• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.236-245
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• 2015

Recently, candles have been widely used to create a romantic atmosphere and to heat tea. In this study, a small combustion chamber for candle was designed using an 0.008 m³ bell jar. The emission factors of combustion products were then measured. The combustion chamber includes a glass dish, which prevents candle flame from affecting the composition of the gas emitted through the exhaust outlet. The outlet in the combustion chamber was designed as a cone shape, and it was lengthened to prevent flow from the outside, which could affect the homogeneous composition of the exhaust gas. The temperature at the outlet of the chamber was 34 ℃~41℃. The major combustion products of the candle, such as such aldehydes and acids, contained oxygen. The mass specific emission rates of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and TVOC were 0.04 μg/g, 0.01 μg/g, 0.02 μg/g, and 3.81, respectively. The mass specific emission rates of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and benzaldehyde were 4.48 μg/g, 1.09 μg/g, and 0.67 μg/g, respectively. Considering the different compositions of the candle samples, their mass specific emission rates were similar to those obtained by using a large chamber 0.17 m³~50 m³ in size.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.293-301
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• 2008

A study on the operational variables of the UV-TiO$_2$ based photocatalytic air cleaning system was tried. In this study, to examine effects as various air cleaning system conditions, a duct-type reactor was made, and TiO$_2$ was immobilized on a stainless mesh. Benzene was chosen as a target compound. Removal experiments for benzene were done under different initial benzene concentration, air velocity, TiO$_2$ loading, area coated TiO$_2$ as the same TiO$_2$ loading, and UV light intensity conditions. During the experiments, relative humidity was 55%, and reactor temperature was 45$^{\circ}C$. As a result, the photocatalytic degradation of benzene decreased as the inlet concentration increased. But the photocatalytic degradation increased as the concentration boundary layer thickness, amount of TiO$_2$, area coated