• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.373-377
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• 2012

Among the fossil fuels, the brown coal is a great deal of resources. However, it is hardly used due to the high moisture content and low calorific value. It has both the week points such as spontaneous combustion and high volatile content and the strong points such as the low-sulfur and low ash content. If we overcome these week points, the using amount of brown coal would be increased. Also, it is well known that biomass is one of the important primary renewable energy sources because of carbon neutral energy. Furthermore, the utilization of biomass has been more and more concerned with the depletion of fossil fuel sources as well as the global warming issues. Combustion and thermal decomposition of biomass is one of the more promising techniques among all alternatives proposed for the production of energy from biomass. In this study, combustion of brown coals and mushroom waste was done. Mass change of samples and emission of hydrocarbon components were measured. As the results, we obtained combustion rate constant. Also activation energy was calculated in char combustion step. Hydrocarbon components were more generated in low oxygen concentration than high. Emission amount of hydrocarbon components in mushroom waste was significantly increased comparing to brown coal.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.89-99
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• 2014

The cultivation of biomass crops is now global demand for decreasing emissions of carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) from fossil fuel. Miscanthus species have been studied as a suitable crop for biomass production, due to its characteristics of fast growth and high biomass. In Korea, Miscanthus species have gained wide attention as an option for biomass production alternative to fossil fuels, recently. New strain of giant Miscanthus has been developed and two large trial sites for the giant Miscanthus production were built in the lower reaches of the Geum River. To evaluate the ecological influence of the giant Miscanthus as an bioenergy crop for the future, we investigated the impact of the construction of the giant Miscanthus production fields on the biota and also compared it with biota in paddy fields near the study sites. The biota including plants, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, avifauna, insects, and bugs was investigated. The plant diversity of the giant Miscanthus production fields was poorer than the paddy fields because the high height of the giant Miscanthus might hinder the growth of other plants. However, the giant Miscanthus production fields serves habitat to animals, leading to rich diversity of animals including avifauna, insects, and bugs. The rich diversity of the animals in the giant Miscanthus production fields coincides with the fact that the giant Miscanthus was grown without any pesticide, herbicide, and fertilizer. This study showed that the giant Miscanthus can influence on biota and further long term study is needed to elucidate the interaction between the diversity of biota and the giant Miscanthus.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.5.1-5.1
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• 2010

One of the most important environmental problems is global warming. Global warming is caused by increase in the amounts of water vapor, methane, carbon dioxide and other gases being released into the atmosphere as a result of the burning of fossil fuels. It has thus become important to reduce fossil fuel use. Environmentally friendly preparation of functional materials has, therefore, attracted much interest for environmental problems. Furthermore, nature mimetic processes are recently been of great interest as environmentally friendly one. There have been many studies on fabrication of various functional nanocrystals. Among various nanocrystal fabrication techniques, flux growth is an environmentally friendly, very convenient process and can produce functional nanocrystals at temperatures below the melting points of the solutes. Furthermore, this technique is suitable for the synthesis of crystals having an enhedral habit. In flux growth, the constituents of the materials to be crystallized are dissolved in a suitable flux (solvent) and crystal growth occurs as the solution becomes critically supersaturated. The supersaturation is attained by cooling the solution, by evaporation of the solvent or by a transport process in which the solute is made to flow from a hotter to a cooler region. Many kinds of oxide nanocrystals have been grown in our laboratory. For example, zero- (e.g., particle), one- (e.g., whisker and tube) and two-dimensional (e.g., sheet) nanocrystals were successfully grown by flux method. Our flux-growth technique has some industrial and ecological merits because the nanocrystal fabrication temperatures are far below their melting points and because the used reagents are less harmless to human being and the environment.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.470-478
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• 2016

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by fossil fuels consumption is one of the challenging issues worldwide. Renewable energy source (RES)-based energy supply system can be a promising alternative to the current fossil fuel-based system. In this study, we propose an optimization approach for designing a stand-alone hybrid energy supply system using RES and evaluating economic performances of the energy systems. The suggested approach is used to answer the questions; i) what technology is suitable to various demand sectors in different regions, and ii) how does it cost to meet the demand in term of the levelized costs of energy (LCOE). We illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach by applying to the design problem of energy supply systems for residential, agricultural and commercial sectors of Korea. As the results of LCOE analysis, for the residential sector has the LCOE ranging of $0.37~$0.44/kWh, the agricultural sector of $0.15~$0.61/kWh and the commercial sector of $0.12~$0.28/kWh.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.434-442
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• 2014

