• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.879-887
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• 2014

Bacteria that mediate the anaerobic oxidation of ammonium (anammox) have been detected in natural ecosystems, as well as various wastewater treatment systems. In this study, sludge from a particular landfill leachate anaerobic treatment system was selected as the incubation seed for anammox microorganism enrichment owing to its possible anammox activity. Transmission electron microscopy observation, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis, and cloning/sequencing techniques were applied to identify the diversity of anammox microorganisms throughout the incubation. During the early stage of operation, the diversity of anammox microorganisms was similar to the original complex microbes in the seed sludge. However, as incubation time increased, the anammox microorganism diversity within the system that was originally dominated by Candidatus (Ca.) Brocadia sp. was replaced by Ca. Anammoxoglobus propionicus. The domination of Ca. Anammoxoglobus propionicus produced a stable removal of ammonia (70 mg-N/l) and nitrite (90 mg-N/l), and the total nitrogen removal efficiency was maintained at nearly 95%. The fluorescence in situ hybridization results showed that Ca. Anammoxoglobus propionicus was successfully enriched from $1.8{\pm}0.6%$ initially to $65{\pm}5%$ after 481 days of operation. Therefore, the present results demonstrated the feasibility of enriching Ca. Anammoxoglobus propionicus from leachate sludge, even though the original cell count was extremely low. Application of this seldom found anammox organism could offer an alternative to current ammonia-nitrogen treatment.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.65-72
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• 2020

The aims of this study were to compare the biomethanation of CO₂ through specific methanogenic activity (SMA) test which was inoculated with four different types of mixed microbial culture obtained from full-scale anaerobic digestion (AD) plants. The experimental results showed that CH₄ conversion was the highest in the samples inoculated by seed sludge taken from ADs of food waste and brewery; under this condition, the produced biomethane contains 89.3-91.9% of CH₄. Meanwhile, the lowest level was obtained in the sample from sewage sludge. The measured ratio of CH₄ production rate to CO₂ consumption rate in all reactors was higher than the theoretical value (1) in the middle of the period and soon dropped to 0.7-0.8. It might be due to changed metabolic pathways in the reactor by the degradation of residual organic matter and the increased activity of homoacetogenic bacteria.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.257-262
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• 2013

As the regulation of total phosphorus (T-P) concentration in biologically treated sewage effluent is reduced to 0.2~2 mg/L, flocculation process is recommended to remove T-P. In this study, the performance of Ti-salt coagulant was investigated in terms of dosage and pH in removing phosphorus and the collected sludge after Ti-salt flocculation was calcined to produce titania for effective sludge recycling. The flocculation performance was carried out using two methods: sedimentation and air floatation. Both methods were feasible to apply for Ti-salt flocculation. Ti-salt flocculation was effective in reducing phosphorus concentration in sewage effluent, which showed similar performance of alum ($Al_2(SO_4)_3$). The calcined sludge was recycled to titania which is the widely used metal oxide. Titania produed from Ti-salt sludge indicated similar characteristics of commercially-available P-25 in regard to photocatalytic activity and surface area. Therefore, this can be easily adopted to titania application by replacing P-25.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2017

In the present work, the synergistic effect of seaweed addition on organic acid production from sludge was investigated. The batch experiment was conducted at various mixing ratios of sewage sludge and seaweed (100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75, 0:100 on a COD basis) under the substrate concentration of 20 g COD/L. The fermentation temperature was conducted under mesophilic condition ($35^{\circ}C$) and a heat-treated ($90^{\circ}C$ for 20 min) anaerobic digester sludge was used as a seeding source to suppress the methanogenic activity, The results showed that the amount of organic acid production increased as the content of seaweed increased: organic acids were 1.45, 3.22, 4.28, 5.24 and 4.82 g COD/L for the mixing ratio of 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75 and 0:100 respectively. The synergistic effect was calculated based on the organic acid production of individual sludge and seaweed, and was found to be 0.92, 1.14, 1.26 g COD/L at the mixing ratio of 75:25, 50:50 and 25:75, which indicates that 40% of synergy was obtained when 25% of seaweed was added. The synergistic effect could be ascribed to the high C/N ratio and biodegradability of seaweed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.88-96
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• 2006

Among the various methods for minimization of waste activated sludge, maintaining a low F/M ratio in the bioreactor is known to be the most effective reliable one. In this research, various experiments were performed to check the capability of the nonwoven fabric filter bioreactor, which has been proved able to maintain a low F/M ratio by maintaining a high MLSS concentration, for excess sludge minimization. The reactor was intermittently fed with a synthetic wastewater having a COD concentration of approximately 300 mg/L and no SS. Results of the experiments showed that the F/M ratio in the reactor decreased to a minimum value of 0.02 g COD/g MLSS-day as the MLSS concentration increased to a maximum value of 31,010 mg/L. However, the measured endogenous decay coefficients and oxygen uptake rates of the MLSS confirmed that the activity of the MLSS decreased as the MLSS concentration increased. Based on the increase of MLSS in the reactor and the mass balance during the whole experimental period, the average microorganism yield coefficients were computed to be low values of 0.148 and 0.139 g MLSS/g COD, respectively. These results indicate that the nonwoven fabric filter bioreactor employed in this research is effective for minimization of excess sludge production.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.121-126
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• 2015

