• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.31 no.11
• /
• pp.965-974
• /
• 2009

This study evaluated the degradation efficiency of malodorous sulfurized-organic compounds by utilizing N- and Sdoped titanium dioxide under visible-light irradiation, and examined the catalyst deactivation and regeneration. Catalyst surface was characterized by employing Fourier-Transform-Infrared-Red (FTIR) spectra. The visible-light-driven photocatalysis techniques were able to efficiently degrade low-level dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) with degradation efficiencies exceeding 97%, whereas they were not effective regarding the removal of high-level DMS and DMDS, with degradation efficiencies of 84 and 23% within 5 hrs of photocatalytic processes. As compared with DMS, DMDS which containes one more sulfur element revealed quick catalyst deactivation. Catalyst deactivation was confirmed by the equality between input and output concentrations of DMD or DMDS, the obsevation of no $CO_2$ generation during a photocatalytic process, and the FTIR spectrum peaks related with sulfur ion compounds, which are major byproducts formed on catalyst surfaces. The mineralization efficiency of DMS at 8 ppm, which was a peak value during a photocatalytic process, was calculated as 144%, exceeding 100%. The catalyst regenerated by high-temperature calcination exhibited higher catalyst recovery efficiency (53 and 58% for DMDS and DMS, respectively) as compared with dry-air and humid-air regeneration processes. However, even the calcined method was unable to totally regenerate deactivated catalysts.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.731-736
• /
• 2019

In this article, Pt/TiO₂ was manufactured in the form of powder and honeycomb, and the influence of SO₂, which is a poisonous substance to catalyst, and regeneration method were investigated. The catalytic activity of Pt/TiO₂ before and after the exposure to SO₂ was also compared. The initial activity of Pt/TiO₂ was proportional to the injected H₂ concentration (1~5%). And the optimum temperature of the catalyst and conversion rate of H₂ were 183 ℃ and 95%, respectively. It was confirmed that when exposing 2,800 ppm of SO₂ to the powder and honeycomb Pt/TiO₂, the performance of catalyst was not measurable and also 0.69% sulfur (S) remained on the catalyst surface. As a result of the cleaning and heat treatment for the poisoning catalyst, the activity of the powder catalyst exhibited a conversion rate of H₂ greater than 96%. Whereas, the honeycomb catalyst showed a conversion rate of H₂ greater than 95% when it was regenerated through the heat treatment of H₂ or air atmosphere.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.400-407
• /
• 2003

In microbial coal desulfurization process (MCDP) by using Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, the effect of process variables on pyritic sulfur removal efficiency has been investigated. The inhibitory effect of toxic materials contained in coal matrix on the activity of desulfurizing bacteria have been evaluated in coal extracts, and the results showed that the method was useful to evaluate the applicability of a coal which is to be desulfurization to MCDP. The removal efficiency increased with decreasing particle size and decreases with increasing pulp density, but has no significant influence of particle size and pup densities at high pulp densities over 20 wt%. The mass transfers of gaseous nutrients such as oxygen and carbon dioxide into coal slurry with various pulp densities and coal particle size has been studied in an airlift bioreactor. Mass transfer coefficient was independent of pulp density in coal slurry with fine particle below 175 $\mu\textrm{m}$, but significantly decreased with increasing pulp density over 225 $\mu\textrm{m}$. The coal particles over 575 $\mu\textrm{m}$ were significantly settled to the bottom of bioreactor resulting in poor mixing. Considering mass transfer, pulp density and coal mixing, an optimal size of coal particle for the microbial coal desulfurization process seems to be about 500 $\mu\textrm{m}$.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.10 no.12
• /
• pp.3740-3747
• /
• 2009

To protect the citizens' health of Gyeongju and to secure basic data for the assessment of health and environmental risk, distribution characteristics of meteorological elements were investigated and numerical simulation of wind field using RAMS model was carried out. In addition, measurement and analysis of air pollutants, forecasting the behavior air pollutants using ISC-AEROMOD view, and health and environmental risk-influenced zones were defined through managing air polluting materials to prevent health damage and property damage. According to the survey results of air pollution in Gyeongju and surroundings, average annual concentration of air pollutants in Gyeongju was slightly lower than that in Pohang and Ulsan areas, but concentration of particulate matters and nitrogen dioxide at Gyeongju Station Square and Yonggang Crossing were sometimes higher than that in Pohang and Ulsan areas. Results of the modeling of moving and diffusion of air pollutants that affect citizens' health showed that parts of the 1st through 4th industrial complexes together with POSCO were included in particulate matters and sulfur dioxide influenced areas in Pohang Steel Complex area, and that Haedo-dong, Sangdae-dong, Jecheol-dong and Jangheung-dong in Pohangnam-gu represented locally worsened air quality due to a quantity of air pollutant emission from dense steel industries and large scale industrial facilities.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.49 no.5
• /
• pp.329-341
• /
• 2016

