• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.184-190
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• 2005

A new VFAs production process from sewage sludge using Fenton's oxidation was investigated. Optimum concentrations of $H_2O_\;and\;Fe^{2+}$ as well as optimum reaction temperature for VFAs production were studied. In the presence of $Fe^{2+}$ as catalyst, the VFAs formation rate increased about 4 times compared to $H_2O_2$ oxidation process without $Fe^{2+}$. Optimum concentrations of $H_2O_2$ and $Fe^{2+}$ were 0.62 M and 0.007 M, respectively. VFAs formation reaction proceeded rapidly within 1 min and VFAs formed degraded partly to acetic acid and $CO_2$, which exhibited series reaction characteristics. Based on the economic aspect, reaction temperature of $25^{\circ}C$ and 10 min of reaction time were thought to be proper reaction conditions. The effect of initial pH in the range of $3{\sim}6.3$ on the VFAs formation was not observed.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.79-83
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• 2001

The sludge wastes fermentation process reactors were operated to produce the VFAs(volatile fatty acids) as supplemental carbon sources and to determine the optimum operating conditions. The experiment was carried out by varied mixture ration of 400:0 350:30 300:100 200:200 and operating temperature 2$0^{\circ}C$ 3$0^{\circ}C$ and 4$0^{\circ}C$ The results were as follows: Higher VFAs production rate observed at higher mixed ratio of primary sludge. When the mixed ratio of primary sludge and return sludge were 400:0 350:50 300:100 200:200 respectively. VFAs production are were 829.6mg/l 944.2 mg/l 597.9mg/ml an d441.6 mg/l , respectively. the yield of VFAs increased with temperature, but decreased with initial TSS concentration Because fermented sludge has relatively low nitrogen and phosphorus and relatively high VFAs it can be used as a substitute for external carbon in biological nutrient removal process.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.961-965
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• 2007

In this study, degradation of carbohydrates and composition of fermentative products were investigated in semi-continuous acid fermenter varying hydraulic retention time (HRT). Rice soup was used as a sole substrate for the acid fermentation. Solubilization efficiency of the substrate was higher than 70% for all HRT, however the gas conversion was ignorable implying that most of organic contents in the influent remained in the form of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and ethanol after acid fermentation. The VFAs were the predominant product and the VFAs conversion increased as the HRT decreased. The VFAs conversion reached the maximum value at 12 hr HRT accounting for 70% of the influent COD. Similar to VFAs, ethanol conversion was increased with the decrease of HRT and the maximum ethanol conversion efficiency was 8% at the HRT of 12 hr. Composition of VFAs was markedly dependent on HRT. As HRT increased, the composition of acetic acid was increased as a product of acetogenesis from butyrate, valerate and ethanol. This study demonstrated that HRT affected acid fermentation of a carbohydrate containing organic wastes producing VFAs and ethanol which could be effectively used to compensate the lack of carbon in wastewater for biological nutrient removal.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.6-13
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• 1988

A gas chromatographic method is described for the determination of volatile free acids(VFAs) in body fluids. VFAs were trace enriched from body fluids by liquid-solid extraction using Chromosorb P as the solid sorbent and ether as the eluant. The enriched VFAs were injected in splitless injection mode onto a HP-20M fused silica capillary column. The flame ionization detector was used as the detector. The present method was applied to the profiling of VFAs in body fluids from patients suffering from the infectious disease, hepatitis. The VFAs concentrations were high in saliva of hepatitis patients and isobutyric acid detected in sera of hepatitis patients compared to healthy subjects.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.219-232
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• 2007

Odors from manures are a major problem for livestock production. The most significant odorous compounds in animal manure a.e volatile fatty acids(VFAs). This work reviews the VFAs from the anaerobic sequencing biofilm batch reactor(ASBBR), anaerobic sequencing batch reactor(ASBR), solid compost batch reactor(SCBR), and aerobic sequencing batch reactor(SBR) associated with the animal manure biological treatment. First, we describe and quantify VFAs from animal manure biological treatment and discuss biofiltration for odor control. Then we review certain fundamentals aspects about Anaerobic and aerobic SBR, composting of animal manure, manure compost biofilter for odorous VFAs control, SBR for nitrogen removal, and ASBR for animal wastewater treatment systems considered important for the resource recovery and air quality. Finally, we present an overview for the future needs and current experience of the biological systems engineering for animal manure management and odor control.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.31 no.4 s.85
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• pp.294-300
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• 2005

