• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.122-128
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• 2008

We evaluated the relationship between the multiplication of heterotrophic microorganisms and physicochemical factors in the final discharged sewage water from J municipal waste water treatment plants. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was the most crucial factor influencing multiplication of heterotrophic plate counts (HPC) among the water quality variables selected. Degrading bacteria, such as proteolytic bacteria, lipholytic bacteria, starch degrading bacteria, cellulolytic bacteria, and pectinolytic bacteria, were monitored to understand the condition of nutrients in finished sewage effluent. The percentages of lipid and protein combined occupied 81% in finished sewage water. The multiplication of HPC showed the highest value in August. The formation of trihalomethane (THM) was low in the finished discharge water during chlorine disinfection, which was $71{\mu}/L$ (which was less than $100{\mu}/L$- the standard of drinking water quality) with 10 mg/L of chlorine during 15 min.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.410-419
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• 2017

Since the beginning of the water shortage by disasters such as global warming, environmental pollution, and drought, development of original technology and studies have been undergone to increase availability of water resources. Among them the water treatment separation membrane technology is an environmentally friendly process that does not use chemicals and shows better water quality improvement effect than conventional physicochemical and biological processes. The water treatment membrane can be applied to various fields such as waste water treatment, water purification treatment, seawater desalination, ion exchange process, ultrapure water production, organic solvent separation and water treatment technology, and it tends to expand the range of application. In the core technology of water treatment membrane, researches are being actively carried out to develop a separation membrane of better performance by controlling the pore size to adjust the separation performance. In this review, we summarized the frequency of announcement by country and organization through the technological competitiveness evaluation of patents and papers of the water separation membrane. Also, we evaluated the results from membrane research for waste water treatment, water purification treatment, seawater desalination, ion exchange process and present the future direction of research.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.367-371
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• 2012

Waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) contain valuable metals such as Cu, Ni, Au, Ag, and Pd. For an effective recycling of WPCBs, it is essential to recover the valuable metals. In recent years, recycling processes have come to be necessary for separating noble metals from WPCBs due to an increasing amount of electronic device wastes. However, it is well known that glass reinforced epoxy resins in the WPCBs are difficult materials to separate into elemental components, namely metals, glass fibers and epoxy resins in the chemical recycling process. $K_3PO_4$ as a catalyst in dimethylformamide (DMF) and N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) was used to depolymerize epoxy resins for recovering metallic and non-metallic components from WPCBs. Reactions of WPCBs were carried out at temperatures $160{\sim}200^{\circ}C$ for 2~12 h. The recycled glass fiber from WPCBs was analyzed by thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) and evaluated the degree of solubility of the epoxy resin for separation efficiencies of the WPCBs.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.347-357
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• 2023

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic turned biological hazards in the working environment into a global concern. This systematized review of published reviews aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the specific jobs and categories of workers exposed to biological hazards with the related prevention. Methods: We extracted reviews published in English and French in PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science. Two authors, working independently, subsequently screened the potentially relevant titles and abstracts recovered (step 1) and then examined relevant full texts (step 2). Disagreements were resolved by consensus. We built tables summarizing populations of exposed workers, types of hazards, types of outcomes (types of health issues, means of prevention), and routes of transmission. Results: Of 1426 studies initially identified, 79 studies by authors from every continent were selected, mostly published after 2010 (n = 63, 79.7%). About half of the reviews dealt with infectious hazards alone (n = 38, 48.1%). The industrial sectors identified involved healthcare alone (n = 16), laboratories (n = 10), agriculture (including the animal, vegetable, and grain sectors, n = 32), waste (n = 10), in addition of 11 studies without specific sectors. The results also highlighted a range of hazards (infectious and noninfectious agents, endotoxins, bioaerosols, organic dust, and emerging agents). Conclusion: This systematized overview allowed to list the populations of workers exposed to biological hazards and underlined how prevention measures in the healthcare and laboratory sectors were usually well defined and controlled, although this was not the case in the agriculture and waste sectors. Further studies are necessary to quantify these risks and implement prevention measures that can be applied in every country.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.867-876
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• 2013

To promote the carbon emission trading scheme and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission as following 'Korean GHG & Energy Target Management System', GHG emissions should be accurately determined in each industrial sector. For the estimation method of GHG emission from waste landfill, there are several error parameters, therefore we reviewed the estimation method and proposed a revised method. Methane generation from landfill must be calculated by the selected method based on methane recovery rate, 0.75. However, this methodology is not considered about uncertainty factor. So it is desirable that $CH_4$ generation is estimated using first order decay model and methane recovery should use field monitoring data. If not, $CH_4$ recovery could be applied from other study results; 0.60 of operational landfill with gas vent and flaring system, 0.65 of operational site with landfill gas recovery system, 0.90 of closed landfill with final cover. Other parameters such as degradable organic carbon (DOC) and fraction of DOC decompose ($DOC_f$) need to derive the default value from studies to reflect a Korean waste status. Proper application of MCF that is selected by operation and management of landfill requires more precise criteria.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.299-308
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• 2020

