detected to Mn and Pb.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.1308-1312
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• 2016

Heavy metals such as gallium (Ga) cause serious physiological damage to exposed organisms, mostly of aquatic species. Ga one of the inter-metallic, transition elements increasingly being used in making high-speed semiconductors, such as Ga arsenide. The purposes of this study were to investigate the effects of Ga on acute toxicity, serum biochemical changes, and erythrocyte morphological changes in the blood stream of goldfish (Carassius auratus). Median lethal concentrations were determined in acute tests. The 96 hr $LC_{50}$ value was 9.15 mg/ml. Goldfish were exposed to different Ga concentrations (2.0, 4.0, and 8.0 mg/ml) for 30 days to assess its toxic effects. The results indicate that the measured serum biochemistry parameters (including glucose, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, cholesterol, and triglyceride) of the Ga-exposed fish groups differed significantly from the untreated fish group. In addition, a change in the erythrocytes' morphology at a high concentration (8.0 mg/ml) of Ga exposure shows respiratory problems. Our results suggest that 2.0 mg/ml is proposed as a biologically safe concentration that can be used for establishing tentative water quality criteria concerning the same-size goldfish.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.15-24
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• 2006

This study was conducted to make a rapid and easy determination for the fertility of liquid pig manure as fertilizer by investigating the contents, and correlation coefficients of various nutrients. Samples were collected from 118 local pig farms in the western area of Jeju in Korea. Electrical conductivity(EC), dry matter(DM), $NH_4-N$ and minerals were determined and the relationships among them were examined. The collected liquid manure samples from 118 pig farms were classified according to the level of DM contents ;< 3% (92 farms), $3{\sim}6%$ (18 farms), $6{\sim}9%$ (5 farms) and>9% (3 farms), based on the collected data, most of the liquid manure coming from the local pig farms contain small amount of dry matter. The dry matter contents appeared highly correlated(p<0.01) with EC, $NH_4-N$, T-P, Ca, Mg and Na, except for K. In addition EC was proportional to $NH_4-N$, T-P, Ca, and Na except fer Mg. The fertilizer component ratio of $NH_4-N$, P and K in liquid pig manure were not constant, resulting in low efficiency for fertilizer. However, the toxic heavy metals of Cu etc. were below the criteria of organic fertilizer and soil contamination evaluation. Therefore, we concluded that both dry matter content and electrical conductivity could be used as an indicator for evaluating the fertility of liquid pig manure.

• Proceedings of the KSEEG Conference
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• 2002.06a
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• pp.81-100
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• 2002

While most of regulatory communities in abroad recognize ' 'natural attenuation " to include degradation, dispersion, dilution, sorption (including precipitation and transformation), and volatilization as governing Processes, regulators prefer "degradation" because this mechanism destroys the contaminant of concern. Unfortunately, true degradation only applies to organic contaminants and short- lived radionuclides, and leaves most metals and long-lived radionuclides. The natural attenuation Processes may reduce the potential risk Posed by site contaminants in three ways: (i)contaminants could be converted to a less toxic form througy destructive processes such as biodegradation or abiotic transformations; (ii) potential exposure levels may be reduced by lowering concentrations (dilution and dispersion); and (iii) contaminant mobility and bioavailability may be reduced by sorption to geomedia. In this review, authors will focus will focul on "sorption" among the natural attenuation processes of hazardous inorganic contaminants including radionuclides. Note though that sorption and transformation processes of inorganic contaminants in the natural setting could be influenced by biotic activities but our discussion would limit only to geochemical reactions involved in the natural attenuation. All of the geochemical reactions have been studied in-depth by numerous researchers for many years to understand "retardation" process of contaminants in the geomedia. The most common approach for estimating retardation is the determination of distrubution coefficiendts ($K_{d}$) of contaminants using parametric or mechanistic models. As typocally used in fate and contaminant transport calculations such as predictive models of the natural attenuation, the $K_{d}$ is defined as the ratio of the contaminant concentration in the surrounding aqueous solution when the system is at equilibrium. Unfortunately, generic or default $K_{d}$ values can result in significant error when used to predict contaminant migration rate and to select a site remediation alternative. Thus, to input the best $K_{d}$ value in the contaminant transport model, it is essential that important geochemical processes affecting the transport should be identified and understood. Precipitation/dissolution and adsorption/desorption are considered the most important geochemical processes affecting the interaction of inorganic and radionuclide contaminants with geomedia at the near and far field, respectively. Most of contaminants to be discussed in this presentation are relatively immobile, i.e., have very high $K_{d}$ values under natural geochemical environments. Unfortunately, the obvious containment in a source area may not be good enough to qualify as monitored natural attenuation site unless owner demonstrate the efficacy if institutional controls that were put in place to protect potential receptors. In this view, natural attenuation as a remedial alternative for some of sites contaminated by hazardous-inorganic components is regulatory and public acceptance issues rather than scientific issue.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.8 no.1 s.27
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• pp.99-106
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• 2006

