• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.725-732
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• 2014

Phytoremediation is a technology to mitigate the pollutant concentrations such as metals, pesticides, solvents, oils, or others in contaminated water and soils with plants. The plants absorb contaminants through the root and store them in the root, stems, or leaves. Rapid growth trees such as poplar are used to remove low concentrated contaminants eco-friendly and economically in a wide contaminated region. This study was practiced to evaluate an activated carbon production system by using poplar wood discarded after phytoremediation. Life cycle assessment methodology was used to analyze environmental impacts of the system, and the functional unit was one ton of harvested poplar. It was estimated that the small size rotary kiln for activated carbon production from poplar wood had an environmental benefit in optimized conditions to minimize energy consumptions. The results of an avoided environmental impact analysis show that the system contribute to reduce environmental impacts in comparison with activated carbon production from coconut shell.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2012

As one of the methods for recycling the FRP from the waste ships, separation of roving layer from the mat has some merits in a sense of the eco-friendly and economical recycling process. Similar characteristics, however, between the roving and the mat even with different ratio of the resin and the glass and the thickness of the roving, much thinner than the mat, make the mechanically automatic differentiation difficult. In this study spectrochemical differentiation between the two layers has been made using boiling concentrated sulfuric acid, methanol and isopropanol solution saturated with KOH, or hydrogen fluoride (HF) solution. Furthermore efficiently coloring water-soluble dye following the HF treatment makes the roving layer more distinguishable photophysically. The layer differentiation and the automatic layer distraction move up the date of simple and automatic separation process for the waste FRP.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.138-147
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• 2011

Xylogone ganodermophthora, an ascomycetous fungus, is known to cause yellow rot in the cultivated mushroom Ganoderma lucidum. In this study, we investigated the dissemination of this fungal pathogen in G. lucidum grown in cultivation houses. To determine the role of ascospores produced by X. ganodermophthora in disease development, we constructed a green fluorescent protein-labeled transgenic strain. This X. ganodermophthora strain produced a number of ascomata in the tissues of oak logs on which G. lucidum had been grown and on the mushroom fruit bodies. However, the ascospores released from the ascomata were not able to germinate on water agar or potato dextrose agar. Moreover, less than 0.1% of the ascospores showed green fluorescence, indicating that most ascospores of X. ganodermophthora were not viable. To determine the manner in which X. ganodermophthora disseminates, diseased oak logs were either buried in isolated soil beds as soil-borne inocula or placed around soil beds as air-borne inocula. In addition, culture bottles in which G. lucidum mycelia had been grown were placed on each floor of a five-floor shelf near X. ganodermophthora inocula. One year after cultivation, yellow rot occurred in almost all of the oak logs in the soil beds, including those in beds without soil-borne inocula. In contrast, none of the G. lucidum in the culture bottles was infected, suggesting that dissemination of X. ganodermophthora can occur via the cultivation soil.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.58-64
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• 2014

Management of organic waste such as livestock manure has been considered as very important issue in terms of the environment. The anaerobic digestion of livestock manure become more attractive treatment method and has been widely applied. In this work, the properties of the residue after the anaerobic digestion of livestock manure was evaluated for providing the basic data to develop new application. The lignin and the ash contents of the residue were much higher than those of other biomass such as wood. The components of the residue were also analyzed with SEM-EDS and Elemental Analyzer. The addition of the residue into the handsheet paper resulted in the higher bulk and he higher air permeability with the loss of the strength properties. The water holding capacity of the handsheet were increased until the 40 % addition of the residue.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.570-574
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• 2010

The main function of conventional insulation materials is only to block the heat transfer and reduce heat loss from the building. On the other hand, thermal storage materials can work as an energy saver by absorbing or emitting heat within a specific temperature range. Thermal storage materials for building can maintain a constant temperature by effectively regulating the cycle of indoor temperature. As a result, we can enhance the performance of a cooling and heating system efficiently. In this study, phase change materials (PCMs) were added as thermal storage materials into gypsum boards which are extensively used for building material and we found out the thermal environmental characteristics. In addition, we checked out some problems when applying the thermal storage materials to buildings. Finally, This study set out to examine the degree of environmental-friendly characteristics of thermal storage building materials by analyzing the amount of TVOC and HCHO contents with the possibility of pollutants emission.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.198-198
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• 2011

