• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.175-180
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• 2018

Box-Behnken Design (BBD) under response surface methodology (RSM) was implemented to optimization the operating parameters and assess the removal and recovery efficiencies of crude oil from contaminated soil using subcritical water extraction. The effects of temperature, extraction time and water flow rate were explored, and the results indicate that temperature has a great impact on crude oil removal and recovery. The correlation coefficients for oil removal ($R^2=0.74$) and recovery ($R^2=0.98$) suggest that the proposed quadratic model is useful. When setting the target removal and recovery (>99%), BBD-RSM determined the optimum condition to be a temperature of $250^{\circ}C$, extraction time of 120 min, and water flow rate of 1 mL/min. An experiment was carried out to confirm the results, with removal and recovery efficiencies of 99.69% and 87.33%, respectively. This result indicates that BBD is a suitable method to optimize the process variables for crude oil removal and recovery from contaminated soil.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.177-188
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• 1997

A pepper harvester using a pair of counter rotating helically wound cylinders as a pepper removal mechanism has been developed. Pepper harvesting by machines under the customary cultivation practice was expected to lower land productivity, that most farmers were concerned about. As one way to compensate for loss in land productivity by machine harvest, experts on pepper cultivation suggested change of both varieties and plant density per area. From the view of machine design, their suggestion implied that distance between rows should be narrower and height of the pepper removal mechanism could be shorter. Experiments to improve perfect pepper recovery ratio and to reduce size of the pepper removal mechanism was accomplished. In order to be a economically feasible harvester, minimum pepper recovery ratio was required to be greater or equal to 80%. The research goal was achieved by both reducing the diameter of the wire-helices from 30 cm to 18 cm and increasing rotational speed of the wire-helices up to 425 rpm. The best perfect pepper recovery ratio was 82.3%. Validity of experiment design and interpretation on statistical analysis were discussed. To understand the pepper removal mechanism properly, a pepper removal theory based physics was judged to be necessary.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.201-206
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• 2019

In this study, we performed an electrowinning process for effective removal of metals (Cu and Ni) in solution and their recovery as solid forms. A complete removal of Cu and Ni (1,000 mg/L) was observed during four times recycling test, indicating that our electrowinning system can ensure the efficient metal removal with high stability and durability. In addition, we investigated effect of operation parameters (i.e., concentration of boric acid only for Ni, variation of pH, concentration of electrolyte ($H_2SO_4$), and cell voltage) on the efficiency of metal removal (Cu and Ni) during the electrowinning. The addition of boric acid significantly enhanced removal efficiency of Ni as the concentration of boric acid increased up to 10 g/L. Compared to negligible pH effect (pH 1, 2, and 4) on the Cu removal, we observed the increase in removal efficiency of Ni as the pH increased from 1 to 4. The electrolyte concentration did not significantly influence the removal of Cu and Ni in this study. We also obtained great removal rates of Cu and Ni at 2.5 V and 4.0 V, which were much faster than those at lower voltages. Finally, almost 99% of each Cu and Ni (1,000 mg/L) was selectively removed from the mixture of metals by adjusting pH and addition of boric acid after the completion of Cu removal. The findings in this study can provide a fundamental knowledge about effect of important parameters on the efficiency of metal recovery during the electrowinning.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2000.05a
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• pp.149-152
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• 2000

The effects of selected co-surfactants on diesel removal from sandy soil were studied to increase diesel recovery from the soil by the surfactant-enhanced remediation of diesel-contaminated soil. The capability of co-surfactant for enhancing removal efficiency can be related with the interaction between its structural character and the structural peculiarity of nonionic surfactant. In the case of Tween 80, hexanol showed the great improvement in diesel recovery. Efficiency of diesel recovery decreased as hydrocarbon chain length of cosurfactant decreased. Higher content of hexanol further increased diesel recovery, but there was no significant improvement in the case of butanol and pentanol.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.111-116
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• 2012

This study investigates the complete removal of nitrate and the recovery of valuable ammonium salt by the combination of nanoscale zero-valent iron (NZVI) and a membrane contactor system. The NZVI used for the experiments was prepared by chemical reduction without a stabilizing agent. The main end-product of nitrate reduction by NZVI was ammonia, and the solution pH was stably maintained around 10.5. Effective removal of ammonia was possible with the polytetrafluoroethylene membrane contactor system in all tested conditions. Among the various operation parameters including influent pH, concentration, temperature, and contact time, contact time and solution pH showed significant effects on the ammonia removal mechanism. Also, the osmotic distillation phenomena that deteriorate the mass transfer efficiency could be minimized by pre-heating the influent wastewater. The ammonia removal rate could be maximized by optimizing operation conditions and changing the membrane configuration. The combination of NZVI and the membrane contactor system could be a solution for nitrate removal and the recovery of valuable products.

• Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry
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• v.68
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• pp.48-56
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• 2018

A potassium copper hexacyanoferrate (KCuHCF) embedded magnetic hydrogel bead (HCF-Mbead) was synthesized via a facile double crosslinking methods of $Fe^{3+}$ ionic binding and freeze-thaw for effective $Cs^+$ removal. The HCF-Mbead had a hierarchical porous structure facilitating fast access of $Cs^+$ ions to embedded active sites. The adsorbent showed enhanced $Cs^+$ removal properties in terms of capacity (69.2 mg/g), selectivity ($K_d=4{\times}10^4mL/g$, 1 ppm $Cs^+$ in seawater) and stability (>99.5% removal in pH 3~11) with rapid magnetic separation. This study further opens the possibility to develop an efficient material that links the integration of adsorption and recovery.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.39 no.8
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• pp.462-469
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• 2017

Eutrophication and shortage of phosphate ore raise the necessity of phosphate removal and recovery from wastewater treatment plants. Especially, a sludge treatment system containing highly concentrated phosphate should be targeted for phosphate removal and recovery. This study thus aimed to evaluate the capability of the struvite crystallization process for phosphate removal and recovery from a sludge treatment system of a wastewater treatment plant. Analysis on phosphate concentrations and masses in the sludge treatment system revealed that digested sludge and centrate have phosphate concentrations and masses, high enough to adopt the struvite crystallization process. Chemical equilibrium modeling indicated that the struvite crystallization reaction substantially occurred with pH higher than 8 and $Mg^{2+}$ concentration 1.2 times higher than its theoretical requirement. A series of batch tests with digested sludge and centrate indicated that the phosphate removal reaction by struvite crystallization followed a first-order kinetics and reached over 80% removal efficiency at equilibrium. Aeration in the batch tests was found to purge $CO_2$ in sludge or centrate and increase pH up to 8.7, without adding NaOH. Thus, we concluded that the struvite crystallization process could be an efficient and economical process for phosphate removal and recovery from a wastewater treatment plant.

• The Microorganisms and Industry
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.2-13
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• 1993

Some microorganisms, including actinomycetes, cyanobacteria, and other bacteria, algae, fungi, and yeast, can accumulate and retain relatively high quantities of heavy metals and radionuclides from their external environments (1-4). Both living and dead cells can be used for biosorptive metal/radionuclide removal from solution. Thus microorganisms and products excreted by or derived from microbial cells (2) may provide an alternative or adjunct to conventional techniuqes of metal removal and recovery. Recent approaches have separated the microbial growth and metal removal process to manipulate production of metal-adsorptive capacity of bacteria and metal removal process. If pre-grown cells are immobilized and used for metal removal, mathematical modeling can be applied to predict immobilized cell reactor behavior under specific process conditions. Waste and microbial adsorbent could be separated from the treated flow in one step. Once treated, the metal waste is concentrated in a small volume of sorbed form for easy metal disposal or recovery.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 2019.10a
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• pp.134-134
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• 2019

Utilization of organic waste as a renewable energy source is promising for sustainability and mitigation of climate change. Pyrolysis converts organic waste to gas, oil, and biochar by incomplete biomass combustion. Biochar is widely used as a soil conditioner and adsorbent. Biochar adsorbs/desorbs metals and ions depending on the soil environment and condition to act as a nutrient buffer in soils. Biochar is also regarded as a carbon storage by fixation of organic carbon. Phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) are strictly controlled in many wastewater treatment plants because it causes eutrophication in water bodies. P and N is removed by biological and chemical methods in wastewater treatment plants and transferred to sludge for disposal. On the other hand, P is an irreplaceable essential element for all living organisms and its resource (phosphate rock) is estimated about 100 years of economical mining. Therefore, P and N recovery from waste and wastewater is a critical issue for sustainable human society. For the purpose, intensive researches have been carried out to remove and recover P and N from waste and wastewater. Previous studies have shown that biochars can adsorb and desorbed phosphates implying that biochars could be a complementary fertilizer. However, most of the conventional biochar have limited capacity to adsorb phosphates and nitrate. Recent studies have focused on biochar impregnated with metal salts to improve phosphates and nitrate adsorption by synthesizing biochars with novel structures and surface properties. Metal salts and metal oxides have been used for the surface modification of biochars. If P removal is the only concern, P adsorption kinetics and capacity are the only important factors. If both of P and N removal and the application of recovery are concerned, however, P and N desorption characteristics and bioavailability are also critical factors to be considered. Most of the researches on impregnated biochars have focused on P removal efficiency and kinetics. In this study, coffee waste is thermally treated to produce biochar and it was impregnated with Mg/Al to enhance phosphates and nitrate adsorption/desorption and P bioavailability to increase its value as a fertilizer. Kinetics of phosphates and nitrate adsorption/desorption and bioavailability analysis were carried out to estimate its potential as a P and N removal adsorbent in wasewater and a fertilizer in soil.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.387-393
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to evaluate integrated anaerobic hydrogen fermentation and membrane bioreactor (MBR) for on-site domestic wastewater treatment and resource recovery. A synthetic wastewater (COD 17,000 mg/L) was used as artificial brown water which will be discharged from urine diversion toilet and fed into a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) type anaerobic reactor with inclined plate. The effluent of anaerobic reactor mixed with real household grey water (COD 700 mg/L) was further treated by MBR for reuse. An optimum condition maintained in anaerobic reactor was HRT of 8 hrs, pH 5.5, SRT of 5 days and temperature of $37^{\circ}C$. COD removal of 98% was achieved from the overall system. Total gas production rate and hydrogen content was 4.6 L/day and 52.4% respectively. COD mass balance described the COD distribution in the system via reactor byproducts and effluent COD concentration. The results of this study asserts that, anaerobic hydrogen fermentation combined with MBR is a potent system in stabilizing waste strength and clean hydrogen recovery which could be implemented for onsite domestic wastewater treatment and reuse.