• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.506-514
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• 2020

The current study stresses on the reuse of waste lignocellulose biomass (rice husk and sugarcane bagasse) for the synthesis of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and further conversion of this CMC into a biodegradable film. Addition of commercial starch was done to form biodegradable film due to its capacity to form a continuous matrix. Plasticizers such as Glycerol and citric acid were used to provide flexibility and strength to the film. Biopolymer film obtained from sugarcane bagasse CMC showed maximum tensile strength and elongation in comparison to the film synthesized from commercial CMC and CMC obtained from rice husk. It has been observed that an increase in sodium glycolate/NaCl content in CMC imposed an adverse effect on tensile strength. Opacity, moisture content, and solubility of the film increased with a rise in the degree of substitution of CMC. Therefore, CMC obtained from sugarcane bagasse was better candidate in preparing biopolymer/biocomposite film.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.402-408
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• 2011

Organic Rankine cycles (ORC) can be used to produce power from heat at different temperature levels available as geothermal heat, as biogenic heat from biomass, as solar or as waste heat. In ORC working fluids with relatively low critical temperatures and pressures can be compressed directly to their supercritical pressures and heated before expansion so as to obtain a better thermal match with their heat sources. In this work thermal performance of ORC with and without an internal heat exchanger is comparatively investigated in the range of subcritical and transcritical cycles. R134a is considered as working fluid and special attention is paid to the effect of turbine inlet pressure on the characteristics of the system. Results show that operation with supercritical cycles can provide better performance than subcritical cycles and the internal heat exchanger can improve the thermal efficiency when the temperature of heat source becomes higher.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.1947-1953
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• 2006

There have been a number of studies of methods for recycling animal wastewater to provide new bioresources. In the present work, a marine algal culture medium, designated KEP II, was prepared by adding swine waste (3% v/v) fermented by soil bacteria to a dilution of f/2 culture medium (CT). When Phaeodactylum tricornutum was grown in batch culture in KEP II, the cells lasted long at the exponential phase producing the specific growth rate and biomass; the production of total amino acids and secondary metabolites rose up to 5-fold. It also substantially enhanced the maximum quantum yield of photo system (PS) II of P. tricornutum, greatly increased the level of thylakoid membranes containing PS, and stimulated the production of pyrenoids, including enzymes for $CO_2$ fixation in chloroplasts. KEP II should improve the cost efficiency of industrial mass batch cultures and the value of microalgae for long-term preservation of fresh aquaculture feed as well as production of anticancer and antioxidant agents. Specifically, a low-cost medium for growing the diatoms of aquaculture feed will be economically advantageous.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.43-49
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• 2010

Co-combustion of syngas in an existing boiler can be one of the options for replacing conventional fossil fuel with alternative fuels such as waste and biomass. This study is aimed to investigate effects of syngas cocombustion on combustion characteristics and boiler efficiency. An experimental study was performed for a pilot-scale furnace with 4 oil burners. Tests were conducted with mixture-gas as a co-combustion fuel and heavy oil as a main fuel. The mixture-gas was composed of 15% CO, 7% $H_2$, 3% $CH_4$ and 75% $N_2$ for simulating syngas from air-blown gasification. And LHV of the mixture-gas was 890 kcal/$Nm^3$. Temperature distribution in the furnace and flue gas composition were measured for various heat replacement ratio by the mixture gas. Heat loss through the wall was also carried out through heat & mass balance calculation, in order to obtain informations related to boiler efficiency. Experimental results show that similar temperature distribution and flue gas composition can be obtained for the range of 0~20% heat replacement by syngas. NOx concentration is slightly decreased for higher heat replacement by the syngas because fuel NOx is decreased in the case. Meanwhile, heat loss is a bit decreased for higher heat replacement by the syngas, which implies that boiler efficiency can be a bit decreased when syngas co-combustion is applied to a boiler.

