• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.57-64
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• 2000

As a method to reduce the sue of agricultural chemicals mulching with thin plastic films has been commonly practised for many years. Although use of plastic films for mulching is very effective in preventing herb growth it is almost impossible to remove all of the plastic films from the agricultural lands and the remaining films eventually contaminate the soils. Therefore, it is very imperative to develop a mulching material that decomposes completely to prevent soil pollution problems and to enhance the competitive edge of domestic agriculture. In this paper the possibilities of using strength resins for improving strength properties of mulch papers made from old corrugated containers were examined. Also mulch papers have been produced and applied for practical farming in upland as well as paddy field. Result showed that the usage of 0.7% of wet strength additives was effective for wet and dry strength of mulch paper. Changes of various process parameters including freeness, cationic demand, one pass retention, nitrogen content, etc. that occurred during trial production of mulch paper have been examined and discussed . It was found that paper mulching was very effective for weed control both in upland field and paddy filed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.37 no.7
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• pp.426-431
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• 2015

Korea severely suffers from plastic-induced ocean pollution, but only few studies predicted the trajectory of marine plastic debris and provided their collection method. This study used Ocean Surface CURrent Simulator (OSCURS) of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in order to predict the trajectories of marine plastic debris flowing into the East Sea and Yellow Sea for each season during 2004 to 2013. Results suggest that efficient collection hubs through the high betweenness centrality index. Most hubs were located in the seashores regardless of season, suggesting the seashore of Uljin for the East Sea and the seashore between Saemangeum and Shinan for the Yellow Sea as the most efficient hubs.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.30-36
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• 2014

300,000 tons of waste tires are annually being produced with development of the automotive industry in Korea. Landfill and incineration treatment system are causing the economic problem through secondary environmental pollution and waste. Therefore, as one of the ways to take advantage of this, Thermo-Plastic Vulcanized (TPV) composite was prepared by the ground waste tire and plastic powders. The waste tire powder was gained by mechanical fracturing through crushers. The waste tire powder was ground by a shear crushing method and a 2-stage disk mill method instead of cutting crushing one. The waste tire powder of 50 mesh was mixed with Polypropylene(PP) in various proportions. TPVs were prepared by an extrusion, and tensile and impact tests were performed. In addition, the same experiments were repeated in 40, 80, 140 mesh conditions in order to observe size effect of waste tire powders.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.125-140
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• 2023

We investigated meiofaunal biofouling (40-1,000 ㎛) on stranded marine plastic debris (hereafter MPD) collected from 8 coastal areas highly affected by plastic pollution located in the southern part of Korea during June, 2021, in order to analyze the abundance and composition of MPD associated organisms. A total of eight shapes of MPD was collected and classified into four types of plastics (LDPE, PET, PP and EPS) based on Resin Identification Coding System. Meiofounal biofouling was identified into 35 taxa belonging to 11 phylum, 10 classes and 12 order, and were numerically dominated by harpacticoids (EPS: 21.6%, PP: 27.1%), nematodes (LDPE: 23.2%) and foraminiferans (PET: 29.6%). Surface area of MPD was negatively correlated with abundances of organisms on the plastic debris (r = -0.487, p < 0.05, n = 24), indicating that abundances (avg. 3,225 inds. 0.1 m^-2) on the smallest area of PP debris (avg. 0.0208 m² ) were higher than those (avg. 50 inds. 0.1 m^-2) on the largest area of LDPE debris (avg. 0.4029 m^-2). Whereas, there was no correlation between surface area of MPD and the number of taxa on the debris (r = 0.147, p = 0.49, n = 24). These results showed that higher abundances of meiofaunal biofouling were observed on the PP material debris than those on the other debris collected from eight hot spots of the southern coastal waters in Korea, associated with not only polymer type and surface area of the PP debris, but also possibly surface microstructure of the PP debris.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.263-273
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• 2015

We estimated the global inflow and stock of plastic marine debris. In South Korea, we estimated that the annual inflow of plastic marine debris (72,956 tons) was about 1.4% of annual plastics consumption (5.2 million tons) in 2012. By applying this 1.4% ratio to global plastics production from 1950 to 2013, we estimated that 4.2 million tons of plastic debris entered the ocean in 2013 and that there is a stock of 86 million tons of plastic marine debris as of the end of 2013, assuming zero outflow. In addition, with a logistic model, if 4% of petroleum is turned into plastics, the final stock of plastic marine debris shall be 199 million tons at the end. As the inflow and the stock are different units of measurement, better indicators to assess the effectiveness of inflow-reducing policies are needed. And, as the pollution from plastic marine debris is almost irreversible, countermeasures to prevent it should be valued more, and stronger preventive measures should be taken under the precautionary principle. As this is a preliminary study based on limited information, further research is needed to clarify the tendency of inflow and stock of plastic marine debris.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.453-460
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• 2009

