• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.279-290
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• 2016

The performance of upflow anaerobic bioelectrochemical reactor (UABE), equipped with electrodes (anode and cathode) inside the upflow anaerobic reactor, was compared to that of upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor for the treatment of acidic distillery wastewater. The UASB was stable in pH, alkalinity and VFAs until the organic loading rate (OLR) of 4.0 g COD/L.d, but it became unstable over 4.0 g COD/L.d. As a response to the abrupt doubling in OLR, the perturbation in the state variables for the UABE was smaller, compared to the UASB, and quickly recovered. The UABE stability was better than the UASB at higher OLR of 4.0-8.0 g COD/L.d, and the UABE showed better performance in specific methane production rate (2,076mL $CH_4/L.d$), methane content in biogas (66.8%), and COD removal efficiency (82.3%) at 8.0 g COD/L.d than the UASB. The maximum methane yield in UABE was about 407mL/g $COD_r$ at 4.0 g COD/L.d, which was considerably higher than about $282mL/g\;COD_r$ in UASB. The rate limiting step for the bioelectrochemical reaction in UABE was the oxidation of organic matter on the anode surface, and the electrode reactions were considerably affected by the pH at 8.0 g COD/L.d of high OLR. The maximum energy efficiency of UABE was 99.5%, at 4.0 g COD/L.d of OLR. The UABE can be an advanced high rate anaerobic process for the treatment of acidic distillery wastewater.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.49-54
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• 2011

Animal manure is produced annually 43.7 million tonnes in Korea. Among them, about 85.6 % are used as compost or liquid fertilizer to the agricultural land. The animal manure can be effectively utilized by mixing with organic byproducts that result in generation of biogas from anaerobic co-digestion process. This study aimed to optimize the content of total solid materials (TS) and determine the effect of organic byproduct on the co-digestion process. Prior to the byproduct treatments, determination of proper content of TS was conducted by controlling at 5 or 10 %. For the byproduct treatments, swine manure without adding the byproduct was used for control treatment, and swine manure mixed with either corn silage or kitchen waste was used for other treatments. Volume of biomethane ($CH_4$) generated from digested materials was quantified before and after byproduct treatments. In result, a 1.4-fold higher biomethane, about 0.556 L/$L{\cdot}d$, was produced when the content of TS was controlled at 10 %, compared at 5 %, about 0.389 L/$L{\cdot}d$. When the swine manure was mixed with the corn silage or kitchen waste, a two-fold higher biomethane was produced, about 1.theand 1.0heL/$L{\cdot}d$, respectively, compared to the control treatment. Biogas production from organic dry matter (odm) was a3, 362eand 2h6 L/kg odm${\cdot}$d for control, corn silage, and kitchen waste treatment, respectively. The lower biogas production in the treatment of kitchen waste than that of corn silage is associated with its relatively high odm contents. The methane concentration during the whole process ranged from 40 at the beginning to 70 % at the end of process for both the control and kitchen waste treatments, and ranged from 52 to 70 % for the corn silage treatment. Hydrogen sulfide ($H_2S$) concentration ranged between 350 and 500 ppm. All the integrated results indicate that addition of organic byproduct into animal manure can double the generation of biogas from anaerobic fermentation process.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.136-141
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• 2018

Carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) exists not only as a component of natural gas, biogas, and landfill gas, but also as a major combustion product of fossil fuels which leads to a major contributor to greenhouse gases. Hence it is essential to reduce or eliminate carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) in order to obtain high fuel efficiency of internal combustion engine, to prevent corrosion of gas transportation system, and to cope with climate change preemptively. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in not only conventional membrane-based separation but also new adsorbent-based separation technology. Particularly, in the case of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), it has been received tremendous attentions due to its unique properties (eg : flexibility, gate effect or strong binding site such as open metal sites) which are different from those of typical porous adsorbents. Therefore, in this study, stereotype of two MOFs have been selected as its flexible MOFs (MIL-53) representative and numerous open metal sites MOFs (MOF-74) representative, and compared each other for $CO_2/CH_4$ separation performance. Furthermore, varying and changeable separation performance conditions depending on the temperature, pressure or samples' unique properties are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.42-46
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• 2008

Even though fuel cell have high efficiency when pure hydrogen from gas tank is used as a fuel source, it is more beneficial to generate hydrogen from city gas (mainly methane) in residential application such as domestic or office environments. Thus hydrogen is generated by reforming process using hydrocarbon. Unfortunately, the reforming process for hydrogen production is accompanied with unavoidable impurities. Impurities such as CO, $CO_2$, $H_2S$, $NH_3$, $CH_4$, and $CH_4$ in hydrogen could cause negative effects on fuel cell performance. Those effects are kinetic losses due to poisoning of the electrode catalysts, ohmic losses due to proton conductivity reduction including membrane and catalyst ionomer layers, and mass transport losses due to degrading catalyst layer structure and hydrophobic property. Hydrogen produced from reformer eventually contains around 73% of $H_2$, 20% or less of $CO_2$, 5.8% of less of $N_2$, or 2% less of $CH_4$, and 10ppm or less of CO. This study is aimed at investigating the effect of carbon dioxide on fuel cell performance. The performance of PEM fuel cell was investigated using current vs. potential experiment, long run(10 hr) test, and electrochemical impedance measurement when the concentrations of carbon dioxide were 10%, 20% and 30%. Also, the concentration of impurity supplied to the fuel cell was verified by gas chromatography(GC).

