• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.37 no.10
• /
• pp.590-595
• /
• 2015

Sampling campaigns were conducted for hazardous chemicals and heavy metals in influents and effluents of industrial wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Korea for best management practices (BMPs) of those pollutants through the plants and the receiving water bodies. Twenty seven WWTPs, receiving wastewater from industrial complexes and treating more than $2,000m^3/day$, were selected for the sampling campaign. Influents and effluents of each WWTPs were sampled once a month (total three times per plant) between July and September, 2012, and analyzed for 22 hazardous water pollutants among 28 regulated for effluents limits in Korea. Concentrations of mercury, arsenic, 1,1-dichloroethylene, and benzene in the influents were relatively higher; concentrations of mercury and arsenic in effluents were relatively higher than those of other pollutants. Most of the hazardous chemicals and heavy metals were removed (including phase transfer) more than 60% through the treatment processes except for selenium (30% removal) and 1,4-dioxane (18% removal).

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Environmental Biology Conference
• /
• 2004.12a
• /
• pp.127-131
• /
• 2004

The toxicity of 54 selected process effluents of 16 industry classifications in Korea was evaluated by bioassay test using fish Oryzias latipes, invertebrate Daphnia magna, algae Selenastrum capricornutum and bacteria Vibrio fischeri. Our results demonstrate that the toxicity assessment, such as bioassay test, is effective and of practical use for industrial wastewater management in 54 selected effluents with the limitation of the physico-chemical permit. Among 54 effluents, 4 sample failed physico-chemical permit limitation and 50 passed it. The physcio-chemical measurement items and permit concentrations on the present Water Quality Conservation Act are low related a ecotoxicity.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.46 no.1
• /
• pp.75-86
• /
• 2004

The objective of the research is to develop agricultural resue technologies of reclaiming the effluents from a municipal wastewater treatment plant and reusing for irrigated rice paddies. The Suwon wastewater treatment plant was selected for wastewater reuse tests. The control was the plots with groundwater irrigation (TR＃1), the treatment (TR＃2) using polluted stream water as it was, and three others using wastewater after treatment. Three levels of wastewater treatments were employed： the effluent from the wastewater treatment plant (TR＃3), sand filtering after treatment plant(TR＃4), and ultra-violet treatment after sand filtering (TR＃5). The randomized block method was applied to wastewater application to paddy rice with five treatments and six replica. The effects of various wastewater treatment levels on water quality, paddy soil, crop growth, yields, and the health hazards were investigated. The primary results indicate that cultivating rice with reclaimed wastewater irrigation did not cause a problem to adverse effects on crop growth and yields. Overall, wastewater could be used as a practical alternative measure for reclaimed wastewater irrigation. However, long-term monitoring is recommended on the effects on soil chemical characteristics and its related health concerns.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.205-225
• /
• 2021

Due to the large-scale production and use of synthetic chemicals in industralized countries, various chemicals are found in the aquatic environment, which are often termed as micropollutants. Effluents of municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been identified as one of the major sources of these micropollutants. In this article, the current status of occurrence and removal of micropollutants in WWTPs and their management policies and options in domestic and foregin countries were critically reviewed. A large number of pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and industrial chemicals are found in WWTPs' influent, and are only partially removed by current biological wastewater treatment processes. As a result, some micropollutants are present in WWTPs' effluents, which can negatively affect receiving water quality or drinking water source. To better understand and assess the potential risk of micropollutants, a systematic monitoring framework including advanced analytical tools such as high resolution mass spectrometry and bioanalytical methods is needed. Some Western European countries are taking proactive approach to controlling the micropollutants by upgrading WWTP with enahnced effluent treatment processes. While this enahnced WWTP effluent treatment appears to be a viable option for controlling micropollutant, its implementation requires careful consideration of the technical, economical, political, and cultural issues of all stakeholders.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.176-183
• /
• 2005

Chlorination of wastewater is recently practiced in Korea. While many researchers have studied the kinetics of aqueous chlorine(HOCl) with nitrogeneous compounds and other organic/inorganic contaminants in drinking water, the researches of wastewater chlorination are relatively few. The purpose of this study was to investigate the chlorine decay kinetics and parameters on wastewater chlorination. Chlorine decay rate increased with increasing initial chlorine concentration. The parameters affecting chlorine decay rate were different in each wastewater treatment plant. One of the most important parameters affecting chlorine decay was initial chlorine concentration, and other parameters such as $NH_3-N$, total coliform, $UV_{254}$ and Fe were also affected. The decay ratio of chlorine was decreased with increasing initial chlorine concentration, and the disinfection efficiency showed good correlation with the decay ratio.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.41 no.5
• /
• pp.305-313
• /
• 2015

