• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.897-905
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• 2006

This study has been conducted to investigate biodegradation characteristics and optimum mixing ratio for co-digestion with thermophilic acid-fermented food waste and sewage sludge using batch anaerobic digester. As the basis operating conditions for anaerobic digestion, the reaction temperature was controlled $35{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ and stirrer was set 70rpm. Thermophilic acid-fermented food waste and sewage sludge were mixed at the ratio of 10:0, 7:3, 5:5, 3:7, 0:10 and 5;5(food waste : sewage sludge) as the influent substrates. In results of co-digestion according to mixing ratio of thermophilic fermented food wastes and sewage sludge in batch mesophilic anaerobic digestion reactor, $385mL\;CH_4/g\;VS_{added}$ of methane production rate at 1:1 mixing ratio was more than that of any other mixing ratios. Compared with $293mL\;CH_4/g\;VS_{added}$ of methane production rate at 1:1 mixing ratio of food wastes and sewage sludge, pretreatment of food wastes by thermophilic acid fermentation was more effective in co-digestion with sewage sludge.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.548-555
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• 2019

Objective: The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different feeding levels of a total mixed ration silage-based diet on feed intake, total tract digestion, enteric methane emissions, and energy partitioning in two beef cattle genotypes. Methods: Six mature bulls (three Thai natives, and three Thai natives - Charolais crossbreeds) were assigned in a replicated $3{\times}3$ Latin square design, with cattle breed genotype in separate squares, three periods of 21 days, and three energy feeding above maintenance levels (1.1, 1.5, and 2.0 MEm, where MEm is metabolizable energy requirement for maintenance). Bulls were placed in a metabolic cage equipped with a ventilated head box respiration system to evaluate digestibility, record respiration gases, and determine energy balance. Results: Increasing the feeding level had no significant effect on digestibility but drastically reduced the enteric methane emission rate (p<0.05). Increasing the feeding level also significantly increased the energy retention and utilization efficiency (p<0.01). The Thai native cattle had greater enteric methane emission rate, digestibility, and energy utilization efficiency than the Charolais crossbred cattle (p<0.05). The daily metabolizable energy requirement for maintenance in Thai native cattle ($388kJ/kg\;BW^{0.75}$, where $BW^{0.75}$ is metabolic body weight) was 15% less than that in Charolais crossbred cattle ($444kJ/kg\;BW^{0.75}$). Conclusion: Our results suggested that the greater feeding level in zebu beef cattle fed above maintenance levels resulted in improved energy retention and utilization efficiency because of the reduction in enteric methane energy loss. The results also indicated higher efficiency of metabolisable energy utilization for growth and a lower energy requirement for maintenance in Bos indicus than in Bos taurus.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.43-52
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• 2013

In this study, various influent sludge pre-treatment methods were adopted to investigate their effects on the sludge digestion and methane production in combined mesophilic anaerobic and thermophilic aerobic sludge digestion process. A lab-scale sewage sludge digestion process was operated during 4 phases using different feed sludge pre-treatment strategies. In phase 1, feed sludge was supplied without any pre-treatment. In contrast, in phases 2, 3 and 4, thermal, thermal-alkaline and long time alkaline treatment (7 days) were applied to influent sludge, respectively. With sludge pre-treatment, TCOD removal was drastically increased from 44% to 76% from phases 1 to 4, respectively. Also, pre-treatment of feed sludge significantly improved the methane production rate of MAD, showing an increment from 101 to 165-256mL/L/day. Meanwhile, TCOD removal and methane production at phase 4 were not increased, compared to those at phase 3. Based on the experimental results, it was concluded that pre-treatment of feed sludge significantly increases the efficiency of sludge digestion and thermal-alkaline method was the most effective method among the pre-treatment methods examined.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.376-380
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• 2006