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.250-250
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• 2013

단일벽 탄소나노튜브(Single-walled nanotubes, SWNTs)는 나노스케일의 크기와 우수한 물성으로 인하여, 전자, 에너지, 바이오 분야로의 응용이 기대되고 있다. 특히 SWNTs의 직경을 제어하게 되면 튜브의 전도성 제어가 훨씬 수월하게 되어, 차세대 나노전자소자의 실현을 앞당길 수 있으며 이러한 이유로 많은 연구들이 현재 행해지고 있다. SWNTs의 직경제어 합성을 위해서는 현재 열화학기상증착법(Thermal chemical vapor deposition; TCVD)이 가장 일반적으로 이용되고 있으며, 합성 촉매와 합성되는 튜브의 직경과의 크기 연관성이 알려진 후로는, 촉매의 크기를 제어하여 SWNTs의 직경을 제어하고자 하는 연구들이 활발하게 보고되고 있다. 특히, 촉매 나노입자의 직경이 1~2 nm 이하로 감소될 경우, SWNTs의 직경 분포가 어떻게 변화할 것인지가 최근 가장 중요한 관심사로 남아 있으나, 이러한 크기의 금속입자는 나노입자의 융점저하 현상이 발현되는 영역이므로, SWNTs의 합성온도 영역에서 촉매 금속입자는 반액체(Semi-liquid) 상태로 존재할 것으로 추측하고 있다. 본 연구에서는 고온의 SWNTs 합성환경에서 금속나노촉매의 유동성을 제한하기 위하여 나노사이즈의 기공이 규칙적으로 정렬된 다공성 물질인 제올라이트를 촉매담지체로 이용하였고, 이 때 다양한 합성변수가 SWNTs의 직경에 미치는 영향을 살펴보고자 하였다. SWNTs의 합성을 위해 실리콘 산화막 기판 위에 제올라이트를 도포한 후, 합성 촉매로서 전자빔증발법을 통하여 수 ${\AA}$에서 수 nm 두께의 철 박막을 증착하였다. 합성은 메탄을 원료가스로 하여 TCVD법으로 실시하였다. 주요변수로는 제올라이트 종류, 증착하는 철 박막의 두께, 합성온도를 설정하였으며, 이에 따라 합성된 SWNTs의 합성수율 및 직경분포의 변화를 체계적으로 살펴보았다. SWNTs의 전체적인 합성수율의 변화는 SEM 관찰결과를 이용하였으며, SWNTs의 직경은 AFM 관찰 및 Raman 스펙트럼의 분석에서 도출하였다. 실험결과, 제올라이트 종류에 따라서는 명확한 튜브직경 분포의 변화 없이 비교적 좁은 직경분포를 갖는 SWNTs가 합성되었으며, 합성온도가 $850^{\circ}C$ 이하로 감소되면 합성수율이 현저히 감소되는 것을 알 수 있었다. 촉매박막의 두께가 1 nm 이상인 경우에서는 직경 5 nm 전후의 나노입자가 형성되었으며, 이때 SWNTs의 합성수율은 높았으나 다양한 직경의 튜브가 합성이 된 것을 확인할 수 있었다. 반면, 촉매입자의 크기가 2 nm 이하에서는 합성수율은 다소 저하되었으나, SWNTs의 직경분포의 폭이 상대적으로 훨씬 좁아지는 것을 알 수 있었다. 추후, 극미세 촉매와 저온합성 환경에서의 합성수율 향상을 위한 합성공정의 개량이 지속적으로 요구된다.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.55-69
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• 2011

Use of disposer at the kitchens of Korean apartments is inevitable in treating their foodwaste having a water content of more than 80%. Also we have to ensure that this extra disposer-foodwaste BOD loadings be treated properly by installing/operating a pre-treatment system before this wastewater enters public sewer system. However, the degree of BOD removal should not be excessive since a BOD/N ratio higher than 5 is required for removing N/P at a municipal wastewater treatment plant. The removal of BOD/N in the pretreatment system rather than BOD alone can be an alternative solution in solving this problem. The particles separated by sedimentation, screen or packed-bed can be anaerobically digested at apartment sites to generate biogas that can be used for simple digester heating and to generate volatile fatty acids (VFAs) for nitrogen removal. We suggest that Korean government grants a temporary license (say for 5 years) to foodwaste treatment companies in collaboration with apartment construction companies which may do business and develop various kinds of disposer-foodwaste treatment systems in diverse wastewater discharge systems of Korean apartments.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.51-58
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• 2023

