• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.483-489
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• 2006

The behavior of rare earth compounds such as $La_{2}O_{3}$, $CeO_{2}$, and $Ca(OH)_{2}$ on the removal of fluoride and heavy metals in the steel wastewater has been investigated. The removal mechanism of fluoride by rare earth elements has been known to be the formation of insoluble compounds between $F^{-}$ and cations such as $La^{3+}$ and $Ce^{4+}$ produced by the dissociation of rare earth compounds (To reduce the running cost of the fluoride wastewater treatment facility, their fluoride removal efficiencies were compared with those of inexpensive rare earth minerals such as natural lanthanide and cerium compound used as a glass polishing agent). All of the rare earth oxides used in this study showed a higher removal efficiency of fluoride than $Ca(OH)_{2}$ in the wastewater. In the case of artificial HF solution, the removal efficiency of fluoride showed in the order: $CeO_{2}$-mineral < $CeO_{2}$ < $Ca(OH)_{2}$ < $La_{2}O_{3}$-mineral < $La_{2}O_{3}$. However, the removal efficiency of fluoride in the wastewater increased in the following order: $Ca(OH)_{2}$ < $CeO_{2}$ mineral < $CeO_{2}$ < $La_{2}O_{3}$ mineral < $La_{2}O_{3}$. All agents showed high efficiencies for the removal of Mn and total Cr in the rare earth compounds. In the case of $Ca(OH)_{2}$, fluoride removal decreased with increasing pH while. However, the rare earth compounds showed a higher fluoride removal in higher pH condition, the optimum pH condition seemed to be around 7 considering both water quality and fluoride removal. Under the pH 7 condition, the $Ca(OH)_{2}$ was superior to rare earth compounds in Mn removal and the lanthanide was superior to others in total Cr removal.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.454-463
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• 2006

refractory organic compounds in aqueous solution are not readily removed by the existing conventional wastewater treatment process. In recent years, the sonolysis and electrochemical oxidation process had been shown to be promising for wastewater treatment due to the effectiveness and easiness in operation. This study was performed to investigate the characteristics of sonolytic and electrolytic decomposition as the basic data for development of the wastewater treatment process. Trichloroethylene(TCE) and 2,4- dichlorophenol(2,4-DCP) were used as the samples, and their destruction efficiency were measured with various operating parameters, such as initial solution concentration, initial solution pH, reaction temperature, sonic power and current density. Also, the decomposition mechanism conformed indirectly with the effect of NaHCO3 as a radical scavenger on the decomposition reaction. Thermal decompositon reaction is predominant for TCE but thermal and radical decompositon reactions were dominant for 2,4-DCP. Results showed that the destruction efficiencies of all samples were above 65% within 120 minutes by sonolysis and electrolysis at the same time, and were increased with increasing initial concentration, sonic power and current density. Destruction efficiency of TCE was high in the acidic solution, but 2,4-DCP showed high destruction efficiency in basic solution.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.45-53
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• 2009

This study concerned remediation of heavy metal contaminated farmland soils near abandoned mine, using stabilization method, with particular emphasis on the remediating the soils contaminated with multi-elements. In this study, stabilizing heavy metals based on 'In-situ chemical fixation' has been applied to the soil collected from an abandoned mine in Korea, using column test, with various stabilizing agents, including $FeSO_4$, $KMnO_4$, sludge (collected from coal mine drainage treatment pond), zero-valent iron (ZVI), zeolite and $CaCO_3$. Sixty five-days operation of the flow-through columns yield $FeSO_4\;+\;KMnO_4$ and zeolite are efficient on reducing As leaching from the soil. ZVI and sludge are reducing the leaching of Cu. Although $FeSO_4\;+\;KMnO_4$ seem to be efficient for most heavy metals, high pH in the initial stage of test enabled high leaching of the heavy metals, whereas fixation of the heavy metals maintain throughout the rest of the test period, with increasing pH up to around 6. Addition of some alkaline agent may inhibit the low pH during the application. The column test was also run as two set: one set incubated with deionized water for 72 hours prior to starting the test, and the other without incubation. The incubated set demonstrated better stabilizing efficiency, indicating the potential optimized operation method.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.86 no.3
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• pp.324-333
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• 1997

