• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.627-635
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• 2004

Evaluated were household THMs exposure associated with the use of municipal tap water treated with chlorine and with ozone-chlorine. The current study measured the THMs concentrations in the tap water and indoor and outdoor air in the two types of household, along with an estimation of THMs exposure from water ingestion, showering, and the inhalation of indoor air. Chloroform was the most abundant THMs in all three media, yet no bromoform was detected in any sample. Contrary to previous findings, the fall water THMs concentrations exhibited no significant difference between the chlorine and ozone-chlorine treated water. However, the spring median chloroform concentration in the tap water treated with chlorine (17.6 ppb) was 1.3 times higher than that in the tap water treated with ozone-chlorine (13.4 ppb). It is suggested that the effects of the water parameters should be considered when evaluating the advantage of ozone-chlorine disinfection for THMs formation over chlorine disinfection. The indoor air THMs concentration trend was also consistent with the water concentration trend, yet the outdoor air THMs concentrations did not differ significantly between the two types of household. The indoor to outdoor air concentration ratios were comparable with previous studies. The THMs exposure estimates from water ingestion, showering, and the inhalation of indoor air suggested that, for the residents living in the surveyed households, their exposure to THMs in the home was mostly associated with their household water use, rather than the indoor air. The THMs exposure estimates from tap water ingestion were similar to those from showering.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.125-133
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• 2002

Volatile disinfection by-products (DBPs) contained in chlorinated tap water are released into household air during indoor activities (showering, cooking, dish -washing, etc.) associated with tap water uses and may cause adverse health effects on humans. Twenty seven subjects were recruited and their homes were visited during the winter of 2002. Tap water, household air, and exhaled breath samples were collected and analyzed for five volatile DBPs (chloroform, bromodichloromethane, dichloroacetonitrile, 1,1 -dichloropropanone and 1,1,1 trichloropropanone). Chloroform was a major DBP found in most samples. Tap water chloroform concentrations were not statistically correlated with its household air concentrations, probably due to individual variability in indoor activities such as showering, cooking, and dish - washing as well as household ventilation. Correlation of breath chloroform concentration with household air chloroform concentration showed its possible use as a biomarker of exposure to household air chloroform. Exposure estimates suggested that inhalation during household stay be a major route of exposure to volatile DBPs and that ingestion of tap water be a trivial contributor to the total exposure in Koreans.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.4B
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• pp.385-396
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• 2009

Non-household unit water use for each type of business are estimated in this study. The business types are subdivided into forty based on nine categories by the national industrial standard classification, such as office, commerce, public bathing, public water use etc. Correlation analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) are applied to obtain statistical characteristics between industrial water use data, surveyed in six cities including Nonsan, Seosan and the National Statistical Bureau and site area, employees number etc. for each detailed business area. As the proposed non-household unit water uses are compared with five surveyed data in USA, it is shown that almost of water uses per unit area are less than those in USA. Non-household unit water uses of 25% cumulative probability water use recommended as efficiency benchmarks among surveyed data in Korea are also less than those in USA. Especially, in the case of water use in school, the average and the range are similar results showing water use range between 0.4 and 6.2 ($l/m^2/day$) as liter per capita day per an unit area, also water use range between 11.9 to 64.0 (l/student/day) as liter per capita day per a person. From the result of correlation analysis with internal and exogenous affecting factors on non-household water use, it can be concluded that a unit area is most appropriate factor as a standard of non-household unit water use. In case of water use in educational business, the number of students including staffs is more correlated than site ares with water use for the settled water consumption tendency. Although the increase and decrease of educational institutes, retail/wholesale store and restaurants are shown remarkable by the temperature as a representative factor, low correlations are shown in water use fluctuation in lodging house and hospital.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Marine Engineers Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.267-272
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• 2002

The electric heat pump requiring HCFCs as a refrigerant has been for most residential air-conditioners in Korea. They cause a surge up electric power demand during summer. Moreover, the use of HCFCs and HFCs causes a serious problem to the global environment such as global warming and ozone layer destruction. An absorption chiller and heater could solve such problems. It was built and tested for analyzing the performance of the absorption chiller/heater. Experiment was done with a 1.5RT household absorption chiller and heater. It was experimented that the cooling capacity, gas capacity, COP were researched by the temperature of cooling water. The change of the cooling water temperature have effect the temperature(or pressure) of the parts on absorption chiller The result of the change of the cooling water temperature have the effects of the absorption chillers. This data will help to operate the household absorption chiller and heater.

