• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.41-49
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• 2016

P city government considers to treat a part of food waste leachate in a municipal wastewater treatment plant (MWWTP), as the capacity of an existing combined treatment plant for food waste leachate is lower than the generation of food waste leachate in the city. Furthermore, the combined treatment plant also treats landfill leachate and directly discharges the effluent to the sea, which may result in a potential environmental problem. Therefore, this study examined the feasibility of the addition of food waste leachate and the effluent of the combined treatment facility on the MWWTP. Acceptable addition amount of the food waste streams, increased pollution loading on the MWWTP, and the treatment cost were estimated according to four scenarios. All the scenarios estimated that the MWWTP would receive most of the food waste streams according to the manual of the ministry of environment with little increase of pollution loading.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.171-174
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• 2015

This study investigates the possibility of applying food waste leachate to a municipal solid waste incinerator in order to effectively dispose of the material and to reduce the environmental impact. The spray positions and the quantity of the food waste leachate in municipal solid waste incinerator were adjusted to examine the stability of the process and the environmental effect. The rear of the first combustion chamber was found to be the desirable location for an environmental perspective in this study. At a food waste leachate injection rate of $2m^3/h$, the concentration of the emitted NOx decreased from 130 ppm to 40 ppm. The consumption of ammonia water was reduced by about 36% after adding the food waste leachate. The inclusion of the food waste leachate to the municipal incinerator also increased the amount of steam that was produced. The results of this research indicated that a positive outcome can be expected in terms of diversifying the treatment options for food waste leachate. The results also provide guidance for institutional framework to manage the incineration of the food waste leachate.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.157-161
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• 2017

Simultaneous treatment of food waste leachate and power generation was investigated in an air-cathode microbial fuel cell. A TCOD removal efficiency of $95.4{\pm}0.3%$ was achieved for an initial COD concentration of 2,860 mg/L. Maximum power density ranged was maximized at $1.86W/m^3$, when COD concentration varied between 60 mg/L and 2,860 mg/L. Meanwhile, columbic efficiency was determined between 1.76% and 11.07% for different COD concentrations. Cyclic voltammetric data revealed that the oxidation peak voltage occurred at -0.20 V, shifted to about -0.25 V. Moreover, a reduction peak voltage at -0.45 V appeared when organic matters were exhausted, indicating that reducible matters were produced during the decomposition of organic matters. The results showed that it was feasible to use food waste leachate as a fuel for power generation in a microbial fuel cell, and the treatment efficiency of the wastewater was satisfied.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.461-466
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• 2011

The feasibility of utilizing food waste leachate as an external carbon source was tested to enhance biological nutrient removal from an industrial wastewater with an average flow rate of $164,800m^3/d$ and a low carbon/nitrogen ratio of 2.8. A considerable improvement in the removal of nitrogen and phosphorus was observed when a certain amount of the leachate, ranging from 70 to $142m^3/d$, was supplemented to the biological industrial wastewater treatment process. The addition of the leachate led to an increase in the BOD/N ratio (4.5) and the removal efficiency of nutritents from 29.7% to 71.7% for nitrogen and from 34.8% to 65.6% for phosphorus. However, an excessive dose of the leachate that significantly exceeded $120m^3/d$ caused serious operational problems, like oil-layer formation in the grit chamber and scum layer in the primary clarifier. Thus, an supplement of food waste leachate at a dose acceptable to an existing facilities can be a practical and effective means to enhance the nutrient removal from industrial wastewater and to dispose of the food waste leachate.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2012

In this study, the performance of new digestion system (NDS) for the treatment of food waste leachate was evaluated. The food waste leachate was fed intermittently to an anaerobic reactor at increasing steps of 3.3 L/day (hydraulic retention time [HRT] = 30 day), 5 L/day (HRT = 20 day), and finally 10 L/day (HRT = 10 day). In the anaerobic reactor, the pH and alkalinity were maintained at 7.6 to 8.2 and 8,940-14,400 mg/L, respectively. Maximum methane yield determined to be 0.686L $CH_4$/g volatile solids (VS) containing HRT over 20 day. In the digester, 102,328 mg chemical oxygen demand (COD)/L was removed to produce 350 L/day (70% of the total) of biogas, but in the digested sludge reduction (DSR) unit, only 3,471 mg COD/L was removed with a biogas production of 158 L/day. Without adding any chemicals, 25% of total nitrogen (TN) and 31% of total phosphorus (TP) were removed after the DSR, while only 48% of TN and 32% of TP were removed in the nitrogen, phosphorus, and heavy metals (NPHM) removal unit. Total removal of TN was 73% and total removal of TP was 63%.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.183-192
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• 2015

