• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.23-31
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• 2003

A mathematical model was formulated to simulate the long-term performance of an anaerobic bioreactor designed to digest Korean food wastes. The system variables of various decomposition steps were built into the model, which predicts the temporal characters of Solid waste, and volatile fatty acid (VFA) in the reactor, and gas production in response to various input loadings and temperatures. The predicted values of VFA and gas production were found to be in good agreement with experimental observations in batch and repeated-input systems. Finally, long-term reactor performance was simulated with respect to the seasonal temperature changes from 5C in winter to 25C in Summer at different food waste input loadings. The simulation results provided us with information concerning the success or failure of a process during long-term operation .

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.55-68
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• 2020

Because of the intensified environmental problems such as climate change and resource depletion, sewage treatment technology focused on energy management has recently attracted attention. The conversion of primary sludge from the primary sedimentation tank and excessive sludge from the secondary sedimentation tank into biogas is the key to energy-positive sewage treatment. In particular, the primary sedimentation tanks recover enriched biodegradable organic matter and anaerobic digestion process produces methane from the organic wastes for energy production. Such technologies for minimizing oxygen demand are leading the innovation regarding sewage treatment plants. However, sewage treatment facilities in Korea lack core technology and operational know-how. Actually, the energy potential of sewage is higher than sewage treatment energy consumption in the sewage treatment, but current processes are not adequately efficient in energy recovery. To improve this, it is possible to apply chemically enhanced primary treatment (CEPT), high-rate activated sludge (HRAS), and anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) to the primary sedimentation tank. To maximize the methane production of sewage treatment plants, organic wastes such as food waste and livestock manure can be digested. Additionally, mechanical pretreatment, thermal hydrolysis, and chemical pretreatment would enhance the methane conversion of organic waste. Power generation systems based on internal combustion engines are susceptible to heat source losses, requiring breakthrough energy conversion systems such as fuel cells. To realize the energy positive sewage treatment plant, primary organic matter recovery from sewage, biogas pretreatment, and co-digestion should be optimized in the energy management system based on the knowledge-based operation.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.195-201
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• 2010

Due to its carbon-neutral nature, biogas generated from anaerobic digestion or fermentation of biodegradable wastes is one of the important renewable energy sources to reduce global warming. It is mainly composed of methane and various inert gases such as $CO_2$ and $N_2$, and the actual composition of biogas significantly varies depending on the origin of anaerobic digestion process. Therefore, in order to effectively utilize this fuel as an energy source for electricity, it is important to develop power generation engines which can successfully apply biogas with significant composition variations. In this study, efforts have been made to develop a diesel-biogas duel fuel engine as a way to achieve such a stable power generation. The effects of diesel fuel injection quantity and pressure on stable combustion and engine performance were investigated, and an impact of diesel fuel atomization was discussed. The engine test results show that there exists a 2 stage combustion which consists of diesel pilot fuel burning and premixed biogas/air mixture burning in dual fuel engine operation and optimum diesel injection parameters were suggested for biogases with various compositions and heating values.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.63 no.3
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• pp.35-45
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• 2021

Digestate or slurry produced from anaerobic digestion is mostly applied to crop lands for its disposal and recovering nutrients. However, minimizing nitrogen losses following field application of the digestate is important for maximizing the plant's nitrogen uptake and reducing environmental concerns. This study was conducted to assess the effects of three different biogas digestate application techniques (sawdust mixed with digestate (SSD), the hole application method (HA), and digestate injected in the soil (SD)) on nitrate leaching potential in the soil. A pot laboratory experiment was conducted at room temperature of 25 ± 2 ℃ for 107 days. The experimental results showed that sawdust application method turned out to be appropriate for quick immobilization of surplus N in the form of microbial biomass N, reflecting its lower total nitrogen and NH₄-N contents and low pH. The NH₄-N and total nitrogen fate in the soil fertilized with manure showed no statistically significant (p > 0.05) differences between the different methods applied during the incubation time under room temperature. In contrast, NO₃-N concentration indicates significant reduction in sawdust treatment (p < 0.05) compared to the control and other application methods. However, the soil sawdust mixed with digestate was more effective than the other methods, because of the cumulative labile carbon contents of the amendment, which implies soil net N immobilization.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2016

In this study, mesophilic anaerobic digestion of source separated food waste was carried out by leachate recirculation system and methane gas was produced. Two systems - system A and B were fabricated and placed within water bath to maintain $36^{\circ}C$. Each system was comprised of an anaerobic bioreactor and a leachate tank. Leachate in bioreactor was separated through the screen located at 30 mm above the bottom and a pump was installed to transfer collected leachate to the leachate tank. Everyday, 2.5 L of the leachate was pumped from the bioreactor to the leachate tank for 30 min and transferred leachate was pumped back to the top of the bioreactor for 30min, sequentially. Source separated food waste used for this experiment was washed by water before transferring to the laboratory. Transferred food waste was warmed to $36^{\circ}C$ before being fed to bioreactors. System A was fed to 49.1 g VS (Volatile Solids) and System B was fed to 54.0 g VS at every two weeks, respectively. $NH_4{^+}-N$ and salinity were monitored to see the inhibition toward anaerobic bioreaction and it was found that concentrations of these materials were not high enough to affect the bioreaction. Although the food waste was fed biweekly for 112 days and 140 days at system A and B, respectively, there was no sludge withdrawal from each system. Average methane productions rates were 0.439 L $CH_4/g$ VS and 0.368 L $CH_4/g$ VS for system A and B, respectively.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.28-35
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• 2015

