• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.52 no.3
• /
• pp.279-288
• /
• 2014

Nuclear energy is expected to meet the growing energy demand while avoiding CO2 emission. However, the problem of accumulating spent fuel from current nuclear power plants which is mainly composed of uranium oxides should be addressed. One of the most practical solutions is to reduce the spent oxide fuel and recycle it. Next-generation fuel cycles demand innovative features such as a reduction of the environmental load, improved safety, efficient recycling of resources, and feasible economics. Pyroprocessing based on molten salt electrolysis is one of the key technologies for reducing the amount of spent nuclear fuel and destroying toxic waste products, such as the long-life fission products. The oxide reduction process based on the electrochemical reduction in a LiCl-$Li_2O$ electrolyte has been developed for the volume reduction of PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor) spent fuels and for providing metal feeds for the electrorefining process. To speed up the electrochemical reduction process, the influences of the feed form for the cathode and the type of anode shroud on the reduction rate were investigated.

• Analytical Science and Technology
• /
• v.26 no.5
• /
• pp.333-339
• /
• 2013

This study was conducted to build up the inventories of Pb isotopic compositions of major Pb pollution sources in South Korea. Since non-ferrous metal smelters are one of major anthropogenic sources, two smelters for zinc, each one of smelter for lead and copper were selected for the study. The Pb concentrations and isotopic compositions of metal ores, wastewater, sludge, metal rod and produced sulfuric acid were analysed to understand the Pb isotopic patterns in environment. The isotopic ratio, $^{206}Pb/^{207}Pb$, of zinc ores from zinc smelter were in the range of 1.179~1.198 and the ratio of waste, flue gas and products samples were 1.105~1.147. This results implied that the isotopic patterns of output samples showed mixing patterns between two distinct metal ore soerces. In 2011, major importing countries of zinc ore were Australia, Peru and Mexico. Thus Pb isotopic patterns from zinc smelter is originated from the mixing patterns between less radiogenic Australian ores and more radiogenic South America's ores. Lead smelters also showed the same mixing patterns with those of zinc smelters. However copper smelter showed same Pb isotopic patterns with more radiogenic South America's ores.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.75-82
• /
• 2009

The regulation of emission concentration for stream water qualities doesn't control quantitative increase on pollution loads, it has limits for improvement of water qualities. Total water pollution load management system(TMDL) can control the total amount of pollutant in waste water which is allowed to assign and control the total discharged pollutant loads in a permissible level. When it comes to generated wastewater value of TMDL system, there is difference between calculated value based on individual pollutant unit load and observed value. Calculated sewer inflow, calculated sewer outflow, measured sewer inflow, and measured sewer outflow at dry season are $26,460.9m^3$/d, $17,778.6m^3$/d, $17,106.1m^3$/d and $19,033.9m^3$/d respectively, Calculated sewer inflow, calculated sewer outflow, measured sewer inflow, and measured sewer outflow at rainy season are $49,512.2m^3$/d, $18,628.7m^3$/d, $30,918.2m^3$/d, $19,700.7m^3$/d respectively. This result presents the necessity to acquire the precise observed data to fulfill the efficient TMDL system.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.325-332
• /
• 2010

This study was conducted with the experiment of solubilisation of excess sludge by microbubble ozone process. To improve ozone contact efficiency, microbubble ozones which its diameter were the avearge 30 ${\mu}m$, microbubble size less than 40 ${\mu}m$ occupied about over 90% of all. In treating sludge using microbubble ozones, in case microbubble ozones are injected at microbubble ozone dosage of 0.34 g $O_3/g$ SS or less regardless of sludge concentration, microbubble ozone consumption rate was found to be 100% with no emission of waste ozones. In treating sludges by each concentration, in case the initial SS concentration of sludge is set to 6,447 mg/L, 5,557 mg/L, 3,180 mg/L, 1,092 mg/L and 515 mg/L, the amount of removed SS tended to increase with increase in initial SS concentration for the same microbubble ozone dosage, and treatment of sludge with high initial SS concentration was effective in raising the oxidation efficiency of microbubble ozones. On the other hand, as a result of reviewing acid, alkali and microbubble ozone treatment as composite treatment of sludge, use of acid treatment for the pre-treatment of microbubble ozone was more effective than alkali treatment, and in case of treatment at microbubble ozone dosage 0.05g $O_3/g$ SS with the concentration of sulfuric acid infused in the sludge, the amount of removed SS, 153.9 g, was 1.9 times more than 81.2 g the amount of single treatment of microbubble ozone.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.25-34
• /
• 2005

The study aimed to develop a tractor drawn animal slurry manure sub-soil injector for arable land and thus, can reduce the waste management cost through effective treatment and utilization of animal slurry manure. The application of animal slurry manure to agricultural land will probably be one of the most effective ways to enrich the soil with vital nutrients. However, some existing slurry manure spenders are not suitable in the field because of their adverse effects to the environment. Based on this premise, a prototype was designed and assembled using 5 sub-soiling standards attached to the sin injector device. The traction force of the Prototype measured in the depth of 10 cm and 15 cm from the ground surface of a paddy field was 1,062 kgf and 1,214 kgf, respectively. A unique feature of the machine was that there was an equal volume of slurry manure flowing from each delivery pipe and regulated by a pressurized container that was likewise synchronized with the speed of the tractor The sub-soiling manure injection system can mitigate or reduce the harmful emission of obnoxious gases and malodor during the injection operation.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.399-404
• /
• 2021

