• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.325-342
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• 2018

The Korea Emissions Trading Scheme ( K-ETS), which manages roughly 70% of the greenhouse gas emissions in South Korea, was initiated in 2015, after implementation of its 1st basic plan and the 1st allocation plan (2014) for the 1st phase (2015-2017). During the three and a half years since the launch of K-ETS, there have been critical policy change such as adjustment of the institutions involved, development and revision of the 2030 national GHG reduction roadmap, and change in the allocation plans. Moreover, lack of liquidity and fluctuation of carbon prices in the K-ETS market during this period has forced the Korean government to adjust the flexibility mechanism and auction permits of the market stability reserve. To evaluate the policy change in the K-ETS regarding conformance to its objectives, this study defines three objectives (Environmental Effectiveness, Cost Effectiveness and Economic Efficiency) and ten indicators. Evaluation of Environmental Effectiveness of K-ETS suggests that the national GHG reduction roadmap, coverage of GHG emitters and credibility of MRV positively affect GHG mitigation. However, there was a negative policy change implemented in 2017 that weakened the emission cap during the 1st phase. In terms of the Cost Effectiveness, the K-ETS policies related to market management and flexibility mechanism (e.g. banking, borrowing and offsets) were improved to deal with the liquidity shortage and permit price increase, which were caused by policy uncertainty and conservative behavior of firms during 2016-2018. Regarding Economic Efficiency, K-ETS expands benchmark?based allocation and began auction-based allocation; nevertheless, free allocation is being applied to sectors with high carbon leakage risk during the 2nd phase (2018-2020). As a result, it is worth evaluating the K-ETS policies that have been developed with respect to the three main objectives of ETS, considering the trial?and?error approach that has been followed since 2015. This study suggests that K-ETS policy should be modified to strengthen the emission cap, stabilize the market, expand auction-based allocation and build K-ETS specified funds during the 3rd phase (2021-2025).

• 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.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.284-301
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• 2023

The changes in rice climatic yield potential (CYP) across the Korean Peninsula are evaluated based on the new climate change scenario produced by the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences with 18 ensemble members at 1 km resolution under a Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) and Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) emission scenarios. To overcome the data availability, we utilize solar radiation f or CYP instead of sunshine duration which is relatively uncommon in the climate prediction f ield. The result show that maximum CYP(CYPmax) decreased, and the optimal heading date is progressively delayed under warmer temperature conditions compared to the current climate. This trend is particularly pronounced in the SSP5-85 scenario, indicating faster warming, except for the northeastern mountainous regions of North Korea. This shows the benef its of lower emission scenarios and pursuing more efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions. On the other hand, the CYPmax shows a wide range of feasible futures, which shows inherent uncertainties in f uture climate projections and the risks when analyzing a single model or a small number of model results, highlighting the importance of the ensemble approach. The f indings of this study on changes in rice productivity and uncertainties in temperature and solar radiation during the 21st century, based on climate change scenarios, hold value as f undamental information for climate change adaptation efforts.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.1195-1206
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• 2011