In order to provide fundamental data for developing high-grade(high-quality and low-pollution) Refuse Derived Fuel(RDF), we analyzed caloric value and HCl content by Municipal Solid Waste(MSW) type. The caloric value was analyzed using calorimeter and HCl content was analyzed using mercury(II) thiocyanate method. In case of paper type the caloric value was 3,060~3,608kcal/kg and the HCl content was 239~6,135ppm. In case of vinyl-plastics the caloric value was 5,946~9,888kcal/kg and the HCl content was 429~455,771ppm. According to the result of quality assessment by MSW type, the calroric value of vinyl-plastics type was showed higher than that of paper type and in case of HCl content the paper type was showed lower than vinyl-plastics type. So, We mixed paper and plastic wastes. The caloric value of mixed MSW(paper and plastics) was 5,046~9,125kcal/kg and the HCl content was 239~6,135ppm. Also, The caloric value of packaging waste(film-plastics) was 5,982~8,045kcal/kg. Therefore It is possible to develop high-grade Refuse Derived Fuel through suitable mixing of paper and plastic in municipal solid waste.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.79-84
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• 2010

Three biological aerated filters (BAFs) composed of a PVC pipe with a diameter of 75 mm were constructed and operated at a waste-water temperature at $13^{\circ}C$. The media used for each BAF were: 5-mm gravel; 5-mm lava rock; 12.5-mm diameter by 15-mm long plastic rings, all with a media depth of 1.7 m. The feedwater, which simulated the effluent of aerated lagoons, had influent soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD) and ammonia concentrations of approximately 50 and 25 mg/L, respectively. For a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of two hours without recirculation, ammonia percent removals were 98.5, 98.9, and 97.8%, for the gravel, lava rock, and plastic rings, respectively. By increasing the effluent recirculation from 100 to 200% for an HRT of one hour, respective ammonia removals improved from 90.1 to 96, 76.5 to 90, and 65.3 to 79.5% for gravel, lava rock, and plastic rings. Based on the ammonia and sCOD loadings for different HRTs, the estimated maximum ammonia loading was approximately 0.6 kg $NH_3-N/m^3$-day for the three BAFs of different media types. The zero-order biotransformation rates for the BAF with gravel were found to be higher than the lava rock and plastic ring media. The results ultimately showed that BAF can be used as an add-on system to aerated lagoons or as a secondary treatment unit to meet ammonia discharge limits.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1561-1572
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• 2022

Plastic pollution has been recognized as a serious environmental problem, and microbial degradation of plastics is a potential, environmentally friendly solution to this. Here, we analyzed and compared microbial communities on waste plastic films (WPFs) buried for long periods at four landfill sites with those in nearby soils to identify microbes with the potential to degrade plastics. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy spectra of these WPFs showed that most were polyethylene and had signs of oxidation, such as carbon-carbon double bonds, carbon-oxygen single bonds, or hydrogen-oxygen single bonds, but the presence of carbonyl groups was rare. The species richness and diversity of the bacterial and fungal communities on the films were generally lower than those in nearby soils. Principal coordinate analysis of the bacterial and fungal communities showed that their overall structures were determined by their geographical locations; however, the microbial communities on the films were generally different from those in the soils. For the pulled data from the four landfill sites, the relative abundances of Bradyrhizobiaceae, Pseudarthrobacter, Myxococcales, Sphingomonas, and Spartobacteria were higher on films than in soils at the bacterial genus level. At the species level, operational taxonomic units classified as Bradyrhizobiaceae and Pseudarthrobacter in bacteria and Mortierella in fungi were enriched on the films. PICRUSt analysis showed that the predicted functions related to amino acid and carbohydrate metabolism and xenobiotic degradation were more abundant on films than in soils. These results suggest that specific microbial groups were enriched on the WPFs and may be involved in plastic degradation.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.164-171
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• 2021

Due to the problem of environmental pollution by plastics, it is necessary to decrease their consumption. In the case of PET bottles, it is essential to reduce the thickness of the bottle for the reduction of plastic used. For manufacturing PET bottles with reduced thickness, it is a prerequisite to design a preform with reduced thickness and study its molding capability. In this study, the injection molding capability was investigated after reducing the body thickness of the preform to 15% and 20%, respectively, for the two preform models currently in use. Injection molding analysis was performed on the existing models and on the models for reduced weight, under the molding conditions of the existing models. Using the computed results, temperature distribution, pressure distribution, deformation and clamping force were compared. Based on the analysis, the injection conditions of the preform model with less thickness were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.188-197
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• 2012

Recently, aluminum ships are constructed more than ever because of the environmental pollution generated by FRP (Fiber Reinforced Plastic) ships. In particular, FRP ships have been replaced by the Aluminum ships. The forming process of the curved aluminum plate has been performed only by labor works without systematic technique. Therefore, it is difficult to construct the aluminum ship that the design satisfies both required propulsion performance and hull design. Present study introduces a MPSF (Multi Point Stretching Forming) that is a flexible manufacturing technique to form large sheet panels of doubly curvature. The hull pieces are stretch-formed over the MPSD (multi-point stretching die) generated by the punch element matrix. In this study, MPSF is applied to deform the doubly curved surfaces of aluminum ship. The forming system including FEA (finite element analysis) of the processes for stretching the plate were carried out by static implicit analysis is suggested. Residual deformation of the surface is modeled by an elasto-plastic contact phenomena while the forming process is simulated by FEA. Finally, the proposed system is also validated, comparing the deformed shape by MPSF with that of object surfaces.