• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.426-438
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• 2023

Lithium-sulfur batteries, recently attracting attention as next-generation batteries, have high energy density but are limited in application due to sulfur's insulating properties, shuttle phenomenon, and volume expansion. This study used an economical and simple vacuum filtration method to prepare a freestanding electrode without a binder and collector. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are used to improve the electrical conductivity of sulfur, where CNT also acts as both collector and conductor. In addition, metal oxides (MO_x, M=Ni, Mg), which are easy to adsorb lithium polysulfide, are added to the CNT/S electrode to suppress the shuttle reaction in lithium-sulfur batteries, which is a result of suppressing the loss of active sulfur material due to the excellent adsorption of lithium polysulfide by metal oxides. The MO_x@CNT/S electrode exhibited higher capacity characteristics and cycle stability than the CNT/S electrode without metal oxides. Among the MO_x@CNT/S electrodes, the NiO@CNT/S electrode displayed a high discharge capacity of 780 mAh g^-1 at 1 C and an extreme capacity decrease to 134 mAh g^-1 after 200 cycles. Although the MgO@CNT/S electrode exhibited a low discharge rate of 544 mAh g^-1 in the initial cycle, it showed good cycle stability with 90% of capacity retention up to 200 cycles. Further, to achieve high capacity and cycle stability, the Ni_0.7Mg_0.3O@CNT/S electrode, mixed with Ni:Mg in the ratio of 0.7:0.3, manifested an initial discharge rate of 755 mAh g^-1 (1 C) and a capacity retention rate of more than 90% after 200 cycles. Therefore, applying binary metal oxides to CNT/S provides a freestanding electrode for developing economical and high-performance Li-S batteries, effectively improving lithium polysulfide's high capacity characteristics and dissolution.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.378-387
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• 2023

Petrochemical is an energy consuming industry that consumes about 30% of total industrial energy consumption and is a representative carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission source. Among them, the Naphtha Cracking Center (NCC), which produces ethylene, propylene, propane and mixed C4, consumes large amounts of energy and emits significant amounts of CO₂. For this reason, an integrated techno economic- environmental impact assessment aimed at reducing energy consumption and environmental impact factors is necessary to ensure efficiency in terms of economics and environment. This study aims to analyze the efficiency of the heat exchanger network used in the existing NCC base on the pinch analysis and select an improvement plan that can reduced energy consumption. In order to reduces the utility consumption in the process, an optimal heat exchanger network considering the high-temperature and low-temperature stream was derived, and the economic evaluation was conducted by considering the trade-off between the reduction in utility consumption and the increase in heat exchanger installation cost. In addition, an environmental impact assessment was conducted on the reduced CO₂ emission in consideration of the environmental aspect, and the economic environmental impact assessment used the payback period to recover the invested funds to come up with an energy saving plan that can be applied based on the actual process. As a result of considering the economic-environmental impact assessment, when the environmental impact assessment was not considered, it was 4.29 months, 3.21 months, and 3.39 months for each case, and when considering the environmental impact assessment, it was 4.24 months, 3.17 months, and 3.35 months for each case. These results appeared equally both when the environmental impact assessment was not include and when it was include. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was conducted for each case to determine how important factors affect the payback period. As a result of the sensitivity analysis, the cost of the heat exchanger was identified as a major factor influencing the overall cost.

• Journal of Practical Engineering Education
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.119-126
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• 2023

