• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.10
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• pp.927-932
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• 2009

Toxic and recalcitrant organic pollutants in wastewaters can be effectively treated when advanced oxidation and biodegradation are combined, ideally with intimate coupling, in which both processes occur simultaneously in the same system. One means to achieve intimate coupling is to coat nanoscale $TiO_2$ on the outside of macroporous biofilm carriers. This study investigated the kinetics of photocatalysis with $TiO_2$-coated porous carriers. The carriers were made of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and coated with $TiO_2$ using a low-temperature sol-gel process. The $TiO_2$-coated carriers catalyzed the oxidation of methylene blue (MB) effectively under irradiation of UV light. The overall reaction rate with adsorption and photolysis saturated at high MB concentration, and approached the adsorption rate, which was first order for all MB concent rations. This result indicates that adsorbed MB may have slowed photocatalysis by blocking active sites for photocatalysis. The overall kinetics could be described by a quasi-Langmuir model. The estimated maximum specific (per unit mass of $TiO_2$) transformation rate of MB by the $TiO_2$-coated carriers was four times larger than that obtained from slurry-$TiO_2$ reactors. This observation demonstrated that the $TiO_2$ present as a coating on the carriers maintained high efficiency for transforming recalcitrant organic matter via photocatalysis. These findings serve as a foundation for advancement of an intimate coupling of photocatalysis to biodegradation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.922-929
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• 2007

The complete oxidation of ammonia to nitrate is a distinctive two-step process divided into the oxidation of ammonia to nitrite(nitritation) by Nitrosomonas and the oxidation of nitrite to nitrate(nitratation) by Nitrobacter. The nitrogen removal via nitrite accumulation offers several advantages such as saving costs for aeration, saving carbon source and finally reduction of sludge discharge. In this work a suspended bioreactor coupled with membrane filtration(MBR) was used to find the process conditions of nitrite build-up. The MBR enables to reach sufficient nitrifying bacteria in the bioreactor, although the autotrophic bacteria can be easily washed out due to their lower growth rate. The dissolved oxygen concentration $c'_{O2}$ and ammonia concentration $c_{NH3}$ in the reactor were varied and investigated as parameters for nitrite accumulation. As a result the higher ammonia concentration in the reactor is very effective for starting nitrite build-up and the effect was strengthened in combination with lower dissolved oxygen concentration. With lower $c'_{O2}<0.3$ $mgL^{-1}$ $O_2$ and high $c_{NH3}=6.3\sim14.9$ $mgL^{-1}$ $NH_3N$ the 74% of the nitrite accumulation was achieved. Specially, it was found that the nitrite accumulation could occur not only in biofilm reactor as many references showed but also in the membrane bioreactor carried out in this study.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.642-649
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• 2007

The effectiveness of add-on tertiary treatment processes for the polishing of the effluent of a biological nutrient removal (BNR) system from a modified $A^2/O$ process has been examined under the field condition with pilot-scale plants. The add-on treatment processes of 1) combined biofilm anoxic reactor and sand filtration, and 2) two-stage denitrification filter had been operated with various operating conditions. The experimental results indicated that two-stage denitrification filter could produced a better polished tertiary effluent. Filtration rate of $150m^3/m^2{\cdot}d$ for the 2-stage denitrifying filter could decrease the nitrate removal probably due to shorter detention time that caused insufficient reaction for denitrification. Two stage denitrification filter operated with M/N ratio of 3.0 and filtration rate of $100m^3/m^2{\cdot}d$ produced the tertiary effluent with nitrate and SS concentraitons of 2.8 mg/L and 2.3 mg/L, respectively. When the operating temperature reduced $30^{\circ}C$ to $18^{\circ}C$, $NO_3{^-}-N$ removal efficiency decreased from 73% to 68%.