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of temperature and pH on in vitro nutrient degradability, volatile fatty acid profile and methane production. The fermenter used was the semi-continuous system, known as the rumen simulation technique (RUSITEC). Sixteen cylinders were used at one time with a volume of 800 ml, the dilution rate was set at 3.5%/hour, the infused buffer being McDougall's artificial saliva. Basal diet (9.6 g DM) used in RUSITEC consisted of (DM) 6.40 g Timothy hay, 1.86 g crushed corn and 1.34 g soybean meal. The food for the fermentation vessel was provided in nylon bags, which were gently agitated in the liquid phase. The experiment lasted for 17 d with all the samples taken during the last 5 d. Treatments were allocated at random to four vessels each and were (1) two temperature levels of $39^{\circ}C$ and $41^{\circ}C$ (2) two pH levels of 6.0 and 7.0. The total diet contained ($g\;kg^{-1}$ DM) 957 OM, 115 CP and $167MJ\;kg^{-1}$ (DM) GE. Although increase in temperature from $39^{\circ}C$ to $41^{\circ}C$ reduced degradation of major nutrients in vitro, it was non-significant. Interaction effect of temperature with pH also reflected a similar trend. However, pH showed a significant (p<0.05) negative effect on the degradability of all the nutrients in vitro. Altering the in vitro pH from 7 to 6 caused marked reduction in DMD from 60.2 to 41.8, CPD from 76.3 to 55.3 and GED from 55.3 to 35.1, respectively. Low pH (6) depressed total VFA production (61.9 vs. 34.9 mM) as well as acetate to propionate ratio in vitro (from 2.0 to 1.5) when compared to pH 7. Compared to pH 7, total gas production decreased from 1,841 ml to 1,148 ml at pH 6, $CO_2$ and $CH_4$ production also reduced from 639 to 260 ml and 138 to 45 ml, respectively. This study supported the premise that pH is one of the principal factors affecting the microbial production of volatile fatty acids and gas. Regulating the ruminal pH to increase bacterial activity may be one of the methods to optimize VFA production, reduce methane and, possibly, improve animal performance.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.129-133
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• 1991

This study is to investigate the kinetics of anaerobic process, the effect of mass transfer on process, and the characteristics of the conventional anaerobic bioreactor, and develop new high efficiency bioreactor. In the new bioreactor wastewater containing highly concentrated organic materials, was treated without diluting wastewater. In this experiment the high COD removal rate (about 88%) and gas production(about 200l/d) was showed with short residence time(1.5 day). This performance is about 10 times as large as the conventional reactor.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.33 no.9
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• pp.662-669
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• 2011

This study was conducted to biologically convert methane into methanol. Methane contained in biogas was bio-catalytically oxidized by methane monooxygenase (MMO) of methanotrophs, while methanol conversion was observed by inhibiting methanol dehydrogenase (MDH) using MDH activity inhibitors such as phosphate, NaCl, $NH_4Cl$, and EDTA. The degree of methane oxidation by methanotrophs was the most highly accomplished as 0.56 mmol for the condition at $35^{\circ}C$ and pH 7 under 0.4 (v/v%) of biogas ($CH_4$ 50%, $CO_2$ 50%) / Air ratio. By the inhibition of 40 mM of phosphate, 50 mM of NaCl, 40 mM of $NH_4Cl$ and $150{\mu}m$ of EDTA, methane oxidation rate could achieve more than 80% regardless of type of inhibitors. In the meantime, addition of 40 mM of phosphate, 100 mM of NaCl, 40 mM of $NH_4Cl$ and $50{\mu}m$ of EDTA each led to generating the highest amount of methanol, i.e, 0.71, 0.60, 0.66, and 0.66 mmol when 1.3, 0.67, 0.74, and 1.3 mmol of methane was each concurrently consumed. At that time, methanol conversion rate was 54.7, 89.9, 89.6, and 47.8% respectively, and maximum methanol production rate was $7.4{\mu}mol/mg{\cdot}h$. From this, it was decided that the methanol production could be maximized as 89.9% when MDH activity was specifically inhibited into the typical level of 35% for the inhibitor of concern.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.25-33
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• 2019

