• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
• /
• v.39 no.2
• /
• pp.368-376
• /
• 2022

Spontaneous ignition occurs in industrial sites or anywhere in our lives, and is a phenomenon in which a substance ignites itself without an ignition source in the atmosphere. As the rate of chemical reaction increases, the heat generated increases, and the risk of spontaneous ignition increases. In this study, safe raw materials used for food and cosmetics were mixed to prepare coal spontaneous ignition prevention agents specifically among various spontaneous ignition phenomena. The effect of suppressing spontaneous combustion of coal was confirmed through lab and field tests with low-calorie, low-grade coal from Indonesia. As a result of the outdoor field test, the ignition prevention agent manufactured in this study compared with the control group(Fire after 90 days) showed excellent ignition inhibitors for more than 120 days. In addition, CO concentration control was confirmed by comparing the concentration of carbon monoxide for 50 days at the indoor coal yard. It was confirmed that the results were better than the comparative group coal and the existing anti-firing method. In addition, the possibility of coal fire prevention agents for indoor coal farms will be applied from 2024 was confirmed by studying the environment and safety of workers' working environments through official test such as soil and water quality test, MSDS of coal fire prevention agents in consideration of working workers, water quality, and eye irritation tests.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
• /
• v.48 no.2
• /
• pp.34-45
• /
• 2016

Global warming and climate change have been caused by combustion of fossil fuels. The greenhouse gases contributed to the rise of temperature between $0.6^{\circ}C$ and $0.9^{\circ}C$ over the past century. Presently, fossil fuels account for about 88% of the commercial energy sources used. In developing countries, fossil fuels are a very attractive energy source because they are available and relatively inexpensive. The environmental problems with fossil fuels have been aggravating stress from already existing factors including acid deposition, urban air pollution, and climate change. In order to control greenhouse gas emissions, particularly CO2, fossil fuels must be replaced by eco-friendly fuels such as biomass. The use of renewable energy sources is becoming increasingly necessary. The biomass resources are the most common form of renewable energy. The conversion of biomass into energy can be achieved in a number of ways. The most common form of converted biomass is pellet fuels as biofuels made from compressed organic matter or biomass. Pellets from lignocellulosic biomass has compared to conventional fuels with a relatively low bulk and energy density and a low degree of homogeneity. Thermal pretreatment technology like torrefaction is applied to improve fuel efficiency of lignocellulosic biomass, i.e., less moisture and oxygen in the product, preferrable grinding properties, storage properties, etc.. During torrefacton, lignocelluosic biomass such as palm kernell shell (PKS) and empty fruit bunch (EFB) was roasted under an oxygen-depleted enviroment at temperature between 200 and $300^{\circ}C$. Low degree of thermal treatment led to the removal of moisture and low molecular volatile matters with low O/C and H/C elemental ratios. The mechanical characteristics of torrefied biomass have also been altered to a brittle and partly hydrophobic materials. Unfortunately, it was much harder to form pellets from torrefied PKS and EFB due to thermal degradation of lignin as a natural binder during torrefaction compared to non-torrefied ones. For easy pelletization of biomass with torrefaction, pellets from PKS and EFB were manufactured before torrefaction, and thereafter they were torrefied at different temperature. Even after torrefaction of pellets from PKS and EFB, their appearance was well preserved with better fuel efficiency than non-torrefied ones. The physical properties of the torrefied pellets largely depended on the torrefaction condition such as reaction time and reaction temperature. Temperature over $250^{\circ}C$ during torrefaction gave a significant impact on the fuel properties of the pellets. In particular, torrefied EFB pellets displayed much faster development of the fuel properties than did torrefied PKS pellets. During torrefaction, extensive carbonization with the increase of fixed carbons, the behavior of thermal degradation of torrefied biomass became significantly different according to the increase of torrefaction temperature. In conclusion, pelletization of PKS and EFB before torrefaction made it much easier to proceed with torrefaction of pellets from PKS and EFB, leading to excellent eco-friendly fuels.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.567-587
• /
• 2018