Today, in order to improve fuel efficiency and dynamic behavior of automobiles, an era of light weight and simplification of automobile parts is being formed. In order to simplify and design and manufacture the shape of the product, various components are integrated. For example, in order to commercialize three products into one product, product processing is occurring to a very narrow area. In the case of existing parts, precision die casting or casting production is used for processing convenience, and the multi-piece method requires a lot of processes and reduces the precision and strength of the parts. It is very advantageous to manufacture integrally to simplify the processing air and secure the strength of the parts, but if a deep and narrow pocket part needs to be processed, it cannot be processed with the equipment's own spindle. To solve a problem, research on cutting processing is being actively conducted, and multi-axis composite processing technology not only solves this problem. It has many advantages, such as being able to cut into composite shapes that have been difficult to flexibly cut through various processes with one machine tool so far. However, the reality is that expensive equipment increases manufacturing costs and lacks engineers who can operate the machine. In the five-axis cutting processing machine, when producing products with deep and narrow sections, the cycle time increases in product production due to the indirectness of tools, and many problems occur in processing. Therefore, dedicated machine tools and multi-axis composite machines should be used. Alternatively, an angle spindle may be used as a special tool capable of multi-axis composite machining of five or more axes in a three-axis machining center. Various and continuous studies are needed in areas such as processing vibration absorption, low heat generation and operational stability, excellent dimensional stability, and strength securing by using the angle spindle.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.464-471
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• 2023

In this paper, we propose a method to reduce age distortion in facial expression image generation using StyleGAN Encoder. The facial expression image generation process first creates a face image using StyleGAN Encoder, and changes the expression by applying the learned boundary to the latent vector using SVM. However, when learning the boundary of a smiling expression, age distortion occurs due to changes in facial expression. The smile boundary created in SVM learning for smiling expressions includes wrinkles caused by changes in facial expressions as learning elements, and it is determined that age characteristics were also learned. To solve this problem, the proposed method calculates the correlation coefficient between the smile boundary and the age boundary and uses this to introduce a method of adjusting the age boundary at the smile boundary in proportion to the correlation coefficient. To confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method, the results of an experiment using the FFHQ dataset, a publicly available standard face dataset, and measuring the FID score are as follows. In the smile image, compared to the existing method, the FID score of the smile image generated by the ground truth and the proposed method was improved by about 0.46. In addition, compared to the existing method in the smile image, the FID score of the image generated by StyleGAN Encoder and the smile image generated by the proposed method improved by about 1.031. In non-smile images, compared to the existing method, the FID score of the non-smile image generated by the ground truth and the method proposed in this paper was improved by about 2.25. In addition, compared to the existing method in non-smile images, it was confirmed that the FID score of the image generated by StyleGAN Encoder and the non-smile image generated by the proposed method improved by about 1.908. Meanwhile, as a result of estimating the age of each generated facial expression image and measuring the estimated age and MSE of the image generated with StyleGAN Encoder, compared to the existing method, the proposed method has an average age of about 1.5 in smile images and about 1.63 in non-smile images. Performance was improved, proving the effectiveness of the proposed method.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.555-560
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• 2023

Conventional aqueous amine-based CO₂ capture has a problem in that a large amount of renewable energy is required for CO₂ stripping and solvent regeneration in its industrial applications. This work proposes a water-lean absorbent that can reduce regeneration energy by lowering the water content in the absorbent with high absorption capacity for CO₂. To this purpose, this water-lean solvent introduced NMP (N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone), which has a higher physical solubility in CO₂ and a low specific heat capacity comparing to water, along with 3-methylaminopropylamine (MAPA), a diamine, into the absorbent. The circulating absorption capacity and absorption rate for CO₂ of this water-lean solvent were measured using a packed tower. When NMP was added to the absorbent, the absorption rate was improved. In the case of the absorbent containing 2.5M MAPA was used, the maximum circulating absorption capacity was obtained when 10 wt% of NMP was included in absorbent. The overall mass transfer coefficient increased as the concentration of NMP increased. However, at loading values higher than 0.5, the increment in mass transfer coefficient decreased as the concentration of NMP increased. When the lean loading value is low, the mass transfer resistance due to viscosity of the absorbent is low, so the overall mass transfer coefficient increases with the addition of NMP. However, as the lean loading value increases, the viscosity of the absorbent increases, and the diffusivity of CO₂ and MAPA decreases, resulting in sharply decreasing of the overall mass transfer coefficient.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.523-541
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• 2023

