• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.160-167
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• 2021

This study investigated the environmental effects of improving the general-type activated carbon adsorption tower used at the Sihwa/Banwol Industrial Complex with use of a cartridge-type activated carbon adsorption tower for the application of an activated carbon co-regenerated system. Four general-type activated carbon adsorption towers and two cartridge-type activated carbon adsorption towers were selected to analyze the properties of activated carbon and to compare the efficiency of reducing environmental pollutants. The results showed that the activated carbon used in the cartridge-type activated carbon adsorption towers was high quality activated carbon with an iodine adsorption force of more than 800 mg/g and that a good adsorption performance was maintained within the replacement cycle. From an analysis of the environmental pollutant reduction efficiency, it was confirmed that the cartridge-type activated carbon adsorption tower functioned properly as a prevention facility for handling emissions pollutants with a treatment efficiency of total hydrocarbons (THC), toluene, and methylethylketone (MEK) components of 71%, 77%, and 80%, respectively. The general activated carbon adsorption tower, which was confirmed to use low-performance activated carbon, had a very low treatment efficiency and did not function properly as a prevention facility for dealing with emission pollutants. It is believed that it is possible to reduce pollutants during operations by changing from the general-type activated carbon adsorption tower to a cartridge-type activated carbon adsorption tower.

• Journal of Environmental Analysis, Health and Toxicology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.281-291
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• 2018

Recently, long-range atmospheric transport (LRAT) from China is regarded as a major reason for elevated levels of particulate matter (PM) in Korea. However, local emissions also play an important role in PM pollution, especially in large-scale industrial cities. In this study, PM samples were collected at suburban, residential, and industrial sites in Ulsan, Korea. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals were analyzed, and a potential human health risk assessment was conducted. The concentrations of PAHs and heavy metals in total suspended particles (TSP) increased during high $PM_{10}$ episodes, and backward trajectory analysis verified the influence of LRAT from China during the high episodes. Furthermore, the concentrations of PAHs and heavy metals in $PM_{2.5}$ and $PM_{10}$ at the industrial site were higher than those at the residential site. The risk assessment of PAHs and heavy metals in $PM_{2.5}$ suggested no significant health effects. The highest levels of PAHs were measured in the particle size of $0.32{\sim}0.56{\mu}m$ at the residential site, and those of heavy metals were detected in the particle size of 1.8~5.6 and $>18{\mu}m$, reflecting different major emissions sources for both groups. On the basis of this preliminary study, we are planning long-term monitoring and modeling studies to quantitatively evaluate the influence of industrial activities on the PM pollution in Ulsan.

• Journal of Environmental Analysis, Health and Toxicology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.252-263
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• 2018

Distributions of 15 PAHs and 82 PCBs were investigated in sediment and fish samples collected from the Suyoung Estuary of Busan, one of the most urbanized and newly contaminated areas in Busan. The concentrations of $S_{15}PAH$ in sediments ranged from 17.9 to 777 ng/g-dry and were mainly originated from combustion processes. The concentrations of $S_{82}PCB$ in sediments ranged from 0.55 to 12.5 ng/g-dry and were significantly correlated with those of 12 dioxin-like PCBs and 6 non-dioxin like PCBs. Higher concentrations of PAHs and PCBs were found in the upper river and the inner Suyoung Bay than in marina and the outer Suyoung Bay. No sites exceeded the ecotoxicological values of PAHs and PCBs in marine sediments. Benzo[a]-pyrene was not detected in fish samples and the concentrations of $S_4PAH$ (0.15~0.45 ng/g-wet) were lower than the maximum level set by EU. The levels of PCBs in fish samples were at less than 1% of the Korean maximum level and 2% of the EU maximum level. The concentrations of dioxin-like PCBs were $0.01{\sim}0.32pg-TEQ_{WHO-2005}/g-wet$, and the highest concentration was found in eels, which were at less than 5% of the EU maximum level. Dietary intakes of PAHs and PCBs through fish consumption were estimated, and their lifetime cancer risk and non-cancer risk were much lower.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.213-219
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• 2021