The research has been made for the effects of the pollution by the abandoned coal mine drainage on the physical and chemical properties of soil, stream sediment and soil water. The soils overspreaded by the abandoned coal don't develop solum and the bulk density is $1.83g/m^3$, compared with $1.14-1.38g/m^3$ in the other forest soils. The soil pH range in coal bearing region ie, from 4.01 to 4.11 and non-coal bearing soil range is from 5.03 to 5.13. Heavy metals such as As, Cr, Ni, Mo and Ba of coal bearing soils and polluted stream sediments have larger concentration than those of non-coal content and non-polluted. Especially As and Mo concentrations are largely high in coal bearing. The relative ratios $K_2O/Na_2O$ of geochemical elements are higher in coal bearing soil and polluted stream sediments than those of non-coal bearing soils and non-polluted stream sediments as well as black shales of the Changri Formation. However, $MgO+Fe_2O_3+TiO_2/CaO+K_2O$ are the opposite trends, so that the ratios are lower in the polluted regions. The soil water pHs in the polluted regions are the strong acid(pH3.4-4.2) and buffer capacity of the polluted soil is low because canons such as $Na^+$, $K^+$, $Mg^{+2}$are leached by the acidification.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.96-115
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• 2017

Understanding effects of thermal pollution and acidification has long been a concern of aquatic ecologists, but it remains largely unknown in Korea. This study was performed to elucidate the effects of thermal wastewater effluent (TWE) and acid rain on water quality and attached algae in a small mountain stream, the Buso Stream, a tributary located in the Hantan River basin. A total of five study sites were selected in the upstream area including the inflowing point of hot-spring wastewater (HSW), one upstream site (BSU), and three sites below thermal effluent merged into the stream (1 m, 10 m and 300 m for BSD1, BSD2, and BSD3, respectively). Field surveys and laboratory analyses were carried out every month from December 2015 to September 2016. Water temperature ranged $1.7{\sim}28.8^{\circ}C$ with a mean of $15.0^{\circ}C$ among all sites. Due to the effect of thermal effluent, water temperature at HSW site was sustained at high level during the study period from $17.5^{\circ}C$ (January) to $28.8^{\circ}C$ (September) with a mean of $24.2{\pm}3.7^{\circ}C$, which was significantly higher than other sites. Thermal wastewater effluent also brought in high concentration of nutrients(N, P). The effect of TWE was particularly apparent during dry season and low temperature period (December~March). Temperature effect of TWE did not last toward downstream, while nutrient effect seemed to maintain in longer distance. pH ranged 5.1~8.4 with a mean of 6.9 among all sites during the study period. The pH decrease was attributed to seasonal acid rain and snow fall, and their effects was identified by acidophilic diatoms dominated mainly by Eunotia pectinalis and Tabellaria flocculosa during March and August. These findings indicated that water quality and periphyton assemblages in the upstream region of Buso Stream were affected by thermal pollution, eutrophication, and acidification, and their confounding effects were seasonally variable.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.222-231
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• 2005

Most of the tailings have been left without any management in abandoned metalliferous mines and have become the main source of heavy metal contamination of agricultural soils and crops in the these areas. To compare of environmental assessment of heavy metals in tailings derived from various 25-metalliferous mines in Korea, 3 different analysis methods such as water soluble, 0.1 M-HCl extractable, and total acid digestion method (aqua regia) were used. The chemical composition of water soluble in mine tailing were in the order ${SO_4}^{2-}>Ca^{2+}>Mn^{2+},\;Na^+,\;Al^{3+}>Mg^{2+},\;Fe^{3+}>Cl^-$. Specially, pH, EC, ${SO_4}^{2-},\;and\;Ca^{2+}$ concentrations in tailing varied considerably among the different mines. The average total concentrations of Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, and As in tailing were 31.8, 708, 4,961, 2,275 and 3,235 mg/kg, respectively. Specially, the contents of Cd, Zn and As were higher than those of countermeasure values for soil contamination (Cd : 4, Zn : 700 and As : 15 mg/kg in soil) by Soil Environmental Conservation Act in Korea. The rates of water soluble heavy metals to total contents in tailings were in the order Cd > Zn > Cu > Pb > As. The rates of 0.1M-HCl extractable Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, and As (1M-HCl) to total content were 17.4, 10.2, 6.5, 6.8 and 11.4% respectively. The enrichment factor of heavy metals in tailings were in the order As > Pb > Cd > Cu > Zn. The pollution index in tailing Au-Ag mine tailing were higher than those of other mine tailing. As a results of enrichment factor and pollution index for heavy metal contaminations in mine tailing of metalliferous mines, the main contaminants are mine waste materials including tailings.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.555-564
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• 2010

