• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.241-249
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• 2009

Heavy metal contaminants on the aquatic environment are of interest because they can have severe effects on economy and public health. Recently, the studies for monitoring of heavy metals try to do on aquatic system to assess safety and health of ecosystem by heavy metals. Thus, biological responses were investigated on Korean fairy shrimp Branchinella kugenumaensis exposed to cadmium (Cd) or copper (Cu) for long-periods (30 days). The survival rate decreased significantly (p<0.05) on B. kugenumaensis exposed to Cd and Cu at all concentrations. Especially, the highest decrease was observed at the relatively high concentration of Cd and Cu (p<0.01) and the response by Cd exposure was at dose-dependent. The growth rates were also decreased significantly (p<0.05) on B. kugenumaensis exposed to Cd and Cu for at all concentrations. Then, the reproduction rate, numbering cyst, was decreased significantly (p<0.01) on B. kugenumaensis after Cd or Cu exposures. Long exposure of the relatively high concentration Cd and Cu can have severe effects on the reproduction, while exposures of Cd and Cu can not have effects on sex ratios of B. kugenumaensis. Additionally, asymmetric telson deformity was only observed after Cd exposure. Therefore, these results suggest that B. kugenumaensis is a sensitive bio-indicator of heavy metal exposure and these biological responses of B. kugenumaensis give important information for long-term monitoring on aquatic ecosystem.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.181-195
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• 1997

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors affecting the composition and concentrations of fumes generated from various types of welding processes. The results are as follows. 1. Iron(Fe), zinc(Zn) and manganese(Mn) were predominant in Welding fumes. The Fe content in total fumes was 25.5% in coated electrode and 28.2% in $CO_2$ are welding, and the Zn content was 4.5% and 9.1%, respectively, and the Mn was 3.6% and 7.8%, respectively. 2. It was found that the important factors determining composition and concentration of fumes were type of industries, type of welding processes, type and composition of electrodes, composition of base metals, confinement of workplaces or condition of ventilation, work intensity, coated metals such as lead and Zn in paint. 3. The Mn content in airborne fumes was highly correlated with that of electrode(r=0.77, p<0.01) and was about 4 times higher than that in electrodes or base metals. The results lindicate that Mn is well evaporated into air during welding. The higher vapor pressure of Mn may explain this phenomenon. 4. the airborne total fume concentrations were significantly different among types of industries(p<0.001). The airborne total fume concentration was higher in order of sleel-structure manufacturing($GM=15.1mg/m^3$), shipbuilding($GM=13.2mg/m^3$), automobile-component manufacturing ($GM=7.8mg/m^3$) and automobile assembling industry($GM=3.0mg/m^3$) 5. The airbone total fume concentration was 6 times higher in $CO_2$ welding than in coated electrode welding, and approximately 3 times higher in confined area than in open area, in steel-structure manufacturing industry. 6. The concentration of welding fume outside welding helmet was about 2 times higher than that inside it. It is recommened that air sampling be done inside helmet to evaulate worker's exposure accurately, for it has an outstanding effect on reducing worker exposure to fumes and other contaminants.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.89-94
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• 1997

In order to reduce energy input in direct ethanol production from raw starch by co-immobilized Aspergillus awamori(A) and Zymomonas mobilis(Z), A-Z 36 culture system which was changed to anaerobic after 36 h of aerobic fermentation without sterilization was investigated. This immobilized cell system can not be carried out under unsterile conditions because of growth of microbial contaminants from original medium. Among some food additives such as sorbic acid, benzoic acid, dehydroacetic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, Vantocil IB and Neupectin-L, Vantocil IB and Neupectin-L were a potent antibacterial agent in A-Z 36 culture cell system and were not affected in hydrolysis of substrate as compared with the case of control. Ethanol yield(6.9 g/l) in system of addition of 0.1% Neupectin-L was slightly higher than that in control(6.4 g/l). When 2% starch was fed five times in fed-batch culture with 0.1% Neupectin-L, ethanol yield and productivity were 34 g/l and 2.0 g/l/day, respectively.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.107-114
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• 2017

The performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) could be deteriorated when fuel contains contaminants such as carbon monoxide (CO) or hydrogen sulfide ($H_2S$). Generally, $H_2S$ is introduced in hydrogen by steam reforming of hydrocarbon which has mercaptan as odorant. $H_2S$ poisoning effect on PEMFC performance was examined on this study. Pure hydrogen injection, voltage cycling and water circulation methods were compared as performance recovery methods. The PEMFC performance was analyzed using electrochemical methods such as polarization curve, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). Pure hydrogen injection and voltage cycling methods showed low recovery ratio, however, water circulation method showed high recovery ratio over 95%. Because anode was directly poisoned by $H_2S$, anode water circulation showed higher recovery ratio compared to the other methods. Water circulation method was developed to recover PEMFC performance from $H_2S$ poisoning. This method could contribute to PEMFC durability and commercialization.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.916-922
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• 2018

Recently, power plant effluent condensers received a Renewable Energy Certificate as components of hydrothermal energy (weighted 1.5 times) as one target item of the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) policy. Accordingly, more attention is being paid to the value of thermal wastewater as a heat source. However, for utilization of thermal wastewater from power plants in high-turbidity areas like the West Sea of Korea, a turbidity reducing system is required to reduce system contamination. In this study, an experimental test was performed over a month on thermal wastewater from power plants located in the West Sea of Korea. It was found that water turbidity was reduced by more than 80 % and that the concentration of organic materials and nutrient salts was partially reduced due to the reduction of floating/drifting materials. To conduct a comparative analysis of the level of contamination of the heat exchanger when thermal wastewater flows in through a turbidity reducing system versus when the condenser effluent flows in directly without passing through the turbidity system, we disassembled and analyzed heat exchangers operated for 30 days. As a result, it was found that the heat exchanger without a turbidity reducing system had a higher level of contamination. Main contaminants (scale) that flowed in to the heat exchanger included minerals such as $SiO_2$, $Na(Si_3Al)O_8$, $CaCO_3$ and NaCl. It was estimated that marine sediment soil flowed in to the heat exchanger because of the high level of turbidity in the water-intake areas.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.09a
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• pp.119-120
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• 2004

Urban groundwater has a unique hydrologic system because of the complex surface and subsurface infrastructures such as deep foundation of many high buildings, subway systems, and sewers and public water supply systems. It generally has been considered that increased surface impermeability reduces the amount of groundwater recharge. On the other hand, leaks from sewers and public water supply systems may generate the large amounts of recharges. All of these urban facilities also may change the groundwater quality by the recharge of a myriad of contaminants. This study was performed to determine the factors controlling the recharge of deep groundwater in an urban area, based on the hydrogeochemical characteristics. The term ‘contamination’ in this study means any kind of inflow of shallow groundwater regardless of clean or contaminated. For this study, urban groundwater samples were collected from a total of 310 preexisting wells with the depth over 100 m. Random sampling method was used to select the wells for this study. Major cations together with Si, Al, Fe, Pb, Hg and Mn were analyzed by ICP-AES, and Cl, N $O_3$, N $H_4$, F, Br, S $O_4$and P $O_4$ were analyzed by IC. There are two groups of groundwater, based on hydrochemical characteristics. The first group is distributed broadly from Ca-HC $O_3$ type to Ca-C1+N $O_3$ type; the other group is the Na+K-HC $O_3$ type. The latter group is considered to represent the baseline quality of deep groundwater in the study area. Using the major ions data for the Na+K-HC $O_3$ type water, we evaluated the extent of groundwater contamination, assuming that if subtract the baseline composition from acquired data for a specific water, the remaining concentrations may indicate the degree of contamination. The remainder of each solute for each sample was simply averaged. The results showed that both Ca and HC $O_3$ represent the typical solutes which are quite enriched in urban groundwater. In particular, the P$CO_2$ values calculated using PHREEQC (version 2.8) showed a correlation with the concentrations of maior inorganic components (Na, Mg, Ca, N $O_3$, S $O_4$, etc.). The p$CO_2$ values for the first group waters widely ranged between about 10$^{-3.0}$ atm to 10$^{-1.0}$ atm and differed from those of the background water samples belonging to the Na+K-HC $O_3$ type (<10$^{-3.5}$ atm). Considering that the p$CO_2$ of soil water (near 10$^{-1.5}$ atm), this indicates that inflow of shallow water is very significant in deep groundwaters in the study area. Furthermore, the P$CO_2$ values can be used as an effective parameter to estimate the relative recharge of shallow water and thus the contamination susceptibility. The results of our present study suggest that down to considerable depth, urban groundwater in crystalline aquifer may be considerably affected by the recharge of shallow water (and pollutants) from an adjacent area. We also suggest that for such evaluation, careful examination of systematically collected hydrochemical data is requisite as an effective tool, in addition to hydrologic and hydrogeologic interpretation.ion.ion.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.59 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2005

