• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.110-123
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• 2008

The use of CCA as a wood preservative was recently inhibited due to its environmental pollution and human harmfulness. Instead of CCA, copper azole (CuAz) and alkaline copper quaternary (ACQ) have been used as alternative wood preservatives, but the price of the preservatives is much more expensive than that of CCA. As a substitute for high-priced CuAz and ACQ, environmentally friendly wood preservatives were formulated with okara, which is an organic waste from the production of tofu. Prior to formulating the preservatives, okara was hydrolyzed by three levels of sulfuric acid concentration (1, 2.5 and 5%) to easily penetrate the effective components of the preservatives into wood blocks. Final preservative solutions were formulated with the hydrolyzed okara and metal salts, such as copper sulfate, copper chloride and borax. The preservatives were treated into wood blocks by vacuum-pressure method to measure the treatability of the preservatives, and the treated wood blocks were placed in hot water for three days to measure the leachability of the preservatives. The effective components of the preservatives might be successfully penetrated into wood blocks through the uses of hydrolyzed okara and ammonia water. However, the leached amount of effective components was increased as the concentration of acid used for the hydrolysis of okara increased. The treatability and leachability of the preservatives were not affected by hydrolysis temperature but negatively affected by the addition of borax. Based on the results above, the optimal conditions for formulating okara-based wood preservatives cost-effectively and environmentally might be 1% acid hydrolysis of okara and the use of $CuCl_2$ as a metal salt. In addition, the treatability and leachability of okara-based wood preservatives were superior or no differences comparing with those of CuAz. Therefore, it is concluded that okara-based wood preservatives might have a potential to be used as an environmentally friendly wood preservative.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.63-68
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• 2006

There are $10{\sim}30%$ polyphenol and $2{\sim}4%$ caffeine in green tea. Caffeine is a kind of alkaloid containing nitrogen which cause stimulation, impatience, headache, insomnia, low birth weight infant. Because of these negative effect, decaffeined beverage came out and decaffeined coffee already have a big market since 1970s. Having proving the physiologic functions of green tea, high consumption of coffee is shifting to green tea. Because of the carcinogenic effect of the organic solvents, decaffeine processing with supercritical carbon dioxide has industrialized and have an advantage in environment-friendly and minimized flavor loss. Decaffeined green tea using supercritical carbon dioxide is considered to be safe but there are not enough study, We investigated the chromosome aberration test with mammalian cell line, CHL. When the cells were treated with 5000, 2000, 1000 ${\mu}g/ml$ and compared with the negative controls, there were no significant (P>0.05) increased chromosome aberration. Same results was observed when adding S9 mixture or not. As a result, water extract of decaffeined green tea using supercritical carbon dioxide does not induce chromosome aberration.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.261-271
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• 2007

Phytoremediation is an economic and environmentally friendly technique to remediate contaminated-soil. In this study, the effects of plants, rhizobacteria and physicochemical factors on phytoremediation have been reviewed. For successful phytoremediation, the selection of plants is primarily important. To remediate soil contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbon, raygrass (Lolium multiflorum lam), white mustard, vetch (Vicia villosa), tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea), legumes, poplar, and Pine (Pinus densiflora) were mainly applied, and the removal efficiency of petroleum hydrocarbon were ranged 68 to 99%. Corn (Zea mays), raygrass (Lolium multiflorum lam), vetch (Vicia villosa), mustard, clover (Trifolium repens), and tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) were used for the removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, and their removal efficiencies were 50-98%. Rhizobacteria play significant roles for phytoremediation because they can directly participate in the degradation of contaminant as well as promoting plants growth. The following rhizobacteria were preferred for phytoremediation: Azospirillum lipoferum, Enterobactor cloacae, Azospirillum brasilense, Pseudomonas putida, Burkholderia xenovorans, Comamonas testosterone, Pseudomonas gladioli, Azotobacter chroococcum, Bacillus megaterium, and Bacillus subtilis. Pysicochemical factors such as pH, temperature, nutrient, electron acceptor, water content, organic content, type of contaminants are consequential limiting factors for phytoremediation.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.125-133
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• 2009

