• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.215-220
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• 2013

Biofilters for the removal of methane using tobermolite, perlite and polyurethane as packing materials have been undergoing recent development. The effects of these packing materials on methane oxidation activity were evaluated in this study. Mixed methanotrophs (consortia A, B, C and D) from wetland and landfill soils were used as the inoculum sources. The influences of packing materials, consisting of tobermolite, perlite, and polyurethane, on the methane oxidation rate and methanotrophic bio-mass, were estimated. When perlite was added into the methanotrophic cultures, the methane oxidation rate was more than twice that of the control (without packing materials), and the methanotrophic biomass increased more than 10 fold. The ratio of methanotrophic bacteria to total bacteria under with tobermolite packing material was higher than the control and the other packing materials, indicating that tobermolite can serve as a specific packing material where dominance of methanotrophs is desired. Therefore, perlite and tobermolite provide habitats which increase the activity of methanotrophic bacteria, and these packing materials are promising for use in methane oxidation processes.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.22-27
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• 2013

HCNG engine is performed as a future engine because of high combustion efficiency and eco-friendly property, and is predicted to a brdge of hydrogen vehicles. As EURO-6 regulagion is due to be applied in 2014, consolidated regulations of methane gas that is exhausted from CNG and HCNG vehicles will come into effect. In this studies, methane oxidation catalyst is introduced to remove methane gas from HCNG emissions. Methane oxidation efficiency on catalyst was studied when it is driven long time. And characterization like metal dispersion, surface area was performed to investigate the correlation of catalyst efficiency and characteristics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.73-76
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• 2002

Biofilter performance to reduce C $H_4$ emissions from MSW landfills was tested under a variety of environmental and design conditions. The optimum soil moisture content for C $H_4$ oxidation in a loamy sand was 13% by weight. The addition of N $O_3$-N did not affect the C $H_4$ oxidation rate. Soil depths of 30cm and 60cm were equally efficient in C $H_4$ oxidation. When the C $H_4$ loading rate was decreased, the percentage of C $H_4$ oxidized increased. The maximum C $H_4$ oxidation rate was 27.2 mol $m^{-2}$ $d^{-1}$ under optimum conditions (loamy sand soil, 13% moisture content, 30cm soil depth, and an loading rate of 32.8 mol $m^{-2}$ $d^{-1}$). Based on the above results, the installation of a properly sized and managed biofilter above a landfill cover should be capable of achieving a major reduction in atmospheric methane emissions from MSW landfills built with RCRA covers.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.11-16
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• 2010

Methane hydrate is crystalline ice-like compounds which formed methane gas enters within water molecules composed cavity and each other from physically-bond at specially temperature and pressure condition. $1m^3$ of methane hydrate can be decomposed into the maximum of $216m^3$ of methane gas under standard condition. If these characteristics of hydrate are utilized in the opposite sense, natural gas can be fixed into water in the form of a hydrate solid. Therefore the use of hydrate is considered to be a great way to transport and store natural gas in large quantity. However, when methane hydrate is formed artificially, the amount of gas that is consumed is relatively low, due to the slow reaction rate between water and methane gas. Therefore for practical purposes in the application, the present investigation focuses on increasing the amount of gas consumed by adding chemically oxidized OMWCNTs to pure water. The results show that when 0.003 wt% of oxidation multi-walled carbon nanotubes was added to pure water, the amount of gas consumed was almost four times more than that of pure water indicating its effect in hydrate formation and the hydrate formation time decreased at alow subcooling temperature.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.76-81
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• 2012

Removal of methane, benzene and toluene was evaluated in a lab-scale biocover packed with a soil mixture of forest soil and earthworm cast (75:25 weight ratio). The bacterial community in the biocover was characterized using quantitative real-time PCR and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism. Methane was removed at the upper layer of the biocover (-0.1 ~ -0.4 m), where the oxygen concentration was remarkably lower. The average removal efficiencies for methane and benzene/toluene were 90% and 99%, respectively. The pmoA gene copy numbers, responsible for methane oxidation, in the upper layer were higher than those in the lower layer. While type I methanotrohs dominated the lower layer, type II methanotrophs, such as Methylocystis and Methylosinus, were noted to be predominant in the upper layer. Benzene and toluene were removed from the lower layer (-0.6 ~ -0.9 m) as well as the upper layer. Moreover, the tmoA gene copy number, responsible for benzene/toluene oxidation, seen in the upper layer was not significantly different from those seen in the lower layer. These results suggest that a biocover packed with a soil and earthworm cast mixture is a promising method which could be utilized for the control of methane and volatile organic compounds such as benzene and toluene.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.39-44
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• 2008

