• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.79-84
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• 2010

Three biological aerated filters (BAFs) composed of a PVC pipe with a diameter of 75 mm were constructed and operated at a waste-water temperature at $13^{\circ}C$. The media used for each BAF were: 5-mm gravel; 5-mm lava rock; 12.5-mm diameter by 15-mm long plastic rings, all with a media depth of 1.7 m. The feedwater, which simulated the effluent of aerated lagoons, had influent soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD) and ammonia concentrations of approximately 50 and 25 mg/L, respectively. For a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of two hours without recirculation, ammonia percent removals were 98.5, 98.9, and 97.8%, for the gravel, lava rock, and plastic rings, respectively. By increasing the effluent recirculation from 100 to 200% for an HRT of one hour, respective ammonia removals improved from 90.1 to 96, 76.5 to 90, and 65.3 to 79.5% for gravel, lava rock, and plastic rings. Based on the ammonia and sCOD loadings for different HRTs, the estimated maximum ammonia loading was approximately 0.6 kg $NH_3-N/m^3$-day for the three BAFs of different media types. The zero-order biotransformation rates for the BAF with gravel were found to be higher than the lava rock and plastic ring media. The results ultimately showed that BAF can be used as an add-on system to aerated lagoons or as a secondary treatment unit to meet ammonia discharge limits.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF PACKAGING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.65-71
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• 2018

Paper packs, glass bottles, metal cans, and plastic materials are classified according to packaging material recycling groups that are Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). In the case of waste paper pack, the compressed cartons are dissociated to separate polyethylene films and other foreign substance, and then these are washed, pulverized and dried to produce toilet paper. Glass bottle for recycling is provided to the bottle manufacturers after the process of collecting the waste glass bottle, removing the foreign substance, sorting by color, crushing, raw materializing process. Waste glass recycling technology of Korea is largely manual, except for removal of metal components and low specific gravity materials. Metal can is classified into iron and aluminum cans through an automatic sorting machine, compressed, and reproduced as iron and aluminum through a blast furnace. In the case of composite plastic material, the selected compressed product is crushed and then recycled through melt molding and refined products are produced through solid fuel manufacturing steps through emulsification and compression molding through pyrolysis. In the recycling process of paper packs, glass bottles, metal cans, and plastic materials, the influx of recycled materials and other substances interferes with the recycling process and increases the recycling cost and time. Therefore, the government needs to improve the legal system which is necessary to use materials and structure that are easy to recycle from the design stage of products or packaging materials.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.36-43
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• 2024

Fishing net waste (FNW) constitutes over half of all marine plastic waste and is a major contributor to the degradation of marine ecosystems. While current treatment options for FNW include incineration, landfilling, and mechanical recycling, these methods often result in low-value products and pollutant emissions. Importantly, FNWs, comprised of plastic polymers, can be converted into valuable resources like syngas and pyrolysis oil through pyrolysis. Thus, this study presents a process for generating high-purity hydrogen (H₂) by catalytically pyrolyzing FNW in a CO₂ environment. The proposed process comprises of three stages: First, the pretreated FNW undergoes Ni/SiO₂ catalytic pyrolysis under CO₂ conditions to produce syngas and pyrolysis oil. Second, the produced pyrolysis oil is incinerated and repurposed as an energy source for the pyrolysis reaction. Lastly, the syngas is transformed into high-purity H₂ via the Water-Gas-Shift (WGS) reaction and Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA). This study compares the results of the proposed process with those of traditional pyrolysis conducted under N₂ conditions. Simulation results show that pyrolyzing 500 kg/h of FNW produced 2.933 kmol/h of high-purity H₂ under N₂ conditions and 3.605 kmol/h of high-purity H₂ under CO₂ conditions. Furthermore, pyrolysis under CO₂ conditions improved CO production, increasing H₂ output. Additionally, the CO₂ emissions were reduced by 89.8% compared to N₂ conditions due to the capture and utilization of CO₂ released during the process. Therefore, the proposed process under CO₂ conditions can efficiently recycle FNW and generate eco-friendly hydrogen product.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.24-28
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• 2005

