• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.51-62
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• 2005

The effects of the processing mixture of food wastes and various organic wastes when vermicomposted on earthworm(Eisenia foefida) growth, the cast production amounts and the chemical properties of casts were evaluated. The substrates used in this experiments were cow manure, pig manure sludge, fermented pig manure with sawdust, nightsoil sludge, and sewage sludge and were respectively mixed with food wastes at a ratios of 50:50(v/v). The control consisted of food wastes alone without other wastes. All of earthworm died in the food wastes 100%, therefore the process of food wastes alone by vermicomposting was impossible in this experiment. Worm cast produced sufficiently contained quantities of available phosphorus, exchangeable potassium, exchangeable magnesium, and cation exchange capacity. The increase of earthworm's biomass occured on the mixtures of food wastes and cow manure, fermented pig manure with sawdust. Dry weight of worm cast was the highest on the mixtures of food wastes and fermented pig manure with sawdust and the proportion of cast weight after vermicomposting was significantly the highest on the mixtures of food wastes and cow manure($p{\leq}0.05$). Also, the mixtures of food wastes and cow manure, and fermented pig manure with sawdust showed a positive values of conversion rate and conversion efficiency rate of organic matter to earthworm tissue than that of other treatments. These results suggested that cow manure and fermented pig manure with sawdust are adequate to process with food wastes by vermicomposting.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.323-330
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• 2017

Ash remaining after coal combustion was used as a catalyst support for tar steam reforming with various proportions of $Al_2O_3$ added for higher reforming efficiency. At a constant Ni content of 12 wt%, a coal ash and $Al_2O_3$ were mixed at a ratio of 5:5, 7:3, 9:1. As a result, the catalytic activity for toluene steam reforming was improved by adding $Al_2O_3$ at $500-600^{\circ}C$. The catalysts with ratio 7:3 and 5:5 reached toluene conversion of 100% above $700^{\circ}C$. When comparing the catalysts in which the coal ash and $Al_2O_3$ mixed at a ratio of 5:5 and 7:3 with the Ni/Al catalyst, it was concluded that this coal ash catalyst has efficient catalytic performance.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.629-637
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• 2000

A two-phase anaerobic reactor with a submerged microfiltration system was tested for its ability to produce methane energy from organic wastewater. A membrane separation system with periodic backwashing with compressed air was submerged in the acidogenic reactor. The cartridge type of microfiltration (MF) membrane with pore size of $0.5{\mu}m$ (mixed esters of cellulose) was tested. An AUBF (Anaerobic Upflow Sludge Bed Filter: 1/2 packed with plastic media) was used for the methanogenic reactor. Soluble starch was used as a substrate. The COD removal was investigated for various organic loading with synthetic wastewater of 5,000 mg starch/L. When the hydraulic retention time (HRT) of the acidogenic reactor was changed from 10 to 4.5 days, the organic loading rate (OLR) varied from 0.5 to $1.0kg\;COD/m^3-day$. When the HRT of the methanogenic reactor was changed from 2.8 to 0.5 days, the OLR varied from 0.8 to $5.8kg\;COD/m^3-day$. The acid conversion rate of the acidogenic reactor was over 80% in the 4~5 days of HRT. The overall COD removal efficiency of the methanogenic reactor showed over 95% (effluent COD was below 300 mg/L) under the highly fluctuating organic loading condition. A two-phase anaerobic reactor showed an excellent acid conversion rate from organic wastewater due to the higher biomass concentration than the conventional system. A methanogenic reactor combined with sludge bed and filter, showed an efficient COD and SS removal.

• Mycobiology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.239-245
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• 2023