• 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 Biosystems Engineering
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.14-20
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• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance of a vacuum pyrolysis system, to analyze bio-oil characteristics, and to examine the applicability for farm-scale capacity. Methods: The biomass was pyrolyzed at 450, 480, and $490^{\circ}C$ on an electric heat plate in a vacuum reactor. The waste heat from the heat exchanger of the reactor was recycled to evaporate water from the bio-oil. The chemical composition of the bio-oil was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Results: According to the analysis, the moisture content (MC) in the bio-oil was approximately 9%, the high heating value (HHV) was approximately 26 MJ/kg, and 29 compounds were identified. These 29 compounds consisted of six series of carbohydrates, 17 series of lignins, and six series of resins. Conclusions: Owing to low water content and the oxygen content, the HHV of the bio-oil produced from the vacuum reactor was higher by about 6 MJ/kg than that of the bio-oil produced from a fluidized bed reactor.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.112-118
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• 2004

Laying hens' excrement from eating food wastes was mixed with paper mill sludge, aged for 21 days and then provided to the juvenile earthworms(Eisenia fetida) for 10 weeks. Biomass of earthworm population decreased by 5.7% of initially introduced population. Very few juvenile earthworms developed into the clitellates and clitellated earthworms could not produce cocoons at all, which was supposed to be caused by inhibition effects of salts in laying hens' excrement upon the sexual development of Eisenia fetida. But there was no significant effect on the survivorship of earthworm population.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.75-83
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• 2004

Temperature-phased anaerobic digestion (TPAD), anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR), and co-digestion technologies were combined together in order to overcome low efficiencies of conventional anaerobic sewage sludge digestion processes. In the performance, TPAD-ASBR process showed high VS removal efficiency over 60% up to the organic loading rate (OLR) of 2.7 g VS/L/d. The first-stage of TPAD-ASBR and control system played a most significant role in VS destruction and methane production. Methane production rate (0.79 l $CH_4/L/d$) of the system was higher than that (0.59 l $CH_4/L/d$) of the control system. The substrate characteristics of the sewage sludge, such as low VS concentration (1.5%, w/w) and biodegradability, were properly improved by the addition of food waste as a co-substrate, leading to more efficient VS removal and methane production. With several track studies, it was revealed that the independent solid retention time (SRT) of those systems prevented untreated particles from outflowing and also, extended the retention time of the active biomass for further degradation. Consequently, it was confirmed that the sequencing batch operation of the TPAD process using co-substrate was a promising alternative for the recycling of sewage sludge with low VS content.

• Clean Technology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.355-369
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• 2013

Economic feasibility is one of the most important factors in energy production from regenerative biomass. From the aspect, biogas from anaerobic digestion of wastewater sludge is regarded as the most economical because of its cheap substrate and additional income from the disposal of waste sludge. Sludge hydrolysis has been regarded as the rate limiting step of anaerobic digestion and many sludge pre-treatment technologies have been developed to accelerate anaerobic sludge digestion for enhanced biogas production. Various sludge pre-treatment technologies including biological, thermo hydrolysis, ultrasonic, and mechanical methods have been applied to full-scale systems. Sludge pre-treatment increased the efficiency of anaerobic digestion by enhancing hydrolysis, reducing residual soilds, and increasing biogas production. This paper introduces the characteristics of various sludge pre-treatment technologies and the energy balance and economic feasibility of each technology were compared to prepare a guideline for the selection of feasible pre-treatment technology. It was estimated that thermophilic digestion and thermal hydrolysis were most economical technology followed by Cell rupture$^{TM}$, OpenCEL$^{TM}$, MicroSludge$^{TM}$, and ultrasound. The cost for waste sludge disposal shares the biggest portion in the economic analysis, therefore, water content of the waste sludge was the most important factor to be controlled.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.78-85
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• 2000

Leachate from acidogenic fermentation of food waste was effectively treated by the UASB reactor at $37^{\circ}C$. The efficiency of COD removal was consistently over 96% up to the loading rates of $15.8g\;COD/{\ell}{\cdot}d$. The methane production rate increased to $5.5{\ell}/{\ell}{\cdot}d$. Of all the COD removed, 92% was converted to methane and the rest presumably to biomass. At loading rates over $18.7g\;COD/{\ell}{\cdot}d$, the efficiency of COD removal decreased due to the sludge flotation and washout in the reactor, which resulted from short HRT of less than 10.6 hr. The SMA(specific methanogenic activity) analysis showed that the VFA-degrading activity of granule was the highest for butyrate, and the lowest for propionate. This result was consistent with the observation that the residual propionate concentration was the highest among the VFAs in the effluent. Typical granules were found to be mainly composed of microcolonies of Methanosaeta. Though the original seed sludge contained 64.3% of particles smaller than 1.4mm, the sludge particles had been growing during the fermentation, and at the final step of this study, 75.1% of the particles were found to be larger than 1.4 mm in the UASB reactor.