• Clean Technology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.279-287
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• 2023

Fine dust emitted from coal combustion is classified into filterable particulate matter (FPM) and condensable particulate matter (CPM). CPM is difficult to control with existing air pollution control devices, so research is being conducted to understand the characteristics of CPM. Components constituting condensable particulate matter (CPM) are divided into inorganic and organic components. There are many quantitative analysis results for the ionic components, which account for a significant proportion of the CPM inorganic components, but little is known about the organic components. Thus, there is a need for a quantitative analysis of CPM organic components. In this study, aromatic hydrocarbons (toluene, ethyl benzene, m,p-xylene, and o-xylene) and n-alkanes with 10 to 30 carbon atoms were quantitatively analyzed to understand the organic components of CPM emitted from a lab-scale coal combustor. Of the aromatic hydrocarbons, toluene accounted for 1.03% of the CPM organic components. On the other hand, the contents of ethyl benzene, m,p-xylene, and o-xylene showed low values of 0.11%, 0.18%, and 0.51% on average, respectively. Among the n-alkanes, triacontane (C₃₀) showed a high content of 2.64% and decane (C₁₀) showed a content of 2.05%. The next highest contents were shown with dodecane (C₁₂), tetradecane (C₁₄), and heptacosane (C₂₇), all of which were higher than that of toluene. The n-alkane substances that had detectable concentrations showed higher contents than ethyl benzene, m,p-xylene, and o-xylene except for tetracosane (C₂₄).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.41-55
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• 2022

Social interest in the fine particulate matter has increased significantly since the 2010s, and various efforts have been made to reduce it through environmental plans and policies. To support such environmental planning, in this study, spatial cluster characteristics of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations were analyzed in the metropolitan area to identify high-risk areas spatially, and the correlation with local environmental characteristics was also confirmed. The PM2.5 concentration for the recent 5 years (2016-2020) was targeted, and representative spatial statistical methods Getis-Ord Gi^* and Local Moran's I were applied. As a result of the analysis, the cluster form was different in Getis-Ord Gi^* and Local Moran's I, but they show high similarity in direction, therefore complementary results could be obtained. In the high concentration period, the hotspot concentration of the Getis-Ord Gi* method increased, but in Local Moran's I, the HH region, the high concentration cluster, showed a decreasing trend. Hotspots of the Getis-Ord Gi^* technique were prominent in the Pyeongtaek-Hwaseong and Yeoju-Icheon regions, and the HH cluster of Local Moran's I was located in the southwest, and the LL cluster was located in the northeast. As in the case of the metropolitan area, in the results of Seoul, there was a phenomenon of division between the northeast and southwest regions. The PM2.5 concentration showed a high correlation with the elevation, vegetation greenness and the industrial area ratio. During the high concentration period, the relation with vegetation greenness increased, and the elevation and industrial area ratio increased in the case of the annual average. This suggests that the function of vegetation can be maximized at a high concentration period, and the influence of topography and industrial areas is large on average. This characteristic was also confirmed in the basic statistics for each major cluster. The spatial clustering characteristics of PM2.5 can be considered in the national land and environmental plan at the metropolitan level. In particular, it will be effective to utilize the clustering characteristics based on the annual average concentration, which contributes to domestic emissions.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.506-512
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• 2018

The fine dust generated in the home and restaurant business occupies a low ratio of about 4% of the total fine dust emissions. However, at the foodservice business, the rate of change of the pollutant concentration is very high, so that the temporary fine dust concentration can be measured up to 60 times. The pollutants generated from non-industrial combustion plants consist of particulate fine dust and gaseous organic compounds. To remove these pollutants, cleaning dust collection system, which is an effective system for simultaneous removal of gaseous and particulate matter, is applied. This is a method of increasing the probability of diffusion capture of the Brownian motion by pressurized liquid injection method using the atomizing nozzle. The dust removal efficiency of the fine dust collecting system was analyzed by nozzle spraying air pressure condition and angle using the manufactured fine dust removing system. As a result, it was confirmed that the efficiency of removal of fine dust and gaseous organic compounds was more than 90%. The developed system is expected to be highly usable in the future because it can remove particulate dust from the existing plant hood system without any installation cost.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.157-167
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• 2017

Millions of People die every year from diseases caused by exposure to outdoor air pollution. Especially, one of the most severe types of air pollution is fine particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5). South Korea also has been suffered from severe PM. This paper analyzes regional risks induced by PM10 and PM2.5 that have affected domestic area of Korea during 2014~2016.3Q. We investigated daily maxima of PM10 and PM2.5 data observed on 284 stations in South Korea, and found extremely high outlier. We employed extreme value distributions to fit the PM10 and PM2.5 data, but a single distribution did not fit the data well. For theses reasons, we implemented extreme mixture models such as the generalized Pareto distribution(GPD) with the normal, the gamma, the Weibull and the log-normal, respectively. Next, we divided the whole area into 16 regions and analyzed characteristics of PM risks by developing the FN-curves. Finally, we estimated 1-month, 1-quater, half year, 1-year and 3-years period return levels, respectively. The severity rankings of PM10 and PM2.5 concentration turned out to be different from region to region. The capital area revealed the worst PM risk in all seasons. The reason for high PM risk even in the yellow dust free season (Jun. ~ Sep.) can be inferred from the concentration of factories in this area. Gwangju showed the highest return level of PM2.5, even if the return level of PM10 was relatively low. This phenomenon implies that we should investigate chemical mechanisms for making PM2.5 in the vicinity of Gwangju area. On the other hand, Gyeongbuk and Ulsan exposed relatively high PM10 risk and low PM2.5 risk. This indicates that the management policy of PM risk in the west side should be different from that in the east side. The results of this research may provide insights for managing regional risks induced by PM10 and PM2.5 in South Korea.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.228-235
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• 2015