As accessibility to 3D printers increases, there is a growing frequency of exposure to chemicals associated with 3D printing. However, research on the toxicity and harmfulness of chemicals generated by 3D printing is insufficient, and the performance of toxicity prediction using in silico techniques is limited due to missing molecular structure data. In this study, quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) model based on data-centric AI approach was developed to predict the toxicity of new 3D printing materials by imputing missing values in molecular descriptors. First, MissForest algorithm was utilized to impute missing values in molecular descriptors of hazardous 3D printing materials. Then, based on four different machine learning models (decision tree, random forest, XGBoost, SVM), a machine learning (ML)-based QSAR model was developed to predict the bioconcentration factor (Log BCF), octanol-air partition coefficient (Log Koa), and partition coefficient (Log P). Furthermore, the reliability of the data-centric QSAR model was validated through the Tree-SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) method, which is one of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) techniques. The proposed imputation method based on the MissForest enlarged approximately 2.5 times more molecular structure data compared to the existing data. Based on the imputed dataset of molecular descriptor, the developed data-centric QSAR model achieved approximately 73%, 76% and 92% of prediction performance for Log BCF, Log Koa, and Log P, respectively. Lastly, Tree-SHAP analysis demonstrated that the data-centric-based QSAR model achieved high prediction performance for toxicity information by identifying key molecular descriptors highly correlated with toxicity indices. Therefore, the proposed QSAR model based on the data-centric XAI approach can be extended to predict the toxicity of potential pollutants in emerging printing chemicals, chemical process, semiconductor or display process.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.36-43
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• 2024

Fishing net waste (FNW) constitutes over half of all marine plastic waste and is a major contributor to the degradation of marine ecosystems. While current treatment options for FNW include incineration, landfilling, and mechanical recycling, these methods often result in low-value products and pollutant emissions. Importantly, FNWs, comprised of plastic polymers, can be converted into valuable resources like syngas and pyrolysis oil through pyrolysis. Thus, this study presents a process for generating high-purity hydrogen (H₂) by catalytically pyrolyzing FNW in a CO₂ environment. The proposed process comprises of three stages: First, the pretreated FNW undergoes Ni/SiO₂ catalytic pyrolysis under CO₂ conditions to produce syngas and pyrolysis oil. Second, the produced pyrolysis oil is incinerated and repurposed as an energy source for the pyrolysis reaction. Lastly, the syngas is transformed into high-purity H₂ via the Water-Gas-Shift (WGS) reaction and Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA). This study compares the results of the proposed process with those of traditional pyrolysis conducted under N₂ conditions. Simulation results show that pyrolyzing 500 kg/h of FNW produced 2.933 kmol/h of high-purity H₂ under N₂ conditions and 3.605 kmol/h of high-purity H₂ under CO₂ conditions. Furthermore, pyrolysis under CO₂ conditions improved CO production, increasing H₂ output. Additionally, the CO₂ emissions were reduced by 89.8% compared to N₂ conditions due to the capture and utilization of CO₂ released during the process. Therefore, the proposed process under CO₂ conditions can efficiently recycle FNW and generate eco-friendly hydrogen product.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.87-98
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• 2024

This study was conducted to investigate the efficiency of the filtering sets composed of fiberboards, which were fabricated with lignocellulosic fiber and cork oak bark-based activated carbon (COA), as well as traditional Korean paper handmade from mulberry trees (KP) for the filtration of PM, TVOC and HCHO. Three-layers fiberboards (WRF) were fabricated with wood fiber in its surface layers and recycled fiber/COA in its core layer using a protein-based adhesive with the resin content of 8%. Filtering sets were composed of three WRF and one sheet of KP. Concentrations of PM, TVOC and HCHO generated with the combustion of a incense in a sealed laboratory hood were reduced efficiently with the operation of air-purifier installed the filtering sets. Except for the WRF fabricated with 4%/4% resin contents, other WRF were prepared with 5%/3% and 6%/2% resin contents in surface/core layers, and then the WRF were used with KP for the fabrication of filtering sets. Filtration efficiency of the filtering sets was improved as the core-layer resin content applied in the fabrication of WRF decreased. In addition, filtration efficiency of the WRF-based filtering set fabricated with KP of 25 g/m² basis weight was higher than that with KP of 45 g/m² basis weight. Filtering sets composed of three-layers fiberboards (RWF) that recycled fiber and wood fiber/COA were used in its surface and core layers, respectively, and KP-25g showed higher filtration efficiency than those of WRF-based filtering sets. Air-inhalation equipment installed the RWF-based, WRF-based filtering sets and without filtering set were operated in small indoor and large outdoor spaces. Efficiency for filtering PM and TVOC of the RWF-based filtering sets was higher than that of other filtering sets. It is concluded that fiberboard-based filtering sets composed of RWF and KP-25g can be used as a filter for reducing the concentrations of PM and TVOC existed in indoor and outdoor spaces.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.279-294
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• 2024

