• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.147-155
• /
• 2005

This study was designed to investigate the effect of plant as a botanical air purification on the indoor pollution by formaldehyde. Three indoor plants such as Dracaena marhginata, Spathiphyllum and Dracaena reflexa, were placed in the artificially contaminated reactor under laboratory condition. Both plant and soil effects on removal of formaldehyde from contaminated indoor air were observed. Reductions in the formaldehyde levels appeared to have been associated with soil medium factors as well as plant factors. The effect of soil on formaldehyde reduction was high in the early stage of the experiment and the results suggest that sorption could be more important factor than microbial degradation in the initial dissipation of contaminants in the soil. It was suggested that the effect of plant on formaldehyde reduction might be related to the plant species, total leaf surface area of plant, degree of contribution of soil medium, and exposed concentration level. The results of this study showed that air purification using plants is an effective means of reduction on indoor formaldehyde level, though, utilization of soil media with high sorption capacity and/or supplementary purifying aids were also suggested when the source is continuous or exposed concentration level is high.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.41-47
• /
• 2005

Preparation of ferrocyanide-anion exchange resin and adsorption test of the prepared resin on the Cs$^{+}$$ion were performed. Adsorption capability of the prepared resin on the Cs$^{+}$ion in the simulated citric acid based soil decontamination waste solution was 4 times greater than that of the commercial cation exchange resin. Adsorption equilibrium of the prepared resin on the Cs$^{+}$ion reached within 360 minutes. Adsorption capability on the Cs$^{+}$ion became to decrease above the necessary Co$^{2+}$ion concentration in the experimental range. Recycling test of the spent ion exchange resin by the successive application of hydrogen peroxide and hydrazine was also performed. It was found that desorption of Cs$^{+}$ion from the resin occurred to satisfy the electroneutrality condition without any degradation of the resin.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
• /
• 2002.09a
• /
• pp.67-70
• /
• 2002

Remediation of groundwater contaminated with chlorinated organics, nitro aromatics, and heavy metals using zero valent iron (ZVI) filings has paid considerable attention in recent years. When the contaminants of high concentration leaked abundantly in subsurface environment, permeable reactive barrier technology using iron filing is taken a long time for the remediation of contaminated groundwater, The problem of contaminant shock is able to be solved using surfactant (hexadecyltrimethylammonium, HDTMA) modified bentonite (SMB) as immobilizing material. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to develop the combined remediation technology using conventional permeable reactive and immobilizing barrier for the enhanced decontamination of chlorinated compounds. Four column experiments were conducted to assess the performance of the mixed reactive materials with Ottawa sand, iron filing, and HDTMA-bentonite for trichloroethylene (TCE) removal under controlled groundwater flow conditions. TCE reduction rates with sand/iron filing/HDTMA-bentonite were highest among four column due to dechlorination of TCE by iron filing and sorption of TCE by SMB.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
• /
• 2000.11a
• /
• pp.286-289
• /
• 2000

Surfactants have been extensively considered for decontamination of the subsurface polluted with hydrophobic organic compounds. Enhanced solubilization of naphthalene and phenanthrene in surfactant solution of SDDBS, MADS12 and DADS12 was studied for single compounds and their binary mixture. The order of increasing solubility enhancement of naphthalene and phenanthrene is SDDBS < MADS12 < DADS12. The solubility enhancement of phenanthrene is more than that of naphthalene because of the higher hydrophobicity. A synergistic effect on the solubilization of two PAHs was observed in the presence of another PAH.

• Advances in environmental research
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.127-137
• /
• 2017

Cotton is the major fiber crop in Pakistan that accounts for 2% of total national gross domestic product (GDP). After picking of cotton, the dry stalks are major organic waste that has no fate except burning to cook food in villages. Present research focuses use of cotton stalks as feedstock for biochar production, its characterization and effects on soil characteristics. Dry cotton stalks collected from agricultural field of Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan were combusted under anaerobic conditions at $450^{\circ}C$. The physicochemical analysis of biochar and cotton stalks show higher values of % total carbon, phosphorus and potassium concentrations in biochar as compared to cotton stalks. The concentration of nitrogen was decreased in biochar. Similarly biochar had greater values of fixed carbon that suggest its role for carbon sequestration and as a soil amendment. The fourier transformation infrared spectroscopic spectra (FTIR) of cotton stalks and biochar exposed more acidic groups in biochar as compared to cotton stalks. The newly developed functional groups in biochar have vital role in increasing surface properties, cation exchange capacity, and water holding capacity, and are responsible for heavy metal remediation in contaminated soil. In a further test, results show increase in the water holding capacity and nutrient retention by a sandy soil amended with biochar. It is concluded that cotton stalks can be effectively used to prepare biochar.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
• /
• 2003.09a
• /
• pp.3-10
• /
• 2003

