• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.307-311
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• 2014

This study investigated the effects of polyurethane foam on continuous hydrogen production from mixed wastes. Molasses was co-fermented with non-pretreated sewage sludge in a sequencing batch reactor. The results indicated that the addition of polyurethane foams as a microbial carrier in the reactor mitigated biomass loss at HRT 12 h, while most of the biomass was washed out during the operation period with no carrier. There was a stable hydrogen production rate of $0.4L-H_2/l/d$ in the carrier-sequencing batch reactor. Suspended biomass in the carrier-reactor indicated it possessed the highest specific hydrogen production rate ($241{\pm}4ml-H_2/g\;VSS/d$) when compared to that of biomass on the surface ($133{\pm}10ml-H_2/g\;VSS/d$) or inner carrier ($95{\pm}14ml-H_2/g\;VSS/d$).

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.214-219
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• 2009

This study examined the removal efficiency of the nitrogen and phosphorus in order to compensate for the combined process of ATAD(Autothermal Thermophilic Aaerobic Digestion) and EGSB(Expended Granular Sludge Bed), which are treatment methods for livestock wastewater, by introducing SBR(Sequencing Batch Reactor) as post-treatment process. The analysis on the treatment efficiency of each operation mode showed that, in the case of T-N, the treatment efficiency were 67.1% and 74.2% for Run-1 and Run-2, respectively, and in the case of T-P, the values were 71.2 and 74.1, respectively, which are indicating that the treatment efficacy is higher in the condition of Run-1, in which the time period of Anoxic and Aerobic segments were increased. In addition, the result of analyzing removal characteristics of nitrogen and phosphorus by Influx load showed that removal efficiency of nitrogen was better in the case of high influx load than in the case of low influx load. Regardless of Influx load, phosphorus showed constant influx concentration, so that removal efficiency of phosphorus was influenced littler by Influx load than that of nitrogen. This study also fed methanol as an external carbon source and performed experiment to induce denitrification under anoxic condition by using nitrate among nitrogen compounds of SBR reactor, and the results showed that intermittent feeding was more effective in Nitrogen Removal than composite feeding.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.465-469
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• 2006

Two mesophilic trickling bed bioreactors filled with two different types of media, hydrophilic- and hydrophobic-cubes, were designed and tested for hydrogen production via anaerobic fermentation of sucrose. Each reactor consisted of a column packed with polymeric cubes and inoculated with heat-treated sludge obtained from anaerobic digestion tank. A defined medium containing sucrose was fed with changing flow rate into the capped reactor, hydraulic retention time and recycle rate. Hydrogen concentrations in gas-phase were constant, averaging 40% for all conditions tested. Hydrogen production rates increased up to $10.5 L{\cdot};h^{-1}{\cdot}L^{-1}$ of reactor when influent sucrose concentrations and recycle rates were varied. Hydrophobic media provided higher value of hydrogen production rate than hydrophilic media at the same operation conditions. No methane was detected when the reactor was under a normal operation. The major fermentation by-products in the liquid effluent of the both trickling biofilters were acetate and butyrate. The reactor filled with hydrophilic media became clogged with biomass and bio gas, requiring manual cleaning of the system, while no clogging occurred in the reactor with hydrophobic media. In order to make long-term operation of the reactor filled with hydrophilic media feasible, biofilm accumulation inside the media in the reactor with hydrophilic media and biogas produced from the reactor will need to be controlled through some process such as periodical backwashing or gas-purging. These tests using trickling bed biofilter with hydrophobic media demonstrate the feasibility of the process to produce hydrogen gas in a trickle-bed type of reactor. A likely application of this reactor technology could be hydrogen gas recovery from pre-treatment of high carbohydrate-containing wastewaters.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.125-130
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• 2012

In these days, there has been increased focus on global warming and the exhaustion of resources recently caused by the heavy consumption of fossil resources. In order to resolve these problems, biomass is increasingly gaining international attention as a renewable energy source. Biogas derived from various biomass is environmental friendly alternative fuel for power generation, heating and vehicle fuel. Large amounts of sewage sludge, food waste and manure are generated from human activity, but these organic wastes contain high levels of organic matter and thus they are potential substrates for producing methane of biogas. The biogas contains 60% of highly concentrated methane, which is expected to be used effectively as energy. In this paper, we investigate the status of biogas in Korea as an alternative energy.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.20 no.1 s.55
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• pp.64-75
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• 2005