Hazardous substances are formed during food manufacturing, processing, or cooking, and may pose a threat to food safety. Here, we present a dietary exposure assessment of Korean consumer's intake of hazardous materials through a Total Diet Study (TDS) which was conducted by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS). The levels of exposure to materials such as acrylamide, furan, biogenic amines, etc., were estimated and risk assessments were then performed. Acrylamide and furan were selected as hazards with high priority of reduction control due to their having a margin of exposure (MOE) lower than 10,000. Risk assessment of exposure to ethyl carbamate, benzene and 3-MCPD showed MOEs higher than 100,000, indicating "safe". Dietary exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and benzopyrene was also found to be safe MOE levels >10,000. In addition, the results indicated safe MOEs (>1,000,000) for heterocyclic amines, nitrosamines, and biogenic amines. Most of the potential food contaminants were being kept at safe levels, however, it is necessary to continue to monitor and control exposure levels in accordance with the 'as low as reasonably achievable' (ALARA) principle.

• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.69-78
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• 2021

Vegetable oils, such as palm oil and cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL), are used as major raw materials for bio-diesel in transportation and bio-heavy oil in power generation in South Korea. However, due to the high unsaturation degree caused by hydrocarbon double bonds and a high content of oxygen originating from the presence of carboxylic acid, the range of applications as fuel oil is limited. In this study, hydrotreating to saturate unsaturated hydrocarbons and remove oxygen in mixed bio-oil containing 1/1 v/v% palm oil and CNSL on monometallic catalysts (Ni and Cu) and bimetallic catalysts (Ni-Zn, Ni-Fe, Ni-Cu Ni-Co, Ni-Pd, and Ni-Pt) was perform under mild conditions (T = 250 ~ 400 ℃, P = 5 ~ 80 bar and LHSV = 1 h-1). The addition of noble metals and transition metals to Ni showed synergistic effects to improve both hydrogenation (HYD) and hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) activities. The most promising catalyst was Ni-Cu/��-Al2O3, and in the wide range of the Ni/Cu atomic ratio of 9/1~1/4, the conversion for HYD and HDO reactions of the catalysts were 90-93% and 95-99%, respectively. The tendency to exhibit almost constant reaction activity in these catalysts of different Ni/Cu atomic ratios implies a typical structure-insensitive reaction. The refined bio-oil produced by hydrotreating (HDY and HDO) had significantly lower iodine value, acid value, and kinetic viscosity than the raw bio-oil and the higher heating value (HHV) was increased by about 10%.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.646-661
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• 2021

The Zagros fold-thrust belt formed from the collision of the Arabian and Eurasian plates during Cenozoic periods and extends for 2,000 km, from Turkey to the Hormuz Strait, in the northeast-southwest direction. Anticline traps in the front of the Zagros thrust fold hold approximately 8% of the world's petroleum reserves. Middle Cretaceous to Early Miocene petroleum systems of the belt have the largest original oil in place (OOIP). The oil is expelled from Kazhdumi and Pabdeh source rocks, and accumulated in the Asmari and Bangestan (including Sarvak and Ilam formations) reservoir rocks covered by the evaporitic Gachsaran and the marly Gurpi formations. The hydrocarbons trapped in the Asmari and Sarvak reservoirs are mainly charged (more than 90%) by the Kazhdumi Formation whereas the rest are charged by the Pabdeh Formation. In the Dezful Embayment, all the large high-relief anticlines have been drilled into, except in the Asmari, Sarvak and Khami formations, where a few anticlines of smaller size and deeper strata remain unexplored. Therefore, the exploration potential of these regions strengthens our understanding of the Zagros fold-thrust belt's petroleum system.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.177-191
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• 2021

One of the major causes of serious air pollution worldwide is emissions from road transportation. A number of countries are working to reduce vehicle emissions, and the Seoul Metropolitan Government is also implementing active policies to reduce emissions by setting a target of 40% by 2030. Implementing these policies requires the introduction of practical indicators. Most of the domestic emissions are calculated by the emission coefficient, a function of speed at the National Institute of Environmental Research under the Ministry of Environment, but the dynamic variable speed is limited to being used as an indicator of the number of eco-friendly vehicles. Therefore, this study calculated the emission rates in Seoul using the vehicle registration data of Seoul and the vehicle inspection data from the Korea Transportation Safety Authority. The tendency of emissions was determined according to key variables such as vehicle type, fuel and mileage. Emissions were based on carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter measured by vehicle inspection from the Korea Transportation Safety Authority. As a result, the emission rates showed a significant trend according to the model year and mileage. This can be used as a policy indicator to preferentially switch commercial vehicles with old model years and long mileage when switching eco-friendly vehicles in Seoul.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.50-60
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• 2022

