• Journal of Marine Bioscience and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.133-142
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• 2022

The increased production and consumption of polyethylene terephthalate (PET)-based products over the past several decades has resulted in the discharge of countless tons of PET waste into the marine environment. PET microparticles resulting from the physical erosion of general PET wastes end up in the ocean and pose a threat to the marine biosphere and human health, necessitating the development of new technologies for recycling and upcycling. Notably, enzyme-mediated PET degradation is an appealing option due to its eco-friendly and energy-saving characteristics. PETase, a PET-hydrolyzing enzyme originating from Ideonella sakaiensis, is one of the most thoroughly researched biological catalysts. However, the industrial application of PETase-mediated PET recycling is limited due to the low stability and poor reusability of the enzyme. Here we developed the whole-cell catalyst (WCC) in which functional PETase is attached to the outer membrane of Escherichia coli. Immunoassays are used to identify the surface-expressed PETase, and we demonstrated that the WCC degraded PET microparticles most efficiently at 30℃ and pH 9 without agitation. Furthermore, the WCC increased the PET-degrading activity in a concentration-dependent manner, surpassing the limited activity of soluble PETase above 100 nM. Finally, we demonstrated that the WCC could be recycled up to three times.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.475-475
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• 2023

직경 5 mm 이하의 미세플라스틱은 인류 활동에 의해 생산되어 하수처리장 처리수, 우수토구, 도로 분진 등 다양한 경로를 통해 하천에 유입되고 있다. 하천에 유입된 미세플라스틱은 하천흐름을 따라 하류로 이동하여 해양환경에까지 이른다. 미세플라스틱은 수체를 따라 이동할 뿐 아니라 수생생물에 의해 섭식되기도 하여 인체 위해성이 우려되는 상황이다. 특히 서울과 경기도의 주요 상수원인 팔당호는 북한강, 남한강, 경안천이 유입되어 형성되기 때문에 미세플라스틱의 유입에 따른 이송-분산 거동 평가가 중요한 영역이다. 본 연구에서는 준3차원 입자추적기법을 이용한 미세플라스틱 거동해석 모형, MPT-Q3D를 개발하였으며 팔당호 내 미세플라스틱의 거동 특성을 분석하였다. MPT-Q3D 모형은 2차원 흐름해석모형과 연계한 입자의 준3차원 거동해석을 위해 step-by-step computation method를 적용하였으며, 전단류에 의한 입자의 수평거동과 난류확산에 및 침강속도에 의한 연직거동 두 단계 계산과정에 따라 입자의 거동을 해석했다. 전단류는 2차원 흐름해석결과로부터 유속의 연직분포식을 적용하여 생성하였으며, 생성된 전단류에 의해 각 연직층 별 유속이 계산되고 𝚫t 이후 입자의 종, 횡 방향 이동거리를 계산한다. 또한 난류확산에 의한 무작위적 거동 계산을 위해 Gaussian 분포를 따른 난수 생성을 통해 무작위적 거동을 계산했다. 각 연직층에 위치한 미세플라스틱 입자의 종, 횡 방향 거동을 계산한 후 입자의 연직거동을 계산한다. 입자의 연직 위치는 난류확산과 침강속도에 따라 계산되며 침강속도는 미세플라스틱의 밀도 및 직경에 따라 결정된다. 현장 샘플링 결과에 따라 팔당호로 유입되는 미세플라스틱은 폴리스틸렌(PS), 폴리에틸렌(PE), 폴리에스테르(Polyester)가 있으므로, 세 종류의 미세플라스틱을 동시에 주입하여 팔당호 내 거동을 분석했다. 남한강, 북한강, 경안천의 유량 차이로 인해 팔당호로 유입되는 미세플라스틱은 대체로 남한강과 북한강의 흐름특성에 영향을 받았다. 경안천의 경우 유량이 낮아 팔당호로 유입되지 못하고 좌안을 따라 하류로 이동됐다. 남한강과 북한강에서 유입된 미세플라스틱은 주로 팔당호 내 소내섬을 거쳐 팔당댐 쪽으로 이동했다. 또한 팔당댐 인근에서는 PP, PE, Polyester 순으로 많은 양이 유입되는 결과가 나타났다.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.11-20
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• 2018