Organocatalysis is a relatively new and popular area within the field of chiral molecule synthesis. It is one of the main branches of enantioselective synthesis with enzymatic and organometallic catalysis. In recent years, immense high quality studies on catalysis by chiral secondary amines were reported. These progresses instantly led to different organocatalytic activation concepts, so thousands of researchers from academia and the chemical industry are currently involved in this field and new ideas, new approaches, and creative thinking have been rapidly emerged. Organocatalysts, some of which are natural products, appear to solve the problems of metal catalysts. Compared to metal-based catalysis, they have many advantages including savings in cost, time, and energy, easier experimental procedure, and reduction of chemical waste. These benefits originate from the following factors. First, organocatalysts are generally stable in oxygen and water in the atmosphere, there is no need for special equipments or experimental techniques to operate under anhydrous or anaerobic conditions. Second, organic reagents are naturally available from biological materials as single enantiomers that they are easy and cheap to prepare which makes them suitable for small-scale to industrial-scale reactions. Third, in terms of safety related catalysis, small organic molecules are non-toxic and environmentally friendly. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to develop novel synthetic methods and design for various organocatalyst. Furthermore, it is expected that these organocatalysts can be applied to a variety of asymmetric reactions and study the transition state of these reactions using a metal sulface. Here, we report the synthesis of unprecedented organocatalysts, proline and pyrrolidine derivatives with quaternary carbon center.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.287-294
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• 2015

Photovoltaic (PV) modules are environmentally friendly energy-conversion devices to generate electricity via the photovoltaic effect of semiconductors on solar energy. One of key elements in PV modules is "Backsheet," a multi-layered film to protect the devices from a variety of chemicals including water vapor. A representative Backsheet is composed of polyvinyl fluoride (PVF) and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET). PVF is relatively expensive, while showing excellent resistance to chemical attacks. Thus, it is necessary to develop alternatives which can lower its high production cost and guarantee lifetime applicable to practical PV modules at the same time. In this study, PET films with certain levels of crystallinity were utilized instead of PVF. Since it is well known that PET is suffering from trans-esterification and hydrolysis under a wide pH range, it is needed to understand decomposition behavior of the PET films under PV operation conditions. To evaluate their chemical decomposition behavior within a short period of times, accelerated decomposition test protocol is developed. Moreover, electrochemical long-term performances of the PV module employing the PET-based Backsheet are investigated to prove the efficacy of the proposed concept.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.292-300
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• 2014

Chlorine-resistant sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) random copolymer (SPAES)-thin film composite (TFC) membranes for desalination are prepared using monoglyme as a selective solvent, which dissolves SPAES, but should be inert to porous polysulfone layer (e.g., Udel$^{(R)}$). Different from formic acid and diethylene glycol used as other selective solvents, monoglyme is environmentally friendly and has much lower boiling temperature. After a pretreatment of Udel$^{(R)}$ support film in isopropyl alcohol-glycerine mixture to minimize pore penetration leading to fairly reduced water flux, coating of SPAES solution in monoglyme onto the support and stepwise drying processes are conducted for defect-free TFC formation. The transport behavior through SPAES-TFC membranes is observed, correlating with the effects of sulfonation level, protonation, and physical and chemical crosslinking of SPAES selective layers.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.320-326
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• 2010

This study explored the current status of ecocentric environmental education in alternative schools. We analyzed the aims, curriculum, environmental activities of 42 alternative schools in Korea from their homepages and guidebooks. For more information, additional interviews with teachers were also conducted. As a resuts, the ratio of schools aiming ecologism were relatively low, however, 36 (85.7%) of 42 alternative schools included ecologism in their educational goals directly or indirectly. 39 schools included an environmental education in their curriculum, and 3 environmental class was opened in a week on the average. The most frequently used environmental activity in alternative schools was "recycling of solid wastes", and then "reducing use of disposable products", and "using environment-friendly, and recycled products" were followed. "Using water-purifier tank" and "using alternative energy" were also practiced. Educational implications of results were discussed.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.359-366
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• 2012

Zn-Air energy storage cell is an attractive type of batteries due to its theoretical gravimetric energy density, cost-effective structure and environmental-friendly characteristics. The chargeability is the most critical in various industrial applications such as smart portable device, electric vehicle, and power storage system. Thus, it is necessary to reduce large overpotential of oxygen reduction/evolution reaction, the irreversibility of Zn anode, and carbonation in alkaline electrolyte. In this review, we try to introduce recent studies and developments of bi-functional air cathode, enhanced charge efficiency via modification of Zn anode structure, and blocking side reactions applying hybrid organic-aqueous electrolyte for high power density rechargeable Zn-Air energy storage cells.