• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.80-89
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• 2015

Nitrate is on the most seriou pollutant encountered in shallow groundwater aquifer in agricultural area. There are various remediation technologies such as ion exchange, reverse osmosis, and biological denitrification to recover from nitrate contamination. Biological denitrification by indigenous microorganism of the technologies has been reviewed and applied on nitrate contaminated groundwater. In this work, we selected the site where the annual nitrate (NO₃⁻) concentration is over 105 mg/L and evaluated denitrification process with sampled soil and groundwater from 3 monitoring wells (MW4, 5, 6). In the results, the nitrate degradation rate in each well (MW 4, 5, and 6) was 25 NO₃⁻ mg/L/day, 6 NO₃⁻ mg/L/day, and 3.4 NO₃⁻ mg/L/day, respectively. Nitrate degradation rate was higher in batch system treated with 2 times higher fumarate as carbon source than control batch system (0.42M fumrate/1M NO₃⁻), comparing with batch system with soil sample. This result indicates that increase of carbon source is more efficient to enhance denitrification rate than addition of soil sample to increase microbial dynamics. In this work, we also confirmed that monitoring method of functional genes (nirK and nosZ) involved in denitrification process can be applied to evaluated denitrifcation process possibility before application of field process such as in-situ denitrification by push-pull test.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.62-69
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• 2014

In the results of monitoring nitrate concentration in more than 8,000 groundwater wells around agro-livestock, the average and maximum nitrate concentration was 9.4 mg/L and 101.2 mg/L, respectively. Since about 31% of the monitoring wells was exceed the quality standard for drinking water, nitrate control such as remediation or source regulation is required to conserve safe-groundwater in South Korea. Typical nitrate-treatment technologies include ion exchange, reverse osmosis, and biological denitrification. Among the treatment methods, biological denitrification by indigenous microorganism has environmental and economic advantages for the complete elimination of nitrate because of lower operating costs compared to other methods. Major mechanism of the process is microbial reduction of nitrate to nitrite and nitrogen gas. Three functional genes (nosZ, nirK, nirS) that encode for the enzyme involved in the pathway. In this work, we tried to develop simple process to determine possibility of natural denitrification reaction by monitoring the functional gene. For the work, the functional genes in nitrate-contaminated groundwater were monitored by using PCR with specific target primers. In the result, functional genes (nosZ and nirK) encoding denitrification enzymes were detected in the groundwater samples. This method can help to determine the possibility of natural-nitrate degradation in target groundwater wells without multiplex experimental process. In addition, for field-remediation application we selected nitrate-contaminated site where 200~600 mg/L of nitrate is continuously detected. To determine the possibility of nitrate-degradation by stimulated-natural attenuation, groundwater was sampled in two different wells of the site and nitrate concentration of the samples was 300 mg/L and 616 mg/L, respectively. Fumarate for different C/N ratio was added into microcosm bottles containing the groundwater to examine denitrification rate depending on carbon concentration. In the result, once 1.5 times more than amount of fumarate stoichiometry required was added, the 616 mg/L of nitrate and 300 mg/L of nitrate were completely degraded in 8 days and 30 days. The nitrite, byproduct of denitrification process, was also completely degraded during the experimental period.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.34-41
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• 2016

Using UF-SWRO hybrid process, pre-blending tests of seawater and brackish water were performed to investigate the effects on removal of boron and humic acid (HA). Feedwater pre-blending was set based on TDS concentration from 15,000 mg/L to 27,000 mg/L and analyzed for boron removal characteristics. Also organics rejection at same TDS concentration range was investigated by injecting HA. Boron concentration appeared to be high as TDS concentration was high ranging from 76.60% to 83.27%, but boron concentration in final produced water was increased up to 0.69 mg/L from 0.48 mg/L. In cases of HA tests at 10 mg/L, 22,500 mg/L TDS appeared to be higher removal rate of 17.59% than a very poor result of 8.43% in 27,000 mg/L. But high HA removal rate of 57.14% was obtained in produced water with 22,500 mg/L TDS containing 10 mg/L of HA and 27,000 mg/L TDS yielded lower boron removal rate of 54.49%. Meanwhile it was found that a relatively high flux and recovery rate were obtained following process when feedwater was injected with HA. It is considered that most of fouling substances were eliminated by binding between HA and $Ca^{2+}$. Thus, when desalination using UF-SWRO with respect to boron and HA, TDS concentration is determined to be advantageous as lower.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.810-815
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• 2011

