• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.63-69
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• 2010

This study was conducted to compare the concentration of various air contaminants in nine different laboratories during routine activities. Volatile organic compounds (VOC) were sampled and analyzed using NIOSH Method 1500 and asbestos fibers were sampled and analyzed using NIOSH Method 9002 and 7400. Detectable levels of acetone, toluene and ethanol were found in all the laboratories and xylene and n-hexane were detected in eight of the nine laboratories. All the VOC concentrations were well below the Korean Ministry of Labor's Exposure Limit and American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists' (ACGIH) Threshold Limit Values (TLVs). Total VOC concentrations at the university laboratories were significantly higher than those at governmental agency laboratories. Airborne fiber concentrations were below 0.01 fibers/cc, while the concentration of chrysotile was 2% in insulation materials sprayed on the ceiling of one laboratory. While all the governmental agency laboratories (n=4) had fume hoods, two out of the five university laboratories did not have fume hoods. The capture velocity of half of the fume hoods were below the maintenance standard(0.4 m/sec). In conclusion, the study suggests that the current controls in place at both university and government agency laboratories are not sufficient in limiting exposure to harmful chemicals to non-detectable levels, though they appear to be adequate in protecting workers to levels below applicable occupational exposure limits. The study also suggests that researchers working in university laboratories may be exposed to greater levels of contaminant than those working in government agency laboratories.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.143-153
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• 2015

The ventilation system is a key device to ensure both healthful indoor air quality (IAQ) and thermal comfort in buildings. The ventilation system should make the IAQ meet the standards such as ASHRAE 62. This study deals with a new approach to modeling the ventilation and IAQ requirement in residential buildings. In that approach, Elite software is used to calculate the air supply volume, and CONTAM model as a multi-zone and contaminant dispersal model is employed to estimate the contaminants' concentrations. Amongst various contaminants existing in the residential buildings, two main contaminates of carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) and carbon monoxide (CO) were considered. CO and $CO_2$ are generated mainly from combustion sources such as gas cooking and heating oven. In addition to the mentioned sources, $CO_2$ is generated from occupants' respirations. To show how that approach works, a sample house with the area of $80m^2$ located in Tehran was considered as an illustrative case study. The results showed that $CO_2$ concentration in the winter was higher than the acceptable level. Therefore, the air change rate (ACH) of 4.2 was required to lower the $CO_2$ concentration below the air quality threshold in the living room, and in the bedrooms, the rate of ventilation volume should be 11.2 ACH.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.543-551
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• 2002

Gravity ventilators allow the escape of the warm air and air contaminants due to both (either) buoyancy and (or) convection. As a natural ventilation strategy, various gravity ventilators can be installed on the roof. Ventilation efficiency could be affected by various parameters, such as, area of openings, wind velocity and incidence angle, temperature difference between inside and outside, and shape of ventilator. Especially, the shape of roof gravity ventilator might be one of influencing factors for the effective ventilation. The window type gravity ventilators are frequently installed instead of general (standard) gravity ventilator. However, the ventilation efficiencies of them were not proved yet. To compare the ventilation efficiency, general type ventilator and two window type ventilators were numerically tested. Mean age of air, temperature and CO concentration were predicted by using commercial CFD code, AIRPAK (Ver. 2.0) with various conditions. The predicted result showed that general type ventilator is more effective for natural ventilation than window type ventilators.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.411-419
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• 2004

Titania particles are widely used as a photocatalyst to treat various contaminants in air and water. Titania particles were formed by vapor-phase oxidation of titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) in a tube furnace between 773 and 1,273 K. The effect of process variables such as furnace temperature, flow rate of carrier air, and flow rate of sheath air on powder size and phase characteristics was investigated using a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The size distribution of synthesized titania particles was characterized with mode diameter and peak concentration. The mode diameter ranging from 20 to 80 nm decreased with increasing flow rates of sheath air and carrier air, and increased with increasing furnace temperature. The peak concentration increased with increasing flow rates of sheath air and carrier air The best synthetic condition for high production rate can be derived from the experimental data set represented by mode diameter and peak concentration. The crystal structure of synthesized titania particles was found to be anatase phase, ensuring high photocatalytic potential.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.72-79
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• 2000

In recent, occupational diseases in harmful working places become a social issue. It is the well-known fact that a respiration in polluted working places exert a serious effect on health of workers. Accordingly, the cutting off contaminants air originally is the best way to improve working environments. In these cases, ventilation systems should be essentially installed to dilute or exhaust the contaminated indoor air. In this study, we investigated the characteristics of ventilation system of the noxious gas in working indoor places with natural ventilation by using COMET. The numerical simulations were carried out the natural ventilation with two phase(air, dust). For turbulent flow, Reynolds stresses were closed by the standard $\kappa$-$\varepsilon$ model. The results are as follows ; 1) In the natural exhaust in the working place, the flows of the central region have a more rapid velocity vector than the right and left one. 2) Numerical results show that the distribution of contaminants concentration have greater influence on convection than the case of diffusion by government of velocity vectors. 3) To observe the velocity variation with distance, three location of distance are considered. As results, it shows that the velocity are 0.075(m/s) at y=5(m), 10(m) and mean concentration are raised 10.6% at y=5(m), 10(m). 4) We have presented the useful data for the adequate counterplan in the harmful working places by carrying out the various investigation of the natural ventilation.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.3475-3481
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• 2014