Serious environmental problems have been caused by the greenhouse effect due to carbon dioxide($CO_2$) or nitrogen oxides($NO_x$) generated by the use of fossil fuels, including oil and liquefied natural gas. Many countries, including our own, the United States, those of the European Union and other developed countries around the world; have shown growing interest in clean energy, and have been concentrating on the development of new energy-saving materials and devices. Typical non-fossil-fuel sources include solar cells, wind power, tidal power, nuclear power, and fuel cells. In particular, organic solar cells(OSCs) have relatively low power-conversion efficiency(PCE) in comparison with inorganic(silicon) based solar cells, compound semiconductor solar cells and the CIGS [$Cu(In_{1-x}Ga_x)Se_2$] thin film solar cells. Recently, organic cell efficiencies greater than 10 % have been obtained by means of the development of new organic semiconducting materials, which feature improvements in crystalline properties, as well as in the quantum-dot nano-structure of the active layers. In this paper, a brief overview of solar cells in general is presented. In particular, the current development status of the next-generation OSCs including their operation principle, device-manufacturing processes, and improvements in the PCE are described.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.647-669
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• 2013

Depletion of fossil fuels and sharp rise of international oil price as well as climate worming and frequent environmental disasters have required to strengthen resource(esp. energy) and environmental policy and discourse. And hence highly influential discourses and policies such as the concept of sustainable development and strategy for carbon regulation have been developed and pursued world-widely. But these concept and strategy have seemed to be subsumed in the process of neoliberalism, so as to have little effective results. This leads us to energy transition and energy autonomy or autarky as alternative strategic and normative concepts. Daegu has shown strong interests in urban energy problems relatively earlier than other cities, and developed the so-call 'Solar City' project. But it could not properly tackled with the problems, while tending to meet with the global imperatives. This paper considers urban energy problems and energy policy of Daegu with its significance and limitations, and suggests 4 principles for urban energy transition and autonomy with some concrete alternative measures; that is, the transition from fossil and nuclear energy to renewable energy, the transition from supply-led policy to demand side focusing policy, the transition from central governing energy system to locally distributed one, and the transition from market-dependent management to citizen-participatory energy governance.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.97-116
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• 2013

The environmental problems such as global climate chage, global wamning, ozone depletion, environmental pollution have been caused by the rapid economic growth, increasing in use of fossil fuels for industralization and scientific technology development. Between Environmental Preservation and Economic Development, the new paradigm, "Sustainable Development" is presented to the world now. To achieve global environmental objectives, some multilateral envrionment mental agreements includes trade regulation. However Kyoto Protocol has no provisions to regulate trade and is not in force yet. By the effectuation of the Kyoto Protocol, Korea will be faced very serious situation because of her high Dependency on Foreign Trade and Fossil Fuel- intensive Industries. We must be able to gain a sense of ownership in the out come of the WTO/CTE discussions by contributing meaningfully to the creation of a constructive relationship between Trade and Environment concerns.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.60 no.5
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• pp.125-134
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• 2018

Recently, interest in alternative energy has been increasing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel consumption in accordance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC). Accordingly, there is a need to use waste heat that unused throughout industrial systems for lowering the concentration of energy on fossil fuels. In particular, government support projects for the energy recycling of agriculture and fisheries such as cultivation of tropical crops and aquaculture are being actively carried out by utilizing waste heat and thermal effluents caused from large-scale industrial complexes including power plants. The study was conducted on supplier (power plant), consumer (farmer) and stakeholders (constructor and local governments) of domestic demonstration areas using waste heat that is abandoned from the power plant in the form of thermal effluents. It investigated the overall improvement and feasibility of government funded projects through field interviews and questionnaire-type surveys. The results of this study are expected to provide basic directions for the operation of the project in terms of nationwide expansion and diffusion of the heat source supply project at horticultural greenhouse by utilizing the thermal effluents from power plant.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.181-186
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• 2019

In order to reduce the fossil fuels consumed in conventional commercial independent diesel generators in the same environment as the island area, it is necessary to develop a photovoltaic system that will bear more than 40% of the independent system capacity. For this development, it is necessary to develop a high-capacity inverter that can improve the stability of the independent system installed in the island area and supply high-quality power to the load. In addition, the EMS power generation control system for the independent grid photovoltaic power generation system is a parallel operation power control system of the diesel generator connected with the solar power generation system. It controls the output of the diesel generator according to the load ratio and the solar power generation, A stable supply system is needed. This independent grid photovoltaic generation system can increase the solar power supply to the independent system area and increase the power stability of the independent system and further reduce the use of fossil fuel due to the ineffective power control of the independent system. It is expected that the economy will be secured early.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.389-398
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• 2019

Hydrogen energy is not only a solution to climate change problems caused by the use of fossil fuels, but also as an alternative source for the industrial power generation and automotive fuel. Among hydrogen production methods, electrolysis of water is considered to be one of the most efficient and practical methods. Compared to that of the fossil fuel production method, the method of producing hydrogen directly from water has no emission of methane and carbon dioxide, which are regarded as global environmental pollutants. In this paper, the alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) and polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE), which are one of the hydrogen production methods, were discussed. Recent research trends of hydrocarbon electrolyte membranes and the crossover phenomenon of electrolyte membranes were also described.