• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.56-62
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• 2014

The present study investigated numerically heat and mass transfer characteristics of a fixed bed reactor by using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code of Fluent (ver. 13.0). The temperature and species fraction were estimated for different porosities. For modeling of the catalyst in a fixed bed tube, catalysts were regarded as the porous material, and the empirical correlation of pressure drop based on the modified Eugun equation was used for simulation. In addition, the averaged porosities were taken as 0.545, 0.409, and 0.443 and compared with non-porous state. The predicted results showed that the temperature at the tube wall became higher than that estimated along the center line of tube, leading to higher hydrogen generation by the endothermic reaction and heat transfer. As the mean porosity increases, the hydrogen yield and the outlet temperature decreased because of the pressure drop inside the reformer tube.

• Proceedings of the Korea Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry Conference
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• 2006.06b
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• pp.337-347
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• 2006

Papers made from unbleached and bleached bagasse chemimechanical pulp were chemically modified by acetylation. The effects of irradiation on unbleached and bleached also reduced papers of bagasse chemimechanical pulp before and after acetylation were investigated in this study. Chemimechanical pulp was prepared from bagasse and then bleached with hydrogen peroxide. Unbleached and hydrogen bleached pulps were reduced by Sodium borohydride in different procedures. Paper sheets were prepared from pulps and then acetylated using a technical grade of acetic anhydride. Accelerated photo-aging was run on the samples using fluorescent lamps to verify photo-stability of paper sheets before and after pretreatments. Brightness reversion (as Post-color number) and other optical properties of the paper sheets were measured. Efficient inhibition of photo-yellowing of papers made from bagasse CMP was achieved by acetylation. The acetylated unbleached CMP was noticeably photo-bleached during irradiation. Sodium borohydride reduction followed by acetylation had the same effect as acetylation alone at the same degree of reaction time and reductive treatment did not affect the yellowing rate to any great extent. The pre-reduced, acetylated unbleached papers were, however, not brightened during irradiation. Calculation done by Kubelka-Munk equation showed that reductive treatment had little effect in reducing the photo-yellowing of paper made from CMP pulp; a small stabilization effect was observed in the case of bleached CMP, while unbleached CMP was slightly more prone to discolor in the later phase of photo-reversion. The improved stability towards light may was closely related to the decrease in the phenolic hydroxyl content as a result of blocking by acetyl groups during treatment with acetic anhydride. The results support the hypothesis that phenolic hydroxyl has an important role in the process of photo-reversion of high-yield pulps. The results obtained in this study demonstrate that the acetylation of paper manufactured from peroxide bleached Bagasse CMP significantly retards light-induced discoloration. The inhibition of yellowing is connected with a decrease in the phenolic hydroxyl content of both unbleached and peroxide bleached papers.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1876-1884
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• 2020

Ethanol often accumulates during the process of wine fermentation, and mitophagy has critical role in ethanol output. However, the relationship between mitophagy and ethanol stress is still unclear. In this study, the expression of ATG11 and ATG32 genes exposed to ethanol stress was accessed by real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The result indicated that ethanol stress induced expression of the ATG11 and ATG32 genes. The colony sizes and the alcohol yield of atg11 and atg32 were also smaller and lower than those of wild type strain under ethanol whereas the mortality of mutants is higher. Furthermore, compared with wild type, the membrane integrity and the mitochondrial membrane potential of atg11 and atg32 exhibited greater damage following ethanol stress. In addition, a greater proportion of mutant cells were arrested at the G1/G0 cell cycle. There was more aggregation of peroxide hydrogen (H2O2) and superoxide anion (O2•-) in mutants. These changes in H2O2 and O2•- in yeasts were altered by reductants or inhibitors of scavenging enzyme by means of regulating the expression of ATG11 and ATG32 genes. Inhibitors of the mitochondrial electron transport chain (mtETC) also increased production of H2O2 and O2•- by enhancing expression of the ATG11 and ATG32 genes. Further results showed that activator or inhibitor of autophagy also activated or inhibited mitophagy by altering production of H2O2 and O2•. Therefore, ethanol stress induces mitophagy which improves yeast the tolerance to ethanol and the level of mitophagy during ethanol stress is regulated by ROS derived from mtETC.