Large-scale civil engineering structures such as dams require a systematic approach to jointed rock-mass grouting to prevent water leakage into the foundations and to ensure safe operation. In South Korea, rock grouting design often relies on the experience of field engineers that was gained in similar projects, highlighting the need for a more systematic and reliable approach. Rock-mass grouting is affected mainly by hydrogeology and the presence of discontinuities, involving factors such as the rock quality designation (RQD), joint spacing (Js), Lugeon value (Lu), and secondary permeability index (SPI). This study, based on data from field investigations of 14 domestic sites, analyzed the correlation between hydrogeological factors (Lu and SPI), discontinuity characteristics (RQD and Js), and grout take, and systematically established a design method for rock grouting. Analysis of correlation between the variables RQD, Js, Lu, and SPI yielded Pearson correlation (r) values as follows: Lu-SPI, 0.92; RQD-Lu, -0.75; RQD-Js, 0.69; RQD-SPI, -0.65; Js-Lu, -0.47; and SPI-Js, -0.41. The grout take increases with Lu and SPI values, but there is no significant correlation between RQD and Js. The proposed approach for grouting design based on SPI values was verified through analysis and comparison with actual curtain-grouting construction, and is expected to be useful in practical applications and future studies.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.3361-3394
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• 1974

The purpose of this thesis is to disclose some characteristics of water consumption in relation to the quantities of dry matters through the growing period for two statured varieties of paddy rice which are a tall statured variety and a short one, including the water consumption during seedling period, and to find out the various coefficients of evapotranspiration that are applicable for the water use of an expected yield of the two varieties. PAL-TAL, a tall statured variety, and TONG-lL, a short statured variety were chosen for this investigation. Experiments were performed in two consecutive periods, a seedling period and a paddy field period, In the investigation of seedling period, rectangular galvanized iron evapotranspirometers (91cm${\times}$85cm${\times}$65cm) were set up in a way of two levels (PAL-TAL and TONG-lL varieties) with two replications. A standard fertilization method was applied to all plots. In the experiment of paddy field period, evapotanspiration and evaporation were measured separately. For PAL-TAL variety, the evapotranspiration measurements of 43 plots of rectangular galvanized iron evapotranspirometer (91cm${\times}$85cm${\times}$65cm) and the evaporation measurements of 25 plots of rectangular galvanized iron evaporimeter (91cm${\times}$85cm${\times}$15cm) have been taken for seven years (1966 through 1972), and for TONG-IL variety, the evapotranspiration measurements of 19 plots and the evaporation measurements of 12 plots have been collected for two years (1971 through 1972) with five different fertilization levels. The results obtained from this investigation are summarized as follows: 1. Seedling period 1) The pan evaporation and evapotranspiration during seedling period were proved to have a highly significant correlation to solar radiation, sun shine hours and relative humidity. But they had no significant correlation to average temperature, wind velocity and atmospheric pressure, and were appeared to be negatively correlative to average temperature and wind velocity, and positively correlative to the atmospheric pressure, in a certain period. There was the highest significant correlation between the evapotranspiration and the pan evaporation, beyond all other meteorological factors considered. 2) The evapotranpiration and its coefficient for PAL-TAL variety were 194.5mm and 0.94∼1.21(1.05 in average) respectively, while those for TONG-lL variety were 182.8mm and 0.90∼1.10(0.99 in average) respectively. This indicates that the evapotranspiration for TONG-IL variety was 6.2% less than that for PAL-TAL variety during a seedling period. 