Xylanase has been applied in various sectors, such as biomass conversion, paper, pulp, textiles, and pharmaceutical industries. This study aimed to isolate and screen potential xylanase-producing fungi from the soil of Suphan Buri Province, Thailand. Fifteen fungi were isolated, and their xylanase activities were tested by the qualitative method. The result showed that isolate SP3, SP10 and SP15 gave high xylanase activity with potency index (PI) of 2.32, 2.01 and 1.82, respectively. These fungi were selected for the xylanase quantitative test, isolate SP10 performed the highest xylanase activity with 0.535 U/mL. Through molecular methods using the 𝛽-tubulin gene, isolate SP10 was identified as Penicillium menonorum. The xylanase characteristics from P. menonorum SP10 were determined, including the xylanase isoforms and the optimum pH and temperature. The xylanase isoforms on SDS-PAGE indicated that P. menonorum SP10 produced two xylanases (45 and 54 kDa). Moreover, its xylanase worked optimally at pH 6 and 55 ℃ while reaching 61% activity at 65 ℃. These results proposed P. menonorum SP10 as a good candidate for industrial uses, especially in poultry feed and pulp industries, to improve yield and economic efficiency under slightly acidic and high-temperature conditions.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.258-264
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• 2023

The greenhouse gas (GHG) emission assessment of kenaf pellet, produced from locally generated kenaf residues in South Korea, has been studied based on the EU RED-II methodology for calculating GHG impact of biomass fuels. Based on the production pathway of kenaf residue pellet and emission coefficients from EU JRC report, the life cycle GHG emission of kenaf residue pellet is assessed as 3.0 gCO₂eq/MJ_pellet and the life cycle GHG emission of electricity generated from kenaf residue pellet is assessed as 11.9 gCO₂eq/MJ when electrical efficiency of final conversion is 25%. The potential GHG emission reduction of electricity produced from kenaf pellet is 90.3% compared to the domestic electricity emission factor 42.8 kgCO₂eq/MWh. Also, the electricity produced from kenaf pellet can reduce at least 59.6% of GHG emission compared to the electricity produced from imported wood pellets.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.27-32
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• 2013

Renewable gas fuels such as biogas and landfill gas are obtained from the biodegradable organic wastes so that they inherently have carbon-neutral nature which can respond global warming. Therefore, attentions are paid to use this renewable gases as a main fuel for internal combustion engines. However, the composition of the fuel varies by its origin or conversion process, it is necessary to make stable combustion and accomplish high efficiency when used in power generating spark ignition (SI) engines. In this study, efforts have been made to investigate the effect of the composition of renewable gas fuel on the engine performance and exhaust emissions. In addition, a new spark plug with a long electrode was tested and compared with a base spark plug as a way to improve engine efficiency and reduce harmful emissions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.61.2-61.2
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• 2015

In the past decades, green energy, such as solar energy, wind power, hydropower, biomass energy, geothermal energy, and so on, has been widely investigated and developed to solve energy shortage. Recently, organic solar cells have attracted much attention, because they have many advantages, including low-cost, flexibility, light weight, and easy fabrication [1-3]. Organic solar cells are as a potential candidate of the next generation solar cells. In this abstract, to improve the power conversion efficiency and the stability, the inverted polymer solar cells with various structures were developed [4-6]. The novel cell structures included the P3HT:PCBM inverted polymer solar cells with AZO nanorods array, with pentacene-doped active layer, and with extra P3HT interfacial layer and PCBM interfacial layer. These three difference structures could respectively improve the performance of the P3HT:PCBM inverted polymer solar cells. For the inverted polymer solar cells with AZO nanorods array as the electronic transportation layer, by using the nanorod structure, the improvement of carrier collection and carrier extraction capabilities could be expected due to an increase in contact area between the nanorod array and the active layer. For the inverted polymer solar cells with pentacene-doped active layer, the hole-electron mobility in the active layer could be balanced by doping pentacene contents. The active layer with the balanced hole-electron mobility could reduce the carrier recombination in the active layers to enhance the photocurrent of the resulting inverted polymer solar cells. For the inverted polymer solar cells with extra P3HT and PCBM interfacial layers, the extra PCBM and P3HT interfacial layers could respectively improve the electron transport and hole transport. The extra PCBM interfacial layer served another function was that led more P3HT moving to the top side of the absorption layer, which reduced the non-continuous pathways of P3HT. It indicated that the recombination centers could be further reduced in the absorption layer. The extra P3HT interfacial layer could let the hole be more easily transported to the MoO3 hole transport layer. The high performance of the novel P3HT:PCBM inverted polymer solar cells with various structures were obtained.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.58.2-58.2
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• 2012

