• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.80-87
• /
• 2011

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) present the important advantage of being able to approach the seafloor more closely than surface vessel surveys can. To collect bathymetric data, bottom material information, and sub-surface images, multibeam echosounder, sidescan sonar (SSS) and subbottom profiler (SBP) equipment mounted on an AUV are powerful tools. The 3000m class AUV URASHIMA was developed by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). After finishing the engineering development and examination phase of a fuel-cell system used for the vehicle's power supply system, a renovated lithium-ion battery power system was installed in URASHIMA. The AUV was redeployed from its prior engineering tasks to scientific use. Various scientific instruments were loaded on the vehicle, and experimental dives for science-oriented missions conducted from 2006. During the experimental cruise of 2007, high-resolution acoustic images were obtained by SSS and SBP on the URASHIMA around the northern Kumano Basin off Japan's Kii Peninsula. The map of backscatter intensity data revealed many debris objects, and SBP images revealed the subsurface structure around the north-eastern end of our study area. These features suggest a structure related to the formation of the latest submarine fan. However, a strong reflection layer exists below ~20 ms below the seafloor in the south-western area, which we interpret as a denudation feature, now covered with younger surface sediments. We continue to improve the vehicle's performance, and expect that many fruitful results will be obtained using URASHIMA.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.65-72
• /
• 2008

The purpose of the HLW deep geological disposal is to isolate and to delay the radioactive material release to human beings and the environment for a long time so that the toxicity does not affect to the environment. The main requirements for the HLW repository design is to keep the buffer temperature below $100\;^{\circ}C$ in order to maintain its integrity. So the cooling time of spent fuels discharged from the nuclear power plant is the key consideration factors for efficiency and economic feasibility of the repository. The disposal tunnel/disposal hole spacing, the disposal area and thermal capacity required for the deep geological repository layout which satisfies the temperature requirement of the disposal system is analyzed to set the optimized spent fuels cooling time. To do this, based on the reference disposal concept, thermal stability analyses of the disposal system have been performed and the derived results have been compared by setting the spent fuels cooling time and the disposal tunnel/disposal hole spacing in various ways. From these results, desirable spent fuels cooling time in view of disposal area is derived. The results shows that the time reaching the maximum temperature within the design limit of the temperature in the disposal site is likely shortened as the cooling time of spent fuels becomes short. Also it seems that the temperature-rising and-dropping patterns in the disposal site are of smoothly varying form as the cooling time of spent fuels becomes long. In addition, it is revealed that a desirable cooling time of spent fuels is approximately 40-50 years when spent fuels are supposedly disposed in the deep geological disposal site with its structural scale under consideration in this study.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.41 no.2 s.113
• /
• pp.168-187
• /
• 2006

Windy meteorological conditions and dried fire fuels due to higher atmospheric instability and dryness in the lower troposphere can exacerbate fire controls and result in more losses of forest resources and residential properties due to enhanced large wildland fires. Long-term (1979-2005) climatology of the Haines Index reconstructed in this study reveals that spatial patterns and intra-annual variability of the atmospheric instability and dryness in the lower troposphere affect the frequency of wildland fire incidences over the Korean Peninsula. Exponential regression models verify that daily high Haines Index and its monthly frequency has statistically significant correlations with the frequency of the wildland fire occurrences during the fire season (December-April) in South Korea. According to the climatic maps of the Haines Index created by the Geographic Information System (GIS) using the Digital Elevation Model (DEM), the lowlands below 500m from the mean sea level in the northwestern regions of the Korean Peninsula demonstrates the high frequency of the Haines Index equal to or greater than five in April and May. The annual frequency of the high Haines Index represents an increasing trend across the Korean Peninsula since the mid-1990s, particularly in Gyeongsangbuk-do and along the eastern coastal areas. The composite of synoptic weather maps at 500hPa for extreme events, in which the high Haines Index lasted for several days consecutively, illustrates that the cold low pressure system developed around the Sea of Okhotsk in the extreme event period enhances the pressure gradient and westerly wind speed over the Korean Peninsula. These results demonstrate the need for further consideration of the spatial-temporal characteristics of vertical atmospheric components, such as atmospheric instability and dryness, in the current Korean fire prediction system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.24 no.7
• /
• pp.848-857
• /
• 2018

