• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2020.06a
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• pp.119-119
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• 2020

Globally, the demand for food and water resources are increasing rapidly with the growing concerns of meeting the projected population upsurge, specifically by 2050. The global population is projected to hit 9.8 billion in 2050 while the food demand is expected to increase by 77% from the 2007 base year. Moreover, the already scarce water resources, especially in the food-producing regions, expected to be significantly affected as food production already accounts for over 70% of the global water resources. However, the estimated food demand encapsulated the actual demand for both human consumption and animal feed in addition to the exuberant food waste at the consumption stage of the supply chain, notably in the developed countries. Managing the food consumption demand and food waste can have across-the-board benefits on water resources and other associated food production impacts. This study assessed the water-saving potentials through food waste in Korean households using the food waste data obtained from the direct weighing analysis. The household food waste collection and characterization were carried out during the summer (July), fall (September), and winter (December) seasons of 2019. The water footprint related to the food waste within Korean households was based on the water footprint concept, i.e. indirect water use. The results of our estimation showed that an average Korean household wasted 6.15 ± 4.36 kg daily, amounting to 12.53 ± 11.10 m3 of water resources associated with the waste. On the per capita basis, an average of 0.024 ± 0.017 kg/capita/day of food was wasted resulting to 0.049 ± 0.044 m3/capital/day of water resources wasted. The food waste types that accounted for the principal share in the water footprint were beef, soybean, rice and pork with values 30.7, 10.1, 9.6, and 7.5%, respectively. Considering that the production of meat and meat products are water intensive and the agricultural water use in Korea is largely for rice production, addressing the food waste of these two important agricultural products can be a hotspot for water saving potential in the country. This study therefore provides an insight to addressing the water scarcity in the country through reducing household food waste.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.184-184
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• 2023

Globally, agriculture is one of the largest consumers and polluters of water resources, contributing to the unsustainable use of limited water resources. To reduce the resource use and environmental footprints associated with current and future food systems, researchers and policy makers have recommended the transition to sustainable and healthier diets and the reduction of food loss and waste along the food supply chain. However, there is limited information on the synergistic effects and trade-offs of adopting the two measures. In this study, we assessed the water-saving potential of the two measures in South Korea using environmentally extended input-output relying on the EXIOBASE database for the reference year 2020, along with scenario analysis to model the potential outcomes. Specifically, we analyzed scenarios where meat consumption was reduced by 30% and 50% and in combination with a 50% reduction in food waste at the consumption stage for each scenario. According to our findings, by considering individual measures of dietary change and food waste reduction, shifting to a diet with 30% and 50% less meat consumption could lead to reduction in water footprint by 6.9% and 7.5%, respectively, while 50% reduction in food waste at the consumption stage could save about 14% of water footprint. However, the synergistic effects of the two measures such as 30% less meat consumption and 50% food waste reduction, and 50% less meat consumption and 50% food waste reduction result to 20% and 24% reductions in water footprint, respectively. Moreover, our findings also showed that increasing food consumption with high environmental impacts could promote resources use inefficiency when waste occurs. Thus, policy strategies that address synergistic effects of both dietary change and food waste reduction should be strengthened to achieve sustainable food system. International and national policies can increase resource efficiency by utilizing all available reduction potentials while considering strategies interactions.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.232-232
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• 2019

The persistence of drought periods and water scarcity is a growing public concern, as climate change projections indicate a more critical scenario in the future. The sustainability of water resources for the increasing population, and to ensuring crop production will unarguably be a daunting task for the water resources managers, with a projected 9.8 billion people by 2050 as well as the need to increase food production by 70 to 100%. Consequently, there is a need for significant irrigation water use for more crop production in the face of stiff competition among water users. However, the available natural resources are already over-constrained, and the allocation of more resources for food production is not feasible. Currently, about two-thirds of global water withdrawer is used by the agricultural sector while 48% of water resources in Korea is used for agricultural production. Despite the apparent ecological deficit and unfavorable conditions of resources utilization, a staggering amount of food waste occurs in the country. Moreover, wastage of food translates to waste of all the resources involved in the food production including water resources. Food waste can also be considered a serious potential for economic and environmental problems. Hence, exploring an alternative approach to efficient resources utilization in a more sustainable way can ensure considerable resources conservation. We hypothesized that reducing food waste will decline the demand for food production and consequently reduce the pressure on water resources. We investigated the food wastage across the food supply chain using the top-down datasets based on the FAO mass balance model. Furthermore, the water footprint of the estimated food wastage was assessed using the representative of selected food crops. The study revealed that the average annual food wastage across the food supply chain is 9.05 million tonnes, signifying 0.51 kg/capita/day and 48% of domestic food production. Similarly, an average of 6.29 Gm3 per annum of water resources was lost to food wastage, which translates to 40% of the total allotted water resources for agriculture in the country. These considerable resources could have been conserved or efficiently used for other purposes. This study demonstrated that zero food waste generation would significantly reduce the impact on freshwater resources and ensure its conservation. There is a need for further investigation on the food waste study using the bottom-up approach, specifically at the consumer food waste, since the top-down approach is based on estimations and many assumptions were made.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.408-408
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• 2019

