• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.62-72
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• 1998

This study was performed to characterize the trace organic pollutants in the industrial wastewater and to establish the database of the trace organic pollutants. The four manufacturing industries, which are refined petroleum, industrial chemicals, rubber & plastics and fabricated metals, were surveyed. The wastewater and discharging water of these 30 factories are analyzed to characterize the trace organic pollutants. In industrial chemicals, the kinds of products and organic pollutants are very various. Therefore to select the characteristic organic pollutants in this categories are also very difficult. In industrial chemicals, the gas chromatograpic peak patterns of wastewater are represented the various type according to their products, therefore the typical patterns of the characteristic organic pollutants could not be obtained because the kinds of manufactured goods and organic pollutants are very various. In refined petroleum, the effluent is discharged in the distillatory process of atmosphere pressure and contained the saturated hydrocarbons, phenol compounds, benzene compounds and naphtalene compounds. The saturated hydrocarbons peaks from $C_{15}$ to $C_{35}$ are represented the typical oil patterns by the uniform intervals therefore the peak can be easily distinguished. In rubber & plastics, the wastewater is discharged in the washing process which contains the additives. The problem of wastewater is not serious because the manufacturing process is not produced the effluent or the produced cooling water is recycled in that process.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.59-79
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• 2022

Conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) do not fully remove micropollutants. Enhanced treatment of sewage effluents is being considered or implemented in some countries to minimize the discharge of problematic micropollutants from WWTPs. Representative enhanced sewage treatment technologies for micropollutant removal were reviewed, including their current status of research and development. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) such as ozonation and UV/H₂O₂ and adsorption processes using powdered (PAC) and granular activated carbon (GAC) were mainly discussed with focusing on process principles for the micropollutant removal, effect of process operation and water matrix factors, and technical and economic feasibility. Pilot- and full-scale studies have shown that ozonation, PAC, and GAC can achieve significant elimination of various micropollutants at economically feasible costs(0.16-0.29 €/m³). Considering the current status of domestic WWTPs, ozonation and PAC were found to be the most feasible options for the enhanced sewage effluent treatment. Although ozonation and PAC are all mature technologies, a range of technical aspects should be considered for their successful application, such as energy consumption, CO₂ emission, byproduct or waste generation, and ease of system construction/operation/maintenance. More feasibility studies considering domestic wastewater characteristics and WWTP conditions are required to apply ozonation or PAC/GAC adsorption process to enhance sewage effluent treatment in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.129-135
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• 2009

PPCP (pharmaceuticals and personal care products) is known as micropollutant that is released from wastewater treatment plant. Research represents that these contaminants have increased in the last 10 years. This study tries to make four different trickling filter systems using plastic fiber media to remove PPCP such as acetaminophen, ibuprofen, caffeine. The results of the experiment that compares the process efficiencies of four different systems (A, B, C and D) using HBC media show that almost all the reactor has around 95% removal efficiency. Slope type HBC reactor has twice higher efficiency rather than submerged type reactor to remove PPCP in water system. In 8 hours, 89% of acetaminophen, ibuprofen, caffeine are removed in slope type reactor while 39% of them in submerged type.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.673-678
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• 2011

Water samples from several wastewater treatment plants and two industry drains in Gyeongsangbukdo were investigated for concentration levels of micropollutants. Samples were taken totally four times from May to November of 2008 and tested for seven factors including pesticide, 1,4-Dioxane and Perchlorate which had been big issues for Nakdong river because of their contaminations. As results, 2,4-D, Alachlor, and BEHA were not detected while BEHP was detected at some sampling sites. 1,4-Dioxane and Perchlorate were also detected in wide ranges from several sampling sites. Therefore, continuous supervising and monitoring systems needed to be invested for proper management for micropollutants since those micropollutants could affect human health and aquatic system with low concentration levels.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.529-534
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• 1994

The lethal concentration(LC50) of several micropollutants for three species of the fish Paralichthys olivaceus, Mugil cephalus and Sebastes schlegeli were determined by acute toxicity tests. For the determination of definitive test concentrations, the fish were exposed to three test material concentrations spaced at order-of-magnitude intervals based on a logarithmic ratio in range finding tests. LC50 was determined by five concentrations of test material in a geometric progression by means of range finding tests. The 96hr-LC50 values(mg/l) were estimated by the graphical interpolation of probability-logarithm transformations. These indicated that the order of sensitivities to three kind of micropollutants was Mugil cephalus > Paralichthys olivaceus > Sebastes schlegeli.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.167-177
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• 2024

This study aimed to assess the efficacy of an adsorption process in removing organic matter and micropollutant residuals. After a full-scale water circulation system, the adsorption process was considered a post-treatment step. The system, treating anthropogenically impacted surface waters, comprises a hydro-cyclone, coagulation, flocculation, and dissolved air flotation unit. While the system generally maintained stable and satisfactory effluent quality standards over months, it did not meet the highest standard for organic matter (as determined by chemical oxygen demands). Adsorption experiments utilized two granular activated carbon types, GAC 830 and GCN 830, derived from coal and coconut-shell feedstocks, respectively. The assessment encompassed organic materials along with two notable micropollutants: acetaminophen (APAP) and acid orange 7 (AO7). Adsorption kinetics and isotherm experiments were conducted to determine adsorption rates and maximum adsorption amounts. The quantitative findings derived from pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir isotherm models suggest the effectiveness of the adsorption process. The findings of this study propose the potential of employing the adsorption process as a post-treatment to enhance the treatment of contaminants that are not satisfactorily treated by conventional water circulation systems. This enhancement is crucial for ensuring the sustainability of urban water cycles.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.163-170
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• 2020

