• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.65-72
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• 2020

The aims of this study were to compare the biomethanation of CO₂ through specific methanogenic activity (SMA) test which was inoculated with four different types of mixed microbial culture obtained from full-scale anaerobic digestion (AD) plants. The experimental results showed that CH₄ conversion was the highest in the samples inoculated by seed sludge taken from ADs of food waste and brewery; under this condition, the produced biomethane contains 89.3-91.9% of CH₄. Meanwhile, the lowest level was obtained in the sample from sewage sludge. The measured ratio of CH₄ production rate to CO₂ consumption rate in all reactors was higher than the theoretical value (1) in the middle of the period and soon dropped to 0.7-0.8. It might be due to changed metabolic pathways in the reactor by the degradation of residual organic matter and the increased activity of homoacetogenic bacteria.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2022

Studies for improving the efficiency of the traditional anaerobic digestion process are being actively conducted. To improve anaerobic digestion efficiency, this study tried to derive the optimal pretreatment conditions and mixing conditions by integrating the heat solubilization pretreatment of sewage sludge, livestock manure, and food waste. The soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) increase rate of sewage sludge before and after heat solubilization pretreatment showed an increased rate of 224.7% compared to the control group at 170℃ and 25 min and showed the most stable increase rate. As a result of the biomethane potential test of sewage sludge before and after heat solubilization pretreatment, the total chemical oxygen demand (TCOD) and SCOD removal rates increased as the heat solubilization temperature increased, but did not increase further at temperatures above 170℃. In the case of methane generation, there was no significant change in the cumulative methane generation from 0.134 to 0.203 Sm³-CH₄/kg-COD at 170℃ for 15 min. As a result of the integrated digestion of organic waste, the experimental condition in which 25% of the sewage sludge, 50% of the food waste, and 25% of the livestock manure were mixed showed the highest methane production of 0.3015 m³-CH₄/kg-COD, confirming that it was the optimal mixing ratio condition. In addition, under experimental conditions mixed with all three substrates, M4 conditions mixed with 25% sewage sludge, 50% food waste, and 25% livestock manure showed the highest methane generation at 0.2692 Sm³-CH₄/kg-COD.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.140-149
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• 2022

In this study, the conditions of low temperature and high pressure of biogas upgrading process using polysulfone membrane have been designed and tested to achieve the high recovery and efficiency corresponding to those of the highly selective polymeric materials. Polysulfone hollow fiber membrane with 4-component dope solution was spun via non-solvent induced phase separation. The hollow fiber membrane was mounted into a 1.5 inch housing. The effective area was 1.6 m², and its performance was examined in various operation temperatures and pressures. CO₂ and CH₄ permeances were 412 and 12.7 GPU at 20℃, and 280 and 3.6 GPU at -20℃, respectively, while the CO₂/CH₄ selectivity increased from 32.4 to 77.8. Single gas test was followed by the mixed gas experiments using single-stage and double stage where the membrane area ratio varied from 1:1 to 1:3. At the single-stage, CH₄ purity increased and the recovery decreased as the stage-cut increased. At the double stage, the area ratio of 1:3 showed the higher CH₄ recovery as decreasing the operation temperature at the same purity of CH₄ 97%. Finally, polysulfone hollow fiber membranes have yielded of both CH₄ purity and recovery of 97% at -20℃ and 16 barg.