Wastewater sludge had normally filled up in land before revising the law of waste material management in 2003, which does not permit landfill of organic sludge in Korea. After the law, most sludge has been littered in the ocean up to now. However, due to the London Convention 96 Protocol, littering sludge in the ocean will also be prohibited after 2011. This Protocol makes countries find out new methods to treat wastewater sludge. There is no exception in Korea too. Many researchers have urgently try to find out better ways to treat sludge. One of ways is to make sludge recycle energy and the success of it depends on drying method. Specifically, it really depends how to make sludge dry ecologic friendly and economic efficiently. Therefore, wastewater sludge produced in Youngdong was analyzed to make it energy resources in this study. The sludge was tested to analyze the drying and chemical characteristics of it by irradiating microwave. In the result, it is sure that the sludge has little heavy metals as like as others in country side. High calories, 3370 Kcal, shows that it has good potential to be recycle energy. Moreover, weight deduction of the sludge vs. time shows long S-curve and has same deduction ratio. Specifically, S-curve can be divided by three sections based on the curvature points. There are steady state reduction ratio of weight and approximately 80% of weight duction in the second section. This results can be used to estimate the amount of sludge reduction in the full-scale microwave dryer. Drying capacity of microwave shows approximately 1.0 kg/kw/hr. It makes sure that sludge recycle energy has the potential of economic efficiency too.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1061-1069
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• 2019

Common reed (Phragmites australis) is widespread in reclaimed land and wetland habitats. Every year, the common reed produces extensive colonies by means of underground rhizomes and ground-surface stolons. From an agricultural point of view, the common reed's large biomass is a good material for supplying organic matter. However, it has not yet been studied in terms of seedling production, transplanting conditions, and decomposition characteristics in reclaimed land. Seeds were harvested from the native common reed in Saemangeum, South Korea, the previous year and stored on an open field. The seeds were sowed in the greenhouse at the beginning of April. Common reed decomposition was studied from June to September, with the use of coarse mesh (5 mm) stem litterbags, on three samping dates and with five replicate packs per sample. These packs were dug in five soil condition (low-salinity topsoil, subsoil, high-salinity topsoil, subsoil, paddy topsoil) to 0.2 m and 0.4 m depth. The highest germination rate of common reed seeds was observed in non-salt solution, but the exhibited germination rate was 70% at 9.38 dS m^-1. The plant height of young reed decreased steadily with increasing salinity, but leaf number did not decrease by 9.38 dS m^-1. The survival rate of the two-year-old reed was 83.3%, which was 35% higher than that of the one-year reed. The transplant success rate was 0% in the no vinyl mulching in the soil, but the first year and second year seedlings survived rates were 63% and 83.3%, respectively, in vinyl mulching. Common reed decomposition rates were faster low salinity than high salinity. All nutrient contents were found to fluctuate significantly with time by soil conditions. We also need to study the growth rate of reed transplanting seedlings by soil moisture contents and the comparison of degradation in common reed tissues.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.9-16
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• 2014

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of seeding timing and method of rye and/or hairy vetch on seasonal soil and foliar nutrient concentrations as well as fruit quality in a pesticide-free pear orchard. METHODS AND RESULTS: The treatments included as followed: single seeding of rye in September (Sep-Mono), November (Nov-Mono), and January (Jan-Mono), or mix seeding of rye+hairy vetch in November (Nov-Mix) and January (Jan-Mix), or sod culture as a control. Cover crops or vegetation was mown and mulched on the soil surface in April and May for two years. Nov-Mix treatment produced the highest dry matter weight of $12,070kg\;ha^{-1}$, with the lowest dry matter weight for sod culture ($6,520kg\;ha^{-1}$), following Jan-Mix ($7,030kg\;ha^{-1}$). Nov-Mix treatments increased potential amount of N, P, and K from the raw materials of the cover crops as well as improved soil physical properties. Nov-Mix treatments overall elevated soil pH, EC, organic matter, and $P_2O_5$ in May compared to other cover crop treatments or sod culture. The difference of the seasonal nutrient concentrations in leaves or fruit qualities were not consistently occurred amongst treatments. CONCLUSION: Nov-Mix treatments showed playing role in a substitute of a chemical fertilizer. Delayed seeding of cover crops such as Jan-Mix did not increase the potential dry matter production due to the short growing period, and the seeding time would affect the dry matter production of cover crops.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.119-124
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• 2006