During the dry periods, many types of pollutant are accumulating on the paved surface by vehicle activities. Particularly, the highways are stormwater intensive landuses because of high imperviousness and high pollutant mass emissions from vehicles. The accumulated pollutants in highways are washed-off during a rainfall event and are highly contributing on water quality of receiving water bodies. The stormwater runoff from the highways are containing various pollutants such as metals, oil & grease and toxic chemicals originated from vehicles. Therefore, this research is performed to find pollutant characteristics in the magnitude of statistical pollutant concentrations during storm periods. During the monitoring periods, the first-flush phenomenon is visibly occurred on most storm events, which is confirmed from hydro- and pollute-graphs. The 95% confidence intervals of washed-off pollutant concentration are ranged to 154.7-257.1 mg/L for 755,138.9-197.6 mg/L for COD, 3.5-6.4 mg/L for oil & grease, 6.3-9.2 mg/L for TN and 2.3-3.31 mg/L for TP. The first flush effect is mostly occurred within initial 30 min of storm duration.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.3-15
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• 2008

Different toxic wastes are disposed of in our surroundings and these will ultimately threaten the existence of living organisms. Biohydrometallurgy, which includes the processes of bioleaching and bioremediation through the activities of microorganisms such as bacterial or fungal species, is a technology that has the potential to overcome many environmental problems at a reasonable economic cost. Bioleaching were carried out for dissolution of metals from different materials using most important metal mobilizing bacteria such as Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, Thiobacillus thiooxidans and Laptospirillum ferrooxidans. According to the reaction, bioleaching is parted as direct and indirect mechanism. In direct mechanism the bacteria oxidize the sulphides minerals by accepting electron and producing sulphuric acid in leaching media for their growth and metabolism. In other hand the indirect bioleaching is demonstrated as the oxidation of sulphides mineral by the oxidant like $Fe^{3+}$ produced by the iron oxidizing bacteria. Through this process, substantial amount of metal can be recovered from low-grade ores, concentrates, industrial wastes like sludge, tailings, fly ash, slag, electronic scrap, spent batteries and spent catalysts. This may be alternative technology to solve the high deposition of waste, which moves toward a healthy environment and green world.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2004

Agricultural recycling of livestock wastes by composting has lots of beneficial effects on crop production and soil fertility. Most of composts are made from pig manure and water content controller such as saw dust, bark, rice hulls etc. by aerobic processing. But the insufficient supply of saw dust, bark etc. cause the indiscreet use of industrial waste having heavy metals and toxic synthetic chemicals. This research investigated the present quality status of organic by-product fertilizers, and suggested the way of quality interpretation under the statistical approaches based on median, mean and weighted average value. Since the data of one hundred of samples for heavy metal contents (Cd, Pb, Cu, and Cr) and OM/N showed extremely left-skewed distribution, the median was more useful than the mean in representing the characteristics of distribiition for each items. The weighted average value will be a useful index for the quality based on the total amount of producing.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.393-405
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• 2007

To examine the sedimentary geochemical characteristics of sediment in the Tamjin River and Doam bay, the analysis was conducted, using the sample obtained in February 2000, on the grain size and the contents of metallic elements and organic carbon. The factors that influence the geochemical behavior of metallic elements in the surface sediment are grain size, organism, surrounding soil and $CaCO_3$. To find out the pollution level of metallic elements, the enrichment factor (EF) and the index of geoaccumulation ($I_{geo}$) were researched. The majority of metallic elements sustain their values in natural state. The elements such as K, Ba, Zr, etc. appear to be rich in some places. The EF and $I_{geo}$ of P, Cu, Zn, and Pb, which belong to toxic heavy metals, are partly related with man-made pollution. P and Cu have a high EF, Pb has a high $I_{geo}$ and Zn is high in both EF and $I_{geo}$. The low contents of P and Cu are not likely to be related with the pollution of water environment. However, given the development of relative pollution, the research and the management regarding the pollutants are needed. Because Pb, naturally enriched by geological characteristics, has a large influence on water environment along with Zn, the adequate measures against man-made pollution should be worked out.