The persistence of drought periods and water scarcity is a growing public concern, as climate change projections indicate a more critical scenario in the future. The sustainability of water resources for the increasing population, and to ensuring crop production will unarguably be a daunting task for the water resources managers, with a projected 9.8 billion people by 2050 as well as the need to increase food production by 70 to 100%. Consequently, there is a need for significant irrigation water use for more crop production in the face of stiff competition among water users. However, the available natural resources are already over-constrained, and the allocation of more resources for food production is not feasible. Currently, about two-thirds of global water withdrawer is used by the agricultural sector while 48% of water resources in Korea is used for agricultural production. Despite the apparent ecological deficit and unfavorable conditions of resources utilization, a staggering amount of food waste occurs in the country. Moreover, wastage of food translates to waste of all the resources involved in the food production including water resources. Food waste can also be considered a serious potential for economic and environmental problems. Hence, exploring an alternative approach to efficient resources utilization in a more sustainable way can ensure considerable resources conservation. We hypothesized that reducing food waste will decline the demand for food production and consequently reduce the pressure on water resources. We investigated the food wastage across the food supply chain using the top-down datasets based on the FAO mass balance model. Furthermore, the water footprint of the estimated food wastage was assessed using the representative of selected food crops. The study revealed that the average annual food wastage across the food supply chain is 9.05 million tonnes, signifying 0.51 kg/capita/day and 48% of domestic food production. Similarly, an average of $6.29Gm^3$ per annum of water resources was lost to food wastage, which translates to 40% of the total allotted water resources for agriculture in the country. These considerable resources could have been conserved or efficiently used for other purposes. This study demonstrated that zero food waste generation would significantly reduce the impact on freshwater resources and ensure its conservation. There is a need for further investigation on the food waste study using the bottom-up approach, specifically at the consumer food waste, since the top-down approach is based on estimations and many assumptions were made.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2021.06a
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• pp.148-149
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• 2021

Food waste has increasingly become a global issue of concern among the researchers and policymakers due to its significant environmental and economic impacts, and other associated unsustainable use of resources, including water resources. While food wastage occurs at each stage of the supply chain with food loss at the upstream and food waste at the downstream, the impacts of food waste occurring at the consumption side are enormous due to the accumulated added values. In this study, the embedded water resources, greenhouse gas emissions, and economic loss of household food waste were investigated. The primary granular data of household food waste was collected through direct sampling from 218 selected households of the Buk-gu community in Daegu, South Korea from July 2019 to May 2020. The water footprint, which was based on the water footprint concept, i.e., indirect water use, and GHG emission potential factor for each of the food items were adopted from the literature, while the retail prices and disposal cost were used to assess the economic cost of wasted food items. The water footprint, GHG emission associated with environmental impacts, and the economic cost of 42 major identified wasted food items were conducted. The findings showed that an average of 0.73 ± 0.06 kg/household/day edible food waste was generated among the sampled households, with leafy vegetable, watermelon, and rice responsible for 10, 9, and 4%, respectively, of the total weight of the 42 food wasted items. The water footprint and environmental impact of the household food waste resulted in 0.46 ± 0.04 m³ and 0.71±0.05 kg CO2eq, respectively. Beef, pork, poultry, and rice accounted for 52, 9, 5, and 4% of the total water footprint, while beef, pork, rice, tofu/cheese had 52, 8, 6, and 6% of the total emissions, respectively, embedded in the food wasted. Furthermore, the average estimated economic cost associated with wasted food items was 3855.93±527.27 Korean won, with beef, fish, and leafy vegetable responsible for 21, 13, and 10%, respectively, of the total economic cost. A combined assessment using water-environmental-economic nexus indicated that animal-based food had the highest footprint impacts, with beef, pork, and poultry indicating high indices of 0.3, 0.08, and 0.06 respectively, on a scale of 0 to 1, compared to corn and lettuce with lowest impacts of 0.02. Other food items had moderate impact values ranging from 0.03 to 0.05. This study, therefore, provides insight into the enormity of environmental and economic implications of household food waste among Korean households.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.15-31
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• 2024