• Clean Technology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.130-136
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• 2009

Commercial catalyst (Cu-Zn/$Al_2O_3$, Johnson Matthey Co., 83-3 Catalyst) was applied to the hydrogen production by steam reforming of methanol in the micro-channel reactor (MCR). The steam reforming of methanol was tested over Cu-Zn catalyst at temperatures in the range of 200 and 300$^{\circ}C$, the catalyst size of 0.05${\sim}$2.2 mm, the space velocity of 3,000${\sim}$10,000 $hr^{-1}$ in a fixed bed continuous flow reactor. The conversion of methanol and the yield $H_2$ preferred high temperatures and low space velocities, and had optimal results with the particle size of 0.35 mm. Based on the results from experiments with fixed bed reactor, two types of MCR, boat bed and stacked bed MCRs, were studied. The stacked bed type MCR showed better methanol conversion compared with the boat type one.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.278-286
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• 2023

The present work evaluated the production of biohydrogen under mesophilic and thermophilic conditions through dark fermentation of palm oil mill effluent (POME) in batch mode using the design of experiment methodology. Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to investigate the influence of the two significant parameters, POME concentration as substrate (5, 12.5, and 20 g/l), and volumetric substrate to inoculum ratio (1:1, 1:1.5, and 1:2, v/v.%), with inoculum concentration of 14.3 g VSS/l. All the experiments were analyzed at 37 ℃ and 55 ℃ at an incubation time of 24 h. The highest chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal, hydrogen content (H₂%), and hydrogen yield (HY) at a substrate concentration of 12.5 g COD/l and S:I ratio of 1:1.5 in mesophilic and thermophilic conditions were obtained (27.3, 24.2%), (57.92, 66.24%), and (6.43, 12.27 ml H₂/g COD_rem), respectively. The results show that thermophilic temperature in terms of COD removal was more effective for higher COD concentrations than for lower concentrations. Optimum parameters projected by RSM with S:I ratio of 1:1.6 and POME concentration of 14.3 g COD/l showed higher results in both temperatures. It is recognized how RSM and optimization processes can predict and affect the process performance under different operational conditions.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.429-437
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• 2024

Dry reforming of methane (DRM) uses natural gas and carbon dioxide as reactants to produce hydrogen, potentially providing a solution for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and offering an alternative carbon-free energy source. However, since DRM is highly endothermic, its application and commercialization are limited by rapid temperature decrease and resulting catalyst inactivation. Consequently, research into catalyst development and reactor design to mitigate temperature decline is essential. In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is utilized to develop a multiphysics simulation platform for DRM within a fixed-bed reactor, employing two types of spherical catalysts: eggshell and uniform types. Our findings indicate that the eggshell model can maintain a higher temperature at the reactor's core than the uniform catalyst model by approximately 20 K. Furthermore, the eggshell model demonstrates superior methane conversion and hydrogen yield due to its ability to suppress excessively rapid reactions. These results underscore the benefits of eggshell catalysts in highly endothermic reactors, such as those used in DRM processes. The developed simulation platform can be used to assess various combinations of reactor and catalyst designs and further optimize their dimensions and operational protocols.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.78-83
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• 2005

Nanometric crystalline silicon (no-Si) embedded in dielectric medium has been paid attention as an efficient light emitting center for more than a decade. In nc-Si, excitonic electron-hole pairs are considered to attribute to radiative recombination. However the surface defects surrounding no-Si is one of non-radiative decay paths competing with the radiative band edge transition, ultimately which makes the emission efficiency of no-Si very poor. In order to passivate those defects - dangling bonds in the $Si:SiO_2$ interface, hydrogen is usually utilized. The luminescence yield from no-Si is dramatically enhanced by defect termination. However due to relatively high mobility of hydrogen in a matrix, hydrogen-terminated no-Si may no longer sustain the enhancement effect on subsequent thermal processes. Therefore instead of easily reversible hydrogen, phosphorus was introduced by ion implantation, expecting to have the same enhancement effect and to be more resistive against succeeding thermal treatments. Samples were Prepared by 400 keV Si implantation with doses of $1\times10^{17}\;Si/cm^2$ and by multi-energy Phosphorus implantation to make relatively uniform phosphorus concentration in the region where implanted Si ions are distributed. Crystalline silicon was precipitated by annealing at $1,100^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours in Ar environment and subsequent annealing were performed for an hour in Ar at a few temperature stages up to $1,000^{\circ}C$ to show improved thermal resistance. Experimental data such as enhancement effect of PL yield, decay time, peak shift for the phosphorus implanted nc-Si are shown, and the possible mechanisms are discussed as well.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.41-50
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• 2017

