• Fire Science and Engineering
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.140-151
• /
• 2019

It is to assess the indoor air quality of the chemical hazardous materials exposed to the fire after firefighters returned to the fire scene. The research subject randomly selected four fire stations located in Seoul, Korea. Two fire stations were set up as control groups after the return of the firefighting activities at the actual fire scene, and two other fire stations were set up as control groups to measure the air quality of the room at normal levels regardless of the action. We conducted 24-hour monitoring for all fire accidents that occurred in Seoul Metropolitan using fire safety map computer system. Also, indoor air quality was measured immediately after homecoming if the experiment group was to be dispatched due to an accident of intermediate or larger scale. 11 hazardous substance items such as fine dust, formaldehyde, volatile organic compounds, PAH, VCM, acidity, asbestos, CO₂, NO₂, O₃ were measured according to the process test method. Three of 11 types of harmful substances exceeded domestic and foreign standards, and one of them was found to be close to foreign standards. In particular, total volatile organic compounds, carbon dioxide and sulfuric acids were 2.5 times, 2.2 times and 1.1 times higher than the standard. Also, for formaldehyde and sulfuric acid, it was measured higher in the control group than in the case group. This findings could be used in policies to improve indoor air quality in the fire station of the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.152-166
• /
• 2020

Background: Ginsenosides, which have various physiological activities, are known to be abundant in the leaves and roots of ginseng. Ginseng sprouts can be used as a fresh vegetable and roots, stems, and leaves of ginseng can be consumed. This study aimed to investigate the effect of carbon dioxide treatment and the modified atmosphere (MA) packaging method in suppressing quality deterioration during the distribution of ginseng sprouts. Methods and Results: Ginseng sprouts were packed using Styrofoam, barrier film + non gas treatment, barrier film + gas treatment, 15 ㎛ polyamide (PA) double film + non gas treatment, 15 ㎛ PA double film + gas treatment, 25 ㎛ PA film + non gas treatment, or 25 ㎛ PA film + gas treatment. Quality parameters including gas composition, relative humidity, chlorophyll SPAD (Soil Plant Analysis Development) value, firmness, and rate of quality loss in ginseng sprouts were monitored at the following temperatures: 20℃, and 10℃. Ginseng sprouts packaged with 25 ㎛ PA film showed loss in quality because of wilting owing to low relative humidity within the film. Chlorophyll and firmness did not differ between film and gas treatments. The time point at which the combined loss from softening and decay owing to fungal, and bacterial infection and wilt reached 20% was considered the limit of distribution. At 20℃, the packaging not included in the 20% distribution loss rate limit or up to 7 days was 15 ㎛ PA double film + gas treatment. At 10℃, the packaging not included in the 20% distribution loss rate limit for up to 18 days were barrier film + gas treatment and 15 ㎛ PA double film + gas treatment. Conclusions: The film packaging suitable for the distribution of ginseng sprouts was found to be the barrier film and PA film with low gas permeability and maintaining hygroscopicity at 95% relative humidity. To prevent the loss in quality of ginseng sprouts, gas treatment (8% of O₂ and 18% of CO₂) in the film was found to be more suitable than no gas treatment for inhibition of decay.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 2016

In an effort to establish adaptive measures for low carbon use and climate change, this study developed storylines for shared socio-economic reference pathways(SSP) and simulated change in land use for each storyline. First, cellular automata modeling was performed using past data, and a transition rule for the local characteristics of each planning area under study was derived by comparing with the results of the base year. Second, three storylines were formulated based on the hypothesized change in land use for the SSP. SSP1, the scenario for sustainability, assumed that the land was developed into a compact city, SSP2 assumed the development of a road through the middle of the land while maintaining the current situation, and SSP3 assumed unsustainable development into a fragmented world. Third, change in land use depending on planning area was predicted by integrating the SSP scenarios with cellular automata(CA) modeling. According to the results of analysis using the SSP scenarios, the urban area ratio increased slightly up to 2020 in SSP1 and up to 2030 in SSP2 and did not change any more subsequently, but it increased continuously until 2050 in SSP3 that assumed low level urban planning. These results on change in land use are expected to contribute towards making reasonable decisions and policies on climate change, and the outcomes of simulation derived from spatial downscaling, if applied to vulnerability assessment, will be useful to set the priority of policies on climate change adaptation.