Operating characteristics of a 30 L microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) for producing biogas from sewage sludge was studied. During the 32-day inoculation period, carbon dioxide concentration decreased and methane concentration increased with operating time, and the overall methane content of biogas was 69.1% with a production rate of 171.6 mL CH₄/L·d. In fed-batch experiments for 6 operating cycles, CH₄ concentration of 66.5~77.2% was obtained at a production rate of 184.9~372.9 mL CH₄/L·d, COD, TS and VS removal efficiency ranged from 28.2 to 42.1%, 20.7 to 37.5% and 18.5 to 36.9%, respectively. The MEC system was observed to be stabilized as operating cycles were repeated after inoculation. In the last operating cycle, 5221 mL/L of methane was produced with CH₄ yield of 316.7 L CH₄/kg COD_rem, and the energy recovery was 73%.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.583-592
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• 2001

The combustion characteristics of the hybrid catalytic(catalytic+thermal) combustor with a lean methane-air mixture on platinum catalyst were investigated numerically using a 2-D boundary layer model with detailed homogeneous and heterogeneous chemistries. for the more accurate calculations, the actual surface site density of monolith coated with platinum was decided by the comparison with experimental data. It was found that the homogeneous reactions in the monolith had little effect on the change of temperature profile, methane conversion rate and light off location. However, the radicals such as OH and CO were produced rapidly at exit by homogeneous reactions. The effect of operation conditions such as equivalence ratio, temperature, velocity, pressure and diameter of the monolith channel at the entrance were studied. In thermal combustor, the production of N$_2$O was more dominant than that of NO due to the relative importance of the reaction N$_2$+O(+M)→N$_2$O(+M). Finally the productions of CO and NOx by amount of methane addition were studied.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.446-452
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• 2014

Methanol was directly produced by the partial oxidation of methane with four-component mixed oxide catalysts. Four-component(Mo-Bi-Cr-Si) mixed oxide catalysts were prepared by the co-precipitation and sol-gel methods. The catalyst prepared by the sol-gel method showed about eleven times higher surface area than that prepared by the co-precipitation method. From the $O_2$-TPD experiment of the prepared catalysts, it was proven that there exists two types of oxygen species, and the oxygen species that participates in the partial oxidation reaction is the lattice oxygen desorbing around $750^{\circ}C$. The optimum reaction condition for methanol production was $420^{\circ}C$, 50 bar, flow rate of 115 mL/min, and $CH_4/O_2$ ratio of 10/1.5, providing methane conversion and methanol selectivity of 3.2 and 26.7%, respectively.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.50-59
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• 2010

A pilot-scale test for production of biogas was conducted in an specially designed anaerobic digester (KH-ABC) in which the highly concentrated organic waste (food-waste and piggery-manure) was treated. The effect of inhibitive material to the reaction on anaerobic digestion and the feasibility of digested fluid for the liquefied fertilizer were investigated. The production rate of biogas, the concentration of methane($CH_4$) in biogas, and the digesting rate of volatile solid(VS) were analyzed in the variance of the operating conditions ; the influent rate, the mixture ratio of food waste and piggery manure, and the hydraulic retention time(HRT), etc. The production rate of biogas increased from 1.2 to $2.0kg-VS/m^3{\cdot}d$ with the organic loading rate(OLR). The most suitable operating conditions were recorded at $6m^3/day$ of an influent rate, 2:3 of the raw material mixture ratio(food waste : piggery manure) and 25 days of HRT, respectively. Under those conditions, the production rate of biogas, the concentration of methane($CH_4$) in biogas and the digesting rate of volatile solid(VS) were $220m^3/day$, 64%, and 70%, respectively. The concentration of inhibitive materials was below toxic standard and the anaerobic digested fluid(raw material mixture ratio of 3:7) could meet the condition of the liquefied fertilizer.