• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.849-859
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• 2000

This study was conducted to identify the characteristics of methane fermentation and lysis effects of pre-treated microalgae. Chemical compositions of microalgae showed that the VS(volatile solid) was 86.1% of TS(total solid), and the protein was 63.5% of VS. These values were higher than those of activated sludge. The cell lysis test of raw microalgae biomass was conducted by many physicochemical methods. presenting that the degree of cell lysis was affected by following order: ultrasonic(100min.), alkali(pH 13), ultrasonic(10min), thermal($120^{\circ}C$), thermal($50^{\circ}C$), and acidic(pH 3) treatment. Methane fermentation with many pre-treated samples was performed, showing that the concentration of acetic acid was the highest. followed by propionic acid, butylic acid and valerie acid among all VFA(volatile fattic acid). In methane production. ultrasonic samples were only more effective than untreated one in total gas and methane productivity. but other samples were less effective. Especially. the alkalic sample had an inhibitation effect on methanogens.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.21-31
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• 2015

The aim of this study is to determine the removal efficiency of total nitrogen and phosphorus from treated swine wastewater by Phragmites australis and Miscanthus sacchariflorus var Geode Uksae-1, and to determine its biomass total energy value and biomethane potential. Plants were grown with a bedding mixture either soil and sand or soil, sand, and bioceramic. Treeated swine wastewater with Total nitrogen (TN) and Total phosphorus (TP) of 222.78 mg/L and 66.11 mg/L, respectively, was utilized. The TN and TP removal is higher in the bio-ceramic-soil-sand bedding media treatment. The highest TN removal of 96.14% was performed by Miscanthus sacchariflorus var Geode Uksae-1, but the elemental analysis shows that Phragmites australis contains more nitrogen than Miscanthus sacchariflorus var Geode Uksae-1, indicating higher nitrogen uptake. The highest TP removal of 98.12% was performed by Phragmites australis. The cellulose content of the plant grown with the bioceramic-soil-sand bedding was approximately 3-6% higher than that of the plant grown in the soil-sand bedding. Different growing substrates may have an effect on the fiber content of plants. The biomethane potential of the produced biomass of the plants was between 57.01 and $99.25L-CH_4/kg$ VS. The lignin content is believed to inhibit the breakdown of plant biomass, resulting in the lowest methane production in the Phragmites australis grown in the soil-sand bedding media.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.126-137
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• 2006

Behaviors of simple organic compound and granular sludge in an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor treating propionate at high ammonia nitrogen levels were investigated for 12 months. The UASB reactor achieved about 80% removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) at ammonia nitrogen concentration up to 6000 mg-N/L. At higher concentration of ammonia nitrogen, the propionate in the effluent increased whereas the acetate was very low. At ammonia nitrogen concentration of 8000 mg-N/L, the volatile suspended solids (VSS) increased sharply due probably to the decrease of the content of extracellular polymer (ECP) although methane production was very low. The specific methanogenic activity (SMA) using formate, acetate, and propionate as substrate to granules decreased as ammonia nitrogen concentration increased. The ammonia nitrogen concentration $I^{50}$, causing 50% inhibition of SMA were 2666, 4778 and 5572 mg-N/L, respectively. The kinetic coefficients of ammonia inhibition using formate, acetate, and propionate as substrate were 3.279, 0.999 and 0.609, respectively. The SMA using formate was severely affected by ammonia nitrogen than those using acetate and propionate. This result indicated that the hydrogenotrophic methanogens was most affected by ammonia nitrogen. Granules were mainly composed of microcolonies of methanothrix-like bacteria resembling bamboo-shape, and several other microcolonies including propionate degrader with juxtapositioned syntrophic associations between the hydrogen-producing acetogens and hydrogen-consuming methanogens.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.34-39
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• 2017

The recent gradual increase in the energy demand is mostly met by fossil fuel, but the research on and development of new alternative energy sources is drawing much attention due to the limited fossil fuel supply and the greenhouse gas problem. This paper assesses the feasibility of producing fuel energy from a dewatered sewage sludge by microwave-induced pyrolysis with sludge char and graphite receptor. Both receptors produced gas, char, and tar in order from product amount. The gas produced for the sludge char receptor contained mainly hydrogen and methane with a small amount of light hydrocarbons. The graphite receptor generated higher gravimetric tar and generated higher light tar. Through the results, the product gas from the microwave processes of wet sewage sludge might be possible as a fuel energy. But the product gas has to be removed the condensable PAH tars.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.13-21
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• 2022

