• Journal of odor and indoor environment
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.322-329
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• 2018

The objective of this study is to identify the research trend in the field of indoor environment in Korea. We collected 419 papers published in the Journal of the Korean Society for indoor environment between 2004 and 2018, and attempted to produce datasets using a topic modeling technique, Latent Dirichlet Allocation(LDA). The result of topic modeling showed that 8 topics ("VOCs investigation", "Subway environment", "Building thermal environment", "School health", "Building particulate matter", "Asbestos risk", "Radon risk", "Air cleaner and treatment") could be extracted using Gibbs sampling method. In terms of topic trends, investigation of volatile organic compounds, subway environment, school health, and building particulate matter showed a decreasing tendency, while the building thermal environment, asbestos risk, radon risk, air cleaners, and air treatment showed an increasing tendency. The results of this topic modeling could help us to understand current trends related indoor environment, and provide valuable information in developing future research and policy frameworks.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.217-223
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to measure the indoor air quality of small-scale apartments and then proposed a method to improve the indoor air quality of the small-scale apartments by comparing with the result of indoor air quality in the Clean-Healthy House. In case of formaldehyde, a highly volatile organic compound, the concentrations of indoor measured both in small-scale apartments and the Clean Healthy houses did not exceed- the guideline of Korea. The guideline of Korea for acetaldehyde was not available, so the guidelines of Japan and the World Health Organization were used to measure the concentration of acetaldehyde. The study results demonstrated that three out of seven small-scale apartments investigated exceeded the guideline of Japan; and the preliminary research on the Clean-Health Houses was low at about 30-60% of the guideline of Japan. The result of the VOCs measurement showed that toluene, ethylbenzene, and styrene in some small-scale apartments exceeded the guideline of Korea. However, the Clean-Healthy Houses in the previous studies did not exceed the guideline of Korea with regard to all the pollutants. Therefore, this study suggests the application of the construction standards of the Clean-Healthy house in order to improve the indoor air quality of small-scale apartments. In addition, the current study anticipates that improvement of the indoor air quality in the residential environments should be universally applied, not limited to the type and size of the residence.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2021.05a
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• pp.217-218
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• 2021

With the prolonged Covid-19 epidemic, movement restrictions such as social distancing are prolonged, and as people stay indoors for a longer time, interest in indoor air pollution is increasing. Indoor air quality is not easily purified unlike outdoors. Among indoor building materials, paints and flooring contain formaldehyde that causes sick house syndrome and VOCs that contain carcinogenicity and harmfulness. For modern people who spend a lot of time living indoors for more than an hour, the occurrence of these harmful substances can be said to be fatal. In response to these risks, in July 2019, the government reinforced the standards for indoor air quality to protect the public's health by raising the detection standards for fine dust, ultrafine dust, and formaldehyde in indoor multi-use facilities. People use machines such as air purifiers to improve indoor air quality, or make efforts such as periodic ventilation. In order to reduce or support these other ancillary efforts more effectively, to reduce the generation of pollutants in the building itself, or to adsorb or purify pollutants in the air, use carbon black as an admixture to make a cement hardened body, and to grasp basic physical properties and adsorption capacity. And the result is as follows. As a result of the experiment to determine the appropriate amount of carbon black, it was confirmed that the more the amount of carbon black was added, the better it was in the formaldehyde emission test, but the tendency was not clear when measuring the flexural strength, so a further experiment to improve this is needed.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.476-483
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• 2010

Total bacterial populations were cultured from the Hydroball cultivation media in the rhizospheres of 9 different plants including $Hedera$ $helix$ L. and $Dracaena$ $deremensis$ cv. Warneckii Compacta, etc. These cultured bacterial populations were studied to test if the bacterial populations in the plant growing pots may play a role on removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene and toluene in the air. To meet this objective, first, we tested the possibility of removal of VOCs by the cultured total bacteria alone. The residual rates of benzene by the inoculation of total bacterial populations from the different plant growth media were significantly different, ranging from 0.741-1.000 of $Spathiphyllum$ $wallisii$ 'Regal', $Pachira$ $aquatica$, $Ficus$ $elastica$, $Dieffenbachia$ sp. 'Marrianne' Hort., $Chamaedorea$ $elegans$, compared to the control with residual rate of 0.596 (LSD, $P$=0.05). This trend was also similar with toluene, depending on different plants. Based on these results, we inoculated the bacterial population cultured from $P.$ $aquatica$ into the plant-growing pots of $P.$ $aquatica$, $F.$ $elastica$, and $S.$ $podophyllum$ inside the chamber followed by the VOCs injection. The inoculated bacteria had significant effect on the removal of benzene and toluene, compared to the removal efficacy by the plants without inoculation, indicating that microbes in the rhizosphere could play a significant role on the removal of VOCs along with plants.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.181-188
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• 2010

