• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.279-284
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• 2013

In this study, the feasibility of a single-stage thermophilic aerobic process for the treatment of high-strength food wastewater produced from the recycling process of food wastes was examined to substitute anaerobic digestion process. Also, the removal and stability of thermophilic aerobic process were assessed according to the changes of hydraulic retention times (HRTs) and organic loading rates (OLRs). When the OLR increased from 9.2 to $37.2kgCOD/m^3d$, a pH value in R1 (HRT : 5 d) significantly decreased to 5.0, due to the organic acid accumulation. On the other hand, the pH value in R2 (HRT : 10 d) was stable and R2 showed the high removal of COD, organic acid and lipid, even though the OLR increased from 4.6 to $18.6kgCOD/m^3d$. In R1, the COD loading rates for COD removal was suddenly dropped, as the COD loading rate increased from 18.6 to $28.4kgCOD/m^3d$. In contrast, R2 showed that the COD loading rates for COD removal increased with regard to increment in the loading rates of 3.61, 7.05, 9.43 and $12.2kgCOD/m^3d$, indicative of the high COD removal efficiency. Therefore, the results demonstrated that over 10-d HRT, the high concentration of raw food wastewater was efficiently treated in the single-stage thermophilic aerobic process.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.2047-2058
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• 2000

The effects of operating parameters on performance of upflow anaerobic sludge blanket(UASB). anaerobic filter(AF), and two-stage anaerobic sludge bed filter (ASBF) bioreactors in treating swine wastewater were evaluated by operating the lab-scale bioreactors upto hydraulic retention time(HRT) of 1 day and organic loading rate (OLR) of $5.1kg-COD/m^3{\cdot}d$ for 200 days. Swine wastewaters of which characteristics were affected by types of hog raising and seasons contained high concentrations of COD, SS, and ammonia. Inoculation of the bioreactors with waste sludge from anaerobic treatment facility of local municipal wastewater treatment plant was effective in developing biomass in the bioreactors. Acclimation period of the bioreactors with swine wastewaters required approximately 40 days, but that for AF and two-stage ASBF, which were filled with media, was faster than VASB. The bioreactors showed high and stable COD removal efficiency of 77~91% at influent T-N concentrations of 370~800mg/L but low and unstable COD removal efficiency of 24~94% at influent T-N concentrations of 760~1,310mg/L. It is essential to remove ammonia prior to anaerobic treatment since the concentrations of ammonia in swine wastewaters showed toxic effects to methanogenic bacteria. The bioreactors were effective in treating swine wastewaters with COD removal efficiency of 78.9~81.5% and biogas generation rate of $0.39{\sim}0.59m^3/kg-COD_r$ at OLR of $1.1{\sim}2.2kg-COD/m^3{\cdot}d$: however, an increase of OLR by reducing HRT and increasing influent COD caused decrease of COD removal efficiency. The extent of decrease in COD removal efficiency was higher in UASB than AF and two-stage ASBF. AF and two-stage ASBF anaerobic bioreactors were effective in treating varing characteristics of swine wastewaters since they showed high and stable COD removal efficiency at high OLR due to effective retention of biomass by media and staging.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.69-73
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• 2016

Generation of food waste is a serious issue that needs to be addressed worldwide. Developing suitable treatment methods while generating energy (methane) is a common practice for sustainable treatment of waste. In this study, methane generation by food waste was investigated in mesophilic and thermophilic regimes at various hydraulic retention times (HRTs) and organic loading rates (OLR). In temperature regimes, influent concentrations and HRTs ranged from 30 to 110 g COD/L and 18 to 30 days, respectively, which corresponding to an OLR of 1.0 to $6.1kg\;COD/m^3-d$. Better methane production and organic removal was observed under thermophilic conditions because of the enhanced hydrolysis of complex polymers and microbial activity at higher temperature. The peak methane productivities attained in thermophilic and mesophilic regimes were 1.30 and $0.99m^3/m^3-d$, respectively. The maximum methane yields were achieved at 50 g COD/L and HRT of 24 d in both cases, and the values were 264 and $221m^3/ton$ COD, respectively. The results of this study will facilitate the development of sustainable methane production technologies using food waste as a feedstock.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.37 no.7
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• pp.418-425
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• 2015