Mushroom waste medium refers to the waste biomass generated after mushroom cultivating. And, the burden of treatment on mushroom farmhouse is increasing due to the absence of appropriate treatment method and increase of treatment costs of the mushroom waste medium. In this study, in order to assess the energy value of mushroom waste medium by an anaerobic digestion, methane potential and anaerobic organic matter decomposition characteristics were investigated. The theoretical methane potential(B_th) of mushroom medium(MM) was 0.481 Nm³-CH₄/kg-VS_added, and the B_th of mushroom waste medium(MWM) was 0.451 Nm³-CH₄/kg-VS_added. The biochemical methane potential(B_u-exp) of MWM was increased by 18% from 0.155 for MM to 0.183 Nm³-CH₄/kg-VS_added for MWM. In the reaction kinetics analysis by the Modified Gompertz model, the maximum methane production rate(R_m) was increased from 4.59 for MM to 7.21 mL/day for MWM and the lag growth phase time(λ) was decreased from 2.78 for MM to 1.96 days for MWM. In the reaction kinetics analysis by the parallel first order kinetics model, the easily degradable organic matter(VS_e) content was increased by 5.89% and the persistently degradable organic matter(VS_p) content was 2.03% in MWM, and the non-degradable organic matter(VS_NB) content was decreased by 7.85%. Therefore, it was evaluated that the anaerobic digestion efficiency of MWM was increased. The anaerobic digestion efficiency of MWM was assessed to be more improved than that of MM.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.1034-1038
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• 2008

Degradative Solidification/Stabilization(DS/S) is a modification of conventional Solidification/Stabilization(S/S) that incorporates degradative processes for organic contaminant destruction with the low cost of conventional S/S. Inorganic contaminants are immobilized and chlorinated organic contaminants are destroyed by DS/S treatment. In this study, a DS/S using cement/slag/Fe(II) systems as binder was investigated to assess its effectiveness in degrading chloroform(CF) and methylene chloride(MC) contained in hazardous liquid wastes. The initial concentration of CF was 0.26 mM, 1.0 mM, 8.4 mM, 25 mM and 42 mM and Fe(II) was 200 mM. The result showed that degradation of CF in various concentration was in one kind reaction as pseudo-first-order and 95% of 0.26 mM initial concentration of CF was removed in five days. 50 mg/L of heavy metal was added in order to accelerate the rate of degradation of MC and initial concentration of MC was 3.50 mM however, degradation did not occur in system. Thus additional studies needed for degradation of MC and more studies on other reaction pathways products will help elucidate reaction mechanisms and pathways for chlorinated methanes in cement/slag/Fe(II) systems.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.65-72
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• 2020

The aims of this study were to compare the biomethanation of CO₂ through specific methanogenic activity (SMA) test which was inoculated with four different types of mixed microbial culture obtained from full-scale anaerobic digestion (AD) plants. The experimental results showed that CH₄ conversion was the highest in the samples inoculated by seed sludge taken from ADs of food waste and brewery; under this condition, the produced biomethane contains 89.3-91.9% of CH₄. Meanwhile, the lowest level was obtained in the sample from sewage sludge. The measured ratio of CH₄ production rate to CO₂ consumption rate in all reactors was higher than the theoretical value (1) in the middle of the period and soon dropped to 0.7-0.8. It might be due to changed metabolic pathways in the reactor by the degradation of residual organic matter and the increased activity of homoacetogenic bacteria.