3) The evapotranspiration ratio (the ratio of the evapotranspiration to the weight of dry matters) during the seedling period was 599 in average for PAL-TAL variety and 643 for TONG-IL variety. Therefore the ratio for TONG-IL was larger by 44 than that for PAL-TAL variety. 4) The K-values of Blaney and Criddle formula for PAL-TAL variety were 0.78∼1.06 (0.92 in average) and for TONG-lL variety 0.75∼0.97 (0.86 in average). 5) The evapotranspiration coefficient and the K-value of B1aney and Criddle formular for both PAL-TAL and TONG-lL varieties showed a tendency to be increasing, but the evapotranspiration ratio decreasing, with the increase in the weight of dry matters. 2. Paddy field period 1) Correlation between the pan evaporation and the meteorological factors and that between the evapotranspiration and the meteorological factors during paddy field period were almost same as that in case of the seedling period (Ref. to table IV-4 and table IV-5). 2) The plant height, in the same level of the weight of dry matters, for PAL-TAL variety was much larger than that for TONG-IL variety, and also the number of tillers per hill for PAL-TAL variety showed a trend to be larger than that for TONG-IL variety from about 40 days after transplanting. 3) Although there was a tendency that peak of leaf-area-index for TONG-IL variety was a little retarded than that for PAL-TAL variety, it appeared about 60∼80 days after transplanting. The peaks of the evapotranspiration coefficient and the weight of dry matters at each growth stage were overlapped at about the same time and especially in the later stage of growth, the leaf-area-index, the evapotranspiration coefficient and the weight of dry matters for TONG-IL variety showed a tendency to be larger then those for PAL-TAL variety. 4) The evaporation coefficient at each growth stage for TONG-IL and PAL-TALvarieties was decreased and increased with the increase and decrease in the leaf-area-index, and the evaporation coefficient of TONG-IL variety had a little larger value than that of PAL-TAL variety. 5) Meteorological factors (especially pan evaporation) had a considerable influence to the evapotranspiration, the evaporation and the transpiration. Under the same meteorological conditions, the evapotranspiration (ET) showed a increasing logarithmic function of the weight of dry matters (x), while the evaporation (EV) a decreasing logarithmic function of the weight of dry matters; 800kg/10a x 2000kg/10a, ET=al+bl logl0x (bl>0) EV=a2+b2 log10x (a2>0 b2<0) At the base of the weight of total dry matters, the evapotranspiration and the evaporation for TONG-IL variety were larger as much as 0.3∼2.5% and 7.5∼8.3% respectively than those of PAL-TAL variety, while the transpiration for PAL-TAL variety was larger as much as 1.9∼2.4% than that for TONG-IL variety on the contrary. At the base of the weight of rough rices the evapotranspiration and the transpiration for TONG-IL variety were less as much as 3.5% and 8.l∼16.9% respectively than those for PAL-TAL variety and the evaporation for TONG-IL was much larger by 11.6∼14.8% than that for PAL-TAL variety. 6) The evapotranspiration coefficient, the evaporation coefficient and the transpiration coefficient and the transpiration coefficient were affected by the weight of dry matters much more than by the meteorological conditions. The evapotranspiratioa coefficient (ETC) and the evaporation coefficient (EVC) can be related to the weight of dry matters (x) by the following equations: 800kg/10a x 2000kg/10a, ETC=a3+b3 logl0x (b3>0) EVC=a4+b4 log10x (a4>0, b4>0) At the base of the weights of dry matters, 800kg/10a∼2000kg/10a, the evapotranspiration coefficients for TONG-IL variety were 0.968∼1.474 and those for PAL-TAL variety, 0.939∼1.470, the evaporation coefficients for TONG-IL variety were 0.504∼0.331 and those for PAL-TAL variety, 0.469∼0.308, and the transpiration coefficients for TONG-IL variety were 0.464∼1.143 and those for PAL-TAL variety, 0.470∼1.162. 