Soil and groundwater contamination by petroleum hydrocarbon products is only one of many environmental problems in Korea. However, many environmental consulting companies have been targeted their business on this subject because the petroleum-oil-lubricant (POL) products have been widely used product and accidental releases of the products from storages resulted numerous small and large contaminated sites throughout Korea. Therefore, many small and large companies are actively participating in environmental assessment and remediation projects for the POL contaminated sites. Remedial technologies for the POL contaminated sites have been developed for many years by government and private institutions throughout the world. Development of a new decontamination technology for the POL contaminated sites is no longer attractive issue in research community because scientific bases of most cost-effective remedial technologies are well understood and have been used in the field by commercial sector. Numerous sites contaminated by underground tanks at gas stations have been remediated by relatively small companies in this country. We should appreciate their noticeable contributions as a frontier under very difficult market environment in Korea. We heard many successful stories as well as a few failure stories. Soil-groundwater remediation of POL contaminated site is not a simple task as shown in the text books or protocols. Therefore, failure risk is always with us, which requires continuous efforts for improvement of the technologies by the users and developers. In this presentation, author will discuss technical problems encountered and improvement made during implementation of several remedial technologies applied by Samsung Environmental Team. This is not a presentation about research or case study. We want to share our thought and experience with environmental engineers actively engaged in soil and groundwater remediation projects in Korea.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.65-73
• /
• 2000

Surfactants have been extensively considered for decontamination of the subsurface polluted with hydrophobic organic compounds. In order to investigate the effect of molecular structures on the solubilization of hydrophobic organic compounds, solubility enhancement of two PAHs in solutions of three different surfactants-conventional, dianionic, and gemini. The batch experimental results showed that the gemini was the most effective and the dianionic was the least, indicating that organic carbon content of the surfactants was the major factor which determines the sorption capacity of surfactant aggregates in water, unlike some of the previous reports.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.8 no.5
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2005

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of aquatic plant as a botanical air purification on the indoor air pollution by formaldehyde. Three aquatic plants such as Eichhornia crassipes, Cyperus alternifolius, Echinodorus cordifolius, were selected for this study and they were placed in the artificially contaminated chamber under laboratory condition. The results showed that all three plants could remove the formaldehyde from the contaminated air system effectively. Reduction in the formaldehyde levels by Eichhornia crassipes, which is the floating plant, might be associated with the factors of plant and water. Reduction in the formaldehyde levels by Cyperus helferi and Echinodorus cordifolius, which were emergent plant, was due to the complex effect of plant, soil medium and water. In aquatic plant system, dissolution, microbial degradation in rhizosphere, uptake through root and shoot, sorption to soil and shoot, hydrolysis are known as the main mechanisms of water soluble pollutants in the given system. The advantages of indoor air quality control system using aquatic plants can be; 1) various purifying mechanisms than foliage plants, 2) effective for decontamination of water soluble pollutants; 3) easy for maintenance; 4) diverse application potential. Therefore it was suggested from the results that indoor air control system of aquatic plants should be more effective for reduction of indoor air pollutants.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
• /
• 2003.10a
• /
• pp.111-124
• /
• 2003

Processes that cause immobilization of contaminants in soil are of great environmental importance because they may lead to a considerable reduction in the bioavailability of contaminants and they may restrict their leaching into groundwater. Previous investigations demonstrated that pollutants can be bound to soil constituents by either chemical or physical interactions. From an environmental point of view, chemical interactions are preferred, because they frequently lead to the formation of strong covalent bonds that are difficult to disrupt by microbial activity or chemical treatments. Humic substances resulting from lignin decomposition appear to be the major binding ligands involved in the incorporation of contaminants into the soil matrix through stable chemical linkages. Chemical bonds may be formed through oxidative coupling reactions catalyzed either biologically by polyphenol oxidases and peroxidases, or abiotically by certain clays and metal oxides. These naturally occurring processes are believed to result in the detoxification of contaminants. While indigenous enzymes are usually not likely to provide satisfactory decontamination of polluted sites, amending soil with enzymes derived from specific microbial cultures or plant materials may enhance incorporation processes. The catalytic effect of enzymes was evaluated by determining the extent of contaminants binding to humic material, and - whenever possible - by structural analyses of the resulting complexes. Previous research on xenobiotic immobilization was mostly based on the application of $^{14}$ C-labeled contaminants and radiocounting. Several recent studies demonstrated, however, that the evaluation of binding can be better achieved by applying $^{13}$ C-, $^{15}$ N- or $^{19}$ F-labeled xenobiotics in combination with $^{13}$ C-, $^{15}$ N- or $^{19}$ F-NMR spectroscopy. The rationale behind the NMR approach was that any binding-related modification in the initial arrangement of the labeled atoms automatically induced changes in the position of the corresponding signals in the NMR spectra. The delocalization of the signals exhibited a high degree of specificity, indicating whether or not covalent binding had occurred and, if so, what type of covalent bond had been formed. The results obtained confirmed the view that binding of contaminants to soil organic matter has important environmental consequences. In particular, now it is more evident than ever that as a result of binding, (a) the amount of contaminants available to interact with the biota is reduced; (b) the complexed products are less toxic than their parent compounds; and (c) groundwater pollution is reduced because of restricted contaminant mobility.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2006.03a
• /
• pp.348-351
• /
• 2006

This paper presents preliminary laboratory investigations on the electrokinetic (EK) remediation coupled with permeable reactive barrier (PRB) system. Atomizing slag was adopted as a PRB reactive material for remediation of groundwater contaminated with inorganic and/or organic substances. A series of laboratory experiments were performed with variable conditions such as (i) type of contaminant, (ii) applied electric field strength, (iii) processing time, and (iv) the application of PRB system. From the preliminary investigations, the coupled technology of EK with PRB system would be effective to remediate contaminated grounds without the extraction of pollutants from subsurface due to the reactions between the reactive materials and contaminants.