This paper describes how primary contaminants in ambient air affect the performance of the cathode in fuel cell electric vehicle applications. The effect of four atmospheric pollutants ($SO_2$, $NH_3$, $NO_2$, and CO) on cathode performance was investigated by air impurity injection and recovery test under load. Electrochemical analysis via polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was performed for various concentrations of contaminants during the impurity test in order to determine the origins of performance decay. The variation in cell voltage derived empirically in this study and data reported in the literature were normalized and juxtaposed to elucidate the relationship between impurity concentration and performance. Mechanisms of cathode degradation by air impurities were discussed in light of the findings.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.111-116
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• 2008

The objective of this paper was to show the possibility of demand-controlled ventilation (DCV) using the current Korean ventilation standard for multi-purposed facilites. Two attractive DCV approaches; $CO_2$-DCV and RFID-DCV were applied to DCV simulations for a theoretical public assembly space served by a dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS) with enthalpy recovery device. A numerical model for predicting realtime occupant number, ventilation rate, and $CO_2$ concentration under given conditions was developed using a commercial equation solver program. It was found that the current ventilation standard causes unstable ventilation system control in DCV applications, especially under $CO_2$-DCV. It is because the ventilation rate (per person) used in Korea is the sum of the outdoor air required to remove or dilute air contaminants generated by both occupant and building itself, and not a pure function of occupant numbers. Finally, it makes DCV control unstable when ventilation flow is regulated only by the number of occupants. In order for solving this problem, current Korean ventilation standard was modified as a form of ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2007 showing good applicability to various DCV approaches. It was found that this modification enhances applicability of the current ventilation standard to DCV significantly.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.742-747
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• 2008

Formaldehyde(HCHO) and total volatile organic compounds(VOCs) can cause adverse health effects to the building occupants and may contribute to symptoms of 'Sick Building Syndrome'. These chemical contaminants are emitted from furnishings and electronic equipments as well as building materials. The purpose of this study is to measure and analyze VOCs and HCHO emission concentration from furnitures composed of wood materials including various chemicals by the large chamber method. This paper presents experiment results on the emission concentration of TVOCs and HCHO released from furnitures, such as bed, kitchen, sofa and table by a large chamber($24m^3$). The temperature and air humidity in the chamber are controlled to $25{\pm}1{\circ}C$ and $50{\pm}5%$ for this experiment. When the air change rate is $0.5hr^{-1}$, the background concentrations within the large chamber are below $50{\mu}g/m^3$ for TVOC, $5{\mu}g/m^3$ for HCHO and individual VOCs. The study is investigated the characterization of the chemical emission TVOC and HCHO concentrations and unknown VOCs from 6 furnitures.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 1997

The contamination structure and process on SUS 316 under various exposure conditions were investigated using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The metal-oxide, metal-H-oxides, CO, COH, and $C_xH_y$ are the main components of contaminants on the SUS surface. The compositional profiles of the contaminants are shown to be $C_xH_y$/CO(COH)/metal-oxide on SUS. The contamination proceeds in two steps. The oxidation of the metallic constituents followed by adsorption of hydrocarbons. Under UHV conditions the contamination is mainly due to the oxidation, and, as the exposure time increases, the oxidation continues. In HV or higher pressure, most of the oxides are formed almost immediately after exposure and as the exposure time increases the contamination of hydrocarbons continues to grow. For the SUS sample exposed to atmosphere, the metal oxide is distributed deep inside the surface with an exponentially decreasing concentration, and its thickness is nearly in the order of photoelectron mean free path. It is also seen that the Fe oxide is segregated over Cr oxide in the highly oxidized samples.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.915-923
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• 2013

Decomposition of non-biodegradable contaminants such as phenol contained in water was investigated using a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma reactor in the aqueous solutions with continuous oxygen bubbling. Effects of various parameters on the removal of phenol in aqueous solution with high-voltage streamer discharge plasma are studied. In order to choose plasma gas, gas of three types (argon, air, oxygen) were investigated. After the selection of gas, effects of 1st voltage (80 ~ 220 V), oxygen flow rate (2 ~ 7 L/min), pH (3 ~ 11), and initial phenol concentration (12.5 ~ 100.0 mg/L) on phenol degradation and change of $UV_{254}$ absorbance were investigated. Absorbance of $UV_{254}$ can be used as an indirect indicator of phenol degradation and the generation and disappearance of the non-biodegradable organic compounds. Removal of phenol and COD were found to follow pseudo first-order kinetics. The removal rate constants for phenol and COD of phenol were $5.204{\times}10^{-1}min^{-1}$ and $3.26{\times}10^{-2}min^{-1}$, respectively.