• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.175-180
• /
• 2009

This study was conducted to improve biological degradation efficiency of toluene as a model volatile organic compound (VOC) using yeast Candida tropicalis and to suggest an effective method for bioreactor operation. The yeast strain was immobilized with polyethylene glycol (PEG), alginate, and powdered activated carbon (PAC). The yeast-immobilized polymer media were used as fluidized materials in an airlift bioreactor. Polymer media without PAC were also made and operated in another airlift bioreactor. The two bioreactors showed toluene removal efficiencies ranging 80-96% at loading rates of $10-35 g/m^3-hr$, and the bioreactor containing the polymer media with PAC achieved higher removal efficiency. Protein contents in the liquid phase showed that the bioreactor using the yeast-immobilized polymer media with PAC had a higher rate of microbial growth initially than that without PAC. In addition, the microbial growth rate inside of the polymer media with PAC was five times higher than that without PAC. Consequently, the polymer media containing the yeast strain and PAC could enhance removal efficiencies for VOCs, and the immobilization method improve microbial activity and stability for a long-term operation of biological systems.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.31-41
• /
• 2019

Volatile organic compounds(VOCs) are toxic carcinogenic compounds found in wastewater. VOCs require rapid removal because they are easily volatilized during wastewater treatment. Electrochemical advanced oxidation processes(EAOPs) are considered efficient for VOC removal, based on their fast and versatile anodic electrochemical oxidation of pollutants. Many studies have reported the efficiency of removal of various types of pollutants using different anodes, but few studies have examined volatilization of VOCs during EAOPs. This study examined the removal efficiency for VOCs (chloroform, benzene, trichloroethylene and toluene) by oxidization and volatilization under a static stirred, aerated condition and an EAOP to compare the volatility of each compound. The removal efficiency of the optimum anode was determined by comparing the smallest volatilization ratio and the largest oxidization ratio for four different dimensionally stable anodes(DSA): Pt/Ti, $IrO_2/Ti$, $IrO_2/Ti$, and $IrO_2-Ru-Pd/Ti$. EAOP was operated under same current density ($25mA/cm^2$) and electrolyte concentration (0.05 M, as NaCl). The high volatility of the VOCs resulted in removal of more than 90% within 30 min under aerated conditions. For EAOP, the $IrO_2-Ru/Ti$ anode exhibited the highest VOC removal efficiency, at over 98% in 1 h, and the lowest VOC volatilization (less than 5%). Chloroform was the most recalcitrant VOC due to its high volatility and chemical stability, but it was oxidized 99.2% by $IrO_2-Ru/Ti$, 90.2% by $IrO_2-Ru-Pd/Ti$, 78% by $IrO_2/Ti$, and 75.4% by Pt/Ti anodes The oxidation and volatilization ratios of the VOCs indicate that the $IrO_2-Ru/Ti$ anode has superior electrochemical properties for VOC treatment due to its rapid oxidation process and its prevention of bubbling and volatilization of VOCs.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.193-206
• /
• 2002

Pervaporation separation is one of promising membrane technology for the energy saving processes and it has been developed to separate complex mixture systems including azeotropic mixture, close-boiling mixture, aqueous organic mixtures etc. Many researchers focused on dehydration pervaporation separation and they commercialized ethanol dehydration and isopropanol recycling processes. Nowadays, petroleum separation and volatile organic compound removal using pervaporation membranes is one of the emerging application of pervaporation separation. We reviewed the development and application of pervaporation membranes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.303-309
• /
• 2006

Yongdam reservoir located in Jeoliabuk-do has had a lot of concerns for its algal blooming since it has started to fill water. Many water utilities near Yongdam area use reservoirs even though they have some problems with certain algae that cause tastes and odors and clog filters. In this research, dissolved air flotation (DAF) technology was examined for feasibility for removal of algae. OAF can save the capital cost for its compactness, because its hydraulic loadings (overflow rates) are 10 times higher than sedimentation, and hydraulic detention times are much shorter, typically 5 to 15 minutes. As a result of this research, PAC is effective rather than Alum to DAF for pretreatment. Higher DOC plays an important role to change zetapotential negatively to inhibit destabilization of particle to coagulation. The length of pipeline to carry pressurized water into reactor does not affect reaction.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.83-90
• /
• 1997

Aiming at the treatment of large volumes of gas with a low concentration of poorly water soluble VOC(Volatile Organic Compound), a new system is proposed: the combination absorption tower/bioreactor. In the scrubber part of the bioscrubbing system, the contaminating compounds are absorbed in a aqueous phase. The contaminated scrubbing liquid is transported to the bioreactor, where the compounds are biodegraded by aerobic microorganisms (mainly to carbon dioxide, water, and biomass). In this study, separation of a volatile organic compound(VOC) out of a waste gas stream has been carried out using a re-cyclable high boiling point extrant(HBE). The liquid stream containing a high boiling point entrant(HBE) scrubs the gas stream in a direct gas-liquid countercurrent contacting operation in a packed tower for the removal of said component from the gaseous stream. A packed-bed column using Pall Ring was set up in order to simulate practical conditions for the scrubbing tower. The liquid stream transported to the bioreactor is recovered and recycled to the scrubber. The model gas, which contained 400 mg/$\textrm{m}^3$ of toluene, at a rate of 100 L/min, flowed into the packed column where the scrubbing liquid trickled over the packing in countercurrent to the rising gas at 10~15L/min. The bioscrubber designed for large volume air streams containing VOCs showed removal efficiency up to 80% in an optimum operating conditions during the tests fer removing toluene from an air stream by scrubbing the air stream with HBE.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.44-51
• /
• 2008

