• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.283-294
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• 2020

This work aims at studying the feasibility of continuous removal of mixed heavy metal ions from simulated zinc plating wastewaters by coupling a microbial fuel cell and a microbial electrolysis cell in batch and continuous modes. The discharging voltage of MFC increased initially from 0.4621 ± 0.0005 V to 0.4864 ± 0.0006 V as the initial concentration of Cr⁶⁺ increased from 10 ppm to 60 ppm. Almost complete removal of Cr⁶⁺ and low removal of Cu²⁺ occurred in MFC of the MFC-MEC-coupled system after 8 hours under the batch mode; removal efficiencies (REs) of Cr⁶⁺ and Cu²⁺ were 99.76% and 30.49%. After the same reaction time, REs of nickel and zinc ions were 55.15% and 76.21% in its MEC. Cu²⁺, Ni²⁺, and Zn²⁺ removal efficiencies of 54.98%, 30.63%, 55.04%, and 75.35% were achieved in the effluent within optimum HRT of 2 hours under the continuous mode. The incomplete removal of Cu²⁺, Ni²⁺ and Zn²⁺ ions in the effluent was due to the fact that the Cr⁶⁺ was almost completely consumed at the end of MFC reaction. After HRT of 12 hours, at the different sampling locations, Cr⁶⁺ and Cu²⁺ removal efficiencies in the cathodic chamber of MFC were 89.95% and 34.69%, respectively. 94.58%, 33.95%, 56.57%, and 75.76% were achieved for Cr⁶⁺, Cu²⁺, Ni²⁺ and Zn²⁺ in the cathodic chamber of MEC. It can be concluded that those metal ions can be removed completely by repeatedly passing high concentration of Cr⁶⁺ through the cathode chamber of MFC of the MFC-MEC-coupled system.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.119-126
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• 2001

A process for the production of bioplastics from wastewater with an open microbial culture was developed and evaluated. The process consists of a selection reactor to select bacteria in feast/famine regime and an accumulation reactor to produce PHA using selected bacteria. Polyhydroxyalkanoate(PHAs) accumulating bacteria could be efficiently grown in a sequencing batch reactor(SBR) without any growth limitation. For the high production of PHA limitation such as oxygen and nutrients seemed to be needed. Accumulation experiments were performed to evaluate the level of accumulation of PHA. Limited aeration had no effect, but nutrients limitation showed high accumulation. Bacteria which were selected in the SBR could accumulate PHA till 60% of cellular dry weight in accumulation experiments under nitrogen limitation. PHA accumulation rate decreased with increasing PHA content in the cells. Clearly, PHA accumulation rate has a strong correlation with the PHA content of the cells.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.281-286
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• 2007

A chemical and biological permeable barrier with economic feasibility is suggested to treat landfill leachate in this study. The proposed composite layers consist of bentonite, and polyurethane (PU) foam that is mixed with powdered activated carbon (PAC) and inoculated with microorganisms from local wastewater treatment plant. Each layer is mixed with local sand, and yellow brown soil. Batch tests were conducted to investigate the sorptions of nitrate on the PU foam and PAC, and nitrification/denitrification rate of each layer material. Nitrification occurred in 30 minutes with initial ammonia concentration of 100 mg/L, and the concentration of nitrate attached in the PU foam increased after 270 minutes. Results of denitrification batch tests showed 76.6%, 87.3% and 88% of nitrate removal efficiency at 10%, 20% and 30% of the volume ratio of PU foam, respectively. The pH increased from 7 to 9.42, and alkalinity increased from 980 mg/L to 1720 mg/L during the denitrification batch tests. In the column experiments using the proposed composite layers with 20% of the volume ratio of the PU foam, about 96% of BOD, 63% of COD, 58.1~79.5% of total nitrogen were removed.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.98-102
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• 2006

