• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.341-349
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• 2021

In combustion facilities, the nitrogen and sulfur in fossil fuels react with oxygen to generate air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (NO_X) and sulfur oxides (SO_X), which are harmful to the human body and cause environmental pollution. There are regulations worldwide to reduce NO_X and SO_X, and various technologies are being applied to meet these regulations. There are commercialized methods to reduce NO_X and SO_X emissions such as selective catalytic reduction (SCR), selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) and wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD), but due to the disadvantages of these methods, many studies have been conducted to simultaneously remove NO_X and SO_X. However, even in the NO_X and SO_X simultaneous removal methods, there are problems with wastewater generation due to oxidants and absorbents, costs incurred due to the use of catalysts and electrolysis to activate specific oxidants, and the harmfulness of gas oxidants themselves. Therefore, in this research, microbubbles generated in a high-pressure disperser and reducing agents were used to reduce costs and facilitate wastewater treatment in order to compensate for the shortcomings of the NO_X, SO_X simultaneous treatment method. It was confirmed through image processing and ESR (electron spin resonance) analysis that the disperser generates real microbubbles. NO_X and SO_X removal tests according to temperature were also conducted using only microbubbles. In addition, the removal efficiencies of NO_X and SO_X are about 75% and 99% using a reducing agent and microbubbles to reduce wastewater. When a small amount of oxidizing agent was added to this microbubble system, both NO_X and SO_X removal rates achieved 99% or more. Based on these findings, it is expected that this suggested method will contribute to solving the cost and environmental problems associated with the wet oxidation removal method.

• Clean Technology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.63-78
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• 2022

Electronics industrial wastewater treatment facilities release organic wastewaters containing high concentrations of organic pollutants and more than 20 toxic non-biodegradable pollutants. One of the major challenges of the fourth industrial revolution era for the electronics industry is how to treat electronics industrial wastewater efficiently. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an electronics industrial wastewater modeling technique that can evaluate the removal efficiency of organic pollutants, such as chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorous (TP), and tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH), by digital twinning an electronics industrial organic wastewater treatment facility in a cyber physical system (CPS). In this study, an electronics industrial wastewater activated sludge model (e-ASM) was developed based on the theoretical reaction rates for the removal mechanisms of electronics industrial wastewater considering the growth and decay of micro-organisms. The developed e-ASM can model complex biological removal mechanisms, such as the inhibition of nitrification micro-organisms by non-biodegradable organic pollutants including TMAH, as well as the oxidation, nitrification, and denitrification processes. The proposed e-ASM can be implemented as a Water Digital Twin for real electronics industrial wastewater treatment systems and be utilized for process modeling, effluent quality prediction, process selection, and design efficiency across varying influent characteristics on a CPS.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.85-96
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• 2023

The study involved the categorization of domestic lakes located in South Korea into three groups based on their salinity levels: upstream reservoirs with salinity less than 0.3 psu, estuarine reservoirs with salinity ranging from 0.3 to 2 psu, and brackish lagoons with salinity exceeding 2 psu. Subsequently, the research assessed variations in the concentrations of total nitrogen (T-N) and total phosphorus (T-P) in the sediment of these lakes using statistical analysis, specifically one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Additionally, a laboratory core incubation test was conducted to investigate the benthic nutrient fluxes in Songji lagoon (salinity: 11.80 psu), Ganwol reservoir (salinity: 0.73 psu), and Janggun reservoir (salinity: 0.08 psu) under both aerobic and anoxic conditions. The findings revealed statistically significant differences in the concentrations of T-N and T-P among sediments in the lakes with varying salinity levels (p<0.05). Further post-hoc analysis confirmed significant distinctions in T-N between upstream reservoirs and estuarine reservoirs (p<0.001), as well as between upstream reservoirs and brackish lagoons (p<0.01). For T-P, a significant difference was observed between upstream reservoirs and brackish lagoons (p<0.01). Regarding benthic nutrient fluxes, Ganwol Lake exhibited the highest diffusive flux of NH₄⁺-N, primarily due to its physical characteristics and the inhibition of nitrification resulting from its relatively high salinity. The flux of NO₃^--N was lower at higher salinity levels under aerobic conditions but increased under anoxic conditions, attributed to the impact of salinity on nitrification and denitrification. Additionally, the flux of PO₄^3--P was highest in Songji Lake, followed by Ganwol Lake and Janggun Reservoir, indicating that salinity promotes the diffusive flux of phosphate through anion adsorption competition. It's important to consider the influence of salinity on microbial communities, growth rates, oxidation-reduction processes, and nutrient binding forms when studying benthic diffusive nutrient fluxes from lake sediments.