• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.137-143
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• 2013

The diversity and distribution of methanogenic archaea in a four-compartment anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) treating sugar refinery wastewater were investigated by polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE). At an organic loading rate of 5.33 kg $COD/m^3{\cdot}day$, the ABR could perform steadily with the mean chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of 94.8% and the specific $CH_4$ yield of 0.21 l/g $COD_{removed}$. The $CH_4$ content in the biogas was increased along the compartments, whereas the percentage of $H_2$ was decreased, indicating the distribution characteristics of the methanogens occurred longitudinally down the ABR. A high phylogenetic and ecological diversity of methanogens was found in the ABR, and all the detected methanogens were classified into six groups, including Methanomicrobiales, Methanosarcinales, Methanobacteriales, Crenarchaeota, Arc I, and Unidentified. Among the methanogenic population, the acid-tolerant hydrogenotrophic methanogens including Methanoregula and Methanosphaerula dominated the first two compartments. In the last two compartments, the dominant methanogenic population was Methanosaeta, which was the major acetate oxidizer under methanogenic conditions and could promote the formation of granular sludge. The distribution of the hydrogenotrophic (acid-tolerant) and acetotrophic methanogens in sequence along the compartments allowed the ABR to perform more efficiently and steadily.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2011

Arsenic is one of the most abundant contaminant found in waste mine tailings and soil around refinery, Because of its carcinogenic property, the countries like United States of America and Europe have made stringent regulations which govern the concentration of arsenic in soil. The study focuses on solidification/stabilization for removal of arsenic from soil. Cement was used to solidify/stabilize the abandoned soil primarily contaminated with arsenic (up to 68.92 mg/kg) in and around refinery. Solidified/stabilized (s/s) forms in the range of cement contents 5-30 wt % were evaluated to determine the optimal binder content. Revised Korean standard leaching tests (KSLT), toxicity characteristic leaching procedures (TCLP), Old Korea standard leaching test and revised Korea standard leaching test were used for chemical characterization of the S/S forms. The addition of 10 % cement remarkably reduced the leachability of arsenic in contaminated soil. The concentration of As in leachate of TCLP, KSLT, and old KSLT for soil are below the standard. However that in leachate of revised KSLT is above the standard. Because of extraction fluid used in revised KSLT is very strong acid. It is arsenic in s/s with binder should be exhaustingly leached. Therefore S/S process would not be available for As treatment in soil in Korea.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.340-349
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• 2016

Electro oxidation system was designed in this study for the reduction of COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) from high-strength wastewater, produced during refinery turnaround period. First, BDD (Boron Doped Diamond) electrode was synthesized and electro oxidation system of actual industrial wastewater was developed by adopting the synthesized BDD electrode. The experiments were carried out under various operating conditions under certain range of current density, pH, electrolyte concentration and reaction time. Secondly, reaction kinetics were identified based on the experimental results, and the kinetics were embedded into a genetic mathematical model of the electro oxidation system. Lastly, design and operating parameters of the process were optimized to maximize the efficiency of the pretreatment system. The coefficient of determination ($R^2$) of the model was found to be 0.982, and it proved high accuracy of the model compared with experimental results.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2010

The phenolic compounds are a major contaminant class often found in industrial wastewaters and the biological treatment is an alternative tool commonly employed for their removal. In this sense, monitoring microbial community dynamics is crucial for a successful wastewater treatment. This work aimed to monitor the structure and activity of the bacterial community during the operation of a laboratory-scale continuous submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR), using PCR and RT-PCR followed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and 16S rRNA libraries. Multivariate analyses carried out using DGGE profiles showed significant changes in the total and metabolically active dominant community members during the 4-week treatment period, explained mainly by phenol and ammonium input. Gene libraries were assembled using 16S rDNA and 16S rRNA PCR products from the fourth week of treatment. Sequencing and phylogenetic analyses of clones from the 16S rDNA library revealed a high diversity of taxa for the total bacterial community, with predominance of Thauera genus (ca. 50%). On the other hand, a lower diversity was found for metabolically active bacteria, which were mostly represented by members of Betaproteobacteria (Thauera and Comamonas), suggesting that these groups have a relevant role in the phenol degradation during the final phase of the SMBR operation.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.570-576
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• 2001

Thermophilic aerobic bacteria were applied in the degradation of industrial waste activated sludge (WAS) on a laboratory scale expreiment. The performance of digestion was estimated by measuring the reduction of total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and total organic carbon (TOC). Among three strains of Bacillus stearothermophilus and three strains of Thermus species, B. stearothemophilus ATCC 31197 showed the best overall efficiency level for the degradation of industrial WAS, which was collected from a wastewater treatment plant in an oil refinery factory. Industrial WAS coul be successfully detraded in a batch digestion with ATCC 31197. The stability of the digestion process with ATCC 31197 was successfully verified by semi-continuous (fill-and-draw) digestion experiment. From the results of this study, it was shown that the thermophilic aerobic digestion process with ATCC 31197 could efficiently be applied to the degradation of industrial WAS.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.315-327
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• 2005

The total of 35 target VOCs (volatile organic compounds), which were included in the TO-14, was selected to develop a VOCs' source profile matrix of the Yeosu Petrochemical Complex and to test its collinearity by singular value decomposition(SVD) technique. The VOCs collected in canisters were sampled from 12 different sources such as 8 direct emission sources (refinery, painting, wastewater treatment plant, incinerator, petrochemical processing, oil storage, fertilizer plant, and iron mill) and 4 general area sources (gasoline vapor emission, graphic art activity, vehicle emission, and asphalt paving activity) in this study area, and then those samples were analyzed by GC/MS. Initially the resulting raw data for each profile were scaled and normalized through several data treatment steps, and then specific VOCs showing major weight fractions were intensively reviewed and compared by introducing many other related studies. Next, all of the source profiles were tested in terms of degree of collinearity by SVD technique. The study finally could provide a proper VOCs' source profile in the study area, which can give opportunities to apply various receptor models properly including chemical mass balance (CMB).

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.107-113
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• 2019

Recently, due to global warming, the trend shows an increase in number of lightning strikes which increase risk regarding industry infrastructures. Especially in case where the lightning strikes infrastructures including refinery, petorchemical plant facilities or storage tanks, it can cause power failures, electrical machine malfunction and damage which can lead to fire explosion and multiple calamities. Therefore, detailed case studies must be conducted through a systematic research regarding lightning strike accidents in order to understand its mechanism and devise preventive measures. This paper aims to study cases of explosion regarding waste water storage tanks in refineries and petrochemical plants in order to analyze its root cause and provide preventive measures for avoiding lightning related incidents.