Background : Even though it has been suggested that low-colony, scotochromogen nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are usually contaminants and not true pathogens, evidence for this hypothesis has not been provided. This study investigated the colony characteristics, organism identification, and clinical significance of low-colony scotochromogen. Methods : The laboratory cultured 6,898 respiratory clinical specimens for an examination of mycobacteria over a three-month period. A low-colony count was arbitrarily defined as ${\leq}20$ colonies. This study analyzed the recovery rate of the mycobacteria, the number of colonies and their gross characteristics, and their clinical significance. PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis was carried out to identify the NTM species. NTM pulmonary disease was defined according to the American Thoracic Society. Results : A total of 6,898 respiratory specimens for mycobacterium were cultured. Of these, 263 (3.8%) grew NTM, and 382 (5.5%) grew M. tuberculosis. Of the 263 cultured NTM specimens, 124 (47.1%) were scotochromogens. The smear-positive rate was significantly lower in these scotochromogens (4.8%) than in the non-scotochromogens (23.7%) (p<0.05). The most common isolates were M. gordonae (83/102, 81.4%) in the scotochromogens, and MAC (52/121, 43.0%) in the non-scotochromogens. Even though three out of 113 patients with a low-colony scotochromogen has been diagnosed with NTM pulmonary disease, the isolated scotochromogen was not considered to be the cause of the NTM disease but was just a contaminant. Conclusion : In this study, the most common isolate of a low-colony count scotochromogen was M. gordonae, which appeared to be contaminants and not true pathogens. Greater efforts in the quality control of a mycobacterium laboratory are needed in cases where there is a high recovery rate of low-colony count scotochromogen.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.88 no.4
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• pp.510-522
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• 1999

