• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.468-475
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• 2005

Biofilters packed with various materials have emerged as a sustainable technology for the treatment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs); however, problems including low performance and clogging are commonly encountered. Recently, a bioactive foam reactor (BFR) using surfactants has been suggested to ensure efficient and stable VOCs removal performance. This study was mainly conducted to investigate the feasibility of BFRs using toluene as a model compound. Prior to bioreactor studies, a series of bottle tests were used to select a suitable surfactant for the BFR application. Experimental results of the batch bottle tests indicated that TritonX-100 was the most appropriate one among the surfactants tested, since it showed a minimal effect on the toluene biodegradation rate while the other surfactants lowered the toluene biodegradation rate significantly. Using the selected surfactant, the BFR performance was determined by changing operating parameters including gas residence time and toluene loading. As the gas residence time increased from 0.5 minutes to 2 minutes, the toluene removal efficiency increased from approximately 50% to 80%. In addition, an increase of the toluene loading from $38\;g/m^3/hr$ to $454\;g/m^3/hr$ resulted in a decrease of toluene removal efficiency from approximately 70% to 20%. The BFR had a maximum elimination capacity of $108\;g/m^3/hr$ for toluene, which was much higher than those generally reported in the literature. The high toluene-elimination performance indicates that the BFR be a potential alternative to the conventional, packed-type biofilters. However, the limitation of toluene solubilization and foam stability at either high or low gas flow rate are still problems to be challenged.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.6B
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• pp.689-694
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• 2006

The system performance of a bioactive foam reactor (BFR), that consists of a foam column using a surfactant and a biodegradation basin containing suspended bacteria, was investigated for the treatment of gaseous toluene or a mixture of four volatile organic compounds (VOCs, benzene, toluene, p-xylene, and styrene). Overall, the BFR achieved stable VOC removal efficiencies, indicating that it can be used as a potential alternative over conventional packed-bed biofilters. Furthermore, a dynamic loading test showed that relatively constant removal was maintained at the elevated loading due to a high mass transfer rate in the foam column. However, as the inlet concentration of VOCs increased, a portion of the VOCs mass-transferred to the liquid phase was stripped out from the biodegradation basin, resulting in a decrease in the overall removal efficiency. In the BFR, the removal efficiency of the individual VOC was mainly determined depending on the biodegradation rate (styrene > toluene > benzene > p-xylene), rather than the mass transfer rate. Consequently, increases in the microbial activity and the volume of the basin could improve the overall performance of the BFR system. Further investigation on microbial activity and community dynamics is required for the BFR when subjected to high loadings of VOC mixtures.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.6B
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• pp.695-701
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• 2006

A toluene-degrading bacterial strain was isolated from a mixed culture that was maintained using toluene as a sole carbon and energy source. The isolated bacterium was classified as Pseudomonas sp. TBD4 based on the close relationship to bacteria belonging to this genus. A bottle study to determine biodegradation rates of individual aromatic compounds showed that the biodegradation was faster in the order of toluene, benzene, styrene, and p-xylene. However, when various mixtures were subjected to TDB4, styrene was degraded at the highest rate, indicating that both toluene and p-xylene could stimulate the degradation of other substrates whereas styrene played as an inhibitor. In addition, the mixed culture and TDB4 were inoculated to the bioactive foam reactor (BFR), and the reactor performance and the corresponding change of microbial community were monitored using the fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) method. When an inlet concentration of the VOC mixture increased to greater than 250 ppm, the overall removal efficiency dropped significantly. The FISH measurement demonstrated that the ratio of TDB4 to the total bacteria also decreased to less than 20% along with the decline in removal efficiency in the BFR. As a result, the periodic addition of the pre-grown TDB4 might have been beneficial to achieve a stable performance in the BFR operated over an extended period.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.770-775
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• 2006

Biofilters packed with various materials commonly show problems such as low performance and clogging in a long-term operation. Recently, a bioactive foam reactor(BFR) using surfactants has been suggested to ensure efficient and stable VOCs removal performance. This study was mainly conducted to investigate the feasibility of the BFR system using styrene as a model compound. An abiotic md a biotic tests were conducted to estimate a mass transfer coefficient($K_La$) and a specific substrate utilization coefficient(k) for the BFR, showing the rate of mass transfer was greater in the BFR than in other diffuser systems. A dynamic loading test also indicated that the performance of the BFR was stable under a shock loading condition. Furthermore, the maximum elimination capacity of the BFR was determined to be 109 $g/m^3/hr$ for styrene, which was much higher than those for biofilter systems generally reported in the literature. Overall, the experimental results suggest that the BFR be a potential alternative to the conventional packed-bed biofilters.

