• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.65-75
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• 1996

Sulfate reduction and the precipitation of metal sulfides may have great potential to improve water quality of mine effluents in wetland treatment systems. Laboratory experiments using sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) and limestone to treat effluents from the abandoned Dalsung tungsten-copper mine show that encouraging results, that have been attributed to sulfate reduction. Fe, Al, Cd, Cu and Zn are reduced to below detection limits with $99{\sim}100%$ metal removal rates, Mn is reduced by at least 90% to below 8.0 mg/l, and the pH is raised from 5.12 to 7.60 after 53 days of experiments. In the staged design, laboratory experiments are initiated to determine what would be reasonable substrate materials for remediation of the mine effluents. A substrate mixture containing 70% oak compost and 30% mushroom compost maintains $0.03{\sim}0.04mM$ of lactate, which provides good condition for the SRB granule. A downflow SRB wetland system is proposed as follows : 1) The lower part of the treatment system consists with a 25 cm thick layer of high quality (above 95% of $CaCO_3$) of limestone; 2) The geotextile (geonet) is recommended to be spread on the limestone bed to prevent clogging the limestones with the substrates; 3) The mixture of substrates with 70% oak and 30% spent mushroom composts, and SRB granules overlain on top of the geonet with 25 cm height. The sizes of the passive treatment systems are calculated according to metal loading and permeability criteria : 1) $220m^3$ ($15{\times}15{\times}1m$) for -1 level effluents; 2) $28m^3$ ($5.3{\times}5.3{\times}1m$) for -2 level; and 3) $2700m^3$ ($52{\times}52{\times}1m$) for the -3 level. The -3 level system needs to be broken down into 5 to 15 cells.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.69-78
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• 2007

Constructed wetlands and other aquatic systems have been successfully used for waste and wastewater treatment in either temperate or tropical regions. To treat waste or wastewater in a sustainable manner, the integrated eco-engineering designs are explained in this paper with 2 case studies: (i) a combination of vertical-flow constructed wetland (CW) with plant irrigation systemfor fecal sludge management and (ii) integrated CW units with landscaping at full-scale application for domestic wastewater treatment. The pilot-scale study of fecal sludge management employed 3 vertical-flow CW units, each with a dimension of $5{\times}5{\times}0.65m$ (width ${\times}$ length ${\times}$ media depth) and planted with cattails (Typha augustifolia). At the solid loading rate of 250 kg total solids (TS)/$m^2.yr$ and a 6-day percolate impoundment, the CW system could achieve chemical oxygen demand (COD), TS and total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) removal efficiencies in the range of 80 - 96%. The accumulated sludge layers of about 80 - 90 cm was found at the CW bed surface after operating the CW units for 7 years, but no clogging problem has been observed. The CW percolate was applied to 16 irrigation Sunflower plant (Helianthus annuus) plots, each with a dimension of $4.5{\times}4.5m$ ($width{\times}length$). In the study, the CW percolate were fed to the treatment plots at the application rate of 7.5 mm/day but the percolate was mixed with tap water at different ratio of 20%, 80% and 100%. Based on a 1-year data of 3-crop plantation were experimented, the contents of Zn, Mn and Cu in soil of the experimental plots were found to increase with increasing in CW percolate ratios. The highest plant biomass yield and oil content of 1,000 kg/ha and 35%, respectively, were obtained from the plots fed with 20% or 50% of the CW percolate, whereas no accumulation of heavy metals in the plant tissues (i.e. leaves, stems and flowers) of the sunflower is found. In addition to the pilot-scale and field experiments, a case study of the integrated CW systems for wastewater treatment at Phi Phi Island (a Tsunami-hit area), Krabi province, Thailand is illustrated. The $5,200-m^2$ CW systems on Phi Phi Island are not only for treatment of $400m^3/day$ wastewater from hotels, households or other domestic activities, but also incorporating public consultation in the design processes, resulting in introducing the aesthetic landscaping as well as reusing of the treated effluent for irrigating green areas on the Island.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.197-203
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• 2001

An ubiquitous bacterium, Pseudomonar cepacia KH410 was isolated from fresh water plant root and identified. Adsorption of heavy metals of lead, cadmium and copper by this strain was investigated. Optimal conditions foradsorption was 1.0 dry g-biomass, at pH 4.0 and temperature of $40^{\circ}C$. Adsorption equilibrium reached max-imum after 120 min in 1000 mg/l metal solutions. The adsorption capacity (K) of lead was 5.6 times higher thancadmium and 4.0 times higher than that of copper. Adsorption of lead was applicable for Langmuir modelwhereas Freundlich model for cadmium and copper, respectively. Adsorption strength (1/n) of heavy metal ionswere in the order of lead>copper>cadmium. Uptake capacity of lead, cadmium and copper by dried cell was83.2,42.0,65.2 mg/g-biomass, respectively. Effective desorption was induced 0.1 M HCI for lead and 0.1 $HNO_3$ for cadmium and copper. Pretreatment to increase ion strength was the most effective with 0.1 M KOH.Uptake by immobilized cell was 77.8,58.5,71.2 mg/g-biomass for lead, cadmium and copper, respectively. Theimmobilized cell was more effective than ion exchange resin on removal of heavy metals in solution containinglight metals.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.185-190
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• 2001