Objectives: The goal of this study was to investigate the short-term effect of ambient air pollution on emergency department (ED) visits in Seoul for asthma according to patients' prior history of allergic diseases. Methods: Data on ED visits from 2005 to 2009 were obtained from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. To evaluate the risk of ED visits for asthma related to ambient air pollutants (carbon monoxide [CO], nitrogen dioxide [$NO_2$], ozone [$O_3$], sulfur dioxide [$SO_2$], and particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <$10{\mu}m$ [$PM_{10}$]), a generalized additive model with a Poisson distribution was used; a single-lag model and a cumulative-effect model (average concentration over the previous 1-7 days) were also explored. The percent increase and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated for each interquartile range (IQR) increment in the concentration of each air pollutant. Subgroup analyses were done by age, gender, the presence of allergic disease, and season. Results: A total of 33 751 asthma attack cases were observed during the study period. The strongest association was a 9.6% increase (95% CI, 6.9% to 12.3%) in the risk of ED visits for asthma per IQR increase in $O_3$ concentration. IQR changes in $NO_2$ and $PM_{10}$ concentrations were also significantly associated with ED visits in the cumulative lag 7 model. Among patients with a prior history of allergic rhinitis or atopic dermatitis, the risk of ED visits for asthma per IQR increase in $PM_{10}$ concentration was higher (3.9%; 95% CI, 1.2% to 6.7%) than in patients with no such history. Conclusions: Ambient air pollutants were positively associated with ED visits for asthma, especially among subjects with a prior history of allergic rhinitis or atopic dermatitis.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.32 no.4 s.91
• /
• pp.304-315
• /
• 2006

This study is performed to reexamine the association between ambient air pollution and daily mortality in seven major cities of Korea using a method of meta-analysis with the data filed for the period 1998-2001. These cities account for half of the Korean population (about 23 million). The observed concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO, mean=1.08 ppm), ozone ($O_3$, mean=33.97 ppb), particulate matter less than 10 ${\mu}m$ ($PM_{10},\;mean=57.11\;{\mu}g/m^3$), nitrogen dioxide ($NO_2$, mean=25.09 ppb), and sulfur dioxide ($SO_2$, mean=9.14 ppb) during the study period were at levels below Korea's current ambient air quality standards. Generalized additive models were applied to allow for the highly flexible fitting of seasonal and long-term time trends in air pollution as well as nonlinear associations with weather variables, such as air temperature and relative humidity. Also, we calculated a weighted mean as a meta-analysis summary of the estimates and its standard error. In city-specific analyses, an increase of $41.17{\mu}g/m^3(IQR)\;of\;PM_{10}$ corresponded to $1{\sim}12%$ more deaths, given constant weather conditions. Like most of air pollution epidemiologic studies, this meta-analysis cannot avoid fleeing from measurement misclassification since no personal measurement was taken. However, we can expect that a measurement bias be reduced in district-specific estimate since a monitoring station is better representative of air quality of the matched district. Significant heterogeneity was found for the effect of all pollutants. The estimated relative risks from meta-like analysis increased compared to those relative risks from pooled analysis. The similar results to those from the previous studies indicated existence of health effect of air pollution at current levels in many industrialized countries, including Korea.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.54 no.6
• /
• pp.838-846
• /
• 2016

Most of combustion processess used in industries require recovering or removing flue gas components. Recently a new MBA (moving bed adsorption) process for recovering $CO_2$ using zeolite 13X was developed. In this study, adsorption experiments for carbon dioxide, nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, and water vapor on zeolite 13X were carried out. Adsorption equilibrium and adsorption rate into solid particle were investigated. Langmuir, Toth, and Freundlich isotherm parameters were calculated from the experiment data at various temperatures. Experimental results were consistent with the theoretically predicted values. Also $CO_2$ adsorption amount was measured under the conditions with impurities such as $SO_2$ and $H_2O$. Binary adsorption data were well fitted to the extended Langmuir isotherm using parameters obtained from pure component experiment. However, $H_2O$ impurity less than, roughly, ${\sim}10^{-5}H_2O\;mol/g$ zeolite 13X enhanced slightly $CO_2$ adsorption. Spherical particle diffusion model well described experimentally measured adsorption rate. Diffusion coefficients and activation energies of $CO_2$, $SO_2$, $N_2$, $H_2O$ were obtained. Diffusion coefficients of $CO_2$ and $SO_2$ decreased with small amount of preadsorbed impurity. Parameter values from this study will be helpful to design of real commercial adsorption process.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.48 no.1
• /
• pp.89-101
• /
• 2015