Waste of the hydroponic solution from the plastic film house cultivation was recycled to grow the red pepper(Capsicum annum L.) in upland fields as supplement for plant nutrients and irrigation sources. Application of hydroponic waste solution increased the pH and EC of the soils, coupled with the increases in the concentrations of exchangeable cations(Ca, Mg, and K), total nitrogen, $NH_4-N,\;and\;NO_3-N$. Growth and yield of red pepper were highest when the treatment of chemical fertilizer(70%) was combined with hydroponic waste solution(30%). Amounts of the daily producing hydroponic waste solution were 2,880 L $ha^{-1}\;day^{-1}$ from the experimental facilities and this could irrigate $409.86m^2$ of area to compensate for the amount of water loss by evapotranspiration(3%). The overall results demonstrated that hydroponic waste solution could be recycled as plant nutrients and irrigation water resources for enhancing soil fertility and environmental quality.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.119-127
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• 2011

Objective of this study is to identify properties on strength increase of hardened concrete and fluidization of non-hardened concrete using waste ceramics generated by construction waste, which is a type of industrial waste, and by ceramics, which is a clay plastic, during its production process, and determine length change ratio caused by drying shrinkage during substitution of recycle aggregate and waste ceramics, and whether they can be used as concrete compounds. Slump of non-hardened concrete exhibited the best fluidization and formability at recycled aggregate's replacement ratio of 60% driven by higher substitution ratio of recycled aggregate and waste ceramics while air content met the KS requirement when substitution ratio of waste ceramics was $4,000cm^2/g$. Compressive strength of hardened concrete exceeded the requirements at early age and standard age and temperature dropped by roughly $6{\sim}10^{\circ}C$ less than the standard at maximum temperature in adiabatic temperature increase, which will hopefully result in stronger durability.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.14-23
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• 2009

In terms of resources recycling and resolving waste disposal problems, it is very important to recover precious metals like Au, Ag and Pd and valuable metals like Cu, Sn and Ni from the scraps of waste electrical and electronic equipment(WEEE) that consists of detective electrical and electronic parts discarded during manufacturing electrical and electronic equipments and waste electrical and electronic parts generated during disassembling them. In general, the scraps of WEEE are composed of various metals and alloys as well as refractory oxides and plastic components. Precious and valuable metals from the scraps of WEEE can be recovered by gas-phase-volatilization, hydrometallurgical, or pyrometallurgical processes. However, the gas-phase-volatilization and hydrometallurgical processes have been suggested but not yet commercialized. At the present time, most of the commercial plants for recovering precious and valuable metals from the scraps of WEEE adopt pyrometallurgical processes. Therefore, in this paper, the technical and environmental aspects on the important pyrometallurgical processes through literature survey are reviewed, and the scale-up result of a new pyrometallurgical process for recovering the precious and valuable metals contained in the scraps of WEEE using waste copper slag is presented.

• Clean Technology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.141-152
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• 2015

As environmental issues are emerging, bio-plastic suppliers in leading countries have been foreseeing the strong needs for environment-friendly materials such as eco-packing materials due to increased attention and regulation on recycle. To catch up with the demand, various types of bio-plastics based on natural feedstocks were developed and released on a market. These bio-plastic products drew the great attention even in domestic industries. At present, international oil price fluctuation and heavy charge on waste raise the unit cost of production and disposal expense of conventional plastic materials. These conditions make bio-plastic an alternative, because it is not restrained by oil prices and problem in the disposal. It is also expected that bio-plastic will be applied to various types of products including containers, industrial supplies, disposables, and medical supplies. However, the bio-plastic is still in its infancy, thus more research and understanding should be followed to put it to application. Bio-plastic is considered as environment-friendly material with high potential which has the advantages of production and disposal.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.33-41
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• 2023