In this study, the experiment was carried out to produce methane by applying Semi-Continuous Leachate Recirculation Anaerobic Digestion System fed with source separated food waste from school cafeteria. There were two systems and each system consisted of a bioreactor and a liquid tank. Each bioreactor had a screen near the bottom of the reactor. 2.5L of separated liquid was transferred to the liquid tank for 30min each day by using a tubing pump and the liquid from the liquid tank was pumped to the bioreactor at the upper of the bioreactor as soon as the transfer was ended. Through this circulation, the liquid having high concentration of VFAs was supplied to the top of bioreactor. At the beginning of the experiment, food waste/inoculum anaerobic sludge volume ratio was 2:8 that is 9g VS/L of OLR(Organic Loading Rate). Feeding was conducted every two weeks. Experimental results showed that the contents of moisture, combustible matter, ash were 65.91%, 32.73%, and 1.36%, respectively. Two different food waste loading were studied. The average organic loading rates were 3.51g VS/d for System A and 3.86g VS/d for System B, respectively. The average produced methane based on food waste fed to bioreactor were observed as $6.30m^3CH_4/kgVS{\cdot}d$ for system A and $4.94m^3CH_4/kgVS{\cdot}d$ for System B, respectively.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.199-204
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• 2006

The purpose of this work was to evaluate the development of the anammox process by the use of granular sludge selected from a digestion reactor as a potential seed source in a lab-scale UASB (upflow anaerobic sludge blanket) reactor system. The reactor was operated for approximately 11 months and was fed by synthetic wastewater. After 200 days of feeding with $NH_4^+\;and\;NO_2^-$ as the main substrates, the biomass showed steady signs of ammonium consumption, resulting in over 60% of ammonium nitrogen removal. This report aims to present the results and to more closely examine what occurs after the onset of anammox activity, while the previous work described the start-up experiment and the presence of anammox bacteria in the enriched community using the fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique. By the last month of operation, the consumed $NO_2^--N/NH_4^+-N$ ratio in the UASB reactor was close to 1.32, the stoichiometric ratio of the anammox reaction. The obtained results from the influent-shutdown test suggested that nitrite concentration would be one key parameter that promotes the anammox reaction during the start-up enrichment of anammox bacteria from granular sludge. During the study period, the sludge color gradually changed from black to red-brownish.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1231-1238
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• 2008

This study was performed to evaluate the treatability of food waste leachate using lab-scale two-phase anaerobic digestion system. Effects of influent pH, hydraulic retention time (HRT), and recycle of methanogenic reactor effluent to the thermophilic acidogenic reactors were investigated. For methanogenic reactors, effects of internal solids recycle and temperature were studied. Performance of the acidogenic reactors was stable under the conditions of influent pH of 6.0 and HRT of 2 d with the recycle of methanogenic reactor effluent, and acidification and VS removal efficiency were about 30% and 40%, respectively. Up to the organic loading rate (OLR) of 7 g COD/L/d, effluent SCOD values of mesophilic and thermophilic methanogenic reactors either lower or kept the same with the internal solids recycle. Also, decreasing tendency in specific methane production (SMP) due to the organic loading increase became diminished with the internal solids recycle. Mesophilic methanogenic reactors showed higher TCOD removal efficiency and SMP than thermophilic condition under the same OLR as VSS was always higher under mesophilic condition. In sum, thermophilic acidogenesis-mesophilic methanogenesis system was found to be better than thermophilic-thermophilic system in terms of both organic removal and methane production.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.155-161
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• 2012

A simple in-situ methane enrichment system in mesophilic anaerobic digestion was developed to take advantage of the differing solubilities of $CO_2$ and methane. The methane enhancement systems consisted of low solids plug-flow maize digester coupled with a leachate recycle loop to an external $CO_2$ stripper. The effects of leachate recycle rate (LRR) and reactor alkalinity on the resulting offgas $CH_4$ contents, biogas productivity and TVS removal efficiency were quantitively evaluated. The results showed that offgas $CH_4$ contents of over 94% was achieved at 3 volume of leachate recycle per volume of reactor per day (3 v/v-d) and at the reactor alkalinity of 4 g/L as $CaCO_3$, as the optimum operating conditions. The TVS removal efficiency of the methane enhancement system was 79% which corresponds to 94% of the control reactor and the methane productivity appeared to be 0.71 v/v-d. Offgas methane contents correlated well with LRR. However excessively high LRR led to the decrease in TVS removal efficiency.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.104-116
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• 1996

Anaerobic digestion is generally used for the treatment of volatile organic solids such as manure and sludge from waste water treatment plants. However, the reaction rate of anaerobic process is slow, and thus it requires a large reactor volume. To minimize such a disadvantage, physical and chemical pre-treatment is generally considered. Another method to reduce the reactor size is to adopt different reactor system other than CSTR. In this paper, the effects of heat pre-treatment and reactor configurations on the anaerobic treatability of volatile solids was studied. Carrot, kale, primary sludge, and waste activated sludge was chosen as the test materials, and the BMP method was used to evaluate the maximum methane production and first order rate constants from each sample. After the heat treatment at $130^{\circ}C$ for 30min., the measured increase in SCOD per gram VS was up to 394 mg/L for the waste activated sludge. However, the methane production potential per gram VS was increased for only primary and waste activated sludge by 17-23%, remaining the same for carrot and kale. The overall methane production process for the tested solids can be described by first order reactions. The increased in reaction constant after heat pre-treatment was also more significant for the primary and waste activated sludge than that for carrot and kale. therefore, the heat pre-treatment appeared to be effective for the solids with high protein contents rather than for the solids with high carbohydrate contents. Among the four reactor systems studied, CSTR, PFR, CSTR followed by PFR, and PFR with recycle, CSTR followed by PFR appeared to be the best choice considering methane conversion rate and the operational stability.