From 1 January 2020, the limit for Sulphur in fuel oil used on board ships operating outside designated emission control areas will be reduced to 0.5 %. This regulation by international maritime organization (IMO) is able to significantly reduce the amount of Sulphur oxides (SOx) discharging from ships and should have environmental advantages and health for all over the world. To meet the regulation, in these days, wet scrubber system is being actively developed. However, this process leads to make washing wastewater. In this study, we evaluated ion exchange resin system in accordance with scrubber wastewater discharge regulation by IMO. Theoretical wastewater used as feed solution of lab scale water treatment systems. The results revealed that nitrate ion was removed selectively in spite of high TDS wash wastewater solution depending on ion exchange resin property. Moreover, it was possible to improve efficiency of the system by optimizing operating conditions.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.31 no.10
• /
• pp.960-968
• /
• 2021

Since microalgae research started on late 18 century, they have been recognized as one of the most important bioresources used in bioindustry. Owing to the large efforts paid to industrial application of this microorganisms, their importance on food/feed and bioactive compounds has been further extending into the environmental research areas including alternative energy resources, mitigation of the carbon emission, and waste-water treatment. However, despite the importance on their industrial application, the fundamental research field related to the long-term preservation of microalgae culture has not received much attention. However, a less labor intensive and cost-efficient preservation technology enabling biologically active and stable microalgae-culture provides a key success factor in the biotechnological application. Therefore, this study investigated various cutting-edge microalgae cryopreservation technologies currently developed so far, mainly targeting Chlorophyta, which occupies the largest taxon in the classification system of microalgae. In addition, for the development of successful cryopreservation technique, the key factors such as temperature control effect and preservative effect during cryopreservation of microalgae culture were investigated. In addition, the problems with current preservation technology that is being used in Korean domestic biological resource banks and the international microalgal resource banks are described. According to our investigation, currently no standard method for long-term preservation of microalgae is available due to their various morphological and physiological characteristics. To overcome such issues, much more efforts on fundamental research area on the identification of specific biomarker used for microalgae taxonomical classification and further systemic approaches based on strain-specific cryopreservation methods needed.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.236-245
• /
• 2021

It is very important for structure designer to understand the service life variation since a wide range of service life is evaluated with changing exposure conditions and design parameters. Recently, for zero-carbon, waste plastic has been used for fuel for clinker production and this yields increase in chloride content in cement. This study is for evaluation of changing service life in the concrete with increasing initial chloride content due to usage of plastic-SRF(Solid Refuse Fuel) considering various exposure conditions and design parameters. For this, 4 levels of initial chloride content were assumed, and the service life was assessed using LIFE 365 program considering various environmental conditions including 3 levels of surface chloride content. As for analysis parameters, critical/initial chloride content, blast furnace slag powder replacement ratio, W/B(Water to Binder) ratio, cover depth, and unit mass for binder are adopted. Service life decreases with increasing initial chloride content and a significant reduction of service life is not evaluated permitting up to 1,000ppm of initial chloride content. With increasing slag replacement ratio, a longer service life can be secured since blast furnace slag powder has the effect of reducing the diffusion of external chloride ions and fixing the free chloride. It is thought that increasing initial chloride content up to European standard is helpful for enhancing sustainability and reducing carbon emission. Though the reduction in service life due to an increase in the initial chloride content is not significant in slag-concrete with low surface chloride content, careful consideration for mixing design should be paid for the exposure environment with high surface chloride content.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Environmental Technology
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.586-599
• /
• 2018

To learn about the discharge facility management of industrial complexes and the discharge characteristics of water pollutants in drainage, 11 sites were selected, including 16 discharge companies of Hanam Industrial Complex and High-Tech Scientific Industrial Complex and 4 drainages of the industrial complexes. Through the analysis, it was found that 12(75 %) of the 16 discharge companies had specific hazardous substances other than those registered at the time of installation and registration of the wastewater discharge facilities. In terms of other pollutants, 11 of the 16 companies(about 69 %) were found to have pollution items that differed from those included in approved and reported items lists. In addition, Formaldehyde, Mn, Zn, and Ba were discharged from 11 out of the 16 companies. Significantly, one of the specific hazardous water pollutants, Cu, was detected in all discharge facilities at levels from 0.029 to 0.929 mg/L. Even in major complexes drainages and the main stream of the Yeongsangang. As, Dichloromethane, and Chloroform were detected. However, it cannot be conclusively claimed that it is probable that these substances were actually discharged from the above facilities because research was only done in a limited range(Class 1 to Class 3), and therefore, further research is required. In the future, it will be necessary to expand the research scope of the discharge companies in order to establish a database of water pollutants, and to improve permits and reported items based on discharged substances.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.12 no.7
• /
• pp.23-29
• /
• 2011

The oxidation slag has been widely used in civil engineering project, whereas the reduced slag from electric furnace has yet to be applied. Consequently in order to find out the recycling method in civil engineering field, the mineral compositions of the reduced slag were analyzed and some tests on water quality were performed to estimate the potential release of toxic compounds. Slag-soil mixtures of 0, 10, 20 and 30%(dry weight) soil were prepared in lysimeter columns and the effluents were collected with the period of one, two and four week options in closed system, respectively. The result from qualitative and quantitative analysis using X-ray Diffraction(XRD) and X-ray Fluorescence(XRF) indicates that the main mineral of the reduced slag is $Ca_2(SiO_4)$, a kind of calcium silicate. Also, the leaching medium analyzed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy(ICP-OES) showed that main heavy metals such as Al, Fe and Mn are included in the reduced slag due to the effect of steel production process. It can be seen that the leachate does not violate the regulation guide line of waste material of heavy metal. Also the pH levels were increased from pH 6.9 for 0% soil to pH 10 for 30% soil. However the influence on leachate circulation period of one through four weeks was negligible.