Excessive use of plastic bottles contributes to a significant environmental issue due to the high volume of plastic waste generated. To address this, efforts are needed to reduce the weight of plastic bottles. However, indiscriminate weight reduction may compromise the essential rigidity required for plastic bottles. Extensive research on rib shape for pressure vessels are exists, but there is a few research of rib shapes to enhance the stiffness of plastic bottles. The following results were obtained from the analyses conducted in this study. 1) Among the rib cross-sections of square, trapezoid, and triangle, the buckling critical load of PET bottles with square-shaped ribs is improved by about 14% compared to the buckling critical load of PET bottles without ribs. 2) The buckling critical load is improved by about 18% when a square-shaped rib with an aspect ratio of 0.2 is applied, compared to the buckling critical load of the bottle without the rib. 3) When longitudinal and transverse square ribs were applied to the axial direction of the PET bottle, the buckling critical load was improved by about 32% and 58% compared to the buckling critical load of the PET bottle without ribs, respectively, indicating that applying longitudinal ribs is effective in reinforcing the stiffness of PET bottles. 4) When 14 transverse ribs were applied, the maximum improvement was about 48% compared to the buckling critical load of the plastic bottle without ribs. 5) When 3 longitudinal ribs were applied on each side, the maximum improvement was about 76% compared to the buckling critical load of the bottle without ribs. Therefore, it was concluded that for effective stiffness reinforcement of a 500ml square bottle with a thickness of 0.5mm, 3 square-shaped ribs with an aspect ratio of 0.2 should be applied in the longitudinal direction relative to the axial direction of the bottle.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.61-68
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• 2008

For the recycling of the resources and the preservation of the environment, this study's purpose is to measure flexural behavior of the reinforced concrete beams with the major variables like concrete strength, replacement ratio of the recycled aggregate and the waste foundry sand and the tension reinforcement ratio and to present the data of the recycled aggregate used for the structure design. The experiment on the flexural behavior resulted in the followings. The ultimate strength of recycled R/C beam was manipulated proportionate to the tension reinforcement ratio, however the strength instantly decreased after passing the ultimate load due to the destroyed concrete of the compression side. The deflection at the maximum load varied from the tension reinforcement ratio by 5.5 times. The test specimen with the tension reinforcement ratio less than $0.5{\rho}b$ showed constant curve without change in the load from the yield to the ultimate load in contrast to the distinctive plastic region where the displacement was rising. Although the strain of main tension steel with the reinforcement ratio indicate different, the design of recycled concrete member can be applied for current design code for reinforced concrete structure as the ratio of tension reinforcement district the under the reinforcement ration in a balanced strain condition.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.34-41
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• 2020

Used disposable diapers have been considered for a long time as a type of waste difficult to recycle and valorize due to their composite nature including plastic, cellulose pulp, a super absorbent polymer and either urine, feces or both. Therefore, the fate of disposed diapers often is either incineration or landfill burial which both have various adverse environmental impacts. However, used disposable diapers contain nutrients: cellulose is an organic matter while urine and feces contain non negligible amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium which are primary nutrients included in most chemical fertilizers used in agriculture. In a scope of waste recycling and valorization, this study focuses on developing a method to achieve nutrient solution extraction from used disposable diapers. The experiment essentially consists in shredding the diapers and letting them macerate in solutions of sodium hydroxide with various concentrations to allow breaking down of the cellulose and super absorbent polymer and release of urine and feces before sterilizing the solutions in an autoclave to remove potential coliform bacteria. At the end of the experiment, a set of parameters is measured for the final solution to identify concentrations of nutrients as well as presence or absence of harmful substances. Results are discussed and directions for future studies are suggested, which include mechanization of the diapers shredding process or added aeration to enhance nitrification and absorption of extracted nutrients from plants.