Objectives: The objective of this study is to identify toxicants causing acute toxicity in effluents from the aluminum rolling industry that violate the discharge limits in Korea. Methods: Whole effluent toxicity tests (WET) were conducted on effluent discharged from the aluminum rolling industry following the US EPA WET test methods. We collected effluent samples three times and evaluated acute toxicity by using Daphnia magna. We employed toxicity identification evaluation (TIE) procedures to identify toxicants causing toxicity in the effluent. Results: No specific chemical groups were identified in the seven different manipulations applied to the of wastewater effluent samples showing 1.3 toxic units (TU) according to the TIE phase I procedures. Water quality parameters for water hardness, electric conductivity and heavy metals (Mn) were 4,322 mg/l as $CaCO_3$, 11.39 mS/cm, and $5,551{\mu}g/l$, respectively. Considering water hardness and reference toxicity, high concentrations of Mn can be disqualified from the causative toxicants. Consequently, high ionic concentrations of $Na^+$(1,648 mg/l), $Ca^{2+}$(1,048 mg/l), $Mg^{2+}$(1,428 mg/l) and $SO_4{^{2-}}$(7,472 mg/l) were identified to be causative toxicants. Water hardness and electric conductivity exceed the $EC_{50}$ value obtained by biological toxicity tests using Daphnia magna. Conclusion: According to TIE procedures, high salt concentration is determined to be a major toxicant in the effluent of agro-industrial wastewater treatment plants receiving wastewater from the aluminum rolling industry.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.245-253
• /
• 2001

Mixing zone characteristics of the wastewater effluents discharged from Sokcho ocean outfall have been investigated using an outfall mixing zone model which was developed on the basis of Huang et al.'s(1996) analysis method. The model was applied to Sokcho ocean outfall case and was used to simulate the concentration distribution of wastewater effluents using winter season's data, ie. daily effluent flowrate, ocean current and density stratification data which were measure for two months in the outfall area. Hourly concentration distribution of outfall effluent discharges was calculated and they were averaged for the period of 15 days which covers the ambient flow variability of the neap and the spring tidal currents. The results show that near-field dilution was relatively high with the minimum dilution of 130 for the winter season. The mixing zone was extended to the coastal beach area rather than offshore because of major direction of coastal currents. This may cause a deteriorating impact on coastal water quality, especially to the adjacent swimming beach area.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.542-549
• /
• 2003

In the present study, the feasibility of $UV/H_2O_2$ systems was investigated using low and medium-pressure lamps on biologically treated wastewater effluents for secondary effluent reclamation. Two types of UV lamps were used as the light sources (a 39-W low-pressure mercury lamp and a 350-W medium-pressure mercury lamp). The results from these UV systems showed that the removal of organic compounds could be achieved in the contact time of longer than 30min (i.e., low UV doses). Efficiencies of color removal and disinfection were far better than those of organic matters measured as TOC, DOC and $TCOD_{cr}$. In the low-pressure lamp UV system, it has been found that DOC and color removals were 60.9 and 86.2% with 50mg/L of $H_2O_2$ and contact times of 30 minute, respectively. Whereas, with the medium-pressure lamp UV system, TOC, DOC and color removal were 27.1, 5.6 and 95% with 14.3mg/L of $H_2O_2$ and 14 minute of contact times, respectively. Both systems could be applied for the reclamation of secondary effluent treated with biological treatment processes.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.32 no.1
• /
• pp.33-42
• /
• 2022

Growing industrialization leads to severe water pollution. Organic effluents from pharmaceuticals and textile industries released in wastewater adversely affect the environment and human health. Presence of antibiotics used for antibacterial treatment in wastewater leads to the growth of drug resistance bacteria, which is very harmful for human being. Various small organic molecules are used for the preparation of organic dye molecules in the textile industries. These molecules hardly degrade, which is present in the wastewater effluents from printing and dyeing industries. In order to address these problems, photoactive catalyst is embedded in the membrane and wastewater are passed through it. Through this process, organic molecules are photodegraded and at the same time, the degraded compounds are separated by the membrane. Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) is a semiconductor which behave as excellent photocatalyst. Photocatalytic ability is enhanced by the making its composite with other transition metal oxide and incorporated into polymeric membrane. In this review, the degradation of dye and drug molecules by photocatalytic membrane are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.797-803
• /
• 2013

Recently, a number of countries are now considering the reuse of effluents from wastewater treatment for various water applications. To improve the reuse of wastewater effluent, the development of appropriate micro-pollutant removal technology is necessary. Although several researche have been studied for removing micro-pollutants in water, little study has been conducted for the removal of emerging contaminant such as antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) by disinfection processes. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare the capacity of disinfection technologies such as chlorination, ozone, and electron beam, for removing antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and ARGs. Based on this study, better ARG removal can be achieved by ozonation and electron beam. Relatively, high CT values of chlorination or ozonation are needed to remove ARB and ARG compared to conventional pathogens.