• Land and Housing Review
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.41-50
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to review the U.S. renewable energy policies implemented by the federal government and the state governments to investigate potential barriers of renewable energy expansion and to develop policy implications for the successful renewable energy policy making in Korea. Recently, the restructuring in the energy supply chain has been being a new trend in many countries that shows a transition from traditional fossil fuels to sustainable renewable energy sources. The United States has enforced effective renewable energy policies (i.e., regulatory policies, financial incentives), which have led to the exploding growth of renewable energy facilities and productions over the last ten years. For example, many state governments in the U.S. are implementing Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) policies that require increased energy supply from renewable energy sources (i.e., solar, wind and geothermal). These RPS policies are expected to account for at least 10-50 percent of total electricity production in the next fifteen years. As part of results, in the recent three years, renewable energy in the U.S provided over 50 percent of total new power generation constructions. On the other hand, Korea initiated to develop climate change policies in 2008 for the Green Growth Policy that set up a target reduction of national Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions up to 37 percent by 2025. However, statistical data for accumulated renewable energy capacity refer that Korea is still in its early stage that contribute to only 7 percent of the total electricity production capacity and of which hydroelectric power occupied most of the production. Thus, new administration in Korea announced a new renewable energy policy (Renewable Energy 3020 Plan) in 2017 that will require over 95 percent of the total new generations as renewable energy facilities to achieve up to 20 percent of the total electricity production from renewable energy sources by 2030. However, to date, there have not been enough studies to figure out the barriers of the current policy environment and to develop implications about renewable energy policies to support the government plan in Korea. Therefore, this study reviewed the U.S. renewable energy policies compared with Korean policies that could show model cases to introduce related policies and to develop improved incentives to rapidly spread out renewable energy facilities in Korea.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.25-46
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• 2010

The demand for fuel and energy resources continues to grow due to increased consumption and emerging economies in all parts of the world. With this increase in demand, crude oil prices in the international market has jumped dramatically. Global warming, which is a consequence of increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, has become scientific, social, and political concerns. To cope with global warming and energy crisis, cost-competitive biofuels are urgently needed. In addition, development of an infrastructure, which supplies energy stably and diversifies energy resources, as well as new cost-saving technologies should be developed to reduce the costs of producing biofuels. Due to high oleic acid content, rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is currently the potential feedstock for biodiesel production in temperate zone region and the production and use of rapeseed oil is already commercialized in Europe. In Korea double-cropping (rice and rapeseed) became more prevalent because it reduces competitions from land constraints. Production of rapeseed as a biodiesel feedstock may reduce the influence of rising oil prices and nation's dependence on imported petroleum and increase job opportunities and farm incomes.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.51-64
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• 2011

Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) is one of the key players in greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction portfolio for mitigating climate change. CCS makes simultaneously it possible not only to reduce a huge amount of carbon dioxide directly from the emission sources (e.g., coal power plant) but also to maintain the carbon concentrated-energy and/or industry infrastructure. Internationally, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is dealing the agenda for considering the possibility of including CCS project as one of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects. Despite its usefulness, however, there are the controversies in including CCS as the CDM project, whose issues include i) non-permanence, including long-term permanence, ii) measuring, reporting and verification (MRV), iii) environmental impacts, iv) project activity boundaries, v) international law, vi) liability, vii) the potential for perverse outcomes, viii) safety, and ix) insurance coverage and compensation for damages caused due to seepage or leakage. In this paper, those issues in considering CCS as CDM are summarized and analyzed in order to suggest some considerations to policy makers in realizing the CCS project in Korea in the future.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.53 no.11
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• pp.961-971
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• 2020

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that the amount of precipitation in South Korea would increase regardless of the reduction of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Moreover, the temporal and spatial rainfall variation would also increase in the future. Due to the geographic allocation of Korea, more than 80% of the annual precipitation occurs in the wet season from early July to late September. It is expected that the average precipitation in this period will increase from the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) scenario projections. These predictions imply an increased variability of available water resources. Rainwater harvesting system is widely used as an alternative water resources today. This study introduces a RBSN (rain barrel sharing network) as an efficient way to utilize alternative water resources under the RCP scenarios. The concept of RBSN combines individual rainwater harvesting system to a sharing network, which make the whole system more reliable. This study evaluated a RBSN in South Korea composed of four users based on a storage-reliability-yield (SRY) relationship. The study area comprises all 17 provincal areas in South Korea. The result showed a huge benefit from a RBSN in Korea under the historical rainfall condition. Even in the climate change condition, the results showed that a RBSN is still beneficial but the changes in reliability are different depending on provinces in Korea. The results of this study shows that a RBSN is a very effective and alternative measure that can deal with the impacts of climate change in the near future.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.6_2
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• pp.1053-1065
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• 2019

Land use statistics calculation is very informative data as the activity data for calculating exact carbon absorption and emission in post-2020. To effective interpretation by land use category, This study classify automatically image interpretation by land use category applying forest aerial photography (FAP) to deep learning model and calculate national unit statistics. Dataset (DS) applied deep learning is divided into training dataset (training DS) and test dataset (test DS) by extracting image of FAP based national forest resource inventory permanent sample plot location. Training DS give label to image by definition of land use category and learn and verify deep learning model. When verified deep learning model, training accuracy of model is highest at epoch 1,500 with about 89%. As a result of applying the trained deep learning model to test DS, interpretation classification accuracy of image label was about 90%. When the estimating area of classification by category using sampling method and compare to national statistics, consistency also very high, so it judged that it is enough to be used for activity data of national GHG (Greenhouse Gas) inventory report of LULUCF sector in the future.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.129-167
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• 2021

