• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.51-59
• /
• 2019

In this study, the influence of anaerobic digested sludge and 50 mM PBS (phosphate buffer solution) mixing ratio (1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, 1:5, 1:6, 1:7) on hydrogen production and inoculation period were examined. MECs were operated in fed-batch mode with an applied voltage of 0.9 V. As a result, in the 1:1 mixing ratio reactor, 9.8-20.9 mL of hydrogen was produced with the highest hydrogen content of 66.8-79.6%. Hydrogen gas production and power density increased from after 12 days of inoculation for the 1:1 mixing ratio reactor. In case of 1:2, 1:3 and 1:4 mixing ratio reactor, the hydrogen gas production was 3.7-7.1 mL and the hydrogen gas content was 5.8-65.8%. The hydrogen gas yield in 1:5, 1:6 and 1:7 ratio reactors, was 0.50-0.69 mL and hydrogen content range was 1.8-7.1%. The mixing ratio was found to be suitable for hydrogen production and inoculation period by mixing ratio up to 1:4.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.290-308
• /
• 1999

In this study a system for the treatment or recyling of organic wastes from both urban and rural area was recommended. It was developed based on the resource recovery system regarding human being by four tectnologies; forage, methane production, high-grade composting and complete decomposition. High quality compost can be produced by combining several kind of wastes produced from urban and agricultural areas. High quality compost must possess not only general characteristics of ordinary compost, but also a superior ability to improve the soil properties and must contain more nutrients for plant. Cedar chips were recommended as the main bulking agent to adjust moisture contents and air permeability. Charcoal and zeolite can be used not only as the second bulking agent but also as fertilizer for improve the soil amendment. Complete decomposition of organic wastes is defined by organic matter being completely converted to $CO_2$ and water. All the input water was evaporated by the heat produced through the oxidation of organic matter, In the present study, the complete treatments were successfully achieved for Shochu wastewater, swine wastes, thickened excess sewage sludge, wastes produced by Chinese restaurant and anaerobic digested sludge. First of all, recycling center of organic wastes should be established for the protect the environments and effective recovery of organic resources. This may means the way to derive the recovery of human value.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
• /
• v.1 no.2
• /
• pp.125-136
• /
• 1997

Digestion of a municipal wastewater sludge by the anaerobic sequencing batch reactor(ASBR) was investigated to evaluate the performance of the ASBR process at a critical condition of high-solids-content feed. The reactors were operated at an HRT of 10 days with an equivalent loading rate of 0.8-1.5 gVS/L/d at $35^{\circ}C.$ The main conclusions drawn from this study were as follows: 1. Digestion of a municipal wastewater sludge was possible using the ASBR in spite of high concentration of settleable solids in the sludge. The ASBRS with 3- and 4-day cycle period showed almost identical high digestion performances. 2. No adverse effect on digestion stability was observed in the ASBRS in spite of withdrawal and replenishment of $30\%\;or\;40\%$ of liquid contents. A conventional anaerobic digester could be easily converted to the ASBR without any stability problem. 3. Flotation thickening occurred in thicken step of the ASBRS throughout steady state, and floating bed volume at the end of thicken period occupied about $70\%$ of the working volume of the reactor. Efficiency of flotation thickening in the ASBRS could be comparable to that of additional gravity thickening of a completely mixed digester. 4. Solids were accumulated rapidly in the ASBR during start-up period. Solids concentrations in the ASBRS were 2.6 times higher than that in the completely mixed control reactor at steady state. Dehydrogenase activity had a strong correlation with the solids concentration. Dehydrogenase activity of the digested sludge in the ASBR was 2.9 times higher than that of the sludge in the control reactor, and about 25 times higher than that of the subnatant in the ASBR. 5. Remarkable increase in equivalent gas production of $52\%$ was observed at the ASBRS compared with the control reactor in spite of similar Quality of clarified effluent from the ASBRS and control reactor. The increase in gas production from the ASBRS was believed to be combined results of accumulation of microorganisms, higher driving force applied, and additional long-term degradation of organics continuously accumulated.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.112-127
• /
• 1997

The purpose of this study is to get optimum operating factors of Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactor by introducing methods that make it to reduce inhibition possible in each process wastewater treatment. The used substrates, concentrated corn starch liquid (CSL) wastewater, modified starch, filtering and decoloring wastewater, ion refining wastewater, and mixed wastewater including modified starch and not including modified starch, are generated from molasses process. The seeding sludge is the digested sludge that had been applied to molasses wastewater. Batch test to reduce the inhibition factors that might be existed in each wastewater was examined. Based on the this test, the optimum operating factors according to alkalinity and pH variation was studied through the continuous test using three 5.5 L UASB reactor. The first reactor added $NaHCO_3$ to control alkalinity. The hydraulic retention time (HRT) reduced to 8 hours and the organic loading rate increased gradually. The second reactor changed the pH of influent from 7.0 to 6.0 using NaOH. The third reactor was operated without changes to compare the above two reactors. As the result, the inhibition in concentrated CSL wastewater was removed by adding iron (II). When trace metals were added to mixed wastewater not including modified starch, the digestability by gas production rate increased to more fifty percentage than mixed wastewater that was not adding the trace metals. The reason that the inhibition did not decreased in spite of adding trace metals and nutrients was influenced by high concentration generated during the acid fermentation. The UASB reactors using the mixed wastewater with the most effective performance were operated as 500 mg/L as $CaCO_3$ alkalinity and 6.0 pH at steady state, and at this time, the gas production rates were 283 and 311mL gas/g $COD_{added}$. The COD removal rates were 84.7 and 86.3%, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.55-68
• /
• 2020

