• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.328-334
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• 2000

The photocatalyst of $TiO_2$coated on glass bead was prepared from sol-gel method to remove the VOC (vola-tile organic compounds) by the photocatalytic reaction. The coated films were characterized by X-ray diffraction(XRD), specific surface area(BET), and scanning electron microscopy observation (SEM), The gas-phase photocatalytic degradation of trichloroethylene(TCE) and benzene with coated titanium dioxide on glass beads was in-vestigated using a fixed bed reactor. The degradation was calculated by the concentration difference with the retained on the reactor with aid of gas chromatography. At steady state, conversion yields were obtained for 80% of trichloroeth-vlene in 400 ppmv concentration and 65% on benzene in the range of concentration from 50 to 300 ppmv, respectively.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.887-894
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• 2014

The screening of the microorganisms degrading chlorinated organic compounds such as PCP (pentachlorophenol) and TCE (trichloroethylene) was conducted with soil and industrial wastewater contaminated with various chlorinated organic compounds. Isolates (GP5, GP19) capable of degrading PCP and isolates (GA6, GA15) capable of degrading TCE were identified as Acetobactor sp., Pseudomonas sp., Arthrobacer sp., Xanthomonas sp. and named Acetobacter sp. GP5, Pseudomonas sp. GP19, Arthrobacer sp. GA6 and Xanthomoas sp. GA15, respectively. The microbial augmentation, OC17 formulated with the mixture of bacteria including isolates (4 strains) degrading chlorinated organic compounds and isolates (Acinetobacter sp. KN11, Neisseria sp. GN13) degrading aromatic hydrocarbons. Characteristics of microbial augmentation OC-17 showed cell mass of $2.8{\times}10^9CFU/g$, bulk density of $0.299g/cm^3$ and water content of 26.8%. In the experiment with an artificial wastewater containing PCP (500 mg/l), degradation efficiency of the microbial augmentation OC17 was 87% during incubation of 65 hours. The degradation efficiency of TCE (300 uM) by microbial augmentation OC17 was 90% during incubation of 50 hours. In a continuous culture experiment, analysis of the biodegradation of organic compounds by microbial augmentation OC17 in industry wastewater containing chlorinated hydrocarbons showed that the removal rate of COD was 91% during incubation of 10 days. These results indicate that it is possible to apply the microbial augmentation OC17 to industrial wastewaters containing chlorinated organic compounds.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 1997

This study was conducted to investigate the biodegradation of gaseous trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE) in an activated carbon biofilter inoculated with phenol-oxidizing microorganisms and to study the effect of surfactant concentration below its critical micelle concentration (CMC) on the re-moval efficiency of TCE or PCE. The investigation was conducted using two specially built stainless steel biofilters, one for TCE and the other for PCE, at residence times of 1.5~7 min. The removal efficiency of gaseous TCE was 100％ at a residence time of 7 min and its average inlet concentration of 85 ppm. For gaseous PCE, 100％ removal efficiency was obtained at residence times of 4~7 min and its average concentrations of 47~84 ppm. It was found that adsorption by GAC was a minor mechanism for TCE and PCE removal in the activated carbon biofilters. Transformation yields of gaseous TCE and PCE were about 8~48 g of TCE/g of phenol and 6~25g of PCE/g of phenol, according to residence times. This values showed one or two orders of magnitude less than aqueous TCE degradation. The TCE and PCE activated carbon biofilter performances were observed to be a little enhanced but not significantly, when the surfactant was introduced at concentrations of 5~50 mg/L.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.185-195
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• 2006

Phytoremediation is an economical and environmentally friendly bioremediation technique using plants which can increase the microbial population in soil. Unlike other pollutants such as heavy metals, poly-chlorinated biphenyl, trichloroethylene, perchloroethylene and so on, petroleum hydrocarbons are relatively easily degradable by soil microbes. For successful phytoremediation of soil contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons, it is important to select plants with high removal efficiency through microbial degradation. In this study, we clarified the roles of plants and rhizobacteria and identified their species effective on phytore-mediation by reviewing the papers previously reported. Plants and rhizobacteria can degrade and remove the petroleum hydrocarbons directly and indirectly by stimulating each other's degradation activity. The preferred plant species are alfalfa, ryegrass, tall fescue, poplar, corn, etc. The microorganisms with a potential to degrade hydrocarbons mostly belong to Pseudomonas spp., Bacillus spp., and Alcaligenes spp. It has been reported that the elimination efficiency of hydrocarbons by soil microorganisms can be improved when plants were simultaneously applied. For more efficient restoration, it's necessary to understand the plant-rhizobacteria interaction and to select the suitable plant and microorganism species.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.123-127
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• 2003