There are $10{\sim}30%$ polyphenol and $2{\sim}4%$ caffeine in green tea. Caffeine is a kind of alkaloid containing nitrogen which cause stimulation, impatience, headache, insomnia, low birth weight infant. Because of these negative effect, decaffeined beverage came out and decaffeined coffee already have a big market since 1970s. Having proving the physiologic functions of green tea, high consumption of coffee is shifting to green tea. Because of the carcinogenic effect of the organic solvents, decaffeine processing with supercritical carbon dioxide has industrialized and have an advantage in environment-friendly and minimized flavor loss. Decaffeined green tea using supercritical carbon dioxide is considered to be safe but there are not enough study. We investigated the chromosome aberration test with mammalian cell line, CHL. When the cells were treated with 5000, 2000, 1000 ${\mu}g/ml$ and compared with the negative controls, there were no significant(P>0.05) increased chromosome aberration. Same results was observed when adding S9 mixture or not. As a result, water extract of decaffeined green tea using supercritical carbon dioxide does not induce chromosome aberration.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.387-395
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• 2014

A highly sensitive analytical method based on stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) technique and gas chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) has been developed, allowing the simultaneous multi-analyte determination of 11 synthetic fragrances (SFs) in water samples. The stir bar coated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was added to 40 mL of water sample at pH 3 and stirred at 1,100 rpm for 120 min. Other SBSE parameters (salt effect and presence of organic solvent) were optimised. The method shows good linearity (coefficients > 0.990) and reproducibility (RSD < 10.9%). The extraction efficiencies were above 83% for all the compounds. The limits of detections (LOD) and limits of quantification (LOQ) were 2.1~4.1 ng/L and 6.6~12.9 ng/L, respectively. The developed method offers the ability to detect 11 SFs at ultra-low concentration levels with only 40 mL of sample volume. Matrix effects in tap water, river water, wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) final effluent water and seawater were investigated and it was shown that the method is suitable for the analysis of trace level of 11 SFs. The method developed in the present study has the advantage of being rapid, simple, high-sensitive and both user and environmentally friendly.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.30-37
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• 2015

BACKGROUND: During the winter, the use of deicers was rapidly increased for reduction of traffic accidents as well as injuries in Korea, whose components are largely comprised of calcium chloride and sodium chloride. Recently, to reduce the adverse effects of chloride-deciers such as pollution of water and soil, and decrease of agricultural productivity, the attention of eco-friendly deciers have been increased. This study aimed to investigate biological effects of magnesium chloride deicer (PC-10) and organic acid deicer (EFD-1) against wheat, barley, and spinach. METHODS AND RESULTS: We examined the effect of two deciers, PC-10 and EFD-1 on the seed germination and growth of wheat, barley and spinach. EFD-1 showed higher suppression of the germination than PC-10 among tested crop seeds. In demage index of the seedlings of the crops, there was no symptoms in spinach such as spotting and color change of leaves. EFD-1 showed much stronger inhibitory effect on the germination of tested crop seeds than PC-10 when crops were exposed continuously to tested deciers in soils. The growth and shoot and root in examined crops was relatively higher in PC-10 treatment than in EFD-1 treatment when compared to the control. The biomass decrease was found in all examined conditions of deciers. PC-10 showed 23-35% reduction of biomass whereas EFD-1 exhibited 39-84% loss in all examined crops at over 2% concentration. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the effects of deicers used in this study by inputting into soil against growing tested crops cause the reduction of germination of seeds, growth, and biomass compared to the control.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.160-165
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• 2018

BACKGROUND: Mixed cropping of legume and grass was effective system in view point of providing organic matter and nitrogen or reducing the nitrogen starvation of following crop. The relation of the change of N and P constituents depending on the cropping types and those effects on the growth and nutrient uptake of the following crop were observed. METHODS AND RESULTS: Three cropping types, hairy vetch mono cropping, barley mono cropping, and mixed cropping of hairy vetch and barley were applied. Soil properties, growth characteristics, and nitrogen production of green manure crops were observed. In additions, the effect of cropping types on the growth pattern of corn as the following crop was observed. In the mixed cropping system, creeping type hairy vetch climbed to the erect type barely for light utilization resulting in improvement of light interception rate and higher LAI (Leaf Area Index) than in mono cropping. Mixed cropping showed higher biomass production and soil nitrogen availability among the cropping types, indicating relatively much more nutrient supply and higher yield production of following crop. CONCLUSION: Mixed cropping showed relatively higher LAI (dry matter) mainly because of intense competition for light utilization usually after flowering stage. Mixed cropping also showed relatively higher yield of corn, the following crop rather than other types, mainly due to the more biomass production potential and higher N and P production ability. Therefore, mixed cropping was adaptable method to reduce or replace chemical fertilizer application for environmentally-friendly agriculture.