• Clean Technology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.67-77
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• 2006

A simple dual sludge process, called as $KNR^{(R)}$ (Kwon's Nutrient Removal) system, was developed for small sewage treatment. It is a hybrid system that consists of an UMBR (Upflow multi-layer bioreactor) as anaerobic and anoxic reactor with suspended denitrifier and a post aerobic biofilm reactor, filled with pellet-like media, with attached nitrifier. To evaluate the stability and performance of this system for small sewage treatment, the pilot-scale $KNR^{(R)}$ plant with a treatment capacity of $50m^3/d$ was practically applied to the actual sewage treatment plant, which was under retrofit construction during pilot plant operation, with a capacity of $50m^3/d$ in a small rural community. The HRTs of a UMBR and a post aerobic biofilm reactor were about 4.7 h and 7.2 h, respectively. The temperature in the reactor varied from $18.1^{\circ}C$ to $28.1^{\circ}C$. The pilot plant showed stable performance even though the pilot plant had been the severe fluctuation of influent flow rate and BOD/N ratio. During a whole period of this study, average concentrations of $COD_{cr}$, $COD_{Mn}$, $BOD_5$, TN, and TP in the final effluent obtained from this system were 11.0 mg/L, 8.8 mg/L, 4.2 mg/L, 3.5 mg/L, 9.8 mg/L, and 0.87/0.17 mg/L (with/without poly aluminium chloride(PAC)), which corresponded to a removal efficiency of 95.3%, 87.6%, 96.3%, 96.5%, 68.2%, and 55.4/90.3%, respectively. Excess sludge production rates were $0.026kg-DS/m^3$-sewage and 0.220 kg-DS/kg-BOD lower 1.9 to 3.8 times than those in activated sludge based system such as $A_2O$ and Bardenpho.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.253-259
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• 2005

This study was accomplished using attached $A^2/O$ process that contains nonsurface-modified and surface-modified polyethylene media inside the Anaerobic/Anoxic, Oxic tank, respectively. We could make the hydrophobic polyethylene media have hydrophilic characteristics by radiating ion beam on the surface of the media. The objectives of this study is to investigate the removal efficiencies of the organics and nitrogen when the step feed ratio of raw wastewater into anaerobic and anoxic tank is changed. In this case, we assumed that the denitrification rate can be improved because the nitrifiers in anoxic tank can perform denitrification using RBDCOD instead of artificial carbon sources (for example, methanol, etc.). The wastewater injection rate into anaerobic/anoxic tank was set up by the ratio of 10 : 0, 9 : 1, 8 : 2, 6 : 4, and the results of BOD removal efficiency showed similar trends with $93.3\%,\;92.6\%,\;92.4\%\;and\;91.6\%$, respectively. But the BOD removal efficiency (utilization of the organics) in the anoxic tank was in the order of 9 : 1 $(84.8\%)$, 10 : 0 $(77.0\%)$, 8 : 2 $(75.3\%)$, and 6 : 4 $(61.1\%)$. The T-N removal efficiency was most high when the ratio is 9 : 1 $(67.4\%)$, and other conditions, 10 : 0, 8 : 2, 6 : 4, showed $61.3(\%),\;60.7\%,\;55.5\%$, respectively; the ratio 6 : 4 was found to be lowest T-N removal efficiency, lower than the ratio 9 : 1 by $12\%$. Though the nitrification rate of the ratio 10 : 0, 9 : 1, and 8 : 2 showed similar levels, the ratio 6 : 4 showed considerable inhibition of nitrification, ammonia was the great portion of the effluent T-N. The advantages of this process is that this process is cost-saving, and non-toxic methods than injecting the artificial carbon source.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.323-328
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• 2008

This study was accomplished using Anaerobic/Anoxic/Oxic biofilm reactors with fixed media and post-treatment reactor for natural purification with aquatic floating plants. The objectives of this study was to investigate the characteristics of organics, nitrogen and phosphorus removal from sewage with the HRT. The average removal efficiency of SS and $COD_{Cr}$ increases as increasing the hydraulic retention time (HRT) until 12 hr of the HRT, and it was constant over 12 hr of the HRT. The removal efficiency of them was about 93% and 89% respectively over the 12 hr of HRT. The average $BOD_5$ and $COD_{Mn}$ increases as increasing the HRT and the removal efficiency of them was 84.91 % and 76.03% respectively at the 26 hr of HRT. The removal efficiency of T-N and T-P increases as increasing the HRT until 61 hr of the HRT, and it was constant over 61 hr of the HRT. At the HRT of 61 hr, it was 70.20%, 77.86% respectively. It was found that the optimum HRT was 61 hr in case of the nutrients. Before and after experiment, the nitrogen content was similar in leaves of the water hyacinths but the nitrogen content in roots after experiment was 5.5% more than its content before experiment. It was known that the nitrogen was absorbed by the water hyacinths.