Because of the intensified environmental problems such as climate change and resource depletion, sewage treatment technology focused on energy management has recently attracted attention. The conversion of primary sludge from the primary sedimentation tank and excessive sludge from the secondary sedimentation tank into biogas is the key to energy-positive sewage treatment. In particular, the primary sedimentation tanks recover enriched biodegradable organic matter and anaerobic digestion process produces methane from the organic wastes for energy production. Such technologies for minimizing oxygen demand are leading the innovation regarding sewage treatment plants. However, sewage treatment facilities in Korea lack core technology and operational know-how. Actually, the energy potential of sewage is higher than sewage treatment energy consumption in the sewage treatment, but current processes are not adequately efficient in energy recovery. To improve this, it is possible to apply chemically enhanced primary treatment (CEPT), high-rate activated sludge (HRAS), and anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) to the primary sedimentation tank. To maximize the methane production of sewage treatment plants, organic wastes such as food waste and livestock manure can be digested. Additionally, mechanical pretreatment, thermal hydrolysis, and chemical pretreatment would enhance the methane conversion of organic waste. Power generation systems based on internal combustion engines are susceptible to heat source losses, requiring breakthrough energy conversion systems such as fuel cells. To realize the energy positive sewage treatment plant, primary organic matter recovery from sewage, biogas pretreatment, and co-digestion should be optimized in the energy management system based on the knowledge-based operation.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.19-29
• /
• 2008

Hot air sparging is a groundwater remediation technique, in which organic contaminants volatilized into hot air from the saturated to vadose zone. In the laboratory diesel (10,000 mg TPH/kg) was spiked in contaminated saturated aquifer soil. The hot air ($34.9{\pm}2.7^{\circ}C$) was injected in intermittent (Q=1,500 mL/min, 10 minute injection and 10 minute idle) modes. We performed microcosm tests using the groundwater samples to assess TPH reductive remediation activity. For Terminal-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of eubacterial communities in sludge of wastewater treatment plants and soil of experiment site, the 16S rDNA was amplified by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) from the sludge and the soil. The obtained 16S rDNA fragments were digested with Msp I and separated by electrophoresis gel. We found various sequence types for hot air sparging experiment with sludge soil samples that were closely related to Bacillus (149 bp, Firmicutes), Methlobacterium (149 bp, Euryarchaeotes), Pseudomonas (492 bp, ${\gamma}$-Proteobacteria), etc., in the clone library. In this study we find that TPH-water was reduced to 78.9% of the initial value in this experiment aquifer. The results of the present study suggests that T-RFLP method may be applied as a useful tool for the monitoring in the TPH contaminated soil fate of microorganisms in natural microbial community.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.5-13
• /
• 2022

The current environmental problem is that environmental pollution is accelerating due to the generation of large amounts of waste and indiscriminate consumption of energy. Fossil fuels, a representative energy production fuel, are burned in the process of producing energy, generating a large amount of greenhouse gases and eventually causing climate change. In addition, the amount of waste generated worldwide is continuously increasing, and environmental pollution is occurring in the process of waste treatment. One of the methods for simultaneously solving these problems is the energy recovery from and reduction of organic wastes. Sewage sludge generated in sewage treatment plants has been treated in various ways since ocean disposal was completely prohibited, but the amount generated has been continuously increasing. Since the sewage sludge contains a large amount of organic materials, it is desirable to recover energy from the sewage sludge and reduce the final discharged waste through anaerobic digestion. However, most of the excess sludge is a mass of microorganisms used in sewage treatment, and in order for the excess sludge to be anaerobically digested, the cell walls of the microorganisms must be destroyed first, but it takes a lot of time to destroy the cell walls, so high rates of biogas production and waste reduction cannot be achieved only by anaerobic digestion. Therefore, the pre-treatment process of solubilizing excess sludge is required, and the thermal solubilization process is verified to be the most efficient among various solubilization methods, and high rates of biogas production and waste reduction can be achieved by anaerobic digestion after destroying cell walls the thermal solubilization process. In this study, when pretreating TS 10% thickened excess sludge through a thermal solubilization system, a study was conducted on solubilization characteristics according to retention time and operating temperature variables. The experimental variables for the retention time of the thermal solubilization system were 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes, and 120 minutes, respectively, while the operating temperature was fixed at 160℃. The soulbilization rates calculated through TCOD and SCOD derived from the experimental results increased in the order of 12.11%, 20.52%, 28.62%, and 31.40%, respectively. And the variables according to operating temperature were 120℃, 140℃, 160℃, 180℃, and 200℃, respectively, while the operating retention time was fixed at 60 minutes. And the solubilization rates increased in the order of 7.14%, 14.52%, 20.52%, 40.72%, and 57.85%, respectively. In addition, TS, VS, T-N, T-P, NH₄⁺-N, and VFAs were analyzed to evaluate thermal solubilization characteristics of thickened excess sludge. As a result, in order to obtain 30% or more solubilization rate through thermal solubilization of TS 10% thickened excess sludge, 120 minutes of retention time is required when the operating temperature is fixed to 160℃, and 170℃ or more of operating temperature is needed when the operating time is fixed to 60 minutes.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.687-694
• /
• 2005