7) The evapotranspiration ratio, the evaporation ratio (the ratio of the evaporation to the weight of dry matters) and the transpiration ratio were highly affected by the meteorological conditions. And under the same meteorological condition, both the evapotranspiration ratio (ETR) and the evaporation ratio (EVR) showed to be a decreasing logarithmic function of the weight of dry matters (x) as follows: 800kg/10a x 2000kg/10a, ETR=a5+b5 logl0x (a5>0, b5<0) EVR=a6+b6 log10x (a6>0 b6<0) In comparison between TONG-IL and PAL-TAL varieties, at the base of the pan evaporation of 343mm and the weight of dry matters of 800∼2000kg/10a, the evapotranspiration ratios for TONG-IL variety were 413∼247, while those for PAL-TAL variety, 404∼250, the evaporation ratios for TONG-IL variety were 197∼38 while those for PAL-TAL variety, 182∼34, and the transpiration ratios for TONG-IL variety were 216∼209 while those for PAL-TAL variety, 222∼216 (Ref. to table IV-23, table IV-25 and table IV-26) 8) The accumulative values of evapotranspiration intensity and transpiration intensity for both PAL-TAL and TONG-IL varieties were almost constant in every climatic year without the affection of the weight of dry matters. Furthermore the evapotranspiration intensity appeared to have more stable at each growth stage. The peaks of the evapotranspiration intensity and transpiration intensity, for both TONG-IL and PAL-TAL varieties, appeared about 60∼70 days after transplanting, and the peak value of the former was 128.8${\pm}$0.7, for TONG-IL variety while that for PAL-TAL variety, 122.8${\pm}$0.3, and the peak value of the latter was 152.2${\pm}$1.0 for TONG-IL variety while that for PAL-TAL variety, 152.7${\pm}$1.9 (Ref.to table IV-27 and table IV-28) 9) The K-value in Blaney & Criddle formula was changed considerably by the meteorological condition (pan evaporation) and related to be a increasing logarithmic function of the weight of dry matters (x) for both PAL-TAL and TONG-L varieties as follows; 800kg/10a x 2000kg/10a, K=a7+b7 logl0x (b7>0) The K-value for TONG-IL variety was a little larger than that for PAL-TAL variety. 10) The peak values of the evapotranspiration coefficient and k-value at each growth stage for both TONG-IL and PAL-TAL varieties showed up about 60∼70 days after transplanting. The peak values of the former at the base of the weights of total dry matters, 800∼2000kg/10a, were 1.14∼1.82 for TONG-IL variety and 1.12∼1.80, for PAL-TAL variety, and at the base of the weights of rough rices, 400∼1000 kg/10a, were 1.11∼1.79 for TONG-IL variety and 1.17∼1.85 for PAL-TAL variety. The peak values of the latter, at the base of the weights of total dry matters, 800∼2000kg/10a, were 0.83∼1.39 for TONG-IL variety and 0.86∼1.36 for PAL-TAL variety and at the base of the weights of rough rices, 400∼1000kg/10a, 0.85∼1.38 for TONG-IL variety and 0.87∼1.40 for PAL-TAL variety (Ref. to table IV-18 and table IV-32) 11) The reasonable and practicable methods that are applicable for calculating the evapotranspiration of paddy rice in our country are to be followed the following priority a) Using the evapotranspiration coefficients based on an expected yield (Ref. to table IV-13 and table IV-18 or Fig. IV-13). b) Making use of the combination method of seasonal evapotranspiration coefficient and evapotranspiration intensity (Ref. to table IV-13 and table IV-27) c) Adopting the combination method of evapotranspiration ratio and evapotranspiration intensity, under the conditions of paddy field having a higher level of expected yield (Ref. to table IV-23 and table IV-27). d) Applying the k-values calculated by Blaney-Criddle formula. only within the limits of the drought year having the pan evaporation of about 450mm during paddy field period as the design year (Ref. to table IV-32 or Fig. IV-22).