• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.807-813
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• 2004

Wastewater was treated by two different treatment processes; activated sludge process and advanced wastewater treatment process (KNR process) using lab-scale experiment. Two treated wastewater showed good treatment efficiency of organic matter removal, up to 90% removal. Nitrogen and phosphorus were not effectively removed though activated sludge process, while KNR process showed good removal efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus; 56% nitrogen removal and 95% phosphorus removal. KNR process showed better removal efficiency of organic matter, nitrogen, and phosphorus compared to activated sludge process. Organic matter characterization was tracked though measurement of UV scan, SUVA, and XAD fractionation. Treated wastewater showed higher SUVA value than wastewater influent, indicting less aromatic characteristic of organic matter. XAD fractionation showed hydrophilic fraction decreased though wastewater treatment, suggesting microbes preferentially digest hydrophilic and aliphatic molecules rather than hydrophobic and aromatic molecules of organic matter.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2011

Water is the most precious resource to human being, but it is polluted by different organic compounds. Organic matter (OM) in aqeous solutions is one of the important parameters of concern for human and environmental impact, and thus, it is essential to better characterize specifically targeted organic matter in aggregated and individual level of concentrations. This review presents different analytical tools and protocols to investigate detailed properties and characterization. Physical, chemical and biological aspects of OM are envisaged in terms of traditional and advanced measurement methods.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.395-407
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• 2007

Disinfection by-products(DBPs) are formed through the reaction between chlorine and natural organic matter(NOM) in water treatment. For reducing the formation of chlorinated DBPs in the drinking water treatment, there is a need to evaluate the behavior of NOM fractions and the occurrence of DBPs for each fraction. Among the six fractions of NOM, the removal of HPOA and HPIN got accomplished through coagulation and sedimentation processes. Advanced water treatment processes were found to be most significant to remove the HPOA and HPON. It was found that HPOA made the most THMFP level than any other fractions and HPIA and HPOA formed higher HAAFP. The fraction of NOM with MW less than 1k Da was 32.5~54.3% in intake raw water. Mostly the organic matter with MW more than 1k Da was removed through coagulation and sedimentation in the drinking water treatment processes. In case of advanced water treatment processes, the organic matter with MW 1k~100k Da decreased by means of ozone oxidation for high molecular weight substances. As the result low molecular organic matter increased. In the BAC and GAC processes, the organic matter with MW less than 100k Da decreased.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.359-373
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• 2013

Shale is considered as a source rock for conventional oil and gas exploration and development because shale is fine-grained detrital sedimentary rock which can preserve the organic matter better. Shale has a good sealing capacity for the petroleum trap due to its low permeability. Commercial recoveries of gas from shale in the North America based on the development of technologies of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing reveal that shale also function as a effective reservoir rock. Geochemical techniques to evaluate generation potential of the hydrocarbons from organic matter in the source rocks can be applied for the exploration of the shale gas resources. To evaluate shale gas resources, it is important to understand various geochemical processes and shale characteristics controlling generation, storage and estimation of shale gas reserves. In this paper, the generation mechanism of the oil and gas from organic matter is reviewed, and geochemical techniques which can be applied for the evaluation and characterization of shale gas are introduced.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.90-94
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• 2020

Interest in aspects of industrialization relating to human health has increased. Accordingly, the use of labels such as 'natural foods' and 'organic ingredients' has become more widespread, and greater emphasis is being placed on improving quality of life. Water is an essential element for human life, and water quality has a significant impact on human health. However, technology that can precisely determine the substances present in water is still lacking. This study was conducted to establish a complete mass spectrometry process, from pretreatment to analysis, to measure and characterize natural organic matter (NOM) in Korean spring water samples. Salts and other matrices were removed from the samples using solid-phase extraction (SPE) with two different columns (PPL and C18). After establishing an accurate analysis method, the experimental results were evaluated based on Van Krevelen diagrams and analysis of molar O/C and H/C ratios. The method for characterizing NOM introduced herein should facilitate evaluation of water quality.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.559-571
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• 2006

The overall objective of this research was to find out the interrelation of coagulant and organic matter during rapid mixing process and to identify the change of organic matter by mixing condition and to evaluate the effect of coagulation pH. During the coagulation, substantial changes in dissolved organics must be occurred by coagulation due to the simultaneous formation of microflocs and NOM precipitates. Increase in the organic removal efficiency should be mainly caused by the removal of microflocs formed during coagulant injection. That is, during the mixing period, substantial amount of dissolved organics were transformed into microflocs due to the simultaneous formation of microflocs and NOM precipitates. The results also showed that 40 to 80% of dissolved organic matter was converted into particulate material after rapid mixing process of coagulation. During the rapid mixing period, for purewater, formation of dissolved Al(III) (monomer and polymer) constant by rapid mixing condition, but for raw water, the species of Al hydrolysis showed different result. During the rapid mixing period, for high coagulant dose, Al-ferron reaction increases rapidly. At A/D(Adsorption and Destabilization) and sweep condition, both $Al(OH)_3(s)$ and dissolved Al(III) (monomer and polymer) exist, concurrent reactions by both mechanism appear to cause simultaneous precipitation.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.257-274
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• 2020

