• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.26-33
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• 2011

Objectives: The purpose of this retrospective cohort study was to investigate the relationship between exposure of Korean workers to petrochemicals in the refinery/petrochemical industry and lymphohematopoietic cancers. Methods: The cohort consisted of 8,866 male workers who had worked from the 1960s to 2007 at one refinery and six petrochemical companies located in a refinery/petrochemical complex in Korea that produce benzene or use benzene as a raw material. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) and standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were calculated for 1992-2007 and 1997-2005 based on the death rate and cancer incidence rate of the Korean male population according to job title (production, maintenance, laboratory, and office workers). Results: The overall mortality and most cause-specific mortalities were lower among these workers than those of the general Korean population. Increased SMRs were observed for leukemia (4/1.45; SMR 2.77, 95% CI: 0.75-7.09) and lymphohematopoietic cancers (5/2.51; SMR 2, 95% CI: 0.65-4.66) in production workers, and increased SIRs were also observed in leukemia (3/1.34; SIR 2.24, 95% CI: 0.46-6.54) and lymphohematopoietic cancers (5/3.39; SIR 1.47, 95% CI: 0.48-3.44) in production workers, but the results were not statistically significant. Conclusion: The results showed a potential relationship between leukemia and lymphohematopoietic cancers and exposure to benzene in refinery/petrochemical complex workers. This study yielded limited results due to a short observational period; therefore, a follow-up study must be performed to elucidate the relationship between petrochemical exposure and cancer rates.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.69-83
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• 2020

Light olefins are important petrochemicals as well as primary building blocks for various chemical intermediates. As the number of ethane cracking center (ECC) process, in which ethylene accounts for most of the production, has increased in recent years, propylene supply is not catching up with steadily increasing propylene demand. This trend makes the conversion of methanol to olefins to get more industrial importance. The methanol to olefins (MTO) process produces methanol through syngas and obtain olefins such as propylene through methanol. Since the reaction from methanol to olefins provides different product compositions depending on the catalyst used for the reaction, it is important to choose an appropriate separation process for the reaction product with different composition. Four different separation processes are considered for four representative cases of product compositions. The separation processes for the reaction products are evaluated by techno-economic analysis based on the simulation results using Aspen plus. Guidelines are provided for selecting a suitable separation process for each of representative case of product compositions in the MTO process.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.58.2-58.2
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• 2012

Heavy hydrocarbon reforming is a core technology for "Dirty energy smart". Heavy hydrocarbons are components of fossil fuels, biomass, coke oven gas and etc. Heavy hydrocarbon reforming converts the fuels into $H_2$-rich syngas. And then $H_2$-rich syngas is used for the production of electricity, synthetic fuels and petrochemicals. Energy can be used efficiently and obtained from various sources by using $H_2$-rich syngas from heavy hydrocarbon reforming. Especially, the key point of "Dirty energy smart" is using "dirty fuel" which is wasted in an inefficient way. New energy conversion laboratory of KAIST has been researched diesel reforming for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) as a part of "Dirty energy smart". Diesel is heavy hydrocarbon fuels which has higher carbon number than natural gas, kerosene and gasoline. Diesel reforming has difficulties due to the evaporation of fuels and coke formation. Nevertheless, diesel reforming technology is directly applied to "Dirty fuel" because diesel has the similar chemical properties with "Dirty fuel". On the other hand, SOFC has advantages on high efficiency and wasted heat recovery. Nippon oil Co. of Japan recently commercializes 700We class SOFC system using city gas. Considering the market situation, the development of diesel reformer has a great ripple effect. SOFC system can be applied to auxiliary power unit and distributed power generation. In addition, "Dirty energy smart" can be realized by applying diesel reforming technology to "Dirty fuel". As well as material developments, multidirectional approaches are required to reform heavy hydrocarbon fuels and use $H_2$-rich gas in SOFC. Gd doped ceria (CGO, $Ce_{1-x}Gd_xO_{2-y}$) has been researched for not only electrolyte materials but also catalysts supports. In addition, catalysts infiltrated electrode over porous $La_{0.8}Sr_{0.2}Ga_{0.8}Mg_{0.2}O_3-{\delta}$ and catalyst deposition at three phase boundary are being investigated to improve the performance of SOFC. On the other hand, nozzle for diesel atomization and post-reforming for light-hydrocarbons removal are examples of solving material problems in multidirectional approaches. Likewise, multidirectional approaches are necessary to realize "Dirty energy smart" like reforming "Dirty fuel" for SOFC.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.396-402
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• 2021