Alginate, a well-known biopolymer, is universally applied for immobilization of microbial cells. Biosorption characteristics of lead by waste biomass of immobilized A. niger beads, used in fermentation industries to produce citric acid, were studied. The immobilized A. niger beads, prepared via capillary extrusion method using calcium chloride, were applied in the removal of lead. Pb uptake was the highest in A. niger beads cells grown for 3 days with medium producing citric acid (12% sucrose, 0.5% $NH_4NO_3$, 0.1% $KH_2PO_4$, and 0.025% $MgSO_4$). Lead uptake by the immobilized A. niger beads and free A. niger mycellia beads increased sharply with time. However, while uptake by the immobilized A. niger beads continued to increase slowly, that by free A. niger mycellia beads stopped after 30 min. The optimum pH and temperature of lead uptake were found to be 6 and $35^{\circ}C$, respectively. The maximum uptake of lead was achieved with $50{\sim}100$ beads and 50 ml lead solution in a 250-ml Erlenmeyer flask, while, at over 100 beads, uptake of the lead decreased. The order of biosorption capacity for heavy metals was Pb>Cu>Cd. Pb uptake capacity of the immobilized A. niger beads treated with 0.1 M $CaCI_2$, 0.1 M NaOH, and 0.1 M KOH decreased compared to the untreated beads. On testing the desorption of Pb from the immobilized A. niger beads, re-uptake of Pb was found possible after desorption of the binding metal with 0.1 M HCI.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.2-4
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• 1998

Proliferation of Nocardia amarae cells in activated sludge has often been associated with the generation of nuisance foams. Despite intense research activities in recent years to examine the causes and control of Nocardia foaming in activated sludge, the foaming continued to persist throughout the activated sludge treatment plants in United States. In addition to causing various operational problems to treatment processes, the presence of Nocardia may have secondary effects on the fate of heavy metals that are not well known. For example, for treatment plants facing more stringent metal removal requirements, potential metal removal by Nocardia cells in foaming activated sludge would be a welcome secondary effect. In contrast, with new viosolid disposal regulations in place (Code o( Federal Regulation No. 503), higher concentration of metals in biosolids from foaming activated sludge could create management problems. The goal of this research was to investigate the metal sorption property of Nocardia amarae cells grown in batch reactors and in chemostat reactors. Specific surface area and metal sorption characteristics of N. amarae cells harvested at various growth stages were compared. Three metals examined in this study were copper, cadmium and nickel. Nocardia amarae strain (SRWTP isolate) used in this study was obtained from the University of California at Berkeley. The pure culture was grown in 4L batch reactor containing mineral salt medium with sodium acetate as the sole carbon source. In order to quantify the sorption of heavy metal ions to N amarae cell surfaces, cells from the batch reactor were harvested, washed, and suspended in 30mL centrifuge tubes. Metal sorption studies were conducted at pH 7.0 and ionlc strength of 10-2M. The sorption Isotherm showed that the cells harvested from the stationary and endogenous growth phase exhibited significantly higher metal sorption capacity than the cells from the exponential phase. The sequence of preferential uptake of metals by N. amarae cells was Cu>Cd>Ni. The specific surFace area of Nocardia cells was determined by a dye adsorption method. N.amarae cells growing at ewponential phase had significantly less specific surface area than that of stationary phase, indicating that the lower metal sorption capacity of Nocardia cells growing at exponential phase may be due to the lower specific surface area. The growth conditions of Nocardia cells in continuous culture affect their cell surface properties, thereby governing the adsorption capacity of heavy metal. The comparison of dye sorption isotherms for Nocardia cells growing at various growth rates revealed that the cell surface area increased with increasing sludge age, indicating that the cell surface area is highly dependent on the steady-state growth rate. The highest specific surface area of 199m21g was obtained from N.amarae cell harvested at 0.33 day-1 of growth rate. This result suggests that growth condition not only alters the structure of Nocardia cell wall but also affects the surface area, thus yielding more binding sites of metal removal. After reaching the steady-state condition at dilution rate, metal adsorption isotherms were used to determine the equilibrium distributions of metals between aqueous and Nocardia cell surfaces. The metal sorption capacity of Nocardia biomass harvested from 0.33 day-1 of growth rate was significantly higher than that of cells harvested from 0.5- and 1-day-1 operation, indicatng that N.amarae cells with a lower growth rate have higher sorpion capacity. This result was in close agreement with the trend observed from the batch study. To evaluate the effect of Nocardia cells on the metal binding capacity of activated sludge, specific surface area and metal sorption capacity of the mixture of Nocardia pure cultures and activated sludge biomass were determined by a series of batch experiments. The higher levels of Nocardia cells in the Nocardia-activated sludge samples resulted in the higher specific surface area, explaining the higher metal sorption sites by the mixed luquor samples containing greater amounts on Nocardia cells. The effect of Nocardia cells on the metal sorption capacity of activated sludge was evaluated by spiking an activated sludge sample with various amounts of pre culture Nocardia cells. The results of the Langmuir isotherm model fitted to the metal sorption by various mixtures of Nocardia and activated sludge indicated that the mixture containing higher Nocardia levels had higher metal adsorption capacity than the mixture containing lower Nocardia levels. At Nocardia levels above 100mg/g VSS, the metal sorption capacity of activate sludge increased proportionally with the amount of Noeardia cells present in the mixed liquor, indicating that the presence of Nocardia may increase the viosorption capacity of activated sludge.