• 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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• 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 Environmental Science International
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.221-228
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• 2015

In this research traditional Buddhist dietary life style was studied as an alternative for both saving water and decreasing water pollution from household. A traditional dietary life style for the Buddhist monks, called Balwoo Gongyang, and its modernized one for citizens, called Dish Gongyang were examined with water use amount, wastewater quality and pollutant loading rate, and were compared with the kitchen wastewater from household. And several types of natural detergent were also examined to compare their effect on the wastewater quality and pollutant loading rate. This research was carried out using the wastewater from Balwoo and Dish Gongyang in J building located in Seoul. Wastewater generation from Balwoo Gongyang that was about $1.0{\ell}$/capita/day was very low compare to that from dish washing in normal household($32.6{\ell}$/capita/day). In case of Dish Gongyang, water generation was 1.8 times higher than that from Balwoo Gongyang, but it was just 1/19.2 of normal household. When the wastewater quality of Balwoo Gongyang was compared with the kitchen wastewater of normal household, SS was 1/16($15mg/{\ell}$), COD was 1/7($22.1mg/{\ell}$), BOD was 1/9($24.1mg/{\ell}$) and T-N was 1/16($1.7mg/{\ell}$). Pollutant loading rate from Balwoo Gongyang was very low, COD 18.0 mg/capita/day, SS 12.3 mg/capita/day and it was 1/290, 1/639 of that from dish washing wastewater from normal household, respectively. Pollutant loading rate from Dish Gongyang was also low 1/13(SS)~1/144(TN) compared to dish washing wastewater from normal household. As a natural detergent, used water from washing rice showed very low pollutant loading rate. It was concluded that Dish Gongyang that was a modernized and simplified dietary life style of Balwoo Gongyang, was very eco-friendly. Especially when it was combined with natural detergents using by-product from cooking process, its effect on the water pollution was very low.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.489-493
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• 2008

• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.232-239
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• 2017

In this study, the regeneration investigation for waste reverse osmosis membrane filters which were discarded after use for the household water purifiers has been carried out. Sodium hydroxide, sodium bisulfate, and ethylenediamine tetra acetic acid(EDTA). as the chemical cleaning agents were used. And they were in-situ cleaned with the micro-bubble generator as well. The best result was obtained when both 0.1% EDTA and micro-bubbles were used for 30 min cleaning. Thus, when the performance of the brand new RO membrane and restorated RO membrane were compared, the flux, 19.9%, the recovery ratio 45% were enhanced while the salt rejection was reduced for NaCl 100 mg/L solution, in other words, it has been recovered to the original brand new RO membrane filter. Also the removal of pollutants on membrane surface was confirmed in a naked eye through the scanning electron microscopy. Finally, this research has provided the possibility of the re-use of the waste RO membrane filters of household water purifier which were reclaimed or incinerated after use.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.869-877
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to investigate the trends and patterns of variou kind of water uses in a household by metering in Korea. Water use components are classified by toilet, washbowl, bathing, laundry, kitchen, etc. Flow meters are installed in 146 household selected by sampling in all around Korea. The data are gathered by web-based data collection system from the year 2002 to 2006, considering pre-investigated data such as occupation, revenue, family members, housing types, age, floor area, water saving devices, education, etc. Reliable data are selected by upper fence method for each observed water use component and statistical characteristics are estimated for each residential type to determine liter per capita per day. Estimated domestic per capita day show an indoor water use with the range from $150{\ell}pcd$ to $169{\ell}pcd$ for each housing type as the order of high rise apartment, multi-house, and single house. As the order of consuming amount among water use components, it is investigated that toilet($38.5{\ell}pcd$) is the first, and the second is laundry water($30.8{\ell}pcd$), the third is kitchen($28.4{\ell}pcd$), the fourth is bathtub($24.7{\ell}pcd$), the next is washbowl($15.4{\ell}pcd$). The results are compared with water uses in U.K. and U.S. As life style has been changed into western style, pattern of water use in Korea is tend to be similar with the U.S. water use pattern. Compared with the surveying results by Bradley, on 1985. Thirty liter of total use increased with the advancement of economic level, and a little change of water use pattern can be found. Especially, toilet water take almost half part of total water use and laundry water shows lowest as 11% in surveying at the year of 1985. But, this study shows that 39 liter, 28% of toilet water, has been decreased by the spread of saving devices and campaign. It is supposed that the spread large sized laundry machine make by-hand laundry has been decreased and water use increased. Unit water amount of each end-use in household can be applied to design factor for water and wastewater facilities, and it play a role as information in establishing water demand forecasting and conservation policy.