This experiment was performed to investigate the characteristics of sonolytic reaction as the basic data for development of the ultrasonic AOP(Advanced Oxidation Process) process from which the refractory organic compounds in aqueous solution which are not readily removed by the existing conventional wastewater treatment processes can be destructed and removed. Trichloroethylene (TCE), benzene, and 2,4-dichlorophenol(DCP) were used as the samples, and their destruction efficiency were measured in terms of experimental parameters of the initial solution concentration, initial solution pH, reaction temperature, acoustic frequencies and intensities. Results showed that the destruction efficiencies of all of the sample materials were above 80% within 120 minutes of sonolytic reaction in all reaction condition. The reaction order of these three compounds was verified as Pseudo first order. From the fore-mentioned results, it can be concluded that the refractory organic compounds could be removed by the ultrasonic irradiation with radicals, such as H$.$and OH$.$causing the high increase of pressure and temperature. Finally, it appears that the new AOP technology using ultrasonic irradiation can be applied to the treatment of refractory substances which are difficult to be decomposed by the conventional methods.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.27-30
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• 2002

Ralstonia eutrupha JMP134 is a well-known soil bacterium which can metabolite diverse aromatic compounds and xenobiotics, such as phenol, 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2, 4-D), and trichloroethylene (TCE), etc. Phenol is degraded through chromosomally encoded phenol degradation pathway. Phenol is first metabolized into catechol by a multicomponent phenol hydroxylase, which is further metabolized to TCA cycle intermediates via a meta-cleavage pathway. The nucleotide sequences of the genes for the phenol hydroxylase have previously been determined, and found to composed of eight genes phlKLMNOPRX in an operon structure. The phlR, whose gene product is a NtrC-like transcriptional activator, was found to be located at the internal region of the structural genes, which is not the case in most bacteria where the regulatory genes lie near the structural genes. In addition to this regulatory gene, we found other regulatory genes, the phlA and phlR2, downstream of the phlX. These genes were found to be overlapped and hence likely to be co-transcribed. The protein similarity analysis has revealed that the PhlA belongs to the GntR family, which are known to be negative regulators, whereas the PhlR2 shares high homology with the NtrC-type family of transcriptional activators like the PhlR. Disruption of the phlA by insertional mutation has led to the constitutive expression of the activity of phenol hydroxylase in JMP134, indicating that PhlA is a negative regulator. Possible regulatory mechanisms of phenol metabolism in R. eutropha JMP134 has been discussed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.199-203
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• 2003

In this study plastic optical fibers (POFs) were considered as light-transmitting media and substrates for the potential use in photocatalytic environmental purification system. After the characteristics of POFs in terms of light transmittance and absorption were determined at the beginning, the further investigation was performed through the photocatalytic degradation of trichloroethylene (TCE), iso-propanol and etc. with TiO$_2$-coated optical fiber reactor systems (POFR). It is concluded that the use of POFs is preferred to quartz optical fibers (QOFs) since the advantages such as ease of handling, lower cost, relatively reasonable light attenuation at the wavelength of near 400nm can be obtained. Various geometrical reactor shapes have been constructed and applied for the last one and half years. For the use of POF in water phase treatment, however, more detailed scientific and engineering aspects should be envisaged. This case requires a suitable mixture to obtain more stable and innocuous immobilization of photocatalyst on POF. To overcome this disadvantage, metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) was conducted in a fluidized bed to deposit thin films of titania on glass and alumina beads. Those can be used as photocatalysis for the removal of pollutants especially in liquid phases.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.45-54
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• 2001