The design of proper agitation system is requisite in biological waste treatment and energy generation plant, which is affected by viscosity, impeller types, and power consumption. In the present work, hydrogen fermentation of food waste was conducted at various operational pHs (4.5~6.5) and substrate concentrations (10~50 g Carbo. COD/L), and the viscosity of fermented broth was analyzed. The $H_2$ yield significantly varied from 0.51 to $1.77mol\;H_2/mol\;hexose_{added}$ depending on the pH value, where the highest performance was achieved at pH 5.5. The viscosity gradually dropped with shear rate increase, indicating a shear thinning property. With the disintegration of carbohydrate, the viscosity dropped after fermentation, but it did not change depending on the operational pH. At the same pH level, the $H_2$ yield was not affected much, ranging $1.40{\sim}1.86mol\;H_2/mol\;hexose_{added}$ at 10~50 g Carbo. COD/L. The zero viscosity and infinite viscosity of fermented broth increased with substrate concentrations, from 10.4 to $346.2mPa{\cdot}s$, and from 1.7 to $5.3mPa{\cdot}s$, respectively. There was little difference in the viscosity value of fermented broth at 10 and 20 g Carbo. COD/L. As a result of designing the agitation intensity based on the experimental results, it is expected that the agitation intensity can be reduced during hydrogen fermentation. The initial and final agitation intensity of 30 g Carbo. COD/L in hydrogen fermentation were 26.0 and 10.0 rpm, respectively. As fermentation went on, the viscosity gradually decreased, indicating that the power consumption for agitation of food waste can be reduced.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.739-744
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• 2013

In this study, torrefaction was performed to improve fuel properties of Larch. The optimal condition for torrefaction was investigated by response surface methodology. The torrefaction temperature and time ranged $220{\sim}280^{\circ}C$ and 20~80 min, respectively. As the torrefaction temperature and time increased, the carbon content of torrefied biomass increased from 49.36 to 56.65%, while its hydrogen and oxygen contents decreased from 5.56 to 5.48% and from 37.62 to 31.67%, respectively. The weight loss and calorific value increased with SF, while energy yield decreased. At the severe torrefaction condition (SF 7), the weight loss and calorific value were 26.58% and 22.30 MJ/kg, respectively. The energy contained in torrefied biomass increased to 20.41%, when compared with the untreated biomass. As the torrefaction severity increased, the energy yield decreased due to the relatively high weight loss of biomass. Therefore, the highest energy yield was obtained at high calorific value and low weight loss of biomass (SF 5.72).

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.1648-1654
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• 2008

Superoxide dismutase (SOD) removes damaging reactive oxygen species from the cellular environment by catalyzing the dismutation of two superoxide radicals to hydrogen peroxide and oxygen. Extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD) is a tetramer and is present in the extracellular space and to a lesser extent in the extracellular fluids. Increasing therapeutic applications for recombinant human extracellular superoxide dismutase (rEC-SOD) has broadened interest in optimizing methods for its purification, with a native conformation of tetramer. We describe a solid phase refolding procedure that combines immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC) and gel filtration chromatography in the purification of rEC-SOD from Escherichia coli. The purified rEC-SOD tetramer from the $Ni^{2+}$-column chromatography is refolded in Tris buffer. This method yields greater than 90% of the tetramer form. Greater than 99% purity is achieved with further purification over a Superose 12PC 3.2/30 column to obtain the tetramer and specific activities as determined via DCFHDA assay. The improved yield of rEC-SOD in a simple chromatographic purification procedure promises to enhance the development and therapeutic application of this biologically potent molecule.