Recently, around the world, active development of new renewable energy sources including solar power, waves, and fuel cells, etc. has taken place. Particularly, floating offshore wind farms have been developed for saving costs through large scale production, using high-quality wind power and minimizing noise damage in the ocean area. The development of floating wind farms requires an evaluation of the Maritime Safety Audit Scheme under the Maritime Safety Act in Korea. Floating wind farms shall be assessed by applying the line and area concept for systematic development, management and utilization of specified sea water. The development of appropriate evaluation methods and standards is also required. In this study, proper standards for marine traffic surveys and assessments were established and a systemic treatment was studied for assessing marine spatial area. First, a marine traffic data collector using AIS or radar was designed to conduct marine traffic surveys. In addition, assessment methods were proposed such as historical tracks, traffic density and marine traffic pattern analysis applying the line and area concept. Marine traffic density can be evaluated by spatial and temporal means, with an adjusted grid-cell scale. Marine traffic pattern analysis was proposed for assessing ship movement patterns for transit or work in sea areas. Finally, conceptual design of a Marine Traffic and Safety Assessment Solution (MaTSAS) was competed that can be analyzed automatically to collect and assess the marine traffic data. It could be possible to minimize inaccurate estimation due to human errors such as data omission or misprints through automated and systematic collection, analysis and retrieval of marine traffic data. This study could provides reliable assessment results, reflecting the line and area concept, according to sea area usage.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.232-239
• /
• 2021

In order to develop a novel system named "thermal medium and gas circulation type pyrolysis system," this study was conducted to obtain basic data for process simulation before performing the pyrolysis experiment. Polypropylene (PP) was chosen as model material in the basic pyrolysis experiment instead of waste plastic and fluidized sand (hereinafter referred to as "sand"), and it was used as a heat transfer material in the "thermal medium and gas circulation type pyrolysis system." Ni was impregnated as an active catalyst on the sand to promote catalytic pyrolysis. The basic physical properties of PP were analyzed using a thermogravimetric analyzer, and pyrolysis was performed at 600 ℃ in an N₂ atmosphere to produce liquid oil. The distribution of the carbon number of the liquid oil generated through the catalytic pyrolysis reaction was analyzed using GC/MS. We investigated the effects of varying the pyrolysis space velocity and catalyst amount on the yield of liquid oil and the carbon number distribution of the liquid oil. Using Ni/sand, the yield of liquid oil was increased except with the pyrolysis condition of 10 wt% Ni/sand at a space velocity of 30,000 h^-1, and the composition of C₆ ~ C₁₂ hydrocarbons increased. With increases in the space velocity, higher yields of liquid oil were obtained, but the composition of C₆ ~ C₁₂ hydrocarbons was reduced. With 1 wt% Ni/sand, the oil yield obtained was greater than that obtained with 10 wt% Ni/sand. In summary, when 1 wt% Ni/sand was used at a space velocity of 10,000 h^-1, the oil yield was 60.99 wt% and the composition of C₆ ~ C₁₂ hydrocarbons was highest at 42.06 area%.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.67-76
• /
• 2022

The furniture industry has a high possibility to create value-added and a high potential to create new occupations due to the characteristics of the industry, which mainly consists of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, the used furniture, which has sufficient reuse value, is also crushed and used as solid refuse fuel (SRF) recently. Besides, the number of waste treatment companies continues to decrease, and it occurs congestion of wood waste. As a way to solve the issue, a business model development of remanufacturing used furniture can be suggested as an alternative due to its high circular economic efficiency. Remanufacturing business including furniture industry creates positive effects in various aspects such as economic, environmental and job creation. In other words, remanufacturing is an effective recycling way to reduce input resources and energy in the production process. The results of economic analysis show that the expected annual revenue from the single worker furniture remanufacturing site was 104 million won which is 3.11 times more than the average income of a single-worker household in Korea and its B/C ratio was estimated about 30 which means high business feasibility. Revenue through furniture remanufacturing also showed 320 times higher than that of SRF production from the perspective of weight. In addition, it is shown that the GHGs reduction from the furniture remanufacturing is 2.2 ton CO₂-eq. per year, which is similar to the amount of GHGs absorption effect of 937 pine trees or 622 Korean oak trees annually. Thus the results of this study demonstrate that it is important to adopt an appropriate recycling method considering the economic and environmental effects at the end-of-life stage.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.29 no.5
• /
• pp.689-700
• /
• 1996

Fisheries products have to be produced and maintained by work processes from the environment, sometimes helped by people. In Korean fisheries both environmental production and its economic use are included within the windows of system approach. EMERGY is the sum of all inputs expressed as one form of solar energy required directly and indirectly to make a product. Calculating EMERGY flows into Korean fisheries evaluates the real wealth contributed by environmental production and its economic use. Several indices calculated from EMERGY analysis table and a three-arm diagram give perspective on the type and efficiency of the environmental uses. Net EMERGY yield ratio is a measure of its net contribution to the economy beyond its own operation. For adjacent waters fisheries in Korea, the net contribution to the economy is 11.85 or higher, which is a stimulus to the economy that is able to purchase it. EMERGY investment ratio measures the intensity of the economic development and the loading of the environment. The ratio for Korean fisheries as a whole is 0.50, for the adjacent waters fisheries 0.09 and for the shallow-sea cultures 1.28, which is lower than the same index for the industry of the developed country (7.0). The component of environment drawn into production are large compared to purchased investment in Korean fisheries. Much more EMERGY is contained in fisheries products than in the paid services used to process the products. The EMERGY exchange ratio for Korean fisheries as a whole is 6.98, for the adjacent waters fisheries is 10.69 and for the shallow-sea cultures is 1.25. Using market values to evaluate wealth of environment resources is found to be many times too small. Money is paid only to people for their contribution, and never to the environment for its contribution. Macroeconomic value is the appropriate measure for discussing large-scale considerations of an economy, including environment and human goods & services.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.221-229
• /
• 2009