Deserts around the world mostly do not have plants and are ever- expanding their area each year. There is shortage of food and prevalent hunger around the world mostly in the African countries that have desert. The waste water is not properly managed in those places and it causes disease outbreaks. So, the problems of desertification, waste water management and hunger have to be addressed by the world community. This thesis work tries to explore a possibility of reclamation of deserts with regular application of waste water. The results obtained from a four months long test are very encouraging and it can be easily concluded that the deserts can be reclaimed by application of waste water and it will relieve the desert community from the burden of costly treatment of waste water as well. In turn, they will, to some extent, get rid of water borne diseases and the reclaimed land could be used in future to produce more food to feed the hungry community- positively impacting directly to food security of the focused community.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.53-58
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• 2017

This paper describes liquidity evaluation on the horizontal branch pipe connected to a food waste disposer and performance of five disposers marketed. Experimental apparatus for analyzing the five disposers has been introduced to measure vibration, sound level and power consumption of the disposers. Simulator for analyzing the required water velocity to avoid waste jam inside the pipe connected to a food waste disposer has been designed and constructed. The simulator can control some experimental parameters: pipe slope, disposer supply water quantity, food waste materials and operation time of a disposer. Throughout the experimental measurements of the disposers marketed, it is found that the time need to crash food waste is about 20 seconds on the average. At the same flow condition, increase rate of internal water velocity is accelerated as the pipe slope increases. The water velocity inside the pipe having 50 A and slope of 1/50 is 0.26 m/s when the water flowrate to supply the disposer is 16 l pm. Considering the specific gravity and adhesion property of food waste, water velocity of the horizontal branch pipe connected to a food waste disposer need to excess 0.26 m/s at least to avoid the waste blockage inside the pipe.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.171-174
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• 2015

This study investigates the possibility of applying food waste leachate to a municipal solid waste incinerator in order to effectively dispose of the material and to reduce the environmental impact. The spray positions and the quantity of the food waste leachate in municipal solid waste incinerator were adjusted to examine the stability of the process and the environmental effect. The rear of the first combustion chamber was found to be the desirable location for an environmental perspective in this study. At a food waste leachate injection rate of $2m^3/h$, the concentration of the emitted NOx decreased from 130 ppm to 40 ppm. The consumption of ammonia water was reduced by about 36% after adding the food waste leachate. The inclusion of the food waste leachate to the municipal incinerator also increased the amount of steam that was produced. The results of this research indicated that a positive outcome can be expected in terms of diversifying the treatment options for food waste leachate. The results also provide guidance for institutional framework to manage the incineration of the food waste leachate.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.47-53
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• 2020

The amount of food waste and its water content depends on both the season and region. In particular, the water content typically varies between 73.8 wt.% and 83.3 wt.%, depending on the proportion of vegetables. Current food waste drying technologies are capable of reducing the water content to less than 10 wt.%, while increasing the heating value. Ongoing studies aim to utilize dried food waste as fuel. Food waste can be used to produce solid refuse fuel (SRF) by mixing it with various solid fuels or other types of waste. The analysis of specimens is very important when considering the direct combustion of food waste or its co-firing with solid fuels. In this study, the weight reduction of specimens after burning them in a small combustor, and compared with the results of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The concentration of various chemicals was also measured to define the characteristics of waste generation. Performed proximate analysis, elemental analysis, TGA, combustion experiment, the heating value, and derivative thermogravimetry (DTG).

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.375-380
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• 2020

The high intrinsic water content and salinity of food waste prevent a smooth composting process and consequently cause social, economic and environmental problems. In this study, we investigated the distribution of the water content and salinity in food wastes to obtain useful primary data to ensure adequate and quality recycling. A total of 300 food waste (FW) samples were collected from residential apartments (home generated FW), a wide range of restaurants, i.e., restaurant generated FW that included Korean, Chinese, Japanese and western FWs, and several places that included food waste processing facilities (dehydrated FW cakes). The collected food wastes were oven dried for 48 hours at 80℃ after which the water and salinity contents were analyzed. The results show that the average water content of the FWs was 72.45 ± 10.51%, and the average salinity content was 2.03 ± 0.57%. Furthermore, the salinity of the collected FWs was characterized by where the FW was generated. By location, the salinity concentration of home generated FW was 2.30% while western food had the lowest salinity concentration of 1.18%. However, dehydrated cakes had the highest salinity concentration of 2.84%. Especially, the distribution of the salinity content in food wastes can form the basis for improving the compost quality in food waste recycling.