Concentrated water discharged from seawater desalination process contains a high concentration of $Na^+$ ion. Electrolysis was applied to synthesize NaOH solution from the highly concentrated NaCl solution. The effect of various operating parameters of composited laboratory-scale chlor-alkali (CA) membrane cell was investigated. The operating parameters such as membrane types (CIMS and Nafion membranes), pretreatment of the membrane, flow rate (73 mL/min~200 mL/min), initial $Na^+$ ion concentration (1.5 M, 3M and 5 M) and current (1.5A and 2A) were evaluated. It was observed that synthesis efficiency of NaOH solution with CIMS membrane was higher than that with Nafion membrane, but the durability of CIMS membrane on $Cl_2$ gas was poor. The synthesis efficiency of NaOH solution increased with increasing initial $Na^+$ ion concentration and current, while the efficiency decreased with increasing flow rate using Nafion membrane.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.155-160
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• 2009

This study was carried out to investigate the feasibility of Multi Process of Aerobic Digestion (MPAD) for recycling of swine manure slurry as fertilizer. MPAD consisted of three kinds of difference process which are thermophilic aerobic oxidation (TAO) system, lime solidification system, and reverse osmosis (R/O) membrane system. TAO system was studied well previously for decade. The chemical composition of the lime-treated solid fertilizer was as like that organic matter 17.4%, moisture 34.1%, N 0.9%, P 1.7%, K 0.3%, Ca 12.7%, and which was expected to be useful as acid soil amendment material. The concentrated liquid material produced by R/O membrane system was also expected as a good fertilizer for crops production and soil fertility improvement.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.237-245
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• 2017

This study was aimed at investigating effluent water quality and proposing reuse possibilities for 12 sewage treatment plants discharged more than $5,000m^3/day$ in order to recycle the sewage treatment plant effluent of Jeollabuk-do effectively. Additionally, a laboratory scale test for reprocessing water discharge was performed. Categories of reclaimed sewage water reuse were divided into 7 topics and analyzed a total of 28 items including 16 heavy metals based on water quality standard. As a results, color, BOD, TN, chloride and Electrical Conductivity (EC) exceeded reused water quality standard. In particular, color and TN exceeded in 8 and 5 sewage treatment plants, respectively. The value of chloride and EC were high in sewage treatment plants including the food and industrial wastewater. At 4 sewage treatment plants were possible to reuse without re-treatment. The laboratory scale test was conducted to SandFilter (SF)-Granular Activated Carbon (GAC)-MicroFiltraion (MF)-Reverse Osmosis (RO). Both the removal efficiencies and economic feasibility of total E. coli., color and Suspended Solid (SS) suited in case using the SF-GAC treatment method. The removal of chloride and EC had little effect in the case of SF-GAC-MF system, but RO showed over 90% of removal efficiency. After using SF-GAC process only, the concentration of $UV_{254}$ decreased sharply from 0.3651 /cm to 0.0306 /cm and it showed over 92% of removal efficiency rate. In conclusion, for the effective reuse of sewage discharged water, water quality and the surrounding terrain of treatment plants should be all taken into account. If it needed for the reprocessing, both the selection for treatment and economic combination treatment methods will have to be considered.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.747-752
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• 2014

Iodine-131, an artificial radionuclide, mostly exists as iodide ion ($^{131}I^-$) and iodate ion ($^{131}IO_3{^-}$) in the water, and When a short time contacted, it could not be removed by poly aluminum chloride (PACl) and powdered activated carbon (PAC). Although the removal rate of iodine-131 was not related with turbidity of raw water, it showed linear relationship with contact time with PAC. With the mixture of PACl (24 mg/L or more) and PAC (40 mg/L or more), about 40% of iodine-131 could be removed. Iodine-131 could be removed little by sand filtration, but approximately 100% by granular activated carbon (GAC), both virgin-GAC and spent-GAC. Microfiltration process could remove little iodine-131 while reverse osmosis process could remove about 92% of iodine-131.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.161-170
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• 2009