In this study, the characteristics of optical fibers for the application in photocatalytic system was investigated using the intentionally designed accessories for spectrometer and radiometer to resolve the problems associated with the conventional system such as cost and structural restrictions from artificial lamp usage, to broaden the application fields into underground, and to utilize solar light in the future. To do this two kinds of optical fibers, plastic optical fiber (POF) and quartz optical fiber (QOF) were compared in terms of characteristics related with light transmittance and absorption and reactivity in TCE degradation.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.38-45
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• 2005

The feasibility of stimulating in situ aerobic cometabolic activity of indigenous microorganisms was investigated in a trichloroethylene (TCE)-contaminated aquifer. A series of single-well natural drift tests (SWNDTs) was conducted by injecting site groundwater amended with a bromide tracer and combinations of toluene, oxygen, nitrate, ethylene and TCE into an existing monitoring well and by sampling the same well over time. Three field tests, Push-pull Transport Test, Drift Biostimulation Test, and Drift Surrogate Activity Test, were performed in sequence. Initial rate of toluene degradation was much faster than the rate of bromide dilution resulting from natural groundwater drift, indicating stimulation of indigenous toluene-oxidizing microorganisms. Transformation of ethylene, a surrogate probing overall activity of TCE transformation, was also observed, and its transformation results in the production of ethylene oxide, suggesting that some tolueneoxidizing microorganisms stimulated may express a orthomonooxygenase enzyme. Also in situ transformation of TCE was confirmed by greater retardation of TCE than bromide after the stimulation of toluene-oxidizing microorganisms. These results indicate that, in this environment, toluene and oxygen additions stimulated the growth and aerobic cometabolic activity of indigenous microorganisms expressing orthomonooxygenase enzymes. The simple, low-cost field test method presented in this study provides an effective method for conducting rapid field assessments and pilot testing of aerobic cometabolism, which has previously hindered application of this technology to groundwater remediation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.207-208
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• 2000

Since trichloroethylene (TCE), dichloroethylene (DCE), and vinyl chloride (VC) arise from anaerobic degradation of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and TCE, there is interest in creating aerobic remediation systems that avoid the highly toxic VC and cis-DCE which predonominate in anaerobic degradation. However, it seemed TCE could not be degraded aerobically without an inducing compound (which also competitively inhibits TCE degradation). It has been shown that TCE induces expression of both the toluene dioxygenase of p. putida F1 as well as toluene-p-monooxygenase of P.mendocina KRI. We investigated here the ability of PCE, TCE, and chlorinated phenols to induce toluene-o-xylene monooxygenase (ToMO) from P.stutzeri OX1. ToMO has a relaxed regio-specificity since it hydroxylates toluene in the ortho, meta, and para positions; it also has a broad substrate range as it oxidizes o-xylene, m-xylene, p-xylene, toluene, benzene, ethylbenzene, styrene, and naphthalene; chlorinated compounds including TCE, 1, 1-DCE, cis-DCE, trans-DCE, VC, and chloroform : as well as mixtures of chlorinated aliphatics (Pseudomonas 1999 Maui Meeting). ToMO is a multicomponent enzyme with greatest similarity to the aromatic monooxygenases of Burkholderia pickettii PKO1 and P.mendocina KR1. Using P.sturzeri OX1, it was found that PCE induces P.mendocina KR1 Using P.situtzeri OX1, it was found that PCE induces ToMO activity measured as naphthalene oxygenase activity 2.5-fold, TCE induces 2.3-fold, and toluene induces 3.0 fold. With the mutant P.stutzeri M1 which does not express ToMO, it was also found there was no naphthalene oxygenate activity induced by PCE and TCE; hence, PCE and TCE induce the tow path. Using P.putida PaW340(pPP4062, pFP3028) which has the tow promoter fused to the reporter catechol-2, 3-dioxygenase and the regulator gene touR, it was determined that the tow promoter was induced 5.7-, 7.1-, and 5.2-fold for 2-, 3-, 4-chlorophenol, respectively (cf. 8.9-fold induction with o-cresol) : however, TCE and PCE did not directly induce the tou path. Gas chromatography and chloride ion analysis also showed that TCE induced ToMO expression in P.stutzeri OX1 and was degraded and mineralized. This is the first report of significant PCE induction of any enzyme as well as the first report of chlorinated compound induction of the tou operon. The results indicate TCE and chlorinated phenols can be degraded by P.stutzeri OX1 without a separate inducer of the tou pathway and without competitive inhibition.