The total production of food waste was about 11,398ton/day('03) in Korea. Also, food waste was treated by landfill, incineration, reuse and anaerobic digestion. The method of food waste treatment depended primarily on landfill. However, the method of landfill causing social problems was prevented to treat food waste in the first of January 2005.12) Thus, anaerobic digestion is an important method to treat food waste because of possibility of energy recovery as methane gas. In this study, the possibility of food waste treatment containing high organic material and low pH in the one stage anaerobic reactor to save cost and time and energy recovery using $CH_{4}$ gas by the hybrid anaerobic reactor (HAR) was measured. The HAR was designed by combing the merits of the anaerobic filter (AF) to minimize the microorganism shock when food waste of very low pH was injected and up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) to prevent from plugging and channeling phenomena by large suspended solids when semi solids were injected. Granule was packed in the section of HAR. The purpose of the BMP experiment was to measure the amount of methane generated when organic material was resolved under anaerobic conditions, to grasp bio resolution of organic material. Total accumulated methane production per VS amount was $0.471(m^{3}/\cal{kg}\;VS)$. So, the value was about $81.2\%$ of theoretical methane production which was $0.58(m^{3}/\cal{kg}\;VS)$ by elementary analysis and organic matter removal velocity (K) was $0.18(d^{-1})$. From these results, food waste was treated by anaerobic treatment. From this study, $CH_{4}$ generation from food waste (11,398 ton/day) could be estimated. By using an energy conversion factor of Braun's study, $5.97KWh/m^{3}\;CH4,\;60\%\;of\;CH_{4}$ gas generation, the amount of total energy producing food waste is to 6,727MWh/day. It could be confirmed that energy recovery using $CH_{4}$ gas was possible. Above these results, food waste containing organic matters of high concentration could be treated in HRT 30 days under an anaerobic condition, using the hybrid anaerobic reactor and reuse of $CH_{4}$ gas was possible.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.21-28
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• 1986

Conversion of anaerobic mesophilic digestion to thermophilic range has been investigated using a synthetic sludge. When temperature was raised at a rate of 2, 1, and $0.5^{\circ}C$ per day with continuous feeding, a lower reaction rate was observed with a high rate of temperature change. Although methane fermentation ceased completely for an digesters at thermophilic temperature, acid fermentation continued. Methane fermentation was never achieved even with neutralization during 6 months of resting. The methane formers were completely inactivated by the temperature shock and accumulation of volatile acids due to continuous feeding, while the acid formers lost biological activity quickly, but gradually acclimated to a high temperature. When temperature was raised without feeding, successful thermophilic digestion was achieved with 1 day of resting at thermophilic temperature at a rate of $1^{\circ}C$ per day, and also achieved with 20 days of resting at a direct increase. Conversion to a thermophilic range is easily achieved with resting. A short period of resting is required at a low rate of temperature increase, while a long period of resting enough to balance methane formers with acid fermers makes a conversion possile when temperature is raised at a high rate. Soured thermophilic digesters were recovered after seeding of mesophilic sludges, and sludge seeding could be a good method of start-up, conversion, or recovery of a thermophilic digester. Significant amount of thermophiles seemed to be present in the mesophilic digesters.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.524-531
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• 2012

The objective of this study was to investigate the organic solubilization (SCOD) and improvement of methane production for pig slurry by thermal hydrolysis. A sludge cake was pretreated by thermal hydrolysis at different reaction temperatures (200, 220, 250, $270^{\circ}C$). Ultimate methane potential (Bu) was determined at several substrate and inoculum (S/I) ratios (1:9, 3:7, 5:5, 7:3 in volume ratio) by biochemical methane potential (BMP) assay for 73 days. Pig slurry SCOD were obtained with 98.4~98.9% at the reaction temperature of $200{\sim}270^{\circ}C$. Theoretical methane potentials ($B_{th}$) of thermal hydrolysates at the reaction temperature of $200^{\circ}C$, $220^{\circ}C$, $250^{\circ}C$, $270^{\circ}C$ were 0.631, 0.634, 0.705, $0.748Nm^3\;kg^{-1}-VS_{added}$, respectively. $B_u$ of $200^{\circ}C$ thermal hydrolysate were decreased from $0.197Nm^3\;kg^{-1}-VS_{added}$ to $0.111Nm^3\;kg^{-1}-VS_{added}$ with the changes of S/I ratio from 1:9 to 7:3, and also $B_u$ of different thermal hydrolysates ($220^{\circ}C$, $250^{\circ}C$, $270^{\circ}C$) showed same tendency to $B_u$ of $200^{\circ}C$ thermal hydrolysate according to the changes of S/I ratio. Anaerobic biodegradability ($B_u/B_{th}$) of $200^{\circ}C$ thermal hydrolysate at different S/I ratios was decreased from 32.2% for S/I ratio of 1:9 to 17.6% for S/I ratio of 7:3. $B_u/B_{th}$ of $220^{\circ}C$, $250^{\circ}C$, and $270^{\circ}C$ thermal hydrolysat were decreased from 36.4% to 9.6%, from 31.3% to 0.8%, and from 26.6% to 0.8%, respectively, with the S/I ratio change, respectively. In this study, the rise of thermal reaction temperature caused the decrease of anaerobic digestibility and methane production while organic materials of pig slurry were more solubilized.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.65-78
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• 2018