• Korean Business Review
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.69-94
• /
• 2006

Landfill gas is a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide produced by the bacterial decomposition of organic wastes, and it is considered to produce bad smells and pollute the environment. Economic trials and the developments of landfill gas, as an alternative energy resource, become known at the recent years. Resource development of landfill gas, which is managed by Korea up to now, is for the most part generation using gas engine. Medium BTU and High BTU are considered for the power generation as well. I\10st income of generation using gas engine is selling charge through a power plant. Expecting to manage the power plant for up to 10 years, the analysis based on revenue and expenditure shows when the unit price is 65.2 Won and the operating rate reaches 90%, it is possible to be into the black in 2012 without considering additional financial expense. It was also analyzed that the profit at a unit price of 85 Won under the anticipated rising unit price by the operating rate of 71% is larger than at the operating rate of 90% under limited unit price of 65.2 Won. It means to manage the power plant at a unit price of 65.2 Won and the operating rate must be higher than 90% for economic logicality. If we assume that the operating rate is 90% and it increases the unit price, the unit price must be higher than 85 Won for the management of a power plant. Analysis of changing a unit price, however, might be expected to have a gradual rise of prices. If there is no price rising and additional income related to CDM(Clean Development Mechanism) and emission trading upon Kyoto protocol, the management of a power plant using gas engine will get financial difficulties because of many operating expenses. However, since landfill gas is considered as a worthy energy resource for the guarantee of sustainable development and for the equity between recent generation and future generation, the development of it must be accomplished by the government's additional supporting and efforts under the interest of all stakeholder who are involved.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.334-343
• /
• 2019

A lab-scale vertical flow subsurface (VFS) wetland composed of three parallel columns with polypropylene synthetic fiber as main substrate was operated. Piggery stormwater diluted from swine excreta was fed to the wetland on the basis of three different hydraulic regimes or hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 2, 4, and 8 days with daily internal recirculation. Then, monitoring of common water quality parameters was carried out. Unexpectedly, an increase of effluent COD concentration accompanying the appearance of foams was observed during a distinct period in the wetland with HRT 2, 4, and 8 days, successively. Subsequently, a series of experiments was conducted to investigate the origin of the foams. Foams and the increase of COD concentration were found to be induced by the release of organic matter from the synthetic polypropylene fiber which was fed with piggery stormwater. Meanwhile, nitrogen removal was found to be enhanced during a period which overlapped the distinct foaming period signifying that foaming played two important functions in biological nitrogen removal. Foams which form rapidly and then burst easily could hold up and then release oxygen for nitrification. Foams which contain organic surfactants could serve as carbon sources for denitrification as well. Hence, nitrogen removal was enhanced during the foaming stage. After that, COD concentration decreased slowly to a level prior to the foaming stage, and nitrogen removal efficiency declined as well.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.487-498
• /
• 2017

In this study, pervaporation performances of water/methanol and water/butanol mixture were evaluated using zeolite 4A membranes manufacutred by FINETECH by experimental works and numerical modeling. Permeation and separation characteristics, such as flux and separation factor, were analyzed by gas chromatography (TCD) and liquid nitrogen traps. Experiments have shown that water is selectively separated from a mixture of water and methanol (separation factor up to approximately 250) and water and butanol (separation factor up to approximately 1,500). Generalized Maxwell Stefan (GMS) theory was implemented to predict pervaporation behaviors of water/alcohol mixtures and diffusional coefficients of zeolite layer were obtained through parameter estimation using $MATLAB^{(R)}$ optimization toolbox. Since the pore size of zeolite 4A are much larger than kinetic diameter of water molecules and smaller than those of methanol and butanol, zeolite 4A membranes can be applied to in situ water removal process such as membrane reactors or hybrid reaction-dehydration process.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.57-81
• /
• 2010