The objectives of this study are to analyze the possibility of the landfill gas recycling for the middle and small scale landfills where the recycling facilities are not installed in Korea. It was found that the power generation plants by landfill gas were installed in domestic 15 landfills and the gas engine generation was adopted in 14 places. As the result of economic analysis, the landfill gas recycling is found to be available in 12 places and CERs of 153,693 $tCO_{2e}$ can be secured per year. Through the reduction of the air pollutants and VOCs, the social benefits of 730 million won accrue per year. Also, the power production of 18.8 GWh will substitute the crude oil imports of 4,048 TOE and the revenue of 2.49 billion won is expected to power trading. It is also found that the power generation plants by landfill gas will give the social benefits such as the reduction of the environmental problems and the substitution effect of crude oil imports.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.13-26
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• 2020

This study analyzed whether the diffusion of new and renewable energy contributed to mitigating emissions of various air pollutants, including particulate matter, using panel econometric models. The theoretical foundation of such econometric models is based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, which assumes an inverted U-shaped relation between national income and environmental pollution, as originally proposed by Grossman and Krueger. We examined whether there are inverted U-, U-shaped, or N-shaped relations between national income and air pollution. We demonstrate that increases in new and renewable energy significantly mitigated emissions of CO, NO_X, and PM2.5. Additionally, we included NO_X, SO_X, PM10, and VOCs as secondary emission sources of PM2.5 and found that emission of PM10 resulted in the highest PM2.5 emissions, followed by NO_X and SO_X emissions. The impact of new and renewable energy on air pollution varied across regions. Increase of new and renewable energy in the Honam region significantly mitigated CO, NO_X, and TSP emissions, while that in the Youngnam and metropolitan areas did not significantly mitigate air pollution overall. There was a U-shaped relationship between air pollution and national income for CO, NO_X, PM2.5, and SO_X, while an inverted N-shape was observed for PM10.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.38-45
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• 2014

본 연구에서는 기계환기에 의한 실내공기질 개선효과를 현장실험을 통해 파악하기 위해 환기설비를 갖춘 A 신축아파트와 다중이용시설인 B 백화점을 연구 대상으로 하였다. A 신축아파트에서는 새집증후군 등 주요 실내공기오염의 원인물질인 VOCs 및 HCHO를 측정 대상물질로 선정하고 미환기 상태에서 16가구에서 전반적인 신축아파트의 실내공기오염 특성을 파악하였으며, 이중 상대적으로 TVOC 농도가 높은 2가구를 대상으로 환기전후의 농도 특성을 파악하였다. B 백화점에서는 $CO_2$ 및 HCHO를 대상물질로 선정하고 1~7층별로 미환기시와 기계환기 1시간 이후의 농도 특성을 통해 환기에 의한 저감율을 파악하였으며, 이후 환기시설 정상가동 상태에서 3년간 실내공기오염물질의 농도 특성을 파악하였다. 미환기 상태에서 A 신축아파트의 VOCs 및 HCHO 농도는 일부 지점에서는 에틸벤젠, 자일렌 등의 농도가 실내환경기준을 초과하고 있었다. 특히 환기전후의 TVOC 농도 특성은 A-1 지점의 경우 미환기시 $3,547{\mu}g/m^3$에서 환기시 $961{\mu}g/m^3$ 그리고 A-2 지점의 경우 미환기시 $3,117{\mu}g/m^3$에서 환기시 $594{\mu}g/m^3$으로 환기에 의해 각각 73%, 81% 저감율이 나타났다. 또한 개별 VOCs 및 HCHO물질별 환기에 의한 저감율은 31.4~96.7%로 나타났으며, 환기이후 모든 물질이 실내기준보다 훨씬 낮은 수준으로 나타났다. B 백화점에서는 평균 $CO_2$ 농도는 미환기시 855 ppm에서 기계환기 1시간 이후 580 ppm으로 약 32% 저감되었으며, HCHO의 평균농도도 $251{\mu}g/m^3$에서 $70.3{\mu}g/m^3$으로 약 72%의 저감되는 것으로 나타났다. 이후 환기시설 정상가동 상태에서 3년간 실내공기질의 측정결과 지속적으로 실내환경 기준을 만족하였다. 최근 실내공기질 개선을 위해 다양한 개선 방법이 소개되고 있으나, 이중 기계환기는 신축아파트 및 다중이용시설 등에서 실내공기질을 실내환경기준 이하로 지속적이고 쾌적하게 유지할 수 효과적 방법으로 고려된다.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.702-707
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• 2008