• Proceedings of the Korea Air Pollution Research Association Conference
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.82-84
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• 2006

• Proceedings of the Korea Air Pollution Research Association Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.253-255
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• 2006

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.681-686
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• 1992

In the conversion of D.L-2-amino-$\Delta^2$-thiazoline-4-carboxylic acid(D,L-ATC) to L-cysteine using Pseudomonas sp. CU6. the effects of surfactants on whole cells and the stabilities of cellfree enzyme solution and continuous reactor packed with immobilized whole cells were investigated. The enzymatic reaction was little accomplished by whole cells without adding surfactants, whereas it was well carried out with SDS or Triton X-loo comparable to the case using cell-free enzyme solution. Enzyme activity of the cell-free solution was lost by 50% after 7 hours of storage at $30^{\circ}C$, but not at all under an anaerobic condition by sparging nitrogen gas. On the other hand. effect of nitrogen gas did not appear in a continuous reactor using immobilized whole cells, and hydroxylamine, an inhibitor of L-cysteine desulfhydrase, lowered the enzyme stability.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.253-258
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• 2004

There have been several problems in treating shipbard sewage due to special environmental conditions of ship, such as limited space, rolling and pitching, change of temperature and so on It was suggested that Sequence Batch Reactor (SBR) might be suitable process for overcome these problems in terms of small size, high capacity of treating wastewater and full automation. In this study a SBR process was employed for biological treatment of organic wastes in the shipboard sewage. This process was able to remove nitrogen and phosphorus as well as organic matter efficiently. Afore than 95％ of chemical oxygen demand(COD) were removed. In addition, about 97％ of total nitrogen (T-N) was reduced. The total phosphorus(T-P) reduction averaged 93％. A disturbance operation caused by the treatment of Methylene Blue Active Substances(MBAS) was not observed.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.5-13
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• 2010

The research is intended to develop and verify a biological complex soil treatment process to treat and restore soil and groundwater which is contaminated with oil, heavy metals, and nutrients through experiments with the series of treatment process such as bioreactor, rolled pipe type of contact oxidation system(RPS), and chemical processing system. 5 microbial strains were separated and selected through experiment, whose soil purification efficiency was excellent, and it was noted that anion- and nonion-series of complex agent was most excellent as a surfactant for effectively separating oils from soils. Method to mix and apply selected microbes after treating the surfactant in the contaminated soil was most effective. The removal efficiencies of total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH)-contaminated soil about 5,000mg/L and above 10,000mg/L were approximatly 90.0% for 28 days and 90.7% for 81 days by soil remediation system and the average removal efficiencies of BOD, $COD_{Mn}$, SS, T-N, and T-P in leachate were 90.6, 73.0, 91.9, 73.8, 65.7% by the bioreactor and RPS. The removal efficiency was above 99.0% by chemical processing system into cohesive agents.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.238-245
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• 1996

Microbial desulfurization characterlstics of a bituminous coal have been determined by using Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. The effects of process variables (such as coal pulp density, particle size and addition of surfactants) on pyrite removal have been investigated in both shake and airlift-bioreactor culture experiments. In shake experiments, pyrite could be removed over 78% for pulp densifies below 20% (w/v) and removed below 40% for pulp densities over 30% (w/v) in 8 days. Pyrite removal decreased with increasing pulp densities, and it also decreased sharply with increasing particle sizes. In airlift bioreactor experiments, pyrite at 50% (w/v) pulp density could be removed about 50%. Its value is much higher than 15% at the same pulp density in a shake experiment. With addition of surfactants, pyrite removal was enhanced in shake experiments significantly, whereas it was slightly decreased in an airlift bioreactor experiment.