Food waste can be a valuable carbon source in biological nutrient removal (BNR) systems because of high C/N and C/P ratios. However, food waste should be pretreated to promote its hydrolysis rate because hydrolysis reaction would be a rate-limiting step. This study investigates the influence of the enzymatic pretreatment on acid fermentation of food waste. Solubilization of particulate matter in food waste by using commercial enzymes was examined. The acidification efficiency and the volatile fatty acids (VFAs) production potential of enzymatically pretreated food waste were also examined. The highest volatile suspended solids (VSS) reduction was obtained with an enzyme mixture ratio of 1:2:1 of carbohydrase:protease:lipase. An optimum enzyme dosage for solubilization of food waste was $0.1\%$(V/V) with the enzyme mixture ratio of 1:2:1. In the acid fermentation of enzymatically pretreated food waste, $0.1\%$(V/V) enzyme mixture dosage for pretreatment result in the maximum VFAs production and the best VFAs fraction in soluble COD(SCOD). The VFAs production at this addition level was 3.3 times higher than that of no-enzyme added fermenter. The dominant VFAs present was n-butyrate followed by acetate.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.183-189
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• 2004

The performance of a membrane-coupled anaerobic fermenter system for the recovery of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from liquid organic sludge was experimentally investigated. Permeation flux was stably kept around $0.2(m^3/m^2/day)$ during operational period. The membrane-coupled fermenter showed 2.2 times higher VFAs concentration and higher VFAs forming rate than those of fermenter without membrane. The fermenter with membrane proved to be an effective system for the recovery of soluble organic materials from liquid sludge.

• Clean Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.148-155
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• 2013

Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) production from marine brown algae, Saccharina japonica, was investigated in anaerobic dark fermentation. In order to evaluate the VFAs productivity, various experimental parameters (i.e., physicochemical pre-treatment, microorganism inoculation ratio, substrate concentration, and pH) were evaluated. According to the physicochemical pre-treatment methods, the maximum concentrations of VFAs were obtained in the order of sulfuric acid, subcritical water and subcritical water with lipid-extraction. Also, we investigated the operating parameters such as microorganism inoculation ratio (MV/M = 10 to 30), the substrate concentration (18.0 to 72.0 g/L) and pH (6.0 to 7.0) in sulfuric acid pre-treatment method. When the substrate concentrations were 18.0, 36.0, 54.0 and 72.0 g/L at $35^{\circ}C$, microorganism inoculation ratio 15, pH 7.0 for 372 hours, the maximum concentrations of VFAs were respectively 9.8, 13.9, 18.6 and 22.3 g/L. The change in VFAs concentrations was detected that acetic- and propionic acids increased according to increasing pH, while the butyric acid increased with decreasing pH. The VFAs obtained from concentration and separation process may be used as basic chemistry materials and bio-fuel, and they will expect to produce alternative energy of fossil fuel.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.200-207
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• 2017

A new approach to the solubilization of waste activated sludge (WAS) using alginate-quaternary ammonium complex beads was investigated under controlled mild alkaline conditions. The complex beads were prepared by the reaction of sodium alginate (SA) with 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl-octadecyldimethylammonium chloride (TSA) in acid solution, followed by crosslinking with $CaCl_2$. Treatment of WAS with SA-TSA complex beads was effective for enhancing the efficacy of WAS solubilization. The highest value of soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) concentration (3,900 mg/L) was achieved after 10 days of treatment with 30% (v/v) SA-TSA complex beads. The WAS solubilization efficacy of the complex beads was also evaluated by estimating the concentrations of volatile fatty acids (VFAs). The maximum value of VFAs was 2,961 mg/L, and the overall proportions of VFAs were more than 75% of SCOD. The main components of VFAs were acetic, propionic, iso-butyric, and butyric acids. These results suggest that SA-TSA complex beads might be useful for enhancing the solubilization of WAS. The potential use of VFAs as the external carbon substrate for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) by a mixed microbial culture (MMC) was also examined. The enrichment of PHA-accumulating MMC could be achieved by periodic feeding of VFAs generated from WAS in a sequencing batch reactor. The composition of PHA synthesized from VFAs mainly consisted of 3-hydroxybutyrate. The maximum PHA content accounted for 25.9% of dry cell weight. PHA production by this process is considered to be promising since it has a doubly beneficial effect on the environment by reducing the amount of WAS and concomitantly producing an eco-friendly biopolymer.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.244-249
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• 1987

Liquid-solid extraction technique was applied to enrich volatile free acids (VFAs) from aqueous matrices. Chromosorb P was found to be an efficient solid sorbent. The unionized VFAs could be quantitatively recovered from the Chromosorb P column with ether while interfering watermiscible components were retained in the adsorbed water on the surface of Chromosorb P. The method of simple and efficient isolation-enrichment of VFAs, followed by the quantitative analysis employing stainless steel capillary column coated with Carbowax 20M containing phosphoric acid has been applied to the determination of VFAs in several aqueous samples.