• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.14 no.1_2
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• pp.35-43
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• 1999

A number of disinfection by-products (DBPs) are formed as a result of the addition of chlorine into the public water supply and some of them have been suggested to cause adverse health effects on humans. However, the estimation of human ingestion exposure to each DBP has been performed simply by multiplying the concentration of a chemical in the cold tap water by the volume of water consumed during a given period of time. However, a questionnaire concerning water consumptions administered to sixty people residing in Chunchon showed that the volume of tap water consumed accounted for approximately 70% of the total volume of water consumed and that of heated water represented approximately 94% of tap water ingested. Heating durations for water-containing foods (e. g., soups and pot stews) and heated beverages (e. g., barley tea) were grouped into 10, 20, 30, and 35 minutes. Based on these time frames, an aluminum pot containing one liter of tap water was heated for the above respective time periods using a gas range to determine the variations of the concentrations of individual DBPs by heating. The pH and total residual chlorine were measured before and after heating. Collected water samples were carried to the laboratory and analyzed for eight DBPs and total organic carbon. Chloroform, bromodichloromethane, chloral hydrate, 1, 2-dichloro-2-propanone, 1, 1, 1-trichloropropanone, and dichloroacetonitrile were not detected following heating for 10 minutes and longer. The concentration of dichloroacetic acid (DCAA) was elevated with heating duration, resulting in the averages of 2.0, 3.1, 4.7, and 12 times the initial concentration, respectively, for 10, 20, 30, and 35 minute heating periods. On the other hand, the concentration of trichloroacetic acid (TCAA) decreased with heating duration, with 0.65, 0.40, 0.34, and 0.19 times lower than the initial concentration. Therefore, it is suggested that ingestion exposure to DCAA increases with heating duration but that ingestion exposure to TCAA decreases. In addition, while the amount of DCAA was elevated at the initial time periods (10 or 20 minutes) and then slowly decreased, that of TCAA was rapidly decreased. In conclusion, water-heating processes during cooking influence the concentrations of individual DBPs in the tap water, with lower levels for volatile DBPs and TCAA, and higher levels for DCAA. Therefore, concentration change needs to be taken into consideration in the estimation of human ingestion exposure to DBPs.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.27
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• pp.3-17
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• 1984

Anaerobic digestion has recently attracted all over the world and Korea also shows no exception. The major benefits of anaerobic digestion are energy production, water pollution control, pathogen reduction and effective manure production. In Korea it was recognized in late sixties that there was a positive need to find alternative energy for farmers household. The main traditional energy sources in rural area were crop residues and forestry products. Therefore Office of Rural Development through its Rural Guidance Bureau disseminated about 29,000 household biogas units from 1969 to 1975 to provide cooking fuel for farmers household and to improve the mode of farmers living standards. The units were welcomed by farmers at that time. Now, however, most of them are not using due to a number of reasons associated with cold winter and some techno-economical problems (in those day, fossil fuel was quite expensive to compare with other prices and since then farmers income was quickly increased). The author studied on bag type household biogas plant to solve some technical problems of existing household biogas plants, but this also has little appeal for the farmers. From 1977 author studied on village scale biogas plant with two pilot plants. From the viewpoint of energy production, COD removal, kill rate of pathogen and fertilizer value, the results obtained from the experiments were quite promising, but the construction cost of the village scale biogas plant was too high for the farmers in Korea. To find most suitable biogas plant for farmers in Korea through the simplifying the biogas digester, the author developed batch-load biogas plant. By feeding coarse crop residues and manures, total solids concentrations of the batch-load biogas plant are about 28 percent which is much higher than continous digester of 5-8 percent. The batch-load biogas plant was welcomed by many farmers in Korea when it was reported on TV and newspapers. The plant was disseminated 154 units in 1982, 766 units in 1983 and 812 units in 1984 as a promissing project. Besides these biogas plant experiments, studies were also conducted 1) to determine gas production rate with agricultural wastes, 2) to evaluate the effect of loading rate, dilution, retention time on biogas production, 3) to project the amount of potencial energy from agricultural wastes.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.303-312
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• 2011

Data on the energy usage including biomass, emissions of air pollutants ($SO_x$, $NO_x$, CO), and the air quality in North Korea are analyzed. The energy usage in North Korea has decreased in the 1990s and thus, the emission amount of air pollutants. Coal and biomass constitute a major fraction of energy sources since the 1990s. It is identified that the emission amount of air pollutants per unit energy consumption in North Korea is much higher than South Korea for the period data are available (since 1990) implying that the air pollutant emission management system in North Korea is inadequate. In particular, the amount of biomass burning for household cooking and heating is significant with the huge emissions of air pollutants such as CO and organic species both in the gas and aerosol phase. Furthermore, it is found that the existing energy usage and air pollutant emission data are not consistent in biomass burning related data.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.1002-1008
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• 2000

The purpose of this study was to provide the fundamental information for establishing the database needed to estimate total intakes of trans fatty acids in Korea. The amounts of trans fatty acids contained in 164 samples including 25 samples of margarines, 21 samples of shortenings, 19 samples of vegetable salad and cooking oils, 53 samples of confectionery products, 18 samples of bakery products, 19 samples of dairy products, and 9 samples of animal fats and meats were analyzed by capillary gas liquid chromatography. The average amounts of trans fatty acids in those foods were calculated and expressed as gram per one serving. Then, the average daily intakes of trans fatty acids per capita were estimated using the analyzed amounts of trans fatty acids and the amount of yearly production for those foods. The amounts of trans fatty acids per 100 g of lipids were $2.11{\sim}33.83%$ (14.66% on average) in margarines, $1.47{\sim}44.48%$ (14.21% on average) in shortenings, $0.18{\sim}3.82$ (1.54% on average) in vegetable salad and cooking oils, $0{\sim}45.81%$ (10.92% on average) in confectionery products, $0{\sim}18.32%$ (7.87% on average) in bakery products, $0.90{\sim}4.54%$ (2.27% on average) in dairy products, and $0.61{\sim}6.07%$ (2.24% on average) in animal fats and meats. Major isomers of trans fatty acid in the sample foods were $C_{18:1}$ and $C_{18:2}$. As a result, the korean average daily intake of trans fatty acids in korea was estimated to be 2.3 g per capita. The amounts of trans fatty acids consumed from each selected food were as follows: 0.35 g from margarines, 0.57 g from shortenings, 0.11 g from vegetable salad and cooking oils, 0.65 g from confectionery products, 0.07 g from bakery products, 0.14 g from dairy products and 0.21 g from animal fats and meats.