Anaerobic Filters (AF) packed with porous ceramic floating media were operated at different operational conditions to identify the feasibility of the renewable bioenergy, methane production from swine wastewater and to verify the suitability of effluent from anaerobic filters for the subsequent biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal. Stepwise increase in organic loading rates (OLRs) or decrease in hydraulic retention times (HRTs) with influent TCOD concentration of 14,000 mg/L were utilized at mesophilic temperature. The maximum methane productivity of 1.74 volume of $CH_4$ per volume of reactor per day (v/v-d) was achieved at an hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 0.5 day (OLR 28 g TVS/L-d). Based on the biogas production, the highest total volatile solids (TVS) removal efficiency of 63% was obtained at an HRT of 3 days (OLR 4.67 g TVS/L-d), however based on the result from the effluent total chemical oxygen demand (TCOD) analysis, the highest TCOD removal efficiency of 75% was achieved. The effluent alkalinity concentration over the range of 2,050~2,980 mg/L as $CaCO_3$ at all operational conditions, could compensate the alkalinity destruction caused by nitrification. The effluent from the anaerobic filter operated under the HRT of 2 days showed the COD/TKN ratio of 15~35 and COD/TP ratio of 38~56. Therefore effluent C/N/P ratio is able to satisfy the optimum COD/TKN ratio of greater than 8.0 and COD/TP ratio of 33 for the subsequent biological nutrient removal.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.8-15
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• 2007

Two phase UASB reactors for treating wastewater with sulfate were operated to assess the performance and competition of organics between sulfate reducing bacteria(SRB) and methane producing bacteria(MPB), and the change of characteristics of microorganisms. The reactors were fed in parallel with a synthetic wastewater of 4,000-5,000 mgCOD/L and sulfate concentration of $800-1,000\;mgSO_4/L$. In the MPR(methane producing reactor) and CR(control reactor), COD removal efficiencies were 90% and 60%, respectively, at the OLR(organic loading rate) of 6 gCOD/L, while the amount of biogas and methane content were 6.5 L/day and 80%, and 3 L/day and 50%, respectively. However, the portion of electron flow used by SRB at the OLR of 6 gCOD/L day in MPR and CR was 3% and 26%, respectively. This indicated that the increase of OLR of wastewater containing high sulfate like CR resulted in activity decrease and cell decay of MPB, while SRB was adapted immediately to new environment. The MPB activities in MPR and CR were 2 and $0.38\;kgCH_4-COD$/gVSS day at the OLR of 6 gCOD/L. This indicated hat SRB dominated gradually over MPB during long-term operation with wastewater containing sulfate as a consequence of outcompeting of SRB over MPB. In addition, the solution within AFR was maintained around pH 5.0, the MPB such as Methanothrix spp. which was very important to formation of granules was detached from the surface of granules due to the decrease of activity by limitation of substrate transportation into MPB. Therefore, a significant amount of sludge was washed out from the reactor.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.397-402
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• 2006

The treatment characteristics of leachate produced from pretreatment facilities like composting and feeding were investigated in a mesophilic anaerobic treatment. Experiments were performed in two phase which were acidification and methane fermentation. The acidification step was optimized for OLR from 1 to $4.5kg\;COD/kg\;VS{\cdot}day$ without adding NaOH. As experiment dates became longer, the solubilization ratio of particles increased up to 30% over 70 days. TVA was generated up to maximum 9,970mg HAc/L at OLR of $2kg\;COD/kg\;VS{\cdot}day$. But TVA was generated to minimum 6,519mg HAc/L at OLR of $4.5kg\;COD/kg\;VS{\cdot}day$. The acidification ratio was analyzed from 10.9% to 3.8% at OLR of $2kg\;COD/kg\;VS{\cdot}day$ and $4.5kg\;COD/kg\;VS{\cdot}day$ respectively. After 55 days, salt contents in the acid fermenter were accumulated and stabilized at the concentration of 3,150mg/L. Sodium ion($Na^+$) concentration was stabilized at 1,300mg/L. At methane fermentation step, biogas was generated up to 750ml and 937.5ml at the feeding volume of 20ml and 25ml respectively for acid fermented liquid during 25 days. About 80% of total biogas was generated during early 15 days and 95% were generated during 18 days respectively. After 25 days of the BMP test, acetic acid was removed approximately 97% and 98%, in case of those two experimental conditions.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.339-350
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• 2011

This study developed a climate informed Bayesian nonstationary frequency model which allows us to forecast seasonal summer rainfall at Nakdong River. We constructed a 37-year summer rainfall data set from 10 weather stations within Nakdong river basin, and two climate indices from sea surface temperature (SST) and outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) were derived through correlation analysis. The selected SST and OLR have been widely acknowledged as a climate driver for summer rainfall. The developed model was applied first to the 2010-year summer rainfall (888.1 mm) in order to assure ourself. We demonstrated model performance by comparing posterior distributions. It was confirmed that the proposed model is able to produce a reasonable forecast. The forecasted value is about 858.2 mm, and the difference between forecast and observation is about 30 mm. As the second case study, 2011-year summer rainfall forecast was made using an observed winter SSTs and an assumed 50% value of OLRs. The forecasted value is 967.7 mm and associated exceedance probability over average summer rainfall 680 mm is 92.9%. In addition, 50-year return period for summer rainfall was projected through the nonstationary frequency model. An exceedance probability over 1,400 mm corresponding to the 50-year return level is about 73.7%.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.104-111
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• 2011