The emission trading system is an essential policy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and converting low-carbon society. EU ETS is a good benchmark that is ahead of Korea's emission trading system in terms of operating period and design know-how. Therefore, this study focused on the key design elements of EU ETS phase 4 such as total emission allowances issued (Cap), free allocation method, carbon leakage list, market stability reserve, and innovation supporting system. In addition, we analyzed the impact of key design elements and their changes during EU ETS Phase 1 to 4 on the design and operation of Korea emission trading system in the future. First of all, the expected impact on the design of Korea emission trading system is to increase three demands: preparing benchmark renewal plans, establishing criteria for selecting free allocation industries that reflect domestic industrial structure and characteristics and introducing two-stage evaluations for free allocation industries, and preparing specific plan to support innovation and industries using allowance auction revenues. The next three impacts on the operation of Korea emission trading system are the increased needs for objective and in-depth impact assessment of plan and amendments, provision of system stability and response opportunities by quickly confirming plan and amendments prior to the implementation, and coordination of the emission trading system governance and stakeholder participation encouragement.

• Clean Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.239-250
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• 2020

Biomass is an abundant renewable energy resource that can replace fossil fuels for the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG). Indonesia has a large number of cheap biomass feedstocks, such as reforestation (waste wood) and palm residues (empty fruit bunch or EFB). In general, raw biomass contains more than 20% moisture and lacks calorific value, energy density, grindability, and combustion efficiency. Those properties are not acceptable fuel attributes as the conditions currently stand. Recently, torrefaction facilities, especially in European countries, have been built to upgrade raw biomass to solid fuel with high quality. In Korea, there is no significant market for torrefied solid fuel (co-firing) made of biomass residues, and only the wood pellet market presently thrives (~ 2 million ton yr-1). However, increasing demand for an upgraded solid fuel exists. In Indonesia, torrefied woody residues as co-firing fuel are economically feasible under the governmental promotion of renewable energy such as in feed-in-tariff (FIT). EFB, one of the chief palm residues, could replace coal in cement kiln when the emission trading system (ETS) and clean development mechanism (CDM) system are implemented. However, technical issues such as slagging (alkali metal) and corrosion (chlorine) should be addressed to utilize torrefied EFB at a pulverized coal boiler.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.37-48
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• 2024

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are obligated to reduce carbon emissions as a part of public sector greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets. However, Sewage Statistics(2022) shows that CO₂ emissions per wastewater treatment volumes have decreased by only 3.03 % compared to 2020, which is far from enough to meet the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets. This study aimed to find operational conditions of biological reactors that minimize total carbon footprint (CFP). Total CFP considers both direct emissions from biological processes and indirect emissions from energy consumption. A study was conducted using a computer simulation program which is called as EQPS for a 4-stage BNR WWTP. The results showed that total CFP was reduced by 10.97% compared to the design condition when the mixed liquor recirculation (MLR) was set to 100 % of the influent flow. The N₂O emission factor (EF) of the target WWTP was calculated to be 0.138-0.199 %, which is significantly lower than the IPCC default value of 1.6 %. This study proposes a method to minimize total CFP in WWTPs by optimizing biological reactor operation and emphasizes the need for further research on N₂O emission reduction.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.87-91
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• 2015

As negative effects of climate change have been visualized and its direct damages to economy have been realized, the global efforts to respond to climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emission were accelerated. Korea's Carbon Footprint Labeling gets a lot of attention as one of the effective methods to contribute to national GHG reduction goal, and for enterprises to show customers how much effort the company put into global warming prevention. Consumers' interest on low-carbon products has been increasing. This study uses Life Cycle Assessment method to calculate the amount of carbon emission of dishwashing detergent, LG Household & Healthcare, which reduced carbon emissions by using raw materials that has relatively lower environment load. Life Cycle Assessment Method is based on guidelines of Carbon Footprint Labeling, Ministry of Environment, and pre-manufacturing, manufacturing, and disposal phase are included while use phase of the product is excluded from assessment. In order to understand the effects of eco-design on carbon emissions, the dishwashing detergent's carbon emissions are compared before and after the change of main raw materials. The result shows the improvement from $0.47kgCO_2eq/kg$ to $0.38kgCO_2eq/kg$ per product, and this means the main raw materials' carbon emissions could be reduced by around 9.4%, which is equivalent to 916tons of GHG emissions per year.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.605-614
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• 2022

Two major problems currently threaten human survival on Earth: climate change and the rapid aging of the population in developed countries. Climate change is a result of the increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere due to the increase in the use of fossil fuels owing to economic and transportation development. The rapid increase in the age of the population is a result of the rise in life expectancy due to the development of biomedical science and technology and the improvement of personal hygiene in developed countries. To avoid irreversible global climate change, it is necessary to quickly transition from the current fossil fuel-based economy to a zero-carbon renewable energy-based economy that does not emit GHGs. To achieve this goal, the dairy and livestock industry, which generates the most GHGs in the agricultural sector, must transition to using low-carbon emission production methods while simultaneously increasing consumers' preference for low-carbon diets. Although 77% of currently available arable land globally is used to produce livestock feed, only 37% and 18% of the proteins and calories that humans consume come from dairy and livestock farming and industry. Therefore, using edible insects as a protein source represents a good alternative, as it generates less GHG and reduces water consumption and breeding space while ensuring a higher feed conversion rate than that of livestock. Additionally, utilizing the functionality of medicinal insects, such as silkworms, which have been proven to have certain health enhancement effects, it is possible to develop functional foods that can prevent or delay the onset of currently incurable degenerative diseases that occur more frequently in the elderly. Insects are among the first animals to have appeared on Earth, and regardless of whether humans survive, they will continue to adapt, evolve, and thrive. Therefore, the use of various edible and medicinal insects, including silkworms, in industry will provide an important foundation for human survival and prosperity on Earth in the near future by resolving the current two major problems.