Since the Republic of Korea is highly dependent on fossil fuels despite high oil prices, it urgently needs to renew its economic and social system to cut carbon emissions and achieve green growth. Therefore, reforming or eliminating subsidies related to the use of fossil fuels is a timely and oppropriate policy recommendation for Korea. It would be a win-win deal for Korean society as it would not only reduce the use of environmentally harmful fossil fuels but also enhance economic efficiency. In particular, cross-subsidies for industrial, agricultural and night thermal-storage power services make up more than 80 percent of all subsidies provided to the entire electric power industry sector of Korea. Of these cross-subsidies, this paper analyzes the electricity subsidy for industries, which takes up the largest share (about KRW 1.6583 trillion yearly), among the environmentally harmful subsidies in the electric power sector. Thus, the paper focuses on the analysis of ripple effect anticipated when this is reformed. To examine the effects of this subsidy reform, price elasticities were estimated using the ARDL (autoregressive distributed lag) model and quarterly data from 1990 to 2007. The main results of this study show that 1) annual energy demand for electric power in the industrial sector would drop by 12,475,930MWh and 2) $CO_2$ emissions would plummet by 2,644,897 tons per year if the subsidy were reformed. We can deduct from this that the abolition of environmentally harmful subsidies in the electric power sector in the Republic of Korea would considerably contribute to $CO_2$ emissions abatement in the country.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.32 no.6
• /
• pp.653-658
• /
• 2021

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is a promising coating material because of its outstanding processability. The PVDF coating, however, has limitations in anti-corrosion application due to its weak hydrophobicity compared to that of other fluoropolymers. In this study, plasma fluorination was performed using carbon tetrafluoride (CF₄) gas to improve anti-corrosion properties of PVDF. The fluorine content and hydrophobicity of PVDF were investigated in different CF₄ flow rates, followed by the determination of anti-corrosion properties. The fluorine content on the surface of the PVDF film increased by up to 46.70%, but the surface free energy was independent of CF₄ flow rate. Meanwhile, the surface roughness of the PDVF film tended to increase by up to 150% and then decrease with increasing CF₄ flow rate. It is considered that the plasma fluorination affects the surface free energy due to the introduction of fluorine functional groups and surface etching. In addition, the degree of corrosion of the PVDF-coated Fe plate was significantly reduced from 49.2% to 19.0% compared to that of the uncoated Fe plate. In particular, the degree of corrosion of the fluorinated PVDF-coated Fe plate was 13.6%, which was 28.4% lower than that of the PVDF-coated Fe plate, showing improved anti-corrosion protection.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.15-22
• /
• 2020

The landfill gas produced in landfill is generally made up of methane(CH4) and carbon dioxide(CO2) of more than 90%, with the remainder made up of hydrogen sulfide(H2S). However, separate pre-treatment facilities are essential as hydrogen sulfide contained in landfill gas is combined with oxygen during the combustion process to generate sulfur oxides and acid rain combined with moisture in the atmosphere. Various desulfurization technologies have been used in Korea to desulfurize landfill gas. Although general desulfurization processes apply various physical and chemical methods, such as treatment of sediment generation according to the CaCO3 generation reaction and treatment through adsorbent, there is a problem of secondary wastes such as wastewater. As a way to solve this problem, a biological treatment process is used to generate and treat it with sludge-type sulfide (S°) using a biological treatment process.In this study, as a basic study of technology for utilizing the biological treatment by-products of hydrogen sulfide in landfill gas, an experiment was conducted to use the by-product as a mixture of concrete. According to the analysis of the mixture concrete strength of sulfur products, the mixture of sulfur by-products affects the strength of concrete and shows the highest strength value when mixing 10%.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.28-37
• /
• 2022

The lignite and bituminous coal are mainly used in thermal power plant. They exhaust green house gas (GHG) such as CO₂, and become deplete, thus require alternative energy resources. To solve the problem, the hydrochar production from biomass is suggested. In this study, both hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) and solvothermal carbonization (STC) were used to produce high quality hydrochar. To improve the reactivity of water solvent process in HTC, STC process was conducted using ethanol solution. The experiments were carried out by varying the solid-liquid ratio (1:4, 1:8, 1:12), reaction temperature (150~300 ℃) and retention time (15~120 min) using kenaf. The characteristic of hydrochar was analyzed by EA, FT-IR, TGA and SEM. The carbon content of hydrochar increased up to 48.11%, while the volatile matter decreased up to 39.34%. Additionally, the fuel characteristic of hydrochar was enhanced by reaction temperature. The results showed that the kenaf converted to a fuel by HTC and STC process, which can be used as an alternative energy source of coal.