The concentration levels and distribution characteristics of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were investigated and evaluated for total 100 soil samples as a part of the survey on soil contamination in Gwangju. The results (median and range) of T-PAHs (sum of 16 PAH concentrations), C-PAHs (sum of carcinogenic PAH concentrations) and T-TEQs (sum of 16 TEQ concentrations) were 20.8 (7.6~1158.1), 2.2 (N.D~509.6), and 0.3 (N.D~424.6) ㎍/kg, respectively. There was a positive correlation between C-PAHs/T-PAHs and T-TEQs/T-PAHs except one point where the concentration of benzo(a)pyrene was high. The ratios of the C-PAHs/T-PAHs were 31.7% for low molecular weight-PAHs and 68.3% for high molecular weight-PAHs, suggesting that PAHs generation mainly arose from combustion sources. The ratio of isomers of individual PAHs, Phe/Ant, Flu/Pyr, Ant/(Ant+Phe), Flu/(Flu+Pyr), and BaA/(BaA+Chr), also confirmed the predominance of PAHs from combustion activities. Statistical tracing of the source of PAHs through principal component analysis indicated that the main sources of combustion were automobile fuel and coal. The overall results of this study suggested HMW-PAHs, T-PAHs, C-PAHs and T-TEQs should be separately evaluated to better assess the toxicity and environmental behavior of individual PAHs.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.170-180
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• 2022

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs) contents were analyzed by measuring benz(a)anthracene(BaA), chrysene(Chr), benzo(b)fluoranthene(BbF) and benzo(a)pyrene(BaP), and the related risk characterization was conducted for 113 samples out of 14 different agricultural products used for food and medicine. Detection rate of PAHs was 90.3% as a whole, and the highest one was 80.5% for BaP. The detection rate of BaP exceeding the maximum permitted concentration of Rehmanniae Radix Preparata and Rehmanniae Radix, 5.0 ㎍/kg was 1.8%, and the detection rates of BaA, Chr and BbF were within the range of 2.7~10.6%. The highest average concentration of BaA was 3.41 ㎍/kg detected from Lycii Fructus, while those of Chr, BbF, BaP and PAH4(sum of detected BaA, Chr, BbF and BaP) were 5.00, 1.79, 2.36, 12.36 ㎍/kg, respectively, detected from Rehmanniae Radix Preparata. As for the risk characterization on PAHs, the overall MOE(Margin of Exposure) values were measured within the range of 10⁵~10⁷, which is unlikely to cause direct health concerns, but the worring values of MOE were measured 6.57×10⁴ for BaP and 6.10×10⁴ for PAH4 from Rehmanniae Radix Preparata, which may require an improvement plan to reduce BaP contents.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2023

Recent studies have actively investigated ways to improve the economic feasibility and efficiency of the Fischer-Tropsch process by increasing the yields of the monocyclic aromatic compounds (BTEX). In this study, ethylene was selected as a model of F-T-derived hydrocarbons, and the ethylene-to-aromatics (ETA) reaction was investigated according to changes in acid characteristics, mesopores, and crystallinity of HZSM-5 (HZ5). Fluorinated HZ5 was prepared by calcination followed by impregnation of an aqueous NH₄F solution having different molar concentrations in HZ5, and the structural and chemical properties of F/HZ5 were investigated through Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), NH₃-temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), and pyridine-IR spectroscopy. The ETA reactions were performed at 673 K under 0.1 MPa, and fluorinating HZ5 by an aqueous NH₄F solution of 0.17 M improved ethylene conversion, BTEX selectivity, and catalytic stability due to acidity, mesopore fraction, and crystallinity.