It was examined in this study that magnetic beads, which are assumed to be environmentally functional, could be effective in processing heavy metals that are water pollutants. For the purpose, magnetic beads containing carboxyl groups, which has strong binding force with heavy metals, are mixed with each Cd, Pb, Ni, Cu and Cr(III) solution, then stirred in pH 6. As a results of the process, it was proven that heavy metals bind quickly with magnetic beads through the reaction. In order to analyze heavy metal concentration, magnetic beads bind with heavy metal were collected by external magnetic force and dissolved in acid. The graphite furnace AAS was used to get heavy metal concentration melted in the acid solution. The results showed that heavy metal extractions by magnetic beads were influenced by the type and the concentration of a heavy metal, and over 90% of a heavy metal can be extracted in ppm level save for Cr(III). It was also examined in the study whether heavy metal extraction is influenced when other ions exist in each heavy metal solution. According to experiment, adding other heavy metals to a solution did have little influence on extracting an intended heavy metal. But in case salt or heavy metal chelate was added, Ni extraction changed sensitively although extracting other heavy metals were influenced only when the concentration of an added substance is high. In conclusion, it was shown that magnetic beads could be used to treat wastewater with relatively high heavy metal concentration.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.99-106
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• 2018

Lack of information on the Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) decay rates of river water under the tropical environment has triggered this study with an aim to fill the gap. Raw sewage, treated sewage, river water and tap water were mixed in different proportions to represent river water receiving varying amounts and types of wastewater and fed in a laboratory flume in batch mode. Water samples were recirculated in the flume for 30 h and BOD and Carbonaceous BOD (CBOD) concentrations were measured at least six times. Decay rates were obtained by fitting the measured data in the first order kinetic equation. After conducting 12 experiments, the range of BOD and CBOD decay rates were found to be 0.191 to 0.92 per day and 0.107 to 0.875 per day, respectively. Median decay rates were 0.344 and 0.258 per day for BOD and CBOD, respectively, which are slightly higher than the reported values in literatures. A relationship between CBOD decay rate and BOD decay rate is proposed as $k_{CBOD}=0.8642_{k_{BOD}}-0.0349$ where, $k_{CBOD}$ is CBOD decay rate and $k_{BOD}$ is BOD decay rate. The equation can be useful to extrapolate either of the decay rates when any of the rates is unknown.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.490-499
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• 1998

This study was initiated to investigate the applicability of sludge from water or waste water treatment on the crop cultivation. Sludge is generated in the process of water and wastewater treatment process in large quantity. The sludge can cause many environmental problems. we have a many available treatment methods of sludge However, these methods still shortcomings and are not. The composition of typical municipal sludge contains organics and inorganics. The organics components are normally burnt in high temperature and mainly inorganics components are left after thermal treatment process. For the production of artificial media, chabazite was used as additive, and the mixed material was thermally treated in the firing kiln at 800~1,10$0^{\circ}C$ for about 10 minutes. The physical and chemical characteristics of artificial media were analyzed and it showed that the artificial media could be used as a media for plants and soil conditioner for farmland. The concentrations of the toxic heavy metals in the media were lower then those in the soil quality standard for farmland. This study illustrated that the artificial media production process, and introduced how to produce it's possible application as a media for Plant growth.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.96-103
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• 1996

The objectives of this study were to examine the biodegradation of phenol using the anaerobic fluidized bed reactor(AFBR). Mixed microorganisms were selected from the anaerobic digestion tank, and could be adapted to high concentration of phenol by increasing the phenol concentration 600-3600 mg/l step by step. The results were summarized as follows: 1. The average removal efficiency of phenol was 90%, decreased by increasing concentration of phenol, and then a shock range was 1200~2400 ppm. 2. The production rate of biogas in overall limits was proportional to the concentration of influent phenol. 3. At steady state, compositions of gases were $CH_4$ 55~60%, $C0_2$ 34~43%, respectively. These were similar to that of the theoretical estimates. 4. The production rates of biogas and methane per the molarity of phenol removed were linearly increased, 56.45 l gas/mol-phenol and 29.20 l $CH_4/mol$-phenol. Using this biogas, the recoverable energy was 269.1 kcal/mol phenol. It was 120.2 kcal/g-COD, transforming into the chemical oxygen demand. 5. The bulk of microorganisms existed in suspended section of fluidized bed with type of biofilm and its concentration was 340 mg/g-media. In conclusion, the anaerobic treatment of pure phenol was possible and its removal efficiency, introducing the AFBR, was successful. Also toxic organic compound such as phenol was biodegradable and was recoverable as resource of energy.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2018