There are many previous review articles are available to summarize either the characterization methods of effluent organic matter (EfOM) or the individual control treatment options. However, there has been no attempt made to compare in parallel the physicochemical treatment options that target the removal of EfOM from biological treatments. This review deals with the recent progress on the characterization of EfOM and the novel technologies developed for EfOM treatment. Based on the publications after 2010, the advantages and the limitations of several popularly used analytical tools are discussed for EfOM characterization, which include UV-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), size exclusion chromatography (SEC), and Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance-mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS). It is a recent trend to combine an SEC system with various types of detectors, because it can successfully track the chemical/functional composition of EfOM, which varies across a continuum of different molecular sizes. FT-ICR-MS is the most powerful tool to detect EfOM at molecular levels. However, it is noted that this method has rarely been utilized to understand the changes of EfOM in pre-treatment or post-treatment systems. Although membrane filtration is still the preferred method to treat EfOM before its discharge due to its high separation selectivity, the minimum requirements for additional chemicals, the ease of scaling up, and the continuous operation, recent advances in ion exchange and advanced oxidation processes are greatly noteworthy. Recent progress in the non-membrane technologies, which are based on novel materials, are expected to enhance the removal efficiency of EfOM and even make it feasible to selectively remove undesirable fractions/compounds from bulk EfOM.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.23-32
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• 2007

Changes in the characteristics of dissolved organic matter was studied at selected stations in the Nakdong river basin using physical and chemical methods. Characteristics of dissolved organic matters were analysed and assessed. Production of disinfection byproducts were also investigated. Distribution of the organic compounds according to the Molecular weight(MW) indicate that MWs higher than 100K were highest with cattle excrement wastewater and MW between 100-10K were highest with waters from forest streams. Low MW compounds (Jess than 1K) were highest with the effluents from environmental facilities. Results of resin fractionation study show that acidic hydrophobic substances(AHS) were dominant in many stations. The values were higher in the samples from mainstreams and sidestreams where the influence of organic matter is higher than the water from environmental facilities. Hydrophilic neutral substances(HoN) such as hydrocarbon, pesticides and detergents were higher in the wastewater treatment facilities. HoN values of water from the forest streams were 4.7% indicating there is no synthetic pollutant.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.13-21
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• 2008

Partitioning tracer method is a useful tool to characterize large domains of the aquifers contaminated with light nonaqueous phase liquids (LNAPLs). Sorption of the partitioning tracers to the organic matter content of soil can potentially influence the efficacy of partitioning tracer method. LNAPL-water partitioning coefficients of tracers ($K_{nw}$), measured by static method, showed linear relationship. Sorption isotherm tests were conducted to evaluate the sorption capacity of the soils packed in the columns and the results were appropriately represented by Freundlich sorption isotherm. The sorption of tracers proportionally increased with the increase of the organic matter content of the soil. Laboratory experiments were conducted in four columns each packed with soils of different organic matter contents to determine the potential interference effects of sorption to soil organic matter content and correction factors for the errors in estimation of LNAPLs by partitioning tracer method. Though there were no contaminants added, breakthrough curves from columns packed with mixture of Jumunjin standard sand and organic matter showed separation of tracers. Columns were then contaminated to residual saturation with kerosene and breakthrough curves were obtained. The results show that sorption of tracers to soil organic matter leads to an increase in the retardation factor (R) and hence, to an overestimation of the saturation of LNAPLs. A relation between the percentage of organic matter content and the corresponding percentage error in the estimation of NAPLs has been developed.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.282-291
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• 2022

Background: The Arctic permafrost stores enormous amount of carbon (C), about one third of global C stocks. However, drastically increasing temperature in the Arctic makes the stable frozen C stock vulnerable to microbial decomposition. The released carbon dioxide from permafrost can cause accelerating C feedback to the atmosphere. Soil organic matter (SOM) composition would be the basic information to project the trajectory of C under rapidly changing climate. However, not many studies on SOM characterization have been done compared to quantification of SOM stocks. Thus, the purpose of our study is to determine soil properties and molecular compositions of SOM in four different Arctic regions. We collected soils in different soil layers from 1) Cambridge Bay, Canada, 2) Council, Alaska, USA, 3) Svalbard, Norway, and 4) Zackenberg, Greenland. The basic soil properties were measured, and the molecular composition of SOM was analyzed through pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (py-GC/MS). Results: The Oi layer of soil in Council, Alaska showed the lowest soil pH and the highest electrical conductivity (EC) and SOM content. All soils in each site showed increasing pH and decreasing SOC and EC values with soil depth. Since the Council site was moist acidic tundra compared to other three dry tundra sites, soil properties were distinct from the others: high SOM and EC, and low pH. Through the py-GC/MS analysis, a total of 117 pyrolysis products were detected from 32 soil samples of four different Arctic soils. The first two-axis of the PCA explained 38% of sample variation. While short- and mid-hydrocarbons were associated with mineral layers, lignins and polysaccharides were linked to organic layers of Alaska and Cambridge Bay soil. Conclusions: We conclude that the py-GC/MS results separated soil samples mainly based on the origin of SOM (plants- or microbially-derived). This molecular characteristics of SOM can play a role of controlling SOM degradation to warming. Thus, it should be further investigated how the SOM molecular characteristics have impacts on SOM dynamics through additional laboratory incubation studies and microbial decomposition measurements in the field.