The air pollutants ; $SO_2$, $SO{_4}^{-2}$, $NO{_3}^-$, $Cl^-$ are absorbed into soils through falling with dusts and rain from the atmosphere. The sources of heavy metal contaminants in the environments are agricultural and horticultural materials, sewage sludges, fossil fuel combustion, metallurgical industries, electronics and waste disposal etc.. The soils and hydrosphere can be polluted on the way of the circulation of these heavy metals. Studied pollutant anions are $SO{_4}^{-2}$, $NO{_3}^-$ and $Cl^-$ and heavy metals are Se, Mo, Zn, Cd, Pb, Mn, Cr, Co, V, As, Cu and Ni which are the elements to be concerned with the essentials for plants, with animal and human health. This study is with the aim of selecting the species of roadside trees and green space trees which have excellent absorption of air pollutants and heavy metals from the atmosphere and the soils in the urban area. Two areas are designated to carry out this study : urban area ; Kwangju city and rural area ; the yard of Forest Environment Institute of Chollanam-do, at Sanje-ri, Sampo-myum, Naju city, Chollanam-do (23km away from Kwangju). This study is carried out to understand the movement of anions and heavy metals from the soils to the trees in both areas, the absorption of anions and heavy metals from atmosphere into leaves and the amounts of anions and heavy metals in leaves and fine roots(< 1mm dia.) of roadside trees and green space trees in Kwangju and trees in the yard of Forest Environment Institute of Chollanam-do. The tree species selected for this study in both areas are Ginkgo biloba, Quercus acutissima, Cedrus deodara, Platanus occidentalis, Robinia pseudoacacia, Alnus japonica. Metasequoia glyptostroboides. Zekova serrata. Prunus serrulata var. spontanea, and Pinus densiflora. The results of the study are as follows : 1. $SO{_4}^{-2}$, $NO{_3}^-$ and $Cl^-$ concentrations are higher in the soils of the urban area than in those of the rural area, and $NO{_3}^-$ and $SO{_4}^{-2}$ are higher in the leaves than in the roots due to the absorption of the these pollutants through the stomata. 2. Ginkgo biloba, Robinia pseudoacacia. Zekova serrata, Quercus acutissima, and Platanus occidentalis can be adequated to the roadside trees and the environmental trees due to their good absorption of $NO{_3}^-$ and $SO{_4}^{-2}$. 3. Heavy metals in the soils of both areas are in the order of Mn > Zn > V > Cr > Pb > Ni > Cu > Mo> Cd, and in the leaves and roots of the trees in the both areas are in the order of Mn>Zn>Cr>Cu>V>Ni. Both orders are similar ones except V. There are more in the urban soils than in the rural soils in amount of Mn, Zn, Pb, V, Cu. 4. It is supposed that there is no antagonism between Mn and Zn in this study. 5. Se, Co and As are not detected in the soils, the leaves and the roots in both areas. Sn, Mo, Cd and Pb are also not detected in the leaves and roots in spite of considerable amount in the soils of both areas.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.24-31
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• 2008

Sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) is universally distributed in the sediment, especially in marine environment. SRB reduce sulfate as electron acceptor to hydrogen sulfide in anaerobic condition. Hydrogen sulfide is reducing agent enhancing the reduction of the organic and inorganic compounds. With SRB, therefore, the degradability of organic contaminants is expected to be enhanced. Ferrous iron reduced from the ferric iron which is mainly present in sediment also renders chlorinated organic compounds to be reduced state. The objectives of this study are: 1) to investigate the reduction of TCE by hydrogen sulfide generated by tht growth of SRB, 2) to estimate the reduction of TCE by ferrous iron generated due to oxidation of hydrogen sulfide, and 3) to illuminate the interaction between SRB and ferrous iron. Mixed bacteria was cultivated from the sludge of the sewage treatment plant. Increasing hydrogen sulfide and decreasing sulfate confirmed the existence of SRB in mixed culture. Although hydrogen sulfide lonely could reduce TCE, the concentration of hydrogen sulfide produced by SRB was not sufficient to reduce TCE directly. With hematite as ferric iron, hydrogen sulfide produced by SRB was consumed to reduce ferric ion to ferrous ion and ferrous iron produced by hydrogen sulfide oxidation decreased the concentration of TCE. Tests with seawater confirmed that the activity of SRB was dependent on the carbon source concentration.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Groundwater Environment
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.55-58
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• 2000

Methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) is a gasoline additive that boosts the oxygen content in fuel (an oxygenate), resulting in less air-polluting carbon monoxide being released from vehicle exhaust systems. Then, groundwater contamination problems have been developed in areas where the chemical is used. Common sources of water contamination by MTBE include leaking underground gasoline storage tanks and leaks and spills from above ground fuel storage tanks, etc.. Studies on the chemical and these problems are going on abroad vigorously. These studies should be performed in our country as well more actively. This paper reviews on articles on these studies and focuses on the identification of the chemical as a groundwater contamination source.