Partial oxidation of methane was carried out by ceria-promoted Ni-substituted hydrotalcite-derived catalysts ($Ce_xNi_3$-HTlc ; x=$0.3{\sim}1.2$) in a fixed-bed reactor. The Ce/Ni ratio of 0.3/3 in the catalyst showed the best catalytic activity but the Ce/Ni ratio became higher above 0.3/3, the catalyst became less active in short-term tests. No ceria promoted catalyst was started to decrease $CH_4$ conversion after 20 h but the Ce/Ni ratio 0.3/3 catalyst was kept its stability in long-term tests.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.266-271
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• 2006

Characteristic of partial oxidation of methane using arc-jet plasma by AC power is investigated. Arc-jet reactor used in this work is slightly modified from typical arc jet reactor so that it can make and sustain stable state of plasma. Methane conversion, selectivity of chemicals such as hydrogen and hydrocarbon materials in the product are analyzed. Parametric approach on the performance of the reactor or detail on the partial oxidation process is carried with $O_2/C$ ratio as parameter. In addition to the results, SED and arc length is changed to understand the effect of current-voltage correlation on the reforming performance and relative role of thermal process.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.64-68
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• 2005

Methane reforming processes to obtain hydrogen were investigated experimentally by using atmospheric plasma source. Among possible reforming processes, such as a $CO_2$ reforming(dry reforming), a partial oxidation (POx), a steam reforming(SR), and a steam reforming with oxygen(SRO or auto-thermal reforming), partial oxidation and the steam reforming with oxygen were considered. We choose a rotating arc plasma as an atmospheric plasma source, since it shows the best performances in our preliminary tests in terms of a methane conversion, a hydrogen production, and a power consumption. Then, the effects of a feeding flow-rate, an electrical power input to a plasma reaction, an $O_2/C$ ratio and a steam to carbon ratio in the case of SRO on the reforming characteristics were observed systematically. As results, at a certain condition almost 100% of methane conversion was obtained and we could achieve the same hydrogen production rate by consuming a half of electrical power which was used by the best results for other researchers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.15-21
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• 2006

Characteristics of a plasma reactor for partial oxidation of methane, especially focused on the role and effectiveness of plasma chemistry, are investigated. Partial oxidation of methane is investigated using a rotating arc which is a three dimensional version of a typical gliding arc. Three different modes of operation were found. Each mode shows different reforming performance. The reason for the difference is due to the difference in relative role of thermal and plasma chemistry in overall process. A mode with high temperature results higher methane conversion and hydrogen selectivity in contrast to the mode with lower temperature where poor methane conversion and higher selectivity of $C_2$ species are observed. In this way, we can confirm that by controlling characteristic of process or controlling relative strength of plasma chemistry and thermal chemistry, it is possible to map an optimal condition of reforming process by rotating arc.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.451-457
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• 2014

We developed a high-performance methane gas sensor based on a $SnO_2$ hollow hemisphere array structure of nano-thickness. The sensor structures were fabricated by sputter deposition of Sn metal over an array of polystyrene spheres distributed on a planar substrate, followed by an oxidation process to oxidize the Sn to $SnO_2$ while removing the polystyrene template cores. The surface morphology and structural properties were examined by scanning electron microscopy. An optimization of the structure for methane sensing was also carried out. The effects of oxidation temperature, film thickness, gold doping, and morphology were examined. An impressive response of ~220% was observed for a 200 ppm concentration of $CH_4$ gas at an operating temperature of $400^{\circ}C$ for a sample fabricated by 30 sec sputtering of Sn, and oxidation at $800^{\circ}C$ for 2 hr in air. This high response was enabled by the open structure of the hemisphere array thin films.