Coagulation process using aluminum sulfate ($Al_2(SO_4)_3$) and ferric chloride ($FeCl_3$) was employed as a treatment method for decolorization of a synthetic textile wastewater containing red dye in this paper. Factors such as initial pH, coagulant dosage, initial concentration, conductivity and mixing conditions that influence color removal efficiency were experimentally tested. It was found that $Al_2(SO_4)_3$ is more efficient than $FeCl_3$ as coagulant. When $40mgL^{-1}$ aluminum sulfate was used, results showed that color induced by the red dye was efficiently removed (> 90 %) and was obtained in a large range of initial pH from 4 to 8 with, and for a dye concentration lower than $235mg\;L^{-1}$. After addition of the coagulant, the medium had to be mixed for 30 min at 60 rpm, then allowed to settle for 40 min. The effects of water conductivity in the range $0.035-2.42mS\;cm^{-1}$ and dye concentration up to $380mg\;L^{-1}$ were also followed and discussed.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.395-399
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• 2014

Operation characteristics of the sequencing batch reactor (SBR) process with electro-flotation (EF) as a solid liquid separation method (EF-SBR) were investigated. EF-SBR process showed excellent solid-liquid separation performance which enabled to separate biosolids from liquid phase within 30 min and to extend cyclic reaction time. Although influent organic loading rate was increased stepwise from 5 to 15 g COD/day, food to microorganisms (F/M) ratio could be maintained about 0.3 g COD/g VSS/day in EF-SBR because biomass concentration could be easily controlled at desired level by EF. However, it was impossible to increase biomass concentration at the same level in control SBR (C-SBR) process because solid-liquid separation by gravity settling showed a limitation at higher mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) concentration with 60 min of settling time. Total chemical oxygen demand (TCOD) removal efficiency of EF-SBR process was not decreased although influent organic loading rate became 3 times higher than initial value. However, it was seriously deteriorated in C-SBR process after increasing the rate over 10 g COD/day, which was accounted for insufficient organic removal by relatively higher food to microorganisms (F/M) ratio as well as biosolids wash-out by a limitation of gravity sedimentation.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.554-560
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• 2020

This study focuses on nitrification through a biological aerated filter (BAF) that is filled with a zeolite medium at low concentrations of ammonia. The zeolite medium consists of natural zeolite powder. The BAF is operated under two types of media, which are a ball-type zeolite medium and expanded poly propylene (EPP) medium. Nitrification occurred in the zeolite BAF (ZBAF) when the influent concentration of ammonia nitrogen was 3 mg L-1, but the BAF that was filled with an EPP medium did not experience nitrification. The ammonia nitrogen removal efficiency of ZBAF was 63.38% and the average nitrate nitrogen concentration was 1.746 mg/L. The ZBAF was tested again after a comparison experiment to treat pond water, and municipal wastewater mixed pond water. The ZBAF showed remarkable ammonia-nitrogen treatment at low concentration and low temperature. During this period, the average ammonia nitrogen removal efficiency was 64.56%. Especially, when water temperature decreased to 4.7℃, ammonia nitrogen removal efficiency remained 79%. On the other hand, the chemical-oxygen demand (COD) and phosphorus-removal trends were different. The COD and phosphorus did not show as efficient treatment as the ammonia-nitrogen treatment.