Remediation process by using the bio-carrier (beads) with dead Bacillus sp. B1 and polysulfone was investigated for heavy metal contaminated groundwater. Sorption batch experiments using the bio-carrier were performed to quantify the heavy metal removal efficiencies from the contaminated solution. The analyses using SEM/EDS and TEM for the structure and the characteristic of precipitates on/inside the beads were also conducted to understand the sorption mechanism by the bio-carrier. Various amounts of freeze-dried dead Bacillus sp. B1 were mixed with polysulfone + DMF(N,N-dimethylformamide) solution to produce the bio-carrier (beads; less than 2mm in diameter) and 5% of Bacillus sp. B1 in the bio-carrier was optimal for Pb removal in the solution. The removal efficiency ratings of the bio-carrier for Pb, Cu and Cd were greater than 80% after adding 2g of bio-carrier in 50ml of aqueous solution (<10mg/L of each heavy metal concentration). Reaction time of the bio-carrier was very fast and most of the sorption reaction for heavy metals were completed within few hours. Batch experiments were duplicated at various pH conditions of aqueous solutions and Cu and Pb removal efficiencies highly maintained at wide pH ranges (pH 2-12), suggesting that the bio-carrier can be useful to clean up the acidic waste water such as AMD. From SEM/EDS and TEM analyses, it was observed that the bio-carrier was spherical shape and was overlapped by many porous layers. During the sorption experiment, Pb was crystallized on the surface of porous layers and also was mainly concentrated at the boundary of Bacillus sp. B1 stroma and polysulfone substrate, showing that the main mechanism of the bio-carrier to remove heavy metals is the sorption on/inside of the bio-carriers and the bio-carriers are excellent biosorbents for the removal of heavy metal ions from groundwater.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.137-142
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• 1997

At the tailings dam of the disused Brukunga pyrite mine in South Australia, reaction of groundwater with the tailings causes the formation and discharge of sulphuric acid. There is a need to improve remediation efforts by decreasing groundwater flow through the tailings dam. Geophysical methods have been investigated to determine whether they can be used to characterise variations in depth to watertable and map preferred groundwater flow paths. Three methods were used: transient electromagnetic (TEM) soundings, direct current (DC) soundings and profiling, and self potential (SP) profiling. The profiling methods were used to map the areal extent of a given response, while soundings was used to determine the variation in response with depth. The results of the geophysical surveys show that the voltages measured with SP profiling are small and it is hard to determine any preferred channels of groundwater flow from SP data alone. Results obtained from TEM and DC soundings, show that the DC method is useful for determining layer boundaries at shallow depths (less than about 10 m), while the TEM method can resolve deeper structures. Joint use of TEM and DC data gives a more complete and accurate geoelectric section. The TEM and DC measurements have enabled accurate determination of depth to groundwater. For soundings centred at piezometers, this depth is consistent with the measured watertable level in the corresponding piezometer. A map of the watertable level produced from all the TEM and DC soundings at the site shows that the shallowest level is at a depth of about 1 m, and occurs at the southeast of the site, while the deepest watertable level (about 17 m) occurs at the northwest part of the site. The results indicate that a possible source of groundwater occurs at the southeast area of the dam, and the aquifer thickness varies between 6 and 13 m. A map of the variation of resistivity of the aquifer has also been produced from the TEM and DC data. This map shows that the least resistive (i.e., most conductive) section of the aquifer occurs in the northeast of the site, while the most resistive part of the aquifer occurs in the southeast. These results are interpreted to indicate a source of fresh (resistive) groundwater in the southeast of the site, with a possible further source of conductive groundwater in the northeast.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.55-61
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• 2003

This study was conducted to evaluate distribution and behavior characteristics of heavy metals for tidal flat sediments in the Saemankeum area. The value of heavy metal contents in the tidal flat sediments were higher than that surveyed in 1994, but showing that it's lower when compared with the value of Shiwha lake. Enrichment factors in the tidal flat sediments showed below 1 except for Pb and Zn. Metal excesses was appeared that Cu, Cr, Fe, Mn lacked and Pb, Zn were high. The correlation analysis between heavy metals and organic matters was found high positive relationship (r=0.424$\~$0.839), especially correlation coefficient between ignition loss and oxide Al, Fe, Mn showed high positive relationship above 0.7. The correlation analysis between Brain size and hear metals was found that as grain size was small, heavy metals contents were increased. Correlation coefficient between silt and heavy metals except for Cu, Pb showed high positive relationship as 0.552$\~$0.732.