This study was conducted to apply LCA (Life cycle assessment) methodology to lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) production systems in Namyang-ju as a case study. Five lettuce growing farms with three different farming systems (two farms with organic farming system, one farm with a system without agricultural chemicals and two farms with conventional farming system) were selected at Namyangju city of Gyeonggi-province in Korea. The input data for LCA were collected by interviewing with the farmers. The system boundary was set at a cropping season without heating and cooling system for reducing uncertainties in data collection and calculation. Sensitivity analysis was carried out to find out the effect of type and amount of fertilizer and energy use on GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emission. The results of establishing GTG (Gate-to-Gate) inventory revealed that the quantity of fertilizer and energy input had the largest value in producing 1 kg lettuce, the amount of pesticide input the smallest. The amount of electricity input was the largest in all farms except farm 1 which purchased seedlings from outside. The quantity of direct field emission of $CO_2$, $CH_4$ and $N_2O$ from farm 1 to farm 5 were 6.79E-03 (farm 1), 8.10E-03 (farm 2), 1.82E-02 (farm 3), 7.51E-02 (farm 4) and 1.61E-02 (farm 5) kg $kg^{-1}$ lettuce, respectively. According to the result of LCI analysis focused on GHG, it was observed that $CO_2$ emission was 2.92E-01 (farm 1), 3.76E-01 (farm 2), 4.11E-01 (farm 3), 9.40E-01 (farm 4) and $5.37E-01kg\;CO_2\;kg^{-1}\;lettuce$ (farm 5), respectively. Carbon dioxide contribute to the most GHG emission. Carbon dioxide was mainly emitted in the process of energy production, which occupied 67~91% of $CO_2$ emission from every production process from 5 farms. Due to higher proportion of $CO_2$ emission from production of compound fertilizer in conventional crop system, conventional crop system had lower proportion of $CO_2$ emission from energy production than organic crop system did. With increasing inorganic fertilizer input, the process of lettuce cultivation covered higher proportion in $N_2O$ emission. Therefore, farms 1 and 2 covered 87% of total $N_2O$ emission; and farm 3 covered 64%. The carbon footprints from farm 1 to farm 5 were 3.40E-01 (farm 1), 4.31E-01 (farm 2), 5.32E-01 (farm 3), 1.08E+00 (farm 4) and 6.14E-01 (farm 5) kg $CO_2$-eq. $kg^{-1}$ lettuce, respectively. Results of sensitivity analysis revealed the soybean meal was the most sensitive among 4 types of fertilizer. The value of compound fertilizer was the least sensitive among every fertilizer imput. Electricity showed the largest sensitivity on $CO_2$ emission. However, the value of $N_2O$ variation was almost zero.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.961-972
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• 2008

In 2004, total emissions of Greenhouse Gases(GHGs) in Korea was estimated to be about 590 million metric tons, which is the world's 10th largest emissions. Considering the much amount of nation's GHG emissions and growing nation's position in the world, GHG emissions in Korea should be reduced in near future. The CO$_2$ emissions from two sub-sections of energy sector in Korea, such as thermal power plant and industry section(including manufacturing and construction industries), was about 300 million metric tons in 2004 and this is 53.3% of total GHG emissions in Korea. So, the mitigation of CO$_2$ emissions in these two section is more important and more effective to reduce the nation's total GHGs than any other fields. In addition, these two section have high potential to qualitatively and effectively apply the CCS(Carbon Capture and Storage) technologies due to the nature of their process. There are several CCS technologies applied to these two section. In short term, the chemical absorption technology using amine as a absorbent could be the most effectively used. In middle or long term, pre-combustion technology equipped with ATR(Autothermal reforming), or MSR-$H_2$(Methane steam reformer with hydrogen separation membrane reactor) unit and oxyfuel combustion such as SOFC+GT(Solid oxide fuel cell-Gas turbine) process would be the promising technologies to reduce the CO$_2$ emissions in two areas. It is expected that these advanced CCS technologies can reduce the CO$_2$ avoidance cost to $US 8.5-43.5/tCO$_2$. Using the CCS technologies, if the CO$_2$ emissions from two sub-sections of energy sector could be reduced to even 10% of total emissions, the amount of 30 million metric tons of CO$_2$ could be mitigated.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.160-167
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• 2018

The role played by reservoirs in the biogeochemical cycles of elements is a subject of ongoing debate. Recent research has revealed that reservoirs emit significant levels of greenhouse gases. To assess the importance of reservoirs in monsoon climate areas as a source of methane gas into the atmosphere, we investigated variations in organic carbon (OC) input into the reservoir, oxic state changes, and finally the amount of methane emitted (focusing on the ebullition pathway) in Lake Soyang, which is the largest reservoir in South Korea. Total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations were higher during summer after two years of heavy rainfall. The sedimentation rates of particulate organic carbon (POC) and particulate organic nitrogen (PON) were higher in the epilimnion and hypolimnion than the metalimnioin, indicating that autochthonous and allochthonous carbon made separate contributions to the TOC. During stratification, oxygen depletion occurred in the hypolimnion due to the decomposition of organic matter. Under these conditions, $H_2S$ and $CH_4$ can be released from sediment. The methane emissions from the reservoir were much higher than from other natural lakes. However, the temporal and spatial variations of methane ebullition were huge, and were clearly dependent on many factors. Therefore, more research via a well-organized field campaign is needed to investigate methane emissions.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.34 no.4 s.96
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• pp.261-266
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• 2001