The sour gas is natural gas containing components such as hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide that form acids when mixed with water. Element sulfur precipitates from sour gas when reservoir pressure and temperature decrease. According to the International Energy Agency, about 43% of the world's natural gas reserves(2,580 tcf or 73.057 tcm), excluding North America, are sour. The sour gas is often derived from the Germanic word 'sauer or acidic' and the etymology referred to as 'sour'. Sour gas requires special handling and infrastructure because it contains significant amounts of hydrogen sulphide, making it highly corrosive, flammable and explosive, and there fore more costly and dangerous to process. So the business of sour gas is affected by two important factors: the economic value of the gas, and the methods used in its production. According to be analyzed in the academic literature to sour gas(2000~2014) by the program of 'web of science', the research activities 145 papers in sour gas.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.658-663
• /
• 2018

Current measuring methods for air quality are based on ground measurement networks and satellite data. New methods of collecting evidence with advanced sensors are needed because current methods have limitations in collecting evidence for the illegal emission of air pollutants at narrow areas or specific sites. This study analyzed the possibility of using an ultraviolet hyperspectral sensor to measure the concentration of nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Two types of spectra were used: simulated spectra for gases with various concentrations using a radiative transfer model and observed spectra for each gas for a concentration. To understand the possibility of using a hyperspectral sensor, the differences between the simulated spectra and the observed spectra were analyzed, and the variation of simulated spectra were then analyzed according to the concentration. The results showed good agreement between observed spectra and simulated spectra. In addition, the absorption depth at specific wavelengths in the simulated spectra had a very strong correlation with the gas concentration. The gas concentration could be estimated using the hyperspectral sensor. In the future, validation would be needed to estimate the gas concentration through observations of various concentrations of gases using a hyperspectral sensor.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.183-191
• /
• 2005

This study is designed to compare the performance of established samplers (personal air sampler and MiniVOL portable air sampler) commonly used in the air environment or work environment with that of the sampler made by remodeling the air bubble generator for aquarium fishes. Sampling method used in this study is the filter collection method for PM10 and total suspended particles (TSP), the liquid collection method for sulfur dioxide ($SO_2$) and nitrogen dioxide ($NO_2$), and the solid collection method for toluene, respectively. There is not a significant difference in the average concentration of TSP between the Gilian personal air sampler (1st, $0.316{\pm}0.095$; 2nd $0.191{\pm}0.090$; 3rd, $0.185{\pm}0.073mg/m^3$) and the remodeled sampler (1st, $0.317{\pm}0.106$, 2nd $0.201{\pm}0.050$; 3rd $0.189{\pm}0.081mg/m^3$). There are also not significant differences in the average concentration of PM10 among the Gilian personal air sampler ($0.058{\pm}0.006mg/m^3$), the remodeled sampler ($0.052{\pm}0.008mg/m^3$) and the MiniVOL portable air sampler ($0.054{\pm}0.007mg/m^3$). The average concentration of the SO2 by the established sampler and the remodeled one is $3.79{\pm}0.21ppb$ and $3.45{\pm}0.15ppb$, respectively. In addition, there are not sigmficant differences in the average concentration of the NO2 between the Gilian personal air sampler (1st, $0.325{\pm}0.068$; 2nd $0.341{\pm}0.206$; 3rd, $2.971{\pm}0.078{\mu}g/m^3$) and the remodeled sampler (1st, $0.300{\pm}0.062$; 2nd $0.332{\pm}0.144$, 3rd, $2.968{\pm}0.085{\mu}g/m^3$). There are not significant differences in the average concentration of toluene between the Gilian personal air sampler (1st, $0.499{\pm}0.072$; 2nd $0.598{\pm}0.112$; 3rd $2.284{\pm}0.077{\mu}g/m^3$) and the remodeled sampler (1st, $0.463{\pm}0.133$; 2nd $0.603{\pm}0.082$; 3rd $2.353{\pm}0.115{\mu}g/m^3$). From these results, we can conclude that the performance of the remodeled sampler is not different from that of established samplers. There is possibility that the remodeled sampler can be used as a alternative device for Gilian personal air sampler in area and personal air sampling.