Improving quality of life and wellbeing of the residential environment and increased interests and importance is growing confidentiality, insulation, high-rise due to a lack of ventilation and indoor air pollution. Several human diseases caused tremendously due to the indoor air which consists of formaldehyde, radon, pollutants such as volatile substances that is called the phenomenon of a new house syndrome. It has become a world-wide issue that the United States, Japan and several other countries of Europe are showing more interests. Furthermore, a lot of damages caused by the syndrome occurs in the new house should be resolved by somehow is urgent. Thus, this study would like to propose the measures based on the whether condition and the way of heating in korea against a new house syndrome via analysis of indoor contaminant Reduction comparison according to vary ventilation and humidity when operating bake-out on a new apartment.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.84-90
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• 2014

The aim of this paper is to investigate the application of solar energy in reducing cabin thermal load. When a vehicle is parked under the sun in summer, the interior temperature can reach up to $70^{\circ}C$ depending on the solar intensity. Solar power, one of the green energies, is used in automobile air conditioning systems, in order to operate the blower. The power supply of a blower's voltage has been used in a solar sunroof experiment. At the climate wind tunnel, cabin temperature changes were conducted with various operating modes of an air handling system and the preventilation parking conditions of several vehicles, outdoors, was also examined. The test results of the solar sunroof, 39.3W power and 14.1% efficiency were obtained. The thermal load behavior was analysed with the air handling system operating mode differently according to the cabin temperature. By simply operating the blower, average cabin temperature decreased between $5^{\circ}C{\sim}10^{\circ}C$ in those vehicles parked outdoors in summer. This reveals that cabin thermal comfort can be improved without consuming the vehicle's extra energy, and that the performance of the air-conditioning system is better than those currently found in vehicles. Moreover, fuel economy will be increased as a result of the reduction in the use of the air-conditioning system, and many other human advantages will be gained. Such advantages include minimized VOCs and a healthy cabin environment.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.496-513
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• 2004

This study was carried out to evaluate the performance of sampling and analytical methodology used for the measurement of toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the ambient air. VOCs were determined by the adsorbent tube sampling and automatic thermal desorption coupled with GC/MSD analysis. Target analytes were 33 compounds including major aromatic compounds such as BTEX, and halogenated compounds. The methodology was investigated with a wide range of different adsorbents which are commercially available and have been frequently adopted for the VOC measurement. A total of 10 adsorbents were tested in this study: 6 carbon-based adsorbents such as Carbotrap, Carbopack B, Carbosieve S-III, Carboxen 1000, Carbotrap C, Activated Charcoal; and 4 polymer-based adsorbents including Tenax, Porapak Q, Chromosorb 102, and Chromosorb 106. The sampling performance was evaluated with respect to the sampling capacity of VOCs with single-adsorbent and multiple-adsorbents methods for standard samples and field samples. As a result, the best adsorbents for single-adsorbent method in the sampling of toxic organic compounds (including benzene, toluene, xylenes etc.) appeared to be Carbotrap, Carbopack B and Tenax TA. On the other hand, Chromosorb 102, Chromosorb 106 and Porapak Q were found to be unsuitable adsorbents for VOC measurement based on thermal desorption method. Multi-adsorbent packings were evaluated with 4 carbon-based adsorbents, which classified by 3 combination sets of double adsorbents and 2 combination sets of triple adsorbents. The results indicated that the most suitable combination for toixc VOC measurements is Carbotrap C with Carbotrap. Multi-sorbents tubes packed with a strong adsorbent such as Carbosieve S-III or Carboxen 1000 were found to be relatively unsuitable for several compounds, not only owing to the effect of migration of adsorbed compounds from weaker adsorbent to stronger adsorbent, but to hydrophobic nature of the adsorbents. Therefore, it should be addressed that selection of a proper adsorbent (or combination of multi sorbents) is extremely important to obtain reliable data for the concentrations of toxic VOCs in indoor and outdoor environments.