• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.427-446
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• 2009

In order to meet the increasing demand for electricity, Korea has to rely on nuclear energy due to its poor natural resources. In order for nuclear energy to be expanded in its utilization, issues with uranium supply and waste management issues have to be addressed. Fast reactor system is one of the most promising options for electricity generation with its efficient utilization of uranium resources and reduction of radioactive waste, thus contributing to sustainable development. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has been performing R&Ds on Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs) under the national nuclear R&D program. Based on the experiences gained from the development of KALIMER conceptual designs of a pool-type U-TRU-10%Zr metal fuel loaded reactor, KAERI is currently developing Advanced SFR design concepts that can better meet the Generation IV technology goals. This also includes developing, Advanced SFR technologies necessary for its commercialization and basic key technologies, aiming at the conceptual design of an Advanced SFR by 2011. KAERI is making R&D efforts to develop advanced design concepts including a passive decay heat removal system and a supercritical $CO_2$ Brayton cycle energy conversion system, as well as developing design methodologies, computational tools, and sodium technology. The long-term Advanced SFR development plan will be carried out toward the construction of an Advanced SFR demonstration plant by 2028.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.193-206
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• 2007

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has developed an advanced fast reactor concept, KALIMER-600, which satisfies the Generation IV reactor design goals of sustainability, economics, safety, and proliferation resistance. The concept enables an efficient utilization of uranium resources and a reduction of the radioactive waste. The core design has been developed with a strong emphasis on proliferation resistance by adopting a single enrichment fuel without blanket assemblies. In addition, a passive residual heat removal system, shortened intermediate heat-transport system piping and seismic isolation have been realized in the reactor system design as enhancements to its safety and economics. The inherent safety characteristics of the KALIMER-600 design have been confirmed by a safety analysis of its bounding events. Research on important thermal-hydraulic phenomena and sensing technologies were performed to support the design study. The integrity of the reactor head against creep fatigue was confirmed using a CFD method, and a model for density-wave instability in a helical-coiled steam generator was developed. Gas entrainment on an agitating pool surface was investigated and an experimental correlation on a critical entrainment condition was obtained. An experimental study on sodium-water reactions was also performed to validate the developed SELPSTA code, which predicts the data accurately. An acoustic leak detection method utilizing a neural network and signal processing units were developed and applied successfully for the detection of a signal up to a noise level of -20 dB. Waveguide sensor visualization technology is being developed to inspect the reactor internals and fuel subassemblies. These research and developmental efforts contribute significantly to enhance the safety, economics, and efficiency of the KALIMER-600 design concept.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.13-29
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• 2016

In this study, we analyzed the causes of major faults in the biogas plant through the case of gas engine failure when cogenerating electricity and heat using biogas as a fuel in the actual sewage treatment plant and suggested countermeasures. Hydrogen sulfide in the biogas entering the biogas engine and water caused by intermittent malfunction of the water removal system caused intercooler corrosion in the biogas engine. In addition, the siloxane in the biogas forms a silicate compound with silicon dioxide, which causes scratches and wear of the piston surface and the inner wall of the cylinder liner. The substances attached to the combustion chamber and the exhaust system were analyzed to be combined with hydrogen sulfide and other impurities. It is believed that hydrogen sulfide was supplied to the desulfurization plant for a long period of time because of the high content of hydrogen sulfide (more than 50ppm) in the biogas and the hydrogen sulfide was introduced into the engine due to the decrease of the removal efficiency due to the breakthrough point of the activated carbon in the desulfurization plant. In addition, the hydrogen sulfide degrades the function of the activated carbon for siloxane removal of the adsorption column, which is considered to be caused by the introduction of unremoved siloxane waste into the engine, resulting in various types of engine failure. Therefore, hydrogen sulfide, siloxane, and water can be regarded as the main causes of the failure of the biogas engine. Among them, hydrogen sulfide reacts with other materials causing failure and can be regarded as a substance having a great influence on the pretreatment process. As a result, optimization of $H_2S$ removal method seems to be an essential measure for stable operation of the biogas engine.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.189-196
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• 1999

Anaerobic digestion is a naturally occuring microbial process involving the decomposition of organic materials such as livestock manure. This study explores the effect of the operating conditions, HRT (Hydraulic Retention Time) and feeding frequency on treatment efficiency for digestion of pig slurry, which has been one of most difficult organic waste for proper treatment in livestock production industry in Korea at the present time. The pilot-scale CSTR of 5 m3 in volume was designed. manufactured, and operated at the temperature of 35$\pm$1$^{\circ}C$. The digester was designed to hydraulically stir for complete mixing and to supply heat from the water bath to maintain mesophilic temperature. The HRT of the digester for Test 1 and Test 2, and Test 3 was set for 17 days and 13 days respectively and pig slurry was fed once a day with 300$\ell$ each for Test 1 and Test 3, while twice with 150$\ell$each for Test 2. Test 2 showed better performance by increase of 4% in VS removal efficiency and 5% in biogas production rate. This is mainly attributed to smaller temperature drop by feeding frequently with half amount, which eventually led to lesser impact on anaerobic mocrobes in the digester. Test 2 maintained optimum pH 7.8 which uplifted the activaton of sulfur-reduction bacteria, alkalinity of around 4,000mg/$\ell$, VA of over 3,000mg/$\ell$ for whole period of experiment. Further research may require to provide the practical operation strategy of anaerobic treatment system for treatment of pig slurry.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.1252-1258
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• 2022