In this study, anaerobic co-digestion was carried out using desulfurization sludge and sewage sludge (primary sludge) to evaluate the effects of sulfur compounds in anaerobic digestion. The experiment was carried out in the form of a batch test using 500 mL duran bottle, and the mixing ratio of the feedstock was selected based on the ratio of COD/SO₄. As a result of the experiment, it was confirmed that the amount of biogas generated and the yield decreased at the mixing ratio of COD/SO₄ 20 or less. In particular, below COD/SO₄ 10, it was lower than seed (283.5 mL) which was set without feedstock to correct biogas generated by itself from seed sludge. Methane yield tended to decrease from a ratio of COD/SO₄ 20 or less to 0.135 m³/kg VS compared to 0.396 m³/kg VS of COD/SO₄ 50. In addition, compared to 0.0097 m³/kg VS of hydrogen sulfide yield from COD/SO₄ 50, the ratio of COD/SO₄ 20 increased sharply to 0.0223 m³/kg VS, and in particular, the highest result was 0.0855 m³/kg VS in COD/SO₄ 10. Based on these results, it is judged that the effect of sulfide in anaerobic digestion can have an adverse effect if the COD/SO₄ ratio decreases to less than 20.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.8
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• pp.561-569
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• 2014

This study was carried out to get the characteristics of anaerobic digestion for chemical/biological sludge produced from municipal sewage treatment plant for phosphorus. Anaerobic mesophilic batch tests showed that the ultimate biodegradability of waste activated sludge showed 31%, PACl sludge 24%, Alum sludge 26%, respectively. At the S/I 1.0, 75% of total biodegradable volatile solids (TBVS) of waste activated sludge was degraded with an initial rapid decay coefficient, k1 of $0.1129day^{-1}$ and 74% of TBVS of PACl sludge with k1 of $0.0998day^{-1}$, and 76% of TBVS of Alum sludge with k1 of $0.1091day^{-1}$ for 20 days. During the operation of SCFMRs, the 3 reactor (Control, PACl, Alum) pH maintained 6.7~7.0 and the reactor alkalinity maintained 1,800~ 2,200 mg/L as $CaCO_3$. The average biogas production rates of SCFMRs fed with PACl sludge and Alum sludge were 0.089 v/v-d and 0.091 v/v-d, respectively, which was 27~28% lower than that of the control (0.124 v/v-d) at an HRT (hydraulic retention times) of 20 days. And the methane content during the operation ranged 70~76% in 3 reactor. The average TVS removal efficiency of SCFMRs fed with PACl sludge and Alum sludge were 19.6% and 19.9%, respectively, at an HRT of 20 days, which showed 4% lower than that of the control (23.8%). The average BVS removal efficiency of SCFMRs fed with PACl sludge and Alum sludge were 25.8% and 26.9%, respectively, at an HRT of 20 days, which was 8~9% lower than that of the control (34.5%).

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.2047-2058
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• 2000

The effects of operating parameters on performance of upflow anaerobic sludge blanket(UASB). anaerobic filter(AF), and two-stage anaerobic sludge bed filter (ASBF) bioreactors in treating swine wastewater were evaluated by operating the lab-scale bioreactors upto hydraulic retention time(HRT) of 1 day and organic loading rate (OLR) of $5.1kg-COD/m^3{\cdot}d$ for 200 days. Swine wastewaters of which characteristics were affected by types of hog raising and seasons contained high concentrations of COD, SS, and ammonia. Inoculation of the bioreactors with waste sludge from anaerobic treatment facility of local municipal wastewater treatment plant was effective in developing biomass in the bioreactors. Acclimation period of the bioreactors with swine wastewaters required approximately 40 days, but that for AF and two-stage ASBF, which were filled with media, was faster than VASB. The bioreactors showed high and stable COD removal efficiency of 77~91% at influent T-N concentrations of 370~800mg/L but low and unstable COD removal efficiency of 24~94% at influent T-N concentrations of 760~1,310mg/L. It is essential to remove ammonia prior to anaerobic treatment since the concentrations of ammonia in swine wastewaters showed toxic effects to methanogenic bacteria. The bioreactors were effective in treating swine wastewaters with COD removal efficiency of 78.9~81.5% and biogas generation rate of $0.39{\sim}0.59m^3/kg-COD_r$ at OLR of $1.1{\sim}2.2kg-COD/m^3{\cdot}d$: however, an increase of OLR by reducing HRT and increasing influent COD caused decrease of COD removal efficiency. The extent of decrease in COD removal efficiency was higher in UASB than AF and two-stage ASBF. AF and two-stage ASBF anaerobic bioreactors were effective in treating varing characteristics of swine wastewaters since they showed high and stable COD removal efficiency at high OLR due to effective retention of biomass by media and staging.