In planktonic ecosystems, the microplastics are considered as a potential food source for the zooplankton. To study a relationship between the zooplankton and the neustonic microplastics, a research experiment was carried out during May in the surface layers of the Yeosu coastal areas including Yeoja Bay, Gamak Bay, Yeosuhae Bay, and Botdol Sea. A neustonic zooplankton net (mesh size $300{\mu}m$; mouth area $30cm{\times}18cm$) was towed from the side of the ship in the event that it would not be affected by waves crashing by the ship at a speed of ca. 2.5 knots. All of the microplastic particles were separated from the zooplankton. The zooplankton and microplastics were appearing in a range of 61 to $763indiv.m^{-3}$ and 0.0047 to $0.3471particle\;m^{-2}$, respectively. It was noted that the Acartia omorii, Paracalanus parvus s. l., Labidocera euchaeta, A. hongi, decapod larvae, and cirriped larvae were predominantly seen in the experiment. For verifying relationships between zooplankton and environmental factors in addition to microplastics, a model redundancy analysis (RDA) was performed. The zooplankton were divided into two groups on the basis of feeding types (i.e. particle feeders, and carnivores), and the associated zooplankton larvae were also separately considered. A review of the additional environmental factors such as water temperature, salinity, turbidity, chlorophyll-${\alpha}$ concentration, diatom density, and dinoflagellate density were also contained in the analysis. The results showed that a noted zooplankton abundance had no close relation with the occurring number of microplastic particles, but rather was significantly related with other noted environmental factors such as temperature, salinity, turbidity, and chlorophyll-${\alpha}$ concentration. This fact implies that most zooplankton can feed themselves as a unit, by selecting the most likely available nutritious foods, rather than microplastics under the circumstance of food-richness areas, such what food resources are available as in the location of coastal waters.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.463-475
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• 2020

Presence of microplastics in soil and groundwater has recently been reported and environmental concerns are raised as to the plastic pollution. In the subsurface environment, clay minerals and metal oxide minerals are commonly found as finely dispersed states. Because the minerals have high sorption capacities for diverse pollutants, interactions with mineral surface play an important role in the transport of microplastics in groundwater. Accordingly, environmental mineralogy investigating the interactions between microplastics and mineral surfaces is the essential research area to understand the fate and transport of microplastics in the subsurface environment. The microplastic-mineral surface research requires molecular- to nano-scale analyses to be able to probe the relatively weak interactions between them. The current report introduces a nano-scale analysis tool called quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) that can measure the sorbed/desorbed mass of nanoplastics on mineral surfaces at the level of a few nanograms (~10-9 g). This report briefly reviews the main principles in the QCM measurement and discusses applications of QCM to the environmental mineralogy research.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.239-259
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• 2022

Since 2019, research on microplastics has been actively conducted around the world, so analyzing the differences between domestic and foreign microplastics research can be a milestone in establishing the direction of domestic research. In this study, microplastic papers from KCI and WoS were extracted and the differences between domestic and foreign studies were analyzed using a network analysis methodology based on big data such as author keyword co-occurrence word analysis, thesis co-citation analysis, and author co-citation analysis. As a result of the analysis, the analysis of the research topic confirmed that studies that could affect the human body and the treatment of microplastics in daily life were additionally needed in Korea. In the analysis of the depth of thesis citation that examines the quality of research, it was found that Korea was still insufficient at 2.25 overseas and 1.39 in Korea. In the analysis of the composition of the joint research front, where various researchers participate and share information, 3 out of 22 clusters in Korea are Star type. In the case of overseas, all 19 clusters have a mesh structure, so it was confirmed that information flow and sharing were insufficient in specific research fields in Korea. These research results confirmed the need to expand the research topic of microplastics, improve the quality of research, and improve the research promotion system in which various researchers participate. In addition, if the automation program is developed based on topic modeling, it will be possible to build a system capable of real-time analysis.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.5_3
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• pp.835-850
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• 2022

Microplastics have arisen as a worldwide environmental concern, becoming ubiquitous in all marine compartments, and various researches on monitoring marine microplastics are being actively conducted worldwide. Recently, application of a remote detection technology that enables large-scale real-time observation to marine plastic monitoring has been conducted overseas. However, in South Korea, there is little information linking remote detection to marine microplastics and some field studies have demonstrated remote detection of medium- and large-sized marine plastics. This study introduces research cases with remote detection of marine plastics in South Korea and overseas, investigates potential feasibility of using the remote detection technology to marine microplastic monitoring, and suggests some future works to monitor marine microplastics with the remote detection.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.314-324
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• 2022