Composting is among the most effective integrated waste management strategies used to recycle sewage sludge (SS) waste and generate a useful product. An encapsulated lifting system is a relatively new industrial-scale composting technology. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of composting dewatered stabilized SS mixed with green waste using this new technology. The composting process was monitored by changes in the physico-chemical properties, UV-visible spectra, and fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra. The composting temperature was steady in the thermophilic range for 24 and 12 d in the intensive and maturation phases, respectively, which fulfilled the disinfection requirement. Moreover, the temperature increased rapidly to 76.8℃ within three days, and the thermophilic temperatures peaked twice and lasted longer than in traditional composting, which accelerated SS degradation and decreased the composting period necessary to obtain mature compost. FTIR spectroscopic analysis showed a diminished in methyl group derived from methylene C-H aliphatic groups because of organic matter degradation by microorganisms and an increased number of aromatic chains. The new technology may be a viable and sustainable alternative for SS management that converts waste into compost that is useful as a soil amendment.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.115-123
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• 2005

In this study, life cycle assessment(LCA) technique was employed to evaluate the environmental impact of material recycling of polyethylene terephthalate(PET) bottle. Life cycle inventory was established based on the data collected from recycling companies in Korea. Simapro 5.0 LCA software and Eco-indicator 95 index were used for the analysis. The biggest impact by the material recycling of PET bottle on the environmental category was the global warming. It is because melting and production of the recycled PET product consume a significant amount of electricity and energy. In the environmental pollution discharge, $CO_2$ emission was the highest, followed by NOx. This is probably due to the use of diesel and gasoline in the consumption of electricity and transportation. All the environmental impact showed (-) value except the ozone layer depletion, which means that the material recycling of PET bottle is environmentally fair. The use of recycled PET product greatly reduced the environmental impact.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.16-25
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• 2019

Anthropogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are formed by the incomplete combustion of fuels and industrial waste. PAHs can be widely exposed to the environment (water, soil and groundwater). PAHs are potentially toxic, mutagenic and/or carcinogenic. Fundamental studies such as biota uptake (e.g., earthworm and plant) of PAHs are highly needed. It is necessary to develop alternative ways to evaluate bioavailability of PAHs instead of using living organisms because it is time-consuming, difficult to apply in the field, and also exaction method is tedious and time-consuming. In this study, sorption behaviors of phenanthrene were evaluated to predict the fate of PAHs in soils. Moreover, bioaccumulation of PAHs in an artificially contaminated soil was evaluated using pea plant (Pisum sativum) as a bioindicator. A novel passive sampler, organic-diffusive gradient in thin-film (o-DGT) for PAHs was newly synthesized, tested as a biomimic surrogate and compared with plant accumulation. Sorption partitioning coefficient (K_P) and sorption capacity (K_F) were in the order of natural soil > loess corresponding to the increase in organic carbon content (f_oc). Biota-to-soil accumulation factor (BSAF) and DGT-to-soil accumulation factor (DSAF) were evaluated. o-DGT uptake was linearly correlated with pea plant uptake of phenanthrene in contaminated soil (R²=0.863). The Tenax TA based o-DGT as a biomimic surrogate can be used for the prediction of pea plant uptake of phenanthrene in contaminated soil.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.198-198
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• 2011

Organocatalysis is a relatively new and popular area within the field of chiral molecule synthesis. It is one of the main branches of enantioselective synthesis with enzymatic and organometallic catalysis. In recent years, immense high quality studies on catalysis by chiral secondary amines were reported. These progresses instantly led to different organocatalytic activation concepts, so thousands of researchers from academia and the chemical industry are currently involved in this field and new ideas, new approaches, and creative thinking have been rapidly emerged. Organocatalysts, some of which are natural products, appear to solve the problems of metal catalysts. Compared to metal-based catalysis, they have many advantages including savings in cost, time, and energy, easier experimental procedure, and reduction of chemical waste. These benefits originate from the following factors. First, organocatalysts are generally stable in oxygen and water in the atmosphere, there is no need for special equipments or experimental techniques to operate under anhydrous or anaerobic conditions. Second, organic reagents are naturally available from biological materials as single enantiomers that they are easy and cheap to prepare which makes them suitable for small-scale to industrial-scale reactions. Third, in terms of safety related catalysis, small organic molecules are non-toxic and environmentally friendly. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to develop novel synthetic methods and design for various organocatalyst. Furthermore, it is expected that these organocatalysts can be applied to a variety of asymmetric reactions and study the transition state of these reactions using a metal sulface. Here, we report the synthesis of unprecedented organocatalysts, proline and pyrrolidine derivatives with quaternary carbon center.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.28-34
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• 2012

In this study, we operated a UASB (upflow anaerobic sludge blanket) reactor by using foodwaste leachate as a raw material with the method of Mesophilic Digestion ($35{\pm}0.5^{\circ}C$) and Thermophilic Digestion ($55{\pm}0.5^{\circ}C$). During 20 days of operating time with the Mesophilic Digestion, the recirculation ratio of effluent was stepwisely changed in every five days. Thermophilic Digestion was carried out at the same condition for Mesophilic Digestion. Results showed that the organic removal efficiency of Mesophilic Digestion was over 90% and the yield of methane production was from 66 up to 70%. The organic removal efficiency of Thermophilic Digestion was over 80% and the yield of methane production was between 62 to 68%. Also, when UASB reactor was operating to over the 3Q effluent recirculation, the experiment could be carried out economically and stably.