Heavy hydrocarbon reforming is a core technology for "Dirty energy smart". Heavy hydrocarbons are components of fossil fuels, biomass, coke oven gas and etc. Heavy hydrocarbon reforming converts the fuels into $H_2$-rich syngas. And then $H_2$-rich syngas is used for the production of electricity, synthetic fuels and petrochemicals. Energy can be used efficiently and obtained from various sources by using $H_2$-rich syngas from heavy hydrocarbon reforming. Especially, the key point of "Dirty energy smart" is using "dirty fuel" which is wasted in an inefficient way. New energy conversion laboratory of KAIST has been researched diesel reforming for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) as a part of "Dirty energy smart". Diesel is heavy hydrocarbon fuels which has higher carbon number than natural gas, kerosene and gasoline. Diesel reforming has difficulties due to the evaporation of fuels and coke formation. Nevertheless, diesel reforming technology is directly applied to "Dirty fuel" because diesel has the similar chemical properties with "Dirty fuel". On the other hand, SOFC has advantages on high efficiency and wasted heat recovery. Nippon oil Co. of Japan recently commercializes 700We class SOFC system using city gas. Considering the market situation, the development of diesel reformer has a great ripple effect. SOFC system can be applied to auxiliary power unit and distributed power generation. In addition, "Dirty energy smart" can be realized by applying diesel reforming technology to "Dirty fuel". As well as material developments, multidirectional approaches are required to reform heavy hydrocarbon fuels and use $H_2$-rich gas in SOFC. Gd doped ceria (CGO, $Ce_{1-x}Gd_xO_{2-y}$) has been researched for not only electrolyte materials but also catalysts supports. In addition, catalysts infiltrated electrode over porous $La_{0.8}Sr_{0.2}Ga_{0.8}Mg_{0.2}O_3-{\delta}$ and catalyst deposition at three phase boundary are being investigated to improve the performance of SOFC. On the other hand, nozzle for diesel atomization and post-reforming for light-hydrocarbons removal are examples of solving material problems in multidirectional approaches. Likewise, multidirectional approaches are necessary to realize "Dirty energy smart" like reforming "Dirty fuel" for SOFC.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.243-247
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• 2009

This study is purposed to analyze thermodynamic properties on the hydrogen production by ethylene glycol steam reforming. Various reaction conditions of temperatures(300~1,600 K), feed compositions(steam/carbon= 0.5~4.5), and pressures(1~30 atm) were applied to investigate the effects of the reaction conditions on the thermodynamic properties of dimethyl ether steam reforming. An endothermic steam reforming competed with an exothermic water gas shift reaction and an exothermic methanation within the applied reaction condition. Hydrogen production was initiated at the temperature of 400 K and the production rate was promoted at temperatures exceeding 500 K. An increase of steam to carbon ratio(S/C) in feed mixture over 1.0 resulted in the increase of the water gas shift reaction, which lowered the formation of carbon monoxide. The maximum hydrogen yield with minimizing loss of thermodynamic conversion efficiency was achieved at the reaction conditions of a temperature of 900 K and a steam to carbon ratio of 3.0.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.222-227
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• 2020

BACKGROUND: Among the biomass conversion techniques of livestock manure, composting process is a method of decomposing organic matter through microorganisms, and converting it into fertilizer in soil. The aerobic composting process is capable of treating cow manure in large quantities, and produces greenhouse gas as CO₂ and N₂O, although it has economical benefit. By using the activated rice hull biochar, which is a porous material, it was intended to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions, and to produce the compost of which quality was high. Objective of this experiment was to estimate CO₂ and N₂O emissions through composting process of cow manure with different cooperated biochar contents. METHODS AND RESULTS: The treatments of activated rice hull biochar were set at 0%, 5%, 10% and 15%, respectively, during composting cow manure. The CO₂ emission in the control was 534.7 L kg^-1, but was 385.5 L kg^-1 at 15% activated rice hull biochar. Reduction efficiency of CO₂ emission was estimated to be 28%. N₂O emission was 0.28 L kg^-1 in the control, but was 0.03 L min^-1 at 15% of activated rice hull biochar, estimating about 89% reduction efficiency. CONCLUSION: Greenhouse gas emissions during the composting process of cow manure can be reduced by mixing with 15% of activated rice hull biochar for eco-friendly compost production.