This study is aimed to design a membrane process that systematically removes contaminants including microplastics in sun-dried salt using a separation membrane. In this study, we selected the separation membrane material, pore size, and module suitable for the sun-dried salt fields, and proceeded with the experiments under the salt fields and laboratory conditions. A pilot plant was constructed and tested in our lab and in the actual saltern with the selected 200 kDa, 4 kDa ultrafiltration membranes, and 3 kDa nanofiltration membranes. Most of the impurities in the sea salt were 0.1 ㎛ in size, and more than 7 types of various microplastics were detected in the impurities. After that, as a result of checking the filtered water through the separation membrane process, no impurities were detected. As a result of comparing the existing sea salt component and the sea salt component prepared with separation membrane filtrate, impurities were effectively removed without change in the sea salt component.

• Journal of Marine Life Science
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.68-77
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• 2023

In this study, we investigated the quantitative distribution of microplastics in the surface seawater at 8 points near the Taean Peninsula using fluorescence staining. The study revealed a detection range of microplastics from 0 to 360.5 particles/l, with an average of 149.7 ± 46.0 particles/l. When classifying the microplastics by size, it was found that particles smaller than 50 ㎛ were dominant, although there were differences at Site 3. Moreover, it was not possible to identify clear correlations when comparing the number of microplastics based on collection area and particle size. Various physical and chemical factors, including plastic material, dynamic ocean conditions (such as currents, wind, waves, tides), geological characteristics (topography, slope), sediment materials including coastal organisms, human activities (fishing, development, tourism), and weather conditions (floods, rainfall), affect the behavior of microplastics. Therefore, future efforts should focus on standardizing quantitative analysis methods and conducting fundamental research on microplastic monitoring, including the analysis of environmental factors.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.196-205
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• 2024

In this study, sample collection and quantification analysis of Tire and Road Wear Particles (TRWP) from the road surface were conducted to predict the amount of TRWP generated on the road surface moving by environmental compartment depending on rainfall intensity. Samples were collected from TRWP remaining on the road surface two days after the 3 days average rainfall (0-60 mm/day) occurred and the road surface was completely dry. Only TRWP were separated from the collected samples through size and density separation, and the difference in the content of TRWP remaining on the road surface after rainfall was based on the value of 60.2 g o f TRWP o n a day witho ut rain (0 mm/day). By calculating, it was co nfirmed that 0-49.4 g o f TRWP can mo ve to the environmental compartment depending on the intensity of rainfall. In addition, it was confirmed that when the rainfall intensity was 60 mm/day, the amount of TRWP moving to each environmental section was 3.75 times higher compared to 5 mm/day, and using the results of previous research, the total amount of TRWP that can be transported to the environmental compartment by rainfall from the domestic road environment annually is 9,592 tons, and 288 tons of this can be affected by marine microplastics. However, this study has limitations in terms of limited space and predicted results, but it would like to mention the need to improve the domestic road environment and sewage treatment system to reduce TRWP. In the future, we plan to conduct sample collection and concentration analysis studies of TRWP in real environmental compartments to verify the results of this study.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.5-14
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• 2024

A study approached the development of a process for efficiently recycling discarded cigarette butts, reported as a major source of microplastic pollution in aquatic environments. Cigarette butts were sorted to extract filters, and cellulose acetate, the raw material of the filters, was extracted to a high degree of purity. The sorting of filters from cigarette butts was conducted through both wet and dry processes, each with optimized sorting conditions. Wet stirring sorting considered factors such as solid-liquid ratio, stirring speed, and stirring temperature. The highest efficiency of wet stirring sorting, at 46.21%, was observed with a solid-liquid ratio of 1:45, stirring speed of 200 rpm, and stirring temperature of 50℃. Dry wind power sorting took into account moisture content and residence time. The filter sorting efficiency reached its peak at 57.10% with a moisture content of 20% and a residence time of 5 minutes. There was no significant difference in the recovery rate of cellulose acetate between the two sorting processes. Dry wind power sorting was deemed a more advantageous process in terms of energy and environmental considerations within the scope of this study.