According to the in social aspects such as population growth, urbanization and industrialization, development of livestock industry by meat consumption, amount of organic wastes (containing sewage sludge and food waste, animal manure, etc) has been increased annually in South Korea. Precise monitoring of 11 organic wastes biogas facilities were conducted. The organic decomposition rate of organic wastewater was 68.2 % for food wastes, 66.8 % for animal manure and 46.2 % for sewage sludge and 58.8 % for total organic wastes. As a result of analyzing the biogas characteristics before and after the pretreatment, the total average of the whole facility was measured to be 560 ppm using iron salts and desulfurization, and decreased to 40 ppm when the reduction efficiency was above 90 %. Particularly, when iron salt is injected into the digester, the treatment efficiency is about 93 %, and the average is reduced to 150 ppm. In the case of dehumidification, the absolute humidity and the relative humidity were analyzed. The dew point temperature of the facility where the dehumidification facility was well maintained as $14^{\circ}C$, the absolute humidity was $12.6g/m^3$, and the relative humidity was 35 %. Therefore, it is necessary to compensate for the disadvantages of biogasification facilities of organic waste resources and optimize utilization of biogas and improve operation of facilities. This study was conducted to optimize biogas utilization of type of organic waste(containing sewage sludge and food waste, animal manure) through precision monitoring.

• Journal of agriculture & life science
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.147-155
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• 2016

This study presented a measure for turning by-products, released from land farming sites, into resources. The measure involved adding food by-products such as rice bran and nonfat soybean to the sludge, released from the eel farming sites, inoculating the lactic acid bacteria, Aspergillus oryzae, and Bacillus subtilis by step, fermenting them, and measuring the changed ingredients of the fermented fodder. The water content of the fermented fodder by the step of preparation was the first-step fermented product (14.6%) using the lactic acid bacteria, and the second and third-stage fermented product (33.0% and 34.0% respectively) using Aspergillus oryzae and Bacillus subtilis. The pH level was found to be 5.38 in the first-step fermented product due to the secretion of lactic acid caused by the lactic acid bacteria, and the pH level of the second and third-stage fermented products was 5.66 and 7.26, respectively, showing that the pH level increased. The phytic acid content was 0.126g/100g in the first-step fermented product, 0.004g/100g in the second-stage fermented product, and 0.093g/100g in the third-stage fermented product. The measurement of nitrogen content revealed that the amino nitrogen content was high with 1226.37mg% in the second-stage fermented product, and a little lower with 710.18mg% in the third-stage fermented product. The ammonium nitrogen content increased from 0.988mg/kg in the first-stage fermented product to 1.502mg/kg in the third-stage fermented product. Total nitrogen content increased to 2.78% in the first-stage fermented product, 4.08% in the second-stage fermented product, and 4.85% in the third-stage fermented product. As fermentation continued with the three microbes, the phytic acid decreased, and the protein decomposition rate increased. Also, due to the 3 step fermentation, the low-molecule nitrogen ingredient content increased, suggesting that the fodder was developed to offer high digestion and absorption.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.95-103
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• 2018

As a guideline for desulfurization and dehumidification pretreatment facility for optimizing utilization of biogas, the $H_2S$ concentration is set at 150 % which can be treated with iron salts, dehumidification is the optimum value for generator operation, and the relative humidity applied at the utilization of biogas in EU is set at 60 %. We have set up the generator facility guidelines to optimize utilization of biogas. The appropriate amount of biogas should be at least 90 % of the total gas generation, and the capacity of generator facility should be set at 20~30 %. In order to equalize the pressure of the incoming gas the generator, a gas equalization tank should be installed and the generator room average temperature should be kept at $45^{\circ}C$ or less. Since the gas is not produced at a certain methane concentration in the digester, the efficiency is lowered. Therefore, it is required to install an air fuel ratio control system according to the change in methane concentration. Therefore, it is necessary to compensate for the disadvantages of biogasification facilities of organic waste resources and optimize utilization of biogas and improve operation of facilities. This study was conducted to optimize biogas utilization of type of organic waste(containing sewage sludge and food waste, animal manure), investigate the facilities problem and propose design, operation guidelines such as pre-treatment facilities and generators.