Background: Styrene is one of the aromatic compounds used in acetonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) producing petrochemicals, which has an impact on health of workers. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the health risks of styrene emitted from the petrochemical industry in Iran. Methods: Air samples were collected based on NIOSH 1501 method. The samples were analyzed by the Varian-cp3800 gas chromatograph. Finally, risk levels of styrene's health effects on employees were assessed by the quantitative method of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) and the semiquantitative way by the Singapore Occupational Safety and Health Association. Results: Based on the results, the employees had the highest average exposure to styrene vapors (4.06 × 10^-1mg.(kg - day)^-1) in the polybutadiene latex (PBL) unit. Therefore, the most top predictors of cancer and non-cancer risk were 2.3×10^-4 and 7.26 × 10^-1, respectively. Given that the lowest average exposure (1.5 × 10^-2mg.(kg - day)^-1) was in the dryer unit, the prediction showed a moderate risk of cancer (0.8 × 10^-6) and non-cancer (2.3 × 10^-3) for the employees. The EPA method also predicted that there would be a definite cancer risk in 16% and a probable risk in 76% of exposures. However, according to the semiquantitative approach, the rate of risk was at the "low" level for all staff. The results showed that there was a significant difference (p < 0.05) between the units in exposure and health risk of styrene (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Given the high risk of styrene's health effects, appropriate control measures are required to reduce the exposure level.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.83-94
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• 2019

LPG is increasingly being used as a clean energy source due to the continuous strengthening of environmental regulations. In addition, the demand of propane which is the basic compound for petrochemicals is increasing for propylene production. In the study, a divided wall column was used as de-propanizer and de-butanizer, which is expected to save large amount of energy among the four conventional distillation columns used for processing LPG. The simulation results showed a decrease of energy duty with ESI by 30.30% using two divided wall columns. Furthermore, simulation case studies were carried out with respect to design and operation condition. The main column tray and withdrawal tray were determined from the design case studies while the internal liquid flow and vapor flow were decided from the operating case studies. Also, ESI of 1.06% could be achieved from the case studies. According to the results, the simulation method used showed that it is greatly helpful to the design and evaluate a highly efficient divided wall column.

• Journal of architectural history
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.7-16
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• 2022

Since the beginning of the second Sino-Japanese war in 1937, the entire Korean Peninsula has entered a full-fledged wartime system. Japan enacted laws that strongly regulate the distribution of various resources for war, and the same was implemented in Joseon. In particular, as iron, copper, lead, tin, and aluminum were mobilized as raw materials for military supplies such as weapons, private distribution decreased significantly, which had a great impact on the construction industry. As the use of metal such as steel as building materials requires permission from the provincial governor, it has become difficult to supply and demand except for some military facilities. In addition, the Japanese Ministry of Commerce and Industry encouraged research and development and manufacturing to promote the so-called "substitute goods industry" to make up for the shortage of supplies. Products with improved performance through chemical treatment by injecting only a small amount of the same raw material than before or using alternative raw materials have been developed. It was intended to overcome the limitations of lack of raw materials through the chemical industry. In terms of building materials, various substitutes were produced due to the incorporation of petrochemicals and the use of synthetic resins. This trend continued even after the end of the war and served as one of the backgrounds for R&D and production of new materials without returning to the "substitute goods."