Knowledge of organic micropollutant transfers in barrier seal materials from waste storage facilities is limited to volatile organic compounds and phenolic compounds at ambient temperature. This study focused on the sorption of chlorophenols (CPs) from various geotextiles from clay geosynthetics under the influence of temperature. Also to study the impact of the polarity or the amount of CPs adsorbed on geotextiles with the partition coefficient. The effect of various parameters such as contact time, effect of temperature, initial CPs concentration and adsorbent dosage has been carried out in this study. The result obtained is non-linear and the data was calculated for affinity with Freundlich isotherm model. An important observation is that the amount of CPs sorbed on geotextiles increases with a growing number of chlorine atoms, ie increases with the partition coefficient (log K_ow). During this study, a decrease in adsorbent properties was observed with the rise in temperature from 23℃ to 55℃. The partitioning coefficients for CPs examined range are from 2.4 (R² = 0.86) to 8.4 mL/g (R² = 0.90). Among the CPs studied, the highest adsorbed quantity was observed for pentachlorophenol with 0.052 g/g at 23℃, this quantity will decrease with the increase in temperature.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.245-250
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• 2004

This study investigated the micropollutants present in raw water supplied for the several drinking water treatment plants in Seoul. The target sample waters were collected from the several sites, such as Jayang (JY), Kuui (KI), Paldang (PD) and Kangbuk (KB) at the Han-River stream. The analytical method used in this study enable us to detect about 300 kinds of chemicals commonly found in surface water at ppt level by GC-ion trap MS. In this study, the consideration on the analytic results focused on the four hazardous organics, such as benzenes, phenols, phthalates and pesticides. The numbers of each detected micropollutant were 1~8 kinds for benzenes, 1~7 kinds for phenols, 5~7 kinds for phthalates and 1~9 kinds for pesticides. For the pesticides, the higher concentration was detected in the water samples collected from PD and KB adjacent to the farming area, and at June and July, which is the busy farming season. The total concentrations of each micropollutants detected at all the sites were significantly lower than those of drinking water regulation in Korea as well as other advanced countries. However, the frequently detected micropollutants requires the steady and precise monitoring for the effective management of drinking water source.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.41 no.11
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• pp.318-327
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• 2017

Background: A typical sewage treatment plant is designed for organic and nutrient removal from municipal sewage water and not targeted to eliminate micropollutants such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and nano-sized metals which become a big concern for sustainable human and ecological system and are mainly discharged from sewage treatment plant. Therefore, despite contaminant removal by wastewater treatment processes, there are still remaining environmental risks by untreated pollutants in STP (sewage treatment plant) effluents. This study performed aquatic toxicity tests of raw wastewater and treated effluents in two sewage treatment plants to evaluate toxicity reduction by wastewater treatment process and analyze concentration of contaminants to reveal potential toxic factors in STP effluents. Methods: Water samples were collected from each treatment steps of two STPs, and acute and chronic toxicity tests were conducted following USEPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) and OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) guidelines. Endpoints were immobility for mortality and reproduction effect for estrogenicity. Results: Acute $EC_{50}s$ (median effective concentration) of influents for Seungki (SK) and Jungnang (JN) STPs are $54.13{\pm}32.64%$ and $30.38{\pm}24.96%$, respectively, and reduced to $96.49{\pm}7.84%$ and 100%. Acute toxicity reduction was clearly correlated with SS (suspended solids) concentration because of filter feeding characteristics of test organisms. Chronic toxicity tests revealed that lethal effect was reduced and low concentration of influents showed higher number of neonates. However, toxicity reduction was not related to nutrient removal. Fecundity effect positively increased in treated wastewater compared to that in raw wastewater, and no significant differences were observed compared to the control group in JN final effluent implying potential effects of estrogenic compounds in the STP effluents. Conclusions: Conventional wastewater treatment process reduced some organics and nutritional compounds from wastewater, and it results in toxicity reduction in lethal effect and positive reproductive effect but not showing correlation. Unknown estrogenic compounds could be a reason causing the increase of brood size. This study suggests that pharmaceutical residues and nanoparticles in STP effluents are one of the major micropollutants and underline as one of estrogenic effect factors.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.391-407
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• 2013

Micropollutants emerge in surface water through untreated discharge from sewage and wastewater treatment plants (STPs and WWTPs). Most micropollutants resist the conventional systems in place at water treatment plants (WTPs) and survive the production of tap water. In particular, pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors (ECDs) are micropollutants frequently detected in drinking water. In this review, we summarized the distribution of micropollutants at WTPs and also scrutinized the effectiveness and mechanisms for their removal at each stage of drinking water production. Micropollutants demonstrated clear concentrations in the final effluents of WTPs. Although chronic exposure to micropollutants in drinking water has unclear adverse effects on humans, peer reviews have argued that continuous accumulation in water environments and inappropriate removal at WTPs has the potential to eventually affect human health. Among the available removal mechanisms for micropollutants at WTPs, coagulation alone is unlikely to eliminate the pollutants, but ionized compounds can be adsorbed to natural particles (e.g. clay and colloidal particles) and metal salts in coagulants. Hydrophobicities of micropollutants are a critical factor in adsorption removal using activated carbon. Disinfection can reduce contaminants through oxidation by disinfectants (e.g. ozone, chlorine and ultraviolet light), but unidentified toxic byproducts may result from such treatments. Overall, the persistence of micropollutants in a treatment system is based on the physico-chemical properties of chemicals and the operating conditions of the processes involved. Therefore, monitoring of WTPs and effective elimination process studies for pharmaceuticals and ECDs are required to control micropollutant contamination of drinking water.