Effects of elevated carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) on soil microbial processes were studied in a northern peatland. Intact peat cores with surface vegetation were collected from a northern Welsh fen, and incubated either under elevated carbon dioxide (700 ppm) or ambient carbon dioxide (350 ppm) conditions for 4 months. Higher algal biomass was found under the elevated $CO_2$ condition, suggesting $CO_2$ fertilization effect on primary production, At the end of the incubation, trace gas production and consumption were analyzed using chemical inhibitors. For methane ($CH_4$ ), methyl fluoride ($CH_3F$) was applied to determine methane oxidation rates, while acetylene ($C_2H_2$) blocking method were applied to determine nitrification and denitrification rates. First, we have adopted those methods to optimize the reaction conditions for the wetland samples. Secondly, the methods were applied to the samples incubated under two levels of $CO_2$. The results exhibited that elevated carbon dioxide increased both methane production (210 vs. $100\;ng\;CH_4 g^{-1}\;hr^{-1}$) and oxidation (128 vs. $15\;ng\;CH_4 g^{-1}\;hr^{-1}$), resulting in no net increase in methane flux. For nitrous oxide ($N_2O$) , elevated carbon dioxide enhanced nitrous oxide emission probably from activation of nitrification process rather than denitrification rates. All of these changes seemed to be substantially influenced by higher oxygen diffusion from enhanced algal productivity under elevated $CO_2$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.74-82
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• 2015

Carbon dioxide was designated as one of greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Among various ways to solve the $CO_2$ emission issue, the 3rd-generation biomass (algae) production is considered as a viable method to reduce $CO_2$ in the atmosphere. In this research, we propose a design of an innovative sustainable production system by utilizing the 3rd generation biomass in the environment of floating production storage and offloading (FPSO). Existing biomass production systems depend on the solar energy and they cannot continue producing biomass at night. Electricity produced from offshore wind farms also need an efficient way to store the energy through energy storage system (ESS) or deliver it real-time through power grid, both requiring heavy investment of capital. Thus, we design an offshore grid structure harnessing LED lights to supply the necessary light energy, by using the electricity produced from the wind farm, resulting in the maximized production of biomass and efficient use of wind farm energy. The final design integrates the biomass production system enhanced by LED lights with a wind power generation. The suggested NLP model for the optimal design, implemented in GAMS, would be useful for designing improved offshore biomass production systems combined with the wind farm.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.1185-1194
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• 2011

This study was carried out to estimate carbon emission using LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) and to establish LCI (Life Cycle inventory) DB for lettuce production system in protected cultivation. The results of data collection for establishing LCI DB showed that the amount of fertilizer input for 1 kg lettuce production was the highest. The amounts of organic and chemical fertilizer input for 1 kg lettuce production were 7.85E-01 kg and 4.42E-02 kg, respectively. Both inputs of fertilizer and energy accounted for the largest share. The amount of field emission for $CO_2$, $CH_4$ and $N_2O$ for 1 kg lettuce production was 3.23E-02 kg. The result of LCI analysis focused on GHG (Greenhouse gas) showed that the emission value to produce 1 kg of lettuce was 8.65E-01 kg $CO_2$. The emission values of $CH_4$ and $N_2O$ to produce 1 kg of lettuce were 8.59E-03 kg $CH_4$ and 2.90E-04 kg $N_2O$, respectively. Fertilizer production process contributed most to GHG emission. Whereas, the amount of emitted nitrous oxide was the most during lettuce cropping stage due to nitrogen fertilization. When GHG was calculated in $CO_2$-equivalents, the carbon footprint from GHG was 1.14E-+00 kg $CO_2$-eq. $kg^{-1}$. Here, $CO_2$ accounted for 76% of the total GHG emissions from lettuce production system. Methane and nitrous oxide held 16%, 8% of it, respectively. The results of LCIA (Life Cycle Impact assessment) showed that GWP (Global Warming Potential) and POCP (Photochemical Ozon Creation Potential) were 1.14E+00 kg $CO_2$-eq. $kg^{-1}$ and 9.45E-05 kg $C_2H_4$-eq. $kg^{-1}$, respectively. Fertilizer production is the greatest contributor to the environmental impact, followed by energy production and agricultural material production.