The removal of minor elements such as Na, Ca and Fe has been performed from domestic aluminum hydroxide of 99.7% purity with organic acids. Oxalic and citric acid were used as the leaching agent, respectively and aluminum hydroxides of different particle size were also employed for the purification with organic acid leaching. Fine grinding of aluminum hydroxide has been tested using ball mills and leaching characteristics of each element have also been examined in terms of leaching parameters such as temperature, acid concentration, and solid density. As a result, it was found that oxalic acid showed higher leaching efficiency than citric acid in the concentration range of 0.1 to 1.0 mole/l and leaching amount of each element was also increased with the acid concentration and reaction temperature. It was observed that about 45% of Na was leached out during ball milling process which implied that the majority of Na contained in aluminum hydroxide was water soluble compound.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.31 no.9
• /
• pp.793-802
• /
• 2009

Adsorption properties were estimated for the organic silicon compounds (siloxanes) in an actual landfill gas (LFG) using adsorbents such as coconut activated carbon, coal activated carbon, silica gel, sulfur adsorbent, carbonized sludge, and molecular sieve 13X. Coconut activated carbon showed the highest removal efficiency of more than 95%. The desorption of hexamethyldisiloxane (L2) from the adsorbent, however, resulted in the remarkable concentration variation of the compound in the treated gas. Silica gel, which had high adsorption capacity for L2 in single substance adsorption experiment in the other study, could not remove the component in the actual landfill gas while it adsorbed well octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4) and decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5) in the LFG. Therefore the elimination of hexamethyldisiloxane is an important factor to determine the level of total organosilicon compound in pretreated landfill gas. Moreover, the L2 from the actual landfill gas was effectively adsorbed by the serial adsorption test using two columns packed with coconut activated carbon which has the great capacity of siloxanes removal among others. In order to utilize efficiently LFG as a renewable energy, the emission and adsorptive characteristics of the substance to be treated should be considered for the organization, operation, and management of pretreatment process.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.211-219
• /
• 2006

An experimental study on the removal of VOCs gas using a biomembrane reactor were carried out at various inlet gas concentration, specific loading rate, retention time and gas flow rate of volume. The variations of efficiency and various parameters, which are relevant to gas removal, with mixing of soluble gas and without have been discussed. More than 95% of the toluene and methanol present in the feed was successfully removed in each study. The elimination of methanol with mixture of soluble compound of about 300 mg/h corresponds to a portion of 21% if there is a feed stream of 1400 mg/h. On the contrary the maximum efficiency of about 72% of toluene was reached. This is to be rated as a treatment of sorption that the limiting factor of the dismantling speed could be represented by this difficult degradable component. Nevertheless the elimination capacities for this reactor for toluene were on a very high level. For substances which show a very high solubility in silicon rubber an advantage of a bio membrane is clearly shown. Therefore a similarly good result is expected for n-hexane, because of its relatively good permeability which was distinguished during permeation experiments.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.109-117
• /
• 2013

The removal characteristics of composite odor and malodorous substances using 33 biofilters in sewage treatment facilities were investigated. The geometry mean values of composite odor and odor quotient were reduced by 52.7% and 59.2% at the outlet of the biofilters, respectively. The removal efficiencies of the biofiltes for the composite odor and odor quotient show a significant difference statistically(p=0.000<0.05). The median value of odor quotient of sulfur compounds was reduced by 69.1% at the outlet of the biofilter and the odor quotient of the sulfur compound at the inlet and outlet of the biofilter shows a significant difference statistically(p=0.000<0.05); on the other hand, those of the $NH_3$ and trimethylamine, aldehydes, VOCs and alcohols, organic acids do not.

• Advances in environmental research
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.29-43
• /
• 2014

Pharmaceutical wastewater effluents are well known for their difficult elimination by traditional biotreatment methods and their important contribution to environmental pollution due to its fluctuating and recalcitrant nature. OTC is one of the nonbiodegradable antibiotics that makes antibiotic-resistant, so it can make be high risk for environment. NZVI can be a good choice for removal of OTC in aqueous solution. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the amounts of NZVI and OTC to be used at pH 3 and under 200 W, UV-A irradiation. The responses were removal percent of absorption at 290 and 348 nm, TOC and COD of OTC. In the optimum condition, Linear model was performed 155 ppm of OTC were removed by 1000 ppm NZVI after 6.5 hours and the removal efficiency of absorption at 290 and 348 nm, TOC and COD were 87, 95, 85 and 89 percent, respectively. In the similar process, there is no organic compound after 14 hours. The parameters ORP, DO and pH were investigated for 6:30 hours to study the type of NZVI reaction in process. In the beginning of reaction, oxidation was the dominant reaction after 3 hours, photocatalytic reaction was remarkable. The mechanism of OTC degradation is proposed by HPLC/ESI-MS and four by products were found. Also the rate constants (first order kinetic chain reaction model) were 0.0099, 0.0021, 0.0010, 0.0049 and $0.0074min^{-1}$, respectively.