This study develops the optimized operation program which enables effective and economic operation between individual and connected branch offices by analyzing the current status and influential indicators of district heating companies' capital branch offices. Accordingly, the study examines the efficiency of optimized operation program. In doing so, this study has diagnosed and analyzed various factors, such as boilers, pumps, and relevant tags (temperature, pressure, fuel amount) through investigation of individual branch offices, and finally succeeded in developing wide-ranging data base by factor covering one-year time period. Additionally, after running the optimized operation program, different branch offices, optimum preference has turned out "incinerator receiving heat from KEPCO>CHP >PLBs>PLBw." Meantime, except the connected offices, there has been no big difference between actual and optimum operation program in branch offices. Meanwhile, the integrated optimum operation program has made it possible the most optimal result only via the connecting supply and demand heat without changing received Heat from KEPCO which is the same as total productive heat. The result has showed that the reduction percentage per day is 2.45~6.80%, and the reduction cost per day is 22,727~60,077 thousand won given the randomly selected sample days. In particular, winter time shows the highest demand with the largest reduction cost whereas summer time illustrates the lowest demand with the smallest reduction cost. Given this result, reduction cost per year compared to actual heat production cost for one year theoretically would be 84 hundred million won. Also, the economic effect showed that the reduction cost percentage per year is more than 2.74% on heat production cost per year for all capital branch offices.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.197-206
• /
• 2023

Recently, the international community, including the International Maritime Organization (IMO), has strengthened regulations on air pollution emissions of ships, and eco-friendly ships are actively being developed to reduce exhaust gas emissions. Among them, rotor sail (RS), a wind-assisted ship propulsion system, is attracting attention again. RS is a cylindrical device installed on the ship deck, that generates hydrodynamic lift using a magnus effect. This is a next generation eco-friendly auxiliary propulsion technology, and Enercon company, which developed RS-applied ships, announced that fuel savings of more than 30% are possible. In this study, optimal installation conditions such as RS spacing and arrangement type were selected when multiple RSs were installed on ships. AR=5.1, SR=1.0, and D_e/D was fixed at 2.0 according to the RS arrangement, and the wind direction was considered only for the unidirectional +y-axis. Regarding arrangement conditions, five conditions were set at 3D intervals in the +x-axis direction from 3D to 15D and five conditions in the +y-axis direction from 5D to 25D. C_L, C_D and aerodynamic efficiency (C_L/C_D) were compared according to the square(□) and diamond(◇) shape arrangements. Consequently, the effect of RS on the longitudinal distance was not significantly different. However, in the case of RS flow characteristics according to the transverse distance, the interaction effect of RS was the greatest when the two RSs almost matched the wind direction. In the case of the RS flow characteristics according to the arrangement, notably, when the wind blew in the forward (0°) direction, the diamond (◇) arrangement was least affected by the backward flow between RSs.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.277-292
• /
• 2024

In order to manage large-scale forest fires concentrated in Gangwon-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do with severe topographical heterogeneity, a decision-making process through efficient and rapid damage assessment using satellite images is essential. Accordingly, this study targets a large-scale forest fire that ignited in Gangneung and the Donghae, Gangwon-do on March 5, 2022, and was extinguished around 19:00 on March 8, to estimate the fire severity using dNBR and derive environmental factors that affect the grade. As environmental factors, we quantified the regular vegetation index representing vegetation or fuel type, the forest index that classifies tree species, the regular moisture index representing moisture content, and DEM in relation to topography, and then analyzed the correlation with the fire severity. In terms of fire severity, the widest range was 'Unbured' at 52.4%, followed by low severity at 42.9%, medium-low severity at 4.3%, and medium-high severity at 0.4%. Environmental factors showed a negative correlation with dNDVI and dNDWI, and a positive correlation with slope. Regarding vegetation, the differences between coniferous, broad-leaved, and other groups in dNDVI, dNIWI, and slope, which were analyzed to affect the fire severity, were analyzed to be significant with p-value < 2.2e-16. In particular, the difference between coniferous and broad-leaved forests was clear, and it was confirmed that coniferous forest suffered more damage than broad-leaved forest due to the higher fire severity in the Gangwon-do region, including Pinus densiflora, which are dominant species, as well as P. koraiensis, P. rigida and P. thunbergii.