A severe haze event occurred in October 2015 in Gwangju, Korea. In this study, the driving chemical species and the formation mechanisms of $PM_{2.5}$ pollution were investigated to better understand the haze event. Hourly concentrations of $PM_{2.5}$, organic and elemental carbon, water-soluble ions, and elemental constituents were measured at the air quality intensive monitoring station in Gwangju. The haze event occurred was attributed to a significant contribution (72.3%) of secondary inorganic species concentration to the $PM_{2.5}$, along with the contribution of organic aerosols that were strongly attributed to traffic emissions over the study site. MODIS images, weather charts, and air mass backward trajectories supported the significant impact of long-range transportation (LTP) of aerosol particles from northeastern China on haze formation over Gwangju in October 2015. The driving factor for the haze formation was stagnant atmospheric flows around the Korean peninsula, and high relative humidity (RH) promoted the haze formation at the site. Under the high RH conditions, $SO{_4}^{2-}$ and $NO_3{^-}$ were mainly produced through the heterogenous aqueous-phase reactions of $SO_2$ and $NO_2$, respectively. Moreover, hourly $O_3$ concentration during the study period was highly elevated, with hourly peaks ranging from 79 to 95ppb, suggesting that photochemical reaction was a possible formation process of secondary aerosols. Over the $PM_{2.5}$ pollution, behavior and formation of secondary ionic species varied with the difference in the impact of LTP. Prior to October 19 when the influence of LTP was low, increasing rate in $NO_3{^-}$ was greater than that in $NO_2$, but both $SO_2$ and $SO{_4}^{2-}$ had similar increasing rates. While, after October 20 when the impact of haze by LTP was significant, $SO{_4}^{2-}$ and $NO_3{^-}$ concentrations increased significantly more than their gaseous precursors, but with greater increasing rate of $NO_3{^-}$. These results suggest the enhanced secondary transformation of $SO_2$ and $NO_2$ during the haze event. Overall, the result from the study suggests that control of anthropogenic combustion sources including vehicle emissions is needed to reduce the high levels of nitrogen oxide and $NO_3{^-}$ and the high $PM_{2.5}$ pollution occurred over fall season in Gwangju.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.256-262
• /
• 2019

Hydroxylammonium nitrate (HAN)-based liquid propellants are attracting attention as environmentally friendly propellants because they are not carcinogens and the combustion gases have little toxicity. The catalyst used to decompose the HAN-based liquid propellant in a thruster must have both low temperature activity and high heat resistance. The objective of this study is to prepare an Ru/alumina/metal foam catalyst by supporting alumina slurry on the surface of NiCrAl metal foam using a washing coating method and then to support a ruthenium precursor thereon. The decomposition activity of a HAN aqueous solution of the Ru/alumina/metal foam catalyst was evaluated. The effect of the number of repetitive coatings of alumina slurry on the physical properties of the alumina/metal foam was analyzed. As the number of alumina wash coatings increased, mesopores with a diameter of about 7 nm were well-developed, thereby increasing the surface area and pore volume. It was optimal to repeat the wash coating alumina on the metal foam 12 times to maximize the surface area and pore volume of the alumina/metal foam. Mesopores were also well developed on the surface of the Ru/alumina/metal foam catalyst. It was found that the metal form itself without the active metal and alumina can promote the decomposition reaction of the HAN aqueous solution. In the case of the Ru/alumina/metal foam-550 catalyst, the decomposition onset temperature was significantly lowered compared with that of the thermal decomposition reaction, and ${\Delta}P$ could be greatly increased in the decomposition of the HAN aqueous solution. However, when the catalyst was calcined at $1,200^{\circ}C$, the catalytic activity was lowered inevitably because the surface area and pore volume of the catalyst were drastically reduced and Ru was sintered. Further research is needed to improve the heat resistance of Ru/alumina/metal foam catalysts.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.115-123
• /
• 2013

Stoker type incinerator is one of the most popular one used as municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration because, in general, it is quite suitable for large capacity and need no preprocessing facility. Nowadays, however, since the combustible portion of incoming MSW increases together with the decrease of the moisture content due to prohibition of directly burying food waste in landfill, the heating value of waste is remarkably increasing in comparison with the early stage of incinerator installation. Consequently, the increased heating value in incinerator operation causes a number of serious problems such as reduction of waste amount to be burned due to the boiler heat capacity together with the significant NO generation in high temperature environment. Therefore, in this study, a series of numerical simulation have been made as parameters of waste amount and the fraction of moisture in air stream in order to investigate optimal operating condition for the resolution of the problems associated with the high heating value of waste mentioned above. In specific, a detailed turbulent reaction flow field calculation with NO model was made for the full scale incinerator of D city. To this end, the injection method of moisturized air as oxidizer was intensively reviewed by the addition of moisture water amount from 10% and 20%. The calculation result, in general, showed that the reduction of maximum flame temperature appears consistently due to the combined effects of the increased specific heat of combustion air and vaporization heat by the addition of water moisture. As a consequence, the generation of NOx concentration was substantially reduced. Further, for the case of 20% moisture amount stream, the afterburner region is quite appropriate in temperature range for the operation of SNCR. This suggests the SNCR facility can be considered for reoperation. which is not in service at all due to the increased heating value of MSW.