The exhaust gas from the marine engines include a quantity of water vapor and particulate matter. The total particulate matter includes filterable particulate matter (FPM) and condensable particulate matter (CPM) that condense after releasing into the atmosphere. The portion of CPM is higher than that of FPM that is removable through the filter before discharging. An experimental setup for waste heat and water recovery and removal of CPM in the exhaust gas was tested using an industrial gas boiler in the laboratory. The water and CPM in the exhaust gas were removed through the first stage of cooling method and further removed through the second stage of absorption method. The efficiencies of water recovery were 73% after the first stage of cooling method and 90% after the second stage of absorption method. At the same time, the CPM was removed by 80-90% through the processes. The waste heat recovered could be used to process heat, and the water recovered could be used to process water in the ship. Furthermore, the CPM, which is a major source of the particulate matter but not subject to administrative regulation, could be removed effectively.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.389-396
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• 2018

The Kori-1 Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), WH 2-Loop Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) operated for approximately 40 years in Korea, was permanently ceased on June 18, 2017. To reduce worker exposure to radiation by reducing the dose rate in the system before starting main decommissioning activities, the permanently ceased Kori-1 NPP will be subjected to full system decontamination. Generally, the range of system decontamination includes Reactor Pressure Vessels (RPV), Pressurizer (PZR), Steam Generators (SG), Chemical & Volume Control System (CVCS), Residual Heat Removal System (RHRS), and Reactor Coolant System (RCS) piping. In order to decontaminate these systems and equipment in an effective manner, it is necessary to evaluate the influence of the flow characteristics in the RCS during the decontamination period. There are various methods of providing circulating flow rate to the system decontamination. In this paper, the flow characteristics in Kori-1 NPP reactor coolant according to RHR pump operation were evaluated. The evaluation results showed that system decontamination using an RHR pump was not effective at decontamination due first to impurities deposited in piping and equipment, and second to the extreme flow unbalance in the RCS caused deposition of impurities.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.510-518
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• 2018

Recently, lots of interests have been concentrated on the scrubber system that abates waste gases produced from semiconductor manufacturing processes. An effective design of the thermal decomposition reactor inside a scrubber system is significantly important since it is directly related to the removal performance of pollutants and overall stabilities. In the present study, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was conducted to figure out the thermal and flow characteristics inside the reactor of wet scrubber. In order to verify the numerical method, the temperature at several monitoring points was compared to that of experimental results. Average error rates of 1.27~2.27% between both the results were achieved, and numerical results of the temperature distribution were in good agreement with the experimental data. By using the validated numerical method, the effect of the reactor geometry on the heat transfer rate was also taken into consideration. From the result, it was observed that the flow and temperature uniformity were significantly improved. Overall, our current study could provide useful information to identify the fluid behavior and thermal performance for various scrubber systems.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.479-482
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• 2008

Since late of 2000, KIER has developed a novel pyrolysis process for production of fuel oils from polymer wastes. It could have been possible due to large-scale funding of the Resource Recycling R&D Center. The target was to develop an uncatalyzed, continuous and automatic process producing oils that can be used as a fuel for small-scale industrial boilers. The process development has proceeded in three stages bench-scale unit, pilot plant and demonstration plant. As a result, the demonstration plant having capacity of 3,000 tons/year has been constructed and is currently under test operation for optimization of operation conditions. The process consisted of four parts ; feeding system, cracking reactor, refining system and others. Raw materials were pretreated via shredding and classifying to remove minerals, water, etc. There were 3 kind of products, oils(80%), gas(15%), carbonic residue(5%). The main products i.e. oils were gasoline and diesel. The calorific value of gas has been found to be about 18,000kcal/$m^3$ which is similar to petroleum gas and shows that it could be used as a process fuel. Key technologies adopted in the process are 1) Recirculation of feed for rapid melting and enhancement of fluidity for automatic control of system, 2) Tubular reactor specially-designed for heavy heat flux and prevention of coking, 3)Recirculation of heavy fraction for prevention of wax formation, and 4) continuous removal & re-reaction of sludge for high yield of main product (oil) and minimization of residue. The advantages of the process are full automation, continuous operation, no requirement of catalyst, minimization of coking and sludge problems, maximizing the product(fuel oil) yield and purity, low initial investment and operation costs and environment- friendly process. In this presentation, background of pyrolysis technology development, the details of KIER pyrolysis process flow, key technologies and the performances of the process will be discussed in detail.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.246-254
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• 2017

Microcystin-LR (MC-LR) is one of most abundant microcystins, and is derived from blue-green algae bloom. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are effective process when high concentrations of MC-LR are released into a drinking water treatment system from surface water. In particular, UV-based AOPs such as UV, $UV/H_2O_2$, $UV/O_3$ and $UV/TiO_2$ have been studied for the removal of MC-LR. In this study, UV-LED was applied for the degradation of MC-LR because UV lamps have demonstrated some weaknesses, such as frequent replacements; that generate mercury waste and high heat loss. Degradation efficiencies of the MC-LR (initial conc. = $100{\mu}g/L$) were 30% and 95.9% using LED-L (280 nm, $0.024mW/cm^2$) and LED-H (280 nm, $2.18mW/cm^2$), respectively. Aromatic compounds of natural organic matter changed to aliphatic compounds under the LED-H irradiation by LC-OCD analysis. For application to raw water, the Nak-dong River was sampled during summer when blue-green algae were heavy bloom in 2016. The concentration of extracellular and total MC-LR, geosmin and 2-MIB slightly decreased by increasing the LED-L irradiation; however, the removal of MC-LR by UV-LED (${\lambda}=280nm$) was insufficient. Thus, advanced UV-LED technology or the addition of oxidants with UV-LED is required to obtain better degradation efficiency of MC-LR.