In order to clarify the thermal and hygroscopic properties of indoor particulate matter (PM) in a semiclosed subway space, which is critically important for understanding of the distinctive particle formation processes as well as the assessment of their health effects, the size-resolved PMs (i.e., $PM_{2.5}$ and $PM_{10-2.5}$) were intensively collected on the platform of Miasageori station on the Seoul Subway Line-4. The elemental concentrations in soluble and insoluble fractions were determined by PIXE from the bulkily pretreated $PM_{2.5}$. The thermal and hygroscopic characteristics of individual particles were investigated via a combination of the unique pretreatment techniques (i.e., the high-temperature rapid thermal process and the water dialysis) and SEM-EDX analysis. Iron and calcium were unequaled in insoluble and soluble $PM_{2.5}$ fractions, respectively, with overwhelming concentration. The SEM-EDX's elemental net-counts for the pre- and post-pyrolyzed PMs newly suggest that magnesium and several elements (i.e., silica, aluminum, and calcium) may be readily involved in the newly generated subway fine PM by a high-temperature thermal processing when trains are breaking and starting. Through the water dialysis technique, it turned out that calcium has meaningful amount of water soluble fraction. Furthermore, the concentrations of the counter-ions associated with the calcium in subway $PM_{10-2.5}$ were theoretically estimated.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.83-92
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• 2015

Concerning the national health, it is important to develop an accurate prediction method of atmospheric particulate matter (PM) because being exposed to such fine dust can trigger not only respiratory diseases as well as dermatoses, ophthalmopathies and cardiovascular diseases. The National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) employs a decision tree to predict bad weather days with a high PM concentration. However, the decision tree method (even with the inherent unstableness) cannot be a suitable model to predict bad weather days which represent only 4% of the entire data. In this paper, while presenting the inaccuracy and inappropriateness of the method used by the NIER, we present the utility of a new prediction model which adopts boosting with quantile loss functions. We evaluate the performance of the new method over various ${\tau}$-value's and justify the proposed method through comparison.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.162-169
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• 2024

Particulate matter (PM) constitutes a hazardous blend of organic and inorganic particles that poses health risks. Inhalation of fine airborne PM with a diameter of ≤ 2.5 ㎛ (PM_2.5) can lead to significant lung impairments. (+)-afzelechin (AZC), a natural compound sourced from Bergenia ligulata, boasts a range of attributes, including antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticancer, and cardiovascular effects. However, knowledge about the therapeutic potential of AZC for patients with PM_2.5-induced lung injuries remains limited. Thus, in this study, we investigated the protective attributes of AZC against lung damage caused by PM_2.5 exposure. AZC was administered to the mice 30 min after intratracheal instillation of PM_2.5. Various parameters, such as changes in lung tissue wet/dry (W/D) weight ratio, total protein/total cell ratio, lymphocyte counts, levels of inflammatory cytokines in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), vascular permeability, and histology, were evaluated in mice exposed to PM_2.5. Data demonstrated that AZC mitigated lung damage, reduced W/D weight ratio, and curbed hyperpermeability induced by PM_2.5 exposure. Furthermore, AZC effectively lowered plasma levels of inflammatory cytokines produced by PM_2.5 exposure. It reduced the total protein concentration in BALF and successfully alleviated PM_2.5-induced lymphocytosis. Additionally, AZC substantially diminished the expression levels of Toll-like receptors 4 (TLR4), MyD88, and autophagy-related proteins LC3 II and Beclin 1. In contrast, it elevated the protein phosphorylation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). Consequently, the anti-inflammatory attribute of AZC positions it as a promising therapeutic agent for mitigating PM_2.5-induced lung injuries by modulating the TLR4-MyD88 and mTOR-autophagy pathways.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.163-172
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• 2018

Air pollution is increasing, along with consumption of fossil fuels such as coal and diesel gas. Air pollutants are known to be a major cause of respiratory-related illness and death, however, there are few reports on the genotoxic characterization of diverse air pollutants in Korea. In this study, we investigated the mutagenic activity of various particles such as diesel exhaust particles (DEP), combustion of rice straw (RSC), pine stem (PSC), and coal (CC), tunnel dust (TD), and road side dust (RD). Ultra-fine particles (UFPs) were collected by the glass fiber filter pad. Then, we performed a chemical analysis to see each of the component features of each particulate matter. The mutagenicity of various UFPs was determined by the Ames test with four Salmonella typhimurium strains with or without metabolic activation. The optimal concentrations of UFPs were selected based on result of a concentration decision test. Moreover, in order to compare relative mutagenicity among UFPs, we selected and tested DEP as mutation reference. DEP, RSC, and PSC induced concentration-dependent increases in revertant colony numbers with TA98, TA100, and TA1537 strains in the absence and presence of metabolic activation. DEP showed the highest specific activity among the particulate matters. In this study, we conclude that DEP, RSC, PSC, and TD displayed varying degrees of mutagenicity, and these results suggest that the mutagenicity of these air pollutants is associated with the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in these particulate matters.

• Proceedings of the Korea Air Pollution Research Association Conference
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.436-437
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• 2006

• Proceedings of the Korea Air Pollution Research Association Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.289-292
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• 1999

In recent year, there has been a progressive increase in urban air pollution that is Characterized by high concentrations of atmospheric particulate matter (PM10), resulting primarily from increase of automobils, especially diesel engine powered cars. Although the mechanisms of underling respiratory morbidity due to PM10 are not nuclear, it is thought that the fine particles (PM2.5) are of gratest concern to health since they can be breathed most deeply into the lung, where they are likely to be more toxic than the larger particles.(omitted)