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of compost leachate and concentrated pig slurry on growth of pepper in substrate hyrdoponic culture. In process of composting, compost leachate was was through a saturated compost heap. Pig slurry was filtered by ultra filtration and concentrated by reverse osmosis process. The pig slurry was mixed with chemical nutrient solution and byproduct based on nitrogen content. Peppers were grown in the seven different hydroponic solutions; compost leachate (CL), concentrated pig slurry (CS), compost leachate + byproduct (CL+BP), concentrated pig slurry + byproduct (CS+BP), compost leachate 50% + nutrient solution 50% (CL+NS), concentrated pig slurry 50% + nutrient solution 50% (CS+NS) and chemical nutrient solution for pepper. The chemical nutrient solution was the standard solution of National Horticulture Research Station for the growth of pepper. The concentration of nutrient solution was adjusted $1.6{\sim}2.0mS/cm$ in EC. The compost leachate and concentrated pig slurry were low in phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), but rich in potassium (K). Growth characteristics as affected by the different nutrient solution were significantly different. Growth and fruit characteristics treated with CL 50+NS 50%CS and 50+NS 50% were similar with NS 100% control plot. The dry weight of stem and leaf were 107.4, 104.2g in plot of NS 100% and CS 50%+NS 50%, respectively. The fruit of pepper showed lowest in the plot treated with 100% concentrated pig slurry, and the growth of pepper severely decreased after application of 100% CS treatment. The yield of pepper was not significantly different between the plots treated with mixture of CS50 + NS50% and 100% nutrient solution treatment. Fruit yield of the compost leachate concentrated pig slurry plot were 59, 14% compared to control, repectively. In conclusion, the mixture solution of 50% of pig slurry and 50% of nutrient solution could be used as a nutrition solution of pepper in hydroponic culture.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.79-86
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to efficiently improve biological sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system of high-concentrated nitrate nitrogen in reverse osmosis (RO) concentrates by total dissolved solids (TDS) regulation. Since a laboratory-scale SBR system had been operated, we had analyzed specific denitrification rate (SDNR) and specific oxygen uptake rate (SOUR) for microbial activity in according to various injection concentration of TDS. As a result, higher injection concentration of TDS decreased SDNR, and delayed denitrification within denitrification process. Moreover, the higher injection concentration of TDS was, the lower microbial activity was during operation of laboratory-scale SBR system. Therefore, the regulation of TDS injection concentration is necessary to improve efficiency of nitrate nitrogen in the biological SBR system, and treatment of calcium ion ($Ca^{2+}$) is also specifically focused to remove nitrate nitrogen. Moreover, analytical data of SDNR and SOUR can be the effective kinetic design parameters to application of biological treatment of RO concentrate by aerobic granular sludge (AGS).

• Membrane Journal
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.165-171
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• 2009

This study was for the evaluation of adaptability of the fiber filter as the pre-treatment of the RO membrane through SDI (Silt Density Index) measurement. The turbidity of raw waters were $0.76{\sim}1.6$ NTU for the effluent of sewer treatment plants (STP) and $2.2{\sim}3.3$ NTU for sea waters and 100 NTU for the surface water. The turbidity of the $2^{nd}$ filtrate of the serially connected two fiber filters was $0.07{\sim}0.25$ NTU and $SDI_{15}$ was $1.4{\sim}2.8$ when the 17% PAC was dosed $10{\sim}30ppm$. Results of the turbidity and $SDI_{15}$ of the $2^{nd}$ filtrate of the fiber filter which were compared with them of the lab scale MF/UF disc filter for the same STP's effluents showed that filtrate quality were enhanced with a little on the order of two stage fiber filter>MF>UF, the difference in $SDI_{15}$ was only $0.7{\sim}1.0$. So, the filtrate of the serially connected two stage fiber filter could satisfy $SDI_{15}$ 5.0 safely which was normally required for the feed water by the RO membrane supplier and it means the serially connected two stage fiber filter could be applied as the pre-treatment process of the RO membrane.