Lab-scale experiments have been carried out to investigate the effect of F/R ratio of ASBR (Anaerobic Sequencing Batch Reactor) process on the removal of the organic matters in ammonia stripped swine wastewater. Three ASBR inoculated with sludge mixed with granular sludge of UASB (Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket) and anaerobic digested sludge of municipal wastewater treatment plant were operated. Ammonia stripped swine wastewater was used as influent. Prior to conducting the experiments with varied conditions, the effect of increasing organic loading rate from 2.34 to $5.79gTCOD_{Cr}/L$-day at a fixed F/R ratio of 0.1 on the organic removal efficiency has been studied during start-up period. As the result of the experiment, under the condition of varied organic loadings, less than $4.14gTCOD_{Cr}/L$-day, the removed efficiency $TCOD_{Cr}$ of the ASBR process is 83% resulted from the mean value of effluent $TCOD_{Cr}$, 9,125 mg/L during the start-up period. Then ASBRs were operated with F/R ratio of 0.024, 0.303 and 0.91 respectively. Organic loading rate was increased from 4.56 to $15.43gTCOD_{Cr}/L$-day to investigate the effects of F/R ratio and organic loading rate on the organic removal efficiency. As the result of the experiment, less than $6.23gTCOD_{Cr}/L$/L-day, F/R ratio haven't an effect on the organic removal efficiency and the mean removal efficiency of TSS, $TCOD_{Cr}$ and $SCOD_{Cr}$ was about 80%, 86% and 78% at the all of F/R ratio. But as organic loading rate was increased from 8.54 to $12.04gTCOD_{Cr}/L$-day at the F/R ratio of 0.024, the removal efficiency of $SCOD_{Cr}$ decreased from 71% to 63%. The range of decreased removal efficiency of $SCOD_{Cr}$ at the F/R ratio of 0.024 was much more higher than at the F/R ratio of 0.303, 0.91. Thus, as organic loading rate was increased, ASBRs were operated with high F/R ratio to obtain high removal efficiency.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.219-223
• /
• 1981

Experiments on methane gas digestion were conducted to prevent livestock pollution and develop substitute energy. When about 30(w/w)% of sludge was added to cow feces, pig feces, and poultry feces and digested at 37$^{\circ}C$ for 20 days, methane gas produced per Kg of organic matter for cow feces, pig feces, poultry feces was 131, 248 and 235 l, respectively. pH decreased slightly at first but increased gradually afterwards during digestion period. When 20, 30, and 40(w/w)% of sludge were added to the mixture of cow feces (300g) and water (200g), the volumes of gas produced were 6.1, 14.5 and 13.4 l, respectively. Volume of methane gas produced from the mixture of cow feces and saw dust was much more than that from the mixture of cow feces and rice polishings. The contents of N, K, P for digestion residues were sufficient to be utilized as a fertilizer. When methane gas digestion was carried out with cow feces in a submersible pump digester the volume of methane gas produced per Kg of organic matter was 188 l. The price of total methane gas produced at this digestion was similar to that of the electric power consumed.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.26 no.6B
• /
• pp.669-675
• /
• 2006

Intermittent aerobic digestion experiments using a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) were carried out in this study. Aeration ratio was found to be an important operation factor for the reduction of solids and nitrogen. As the sludge digested, organic nitrogen was released from the solids and oxidized to nitrate nitrogen. Biological denitrification was also significant and the denitrification rate was limited by aeration ratio. Under the condition of 0.25-0.75 of aeration ratio, acclimation of ammonia nitrogen was not observed and pH were preserved near neutral in the intermittent aerobic digestion. As the aeration ratio increased, solids reduction was increased whereas dissolved nitrogen removal was decreased. Based on the experiments, 17-2% of VSS reduction and over 80% of dissolved nitrogen removal were practicable by intermittent aerobic digestion using a SBR when the MSRT were designed 8-32 days and aeration ratio was operated about 0.25-0.75.