The objective of this study is to evaluate the catalytic potential of the porous material prepared from water treatment sludge. The textural properties of the catalyst were studied using $N_2$ adsorption and desorption isotherms, scanning electron microscope, and X-ray diffraction. The pellet-type catalyst prepared using water treatment sludge is determined to be a material that contains mesopores as well as micropores. The specific surface area of the catalyst is $157m^2/g$. Acidic characteristics of the catalyst are analyzed by temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia and infrared spectroscopy of adsorbed pyridine. 2-Butanol dehydration reaction was carried out in a fixed bed catalytic reactor. Yields of 1-butene, trans-2-butene, and cis-2-butene at $350^{\circ}C$ were 25.6 wt%, 19.2 wt%, and 29.9 wt%, respectively. This catalytic activity of the catalyst based on water treatment sludge in 2-butanol dehydration is due to the acid sites composed of Bronsted acid sites and Lewis acid sites. It was confirmed that the catalyst based on water treatment sludge can be utilized to produce $C_4$ olefin through butanol dehydration.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.540-542
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• 1998

Five microorganisms capable of degrading an aromatic medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoate ($PHA_{MCL}$), poly(3-hydroxy-5-phenylvalerate) (PHPV), were isolated from wastewater-treatment sludge. Among the isolates, JS02 showed degrading activity consistantly during several transfers. The isolate JS02 could hydrolyze another aromatic MCL copolyester, poly(3-hydroxy-5-phenoxyvalerate-co-3-hydroxy-7-phenoxyheptanoate), ［P(5POHV-co-7POHH)］, and other short-chain-length PHAs ($PHA_{SCL}) such as poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) ［P3(HB)］, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate) ［P(3 HB-co-4 HB)］, and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) ［P(3HB-co-3HV)］ with relatively low activity. The culture supernatant of JS02 showed hydrolyzing activity for the p-nitrophenyl esters of fatty acids.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.165-168
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• 2008

Measurements of phosphatase activity in peatlands are made difficult by the low levels of activity and the characteristically high concentrations of dissolved organic matter within the sediments. These materials may cause high background absorbances in colorimetric assays, and quenching interference in fluorimetric assays. This review describes the development of a new approach which allows such problems to be overcome by using HPLC to separate the interferences from the products of enzymic hydrolysis. This approach is applicable to various environmental samples such as peat, wetland sediment, and sludge which may contain a large amount of interfering organic matters.

• Korean Journal of Hydrosciences
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• v.2
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• pp.115-126
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• 1991

The anaerobic digester with sludge from sewage treatment plant was operated in the laboratory for two year to investigate the enumeration and activity of methanogenic microorganisms. In this experimental study, the effects of HRT on the degradation characteristics of organic materials and on the number of methanogenic bacteria produced were investigated. By making the media with the repeated wxperiment, the number and activity of methanogenic bacteria were measured. The increase of the removal rate of organic acid in the digester was oberved at HRT of 2 days. The total number of methane forming bacteria estimated by the MPN method showed 2.3 $\times$ $ at HRT of 3 days, 7$\times$$ of 5 days and 7.9$\times$$ $/ml of 10 days. The optimum incubation time for measuring the number of methanogenic bacteria was found as more than four weeks. The PMA revealed 161ml CH$/l day at HRT of 10 days and the PUA 290mg COD/l day. At the incubation time 4.3 days, the maximum value of CH$ *59.1%) was found. At this time, $ was found as 15.3% and $ 25.6%.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.78-85
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• 2000

Leachate from acidogenic fermentation of food waste was effectively treated by the UASB reactor at $37^{\circ}C$. The efficiency of COD removal was consistently over 96% up to the loading rates of $15.8g\;COD/{\ell}{\cdot}d$. The methane production rate increased to $5.5{\ell}/{\ell}{\cdot}d$. Of all the COD removed, 92% was converted to methane and the rest presumably to biomass. At loading rates over $18.7g\;COD/{\ell}{\cdot}d$, the efficiency of COD removal decreased due to the sludge flotation and washout in the reactor, which resulted from short HRT of less than 10.6 hr. The SMA(specific methanogenic activity) analysis showed that the VFA-degrading activity of granule was the highest for butyrate, and the lowest for propionate. This result was consistent with the observation that the residual propionate concentration was the highest among the VFAs in the effluent. Typical granules were found to be mainly composed of microcolonies of Methanosaeta. Though the original seed sludge contained 64.3% of particles smaller than 1.4mm, the sludge particles had been growing during the fermentation, and at the final step of this study, 75.1% of the particles were found to be larger than 1.4 mm in the UASB reactor.