• Clean Technology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.72-78
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• 2020

The use of fossil fuel and biogas production causes air pollution and climate change problems. Research endeavors continue to focus on converting methane and carbon dioxide, which are the major causes of climate change, into quality energy sources. In this study, a novel plasma-carbon converter was proposed to convert biogas into high quality gas, which is linked to photovoltaic and wind power and which poses a problem on generating electric power continuously. The characteristics of conversion and gas production were investigated to find a possibility for biogas conversion, involving parametric tests according to the change in the main influence variables, such as O₂/C ratio, total gas feed rate, and CO₂/CH₄ ratio. A higher O₂/C ratio gave higher conversions of methane and carbon dioxide. Total gas feed rate showed maximum conversion at a certain specified value. When CO₂/CH₄ feed ratio was decreased, both conversions increased. As a result, the production of solar fuel by plasma oxidation destruction-carbon material gasification conversion, which was newly suggested in this study, could be known as a possibly useful technology. When O₂/C ratio was 0.8 and CO₂/CH₄ was 0.67 while the total gas supply was at 40 L min^-1 (VHSV = 1.37), the maximum conversions of carbon dioxide and methane were achieved. The results gave the highest production for hydrogen and carbon dioxide which were high-quality fuel.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.66-75
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• 2012

The objective of this study was to assess the effects of methanogenic bacteria-activated leachate recirculation method for enhancing waste stabilization and landfill gas production from a solid waste landfill. To simulate a conventional landfill (Lys-A), a landfill recirculated only fresh leachate (Lys-B), and two landfills recirculated leachate after pretreating with ASBR (Lys-C and Lys-D), four lysimeters were operated over a period of 4 years. Lys-D was recirculated two times of pretreated leachate volume than that of Lys-C. In the case of the landfill recirculated only fresh leachate and the landfill recirculated leachate after pretreating with ASBR, methane productions were increased until about 600 days, but there were not effect of leachate recirculation for enhancing methane production after about 600 days. It was assumed that leachate recirculation into fewer biodegradable organic wastes had not effect to enhance landfill gas production. Lys-C and Lys-D showed the highest performance for enhancing cumulative methane yield as well as acceleration waste stabilization. In cumulative methane yield, Lys-C (35.51 mL $CH_4/g$ VS) and Lys-D (36.12 mL $CH_4/g$ VS) were much higher than Lys-A (28.37 mL $CH_4/g$ VS) and Lys-B (30.07 mL $CH_4/g$ VS). In case of between Lys-B and Lys-C with the same recirculation rate, COD concentration in Lys-C was more rapidly decreased compared with that in Lys-B. This was attributed to the presence of methanogenic bacteria as well as dilution of inhibitory substances by the methanogenic bacteria-activated leachate recirculation. Therefore, the landfill recirculated leachate after pretreating with ASBR was found to be the most appropriate operating techniques for enhancing waste stabilization and landfill gas production.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.81-89
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• 2019

The major problem encountered during the storage of pig slurry (PS) is the release of huge amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs), which are dominated by methane ($CH_4$). To reduce this, concentrated sulfuric acid has been used as an additive to control the pH of pig slurry to 5.0-6.0. However, other low-risk substitutes have been developed due to some limitations to its use, such as corrosiveness, and hazards to animal and human health. In this study, sugar addition was proposed as an eco-friendly approach for limiting $CH_4$ emission from PS during storage. The pH of PS has been reduced from $7.1{\pm}0.1$ (control) to $5.8{\pm}0.1$, $4.6{\pm}0.1$, $4.4{\pm}0.1$, $4.1{\pm}0.1$, and $4.0{\pm}0.1$, by the addition of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 g sugar/L, respectively. Lactate, acetate, and propionate were detected as the dominant organic acids and at sugar concentration above 20 g/L, lactate concentration represented 42-72% (COD basis) of total organic acids. For 40 d of storage, $20.6{\pm}2.3kg\;CO_2\;eq./ton\;PS$ was emitted in the control. Such emission, however, was found to be reduced to $8.7{\pm}0.4$ and $0.4{\pm}0.1kg\;CO_2\;eq./ton\;PS$ at 10 and 20 g/L, respectively. Small amount of $CH_4$ from PS at 10 g/L was emitted until 30 d of storage, while for rest of storage period, it has increased to $8.7{\pm}0.4kg\;CO_2\;eq./ton\;PS$ ( 40% of the control) when methanogens have recovered by increasing pH to 7.0. By the end of storage, VS and COD removal in the control reached 24% and 27%, while their ranges reached 15-4% and 12-17% in the sugar added experiments, respectively. It was found that more than 90% of COD removal was done by aerobic biological process.