In order to assess the performance of co-digester using pig slurry and food waste at the farm scale biogas production facility, the anaerobic facility that adopts the one-stage CSTR of 5 $m^3\;day^{-1}$ input scale was designed and installed under the conditions of the OLR of 2.33 kg $m^3\;day^{-1}$ and HRT of 30 days in an pig farmhouse. Several operation parameters were monitored for assessment of the process performance. The anaerobic facility was operated in three stages to compare the performance of the anaerobic co-digester. In the Stage I, that was fed with a mix of pig slurry to food waste ratio of 7:3 in the input volume, where input TS content was 4.7 (${\pm}0.8$) %, and OLR was 0.837-1.668 kg-VS $m^3\;day^{-1}$. An average biogas yield observed was 252 $Nm^3\;day^{-1}$ with methane content 67.9%. This facility was capable of producing an electricity of 626 kWh $day^{-1}$ and a heat recovery of 689 Mcal day-1. In Stage II, that was fed with a mixture of pig slurry and food waste at the ratio of 6:4 in the input volume, where input TS content was 6.9 (${\pm}1.9$) %, and OLR was 1.220-3.524 kg-VS $m^3\;day^{-1}$. The TS content of digestate was increased to 3.0 (${\pm}0.3$) %. In Stage III, that was fed with only pig slurry, input TS content was 3.6 (${\pm}2.0$) %, and OLR was 0.182-2.187 kg-VS $m^3\;day^{-1}$. In stage III, TS and volatile solid contents in the input pig slurry were highly variable, and input VFAs and alkalinity values that affect the performance of anaerobic digester were also more variable and sensitive to the variation of input organic loading during the digester operation. The biogas produced in the stage III, ranged from 11.3 to 170.0 $m^3\;day^{-1}$, which was lower than 222.5-330.2 $m^3\;day^{-1}$ produced in the stage II.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.47-54
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• 1996

UASB reactor was operated for treating wastewater containing high sulfate to assess their performance, competition between sulfate-reducing bacteria(SRB) and methane-producing bacteria(MPB), and the change in the characteristics of microbial granules according to change of hydraulic retention time(HRT) in the reactor. The reactor was fed with a synthetic moderate strength wastes(glucose, 2000 mgCOD/l) containing high sulfate($2400mgSO_4{^{2-}}/l$). The organic loading rate(OLR) ranged from 1.5 to 3.0 gCOD/l.d as HRT maintained 15 to 30 hrs in the stage I. The COD removal efficiency was between 80 to 92%. During this period, methane yield rapidly decreased from 0.3 to 0.1 1 $CH_4$/gCODremoved. While sulfide concentration in the effluent increased from 80 to 200 mgS/l. This indicates that SRB becomes dominant over MPB at a relatively long HRT in the excess sulfate. When OLR of reactor maintained from 5 to 8 gCOD/l.d in the stage II, methane yield increased from 0.1 to 0.17 1 $CH_4$/gCODremoved regardless of decrease of COD removal efficiency. This indicates that SRB is more sensitive to the change of a short HRT than MPB. In the competition between SRB and MPB, about 30% of the removed COD was utilized by SRB at HRT of 30 hrs during the start-up period, while about 73% was used by SRB at HRT of 15hrs at the final step of second experimental stage. Whereas after shock exposure of OLR about 62% was utilized by SRB at HRT of 5hrs. It indicates that SRB is strongly suppressed by the wash-out of significant dispersed SRB since a large electron flow is distributed to the MPB. In addition, the granulation in the presence of high sulfate is unfavoured at a long HRT because of substrate transport limitations into MPB like Methanothrix spp. which is an important factor in the composition of the granules. Accordingly, granule sizes in the UASB reactor decreased with time due to weak network frame of granules by the decreased activity of MPB.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.808-812
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• 2013

A new type of microbial fuel cell (MFC) with anaerobic membrane filter was designed to produce bioelectricity and to treat domestic sewage at relatively high organic loading rate (OLR) of $6.25kgCOD/m^3/day$ and short hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 1.9 h. A following aeration system was applied to ensure effluent water quality in continuous operation. Glucose was supplemented to increase the influent concentration of domestic sewage. Influent substrate of 95% was removed via the MFC and following aeration system and the corresponding maximum power density was $25.6mW/m^3$. External resistor of $200{\Omega}$ and air-cathode system contributed better MFC performance comparing to $2000{\Omega}$ and dissolved oxygen as a catholyte.