Response surface methodology (RSM) based on a Box-Behnken Design (BBD) was applied to optimize the thermal-alkaline pre-treatment operating conditions for anaerobic digestion of flotation scum in food waste leachate. Three independent variables such as thermal temperature, NaOH concentration and reaction time were evaluated. The maximum methane production of 369.2 mL $CH_4/g$ VS was estimated under the optimum conditions at $62.0^{\circ}C$, 10.1% NaOH and 35.4 min reaction time. A confirmation test of the predicted optimum conditions verified the validity of the BBD with RSM. The analysis of variance indicated that methane production was more sensitive to both NaOH concentration and thermal temperature than reaction time. Thermal-alkaline pretreatment enhanced the improvement of 40% in methane production compared to the control experiment due to the effective hydrolysis and/or solubilization of organic matters. The fractions with molecular weight cut-off of scum in food waste leachate were conducted before and after pre-treatment to estimate the behaviors of organic matters. The experiment results found that thermal-alkaline pre-treatment could reduce the organic matters more than 10kD with increase the organic matters less than 1kD.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.51-58
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• 2016

In the Integrated Two-Phase Anaerobic Digestion (ITPAD) process, acid and methane fermentation take place in one reactor, which has advantages to cope with organic load variation and reduce foot-print required, compensating disadvantages of Conventional Separated Two-Phase Anaerobic Digestion (CSTPAD). In the present work, organic matter degradation efficiency and biogas generation amount and other performance parameters of the ITPAD fed with food waste leachate were analyzed. In addition, feasibility study on the ITPAD method was performed by comparing its digestion efficiency with that of the CSTPAD. Organic matter alteration and biogas generation of the integrated method were examined for approximately 130 days based on the 5ton/day scaled pilot plant. Experiment results revealed that organic matter removal rate was 80% for mean food waste leachate input amount of $4.1m^3/day$. The biogas generation rate was $63.0m^3$ per ton of food waste leachate input, corresponding to the input VS amount of $0.724m^3/kg-VS_{added}$, and methane content of generated biogas was approximately 61.3%. The ITPAD has a comparable or higher organic matter removal efficiency compared to the conventional separated two-phase anaerobic digestion method. Consequently, the ITPAD method has a great need to commercialize a food waste leachate treatment technology against highly concentrated organic waste leachate.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.763-773
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• 2010

The removal efficiencies and a total oxygen transfer coefficient for food waste leachate(FWL) were estimated by using Jet Loop Reactor(JLR). Pure oxygen was used instead of air to improve oxygen concentration in the JLR for high total chemical oxygen demamd(TCOD) in FWL. In JLB, in order to examining the oxygen transfer characteristic, the circulation flowrate and oxygen flowrate were controlled with 7~10 L/min(1.5 L/min interval) and 0.2~0.5 L/min (0.1 L/min interval) and we experimented according to the each condition. As a result, Oxygen uptake rate(OUR) and oxygen transfer rate could be maximized than the oxygen flowrate to increase the circulation flowrate. In addition, it determined that JLR using the pure oxygen which can obtain the greatest oxygen transfer rate as it was the high-concentration organic wastewater like the food waste leachate through the continuous experiment was appropriate.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2016

In this study, mesophilic anaerobic digestion of source separated food waste was carried out by leachate recirculation system and methane gas was produced. Two systems - system A and B were fabricated and placed within water bath to maintain $36^{\circ}C$. Each system was comprised of an anaerobic bioreactor and a leachate tank. Leachate in bioreactor was separated through the screen located at 30 mm above the bottom and a pump was installed to transfer collected leachate to the leachate tank. Everyday, 2.5 L of the leachate was pumped from the bioreactor to the leachate tank for 30 min and transferred leachate was pumped back to the top of the bioreactor for 30min, sequentially. Source separated food waste used for this experiment was washed by water before transferring to the laboratory. Transferred food waste was warmed to $36^{\circ}C$ before being fed to bioreactors. System A was fed to 49.1 g VS (Volatile Solids) and System B was fed to 54.0 g VS at every two weeks, respectively. $NH_4{^+}-N$ and salinity were monitored to see the inhibition toward anaerobic bioreaction and it was found that concentrations of these materials were not high enough to affect the bioreaction. Although the food waste was fed biweekly for 112 days and 140 days at system A and B, respectively, there was no sludge withdrawal from each system. Average methane productions rates were 0.439 L $CH_4/g$ VS and 0.368 L $CH_4/g$ VS for system A and B, respectively.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.11-17
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• 2015

This study performed acid fermentation pre-treatment to improve production efficiency of methane that is produced as a product in case of anaerobic fermentation by using food waste leachate, and attempted to confirm the acid fermentation optimum through the BMP test by using pre-treated food waste leachate to increase the yield of methane. As a result of the BMP experiment by using acid fermented food waste leachate, the highest yield of methane of 0.220 L/g VS was confirmed in the HRT three-day condition, and in the initial BMP test by pH, pH 6 was 19,920 mg/L that the highest VFA and acetic acid/TVFA(76.2%) were shown. At this time, it was confirmed that the yield of methane was mostly within 10 days that was reduced to around one-third compared to the general methane fermentation (within 30 days). As the yield of methane was 0.294 L/g VS, it showed a high efficiency of around 1.3 times compared to the control group.