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.73-89
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• 2023

Due to continuous promotion of green alternatives to toxic petrochemicals by government policies, research efforts towards the development of green corrosion inhibitors have intensified recently. The objective of the current work was to develop novel green and sustainable corrosion inhibitors derived from 4-aminoantipyrine to effectively prevent corrosion of mild steel in corrosive environments. Gravimetric methods were used to investigate corrosion inhibition of 4-((furan-2-ylmethylene)amino)antipyrine (FAP) and 4-((pyridin-2-ylmethylene)amino)antipyrine (PAP) for mild steel in 1 M HCl. FAP and PAP were subjected to quantum chemical calculations using density functional theory (DFT). DFT was used to determine the mechanism of mild steel corrosion inhibition using inhibitors tested in HCl. Results demonstrated that these tested inhibitors could effectively inhibit mild steel corrosion in 1.0 M HCl. At 0.0005 M, these inhibitors' efficiencies for FAP and PAP were 93.3% and 96.5%, respectively. The Langmuir adsorption isotherm was obeyed by these inhibitors on the mild steel surface. Values of adsorption free energies, ΔG^o_ads, revealed that FAP followed chemical and physical adsorptions.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.947-956
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• 2009

Residual petroleum hydrocarbons after an oil spill may accumulate in the marine benthic ecosystem due to their high hydrophobicity. A lot of monitoring data are required for the estimation of ecosystem exposure to residual petrochemicals in an ecological risk assessment in the affected region. To save time and cost, the environmental exposure to them in the affected ecosystem can also be assessed using a simple food-web bioaccumulation model. In this study, we evaluated residual concentrations of four selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (phenanthrene, anthracene, pyrene, and benzo[a]pyrene) in a hypothetic benthic ecosystem composed of six species under two exposure scenarios. Body-residue concentration ranged 5~250 mg/kg body depending on trophic positions in an extreme scenario in which the aqueous concentrations of PAHs were assumed to be one-tenth of their aqueous solubility. In addition, bioconcentration factors (BCFs) and bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) were evaluated for model species. The logarithm of bioconcentration factor (log BCF) linearly increased with increasing the logarithm of 1-octanol-water partition coefficient (log $K_{OW}$) until log $K_{OW}$ of 7.0, followed by a gradual decrease with further increase in log $K_{OW}$ without metabolic degradation. Biomagnification became significant when log $K_{OW}$ of a pollutant exceeded 5.0 in the model ecosystem, indicating that investigation of food-web structure should be critical to predict biomagnifications in the affected ecosystem because log $K_{OW}$ values of many petrochemicals are higher than 5.0. Although further research is required for better site-specific evaluation of exposure, the model simulation can be used to estimate the level of the ecosystem exposure to residual oil contaminants at the screening level.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.122-130
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• 2004

Crude oil is complex mixture of thousands of different organic compound formed from a variety of organic materials that are chemically converted under differing geological conditions over long periods of time. Also oil composition varies according to crude source, refining, processing, handling and storage. The oil fingerprint method is application of specific knowledge of petrochemicals and use of sophisticated analytical equipment and techniques to identify the source(s) of oil pollution. KNMPA currently utilizes three primary analytical techniques: Gas Chromatography (GC), Fluorescence Spectroscopy(FL) and Infrared Spectroscopy(IR). Of all these techniques, GC technique are most widely used. Gas Chromatography is used as a primary analytical method because high reliableness, high separating efficiency and repeatability, but it is timeconsumable. The study results of identification of waterborne spilled oil by Fast Gas Chromatograph method showed that analytical time is cut down to 30minutes in comparison with packed column method and chromatograms represent high resolution and high repeatability.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.182-188
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• 2020

This study aimed to collect the carbon dioxide generated as a by-product from petrochemicals and liquor factories and use it in a crop breeding greenhouse. This was applied mainly to the storage of dry ice and the supply of carbon dioxide to achieve this target. Dry ice has a strong cooling effect because CO₂ becomes a solid or gas at temperatures and pressures below the triple point, and the solid sublimes at -78.5℃ and atmospheric pressure. The consumption of dry ice according to temperature was 0.983kg/day, 2.358kg/day, 5.102kg/day, and 7.035kg/day when the temperature was 5℃, 10℃, 15℃, and 20℃, respectively, which corresponded to 1,102ppm, 1,481ppm, 1,677ppm, and 1,855ppm. Dry ice consumption in the test greenhouse decreased by approximately 0.9kg/h, and the CO₂ concentration in the greenhouse at 9 a.m., before supplying dry ice increased to 517ppm, 1,519ppm at 10 a.m., 1,651ppm at 11 a.m., and 1,651ppm at 12 p.m., before maintaining this level of activity. Overall, this study attempted to contribute to increasing farm income by deriving the supply conditions through an expansion of the supply of carbon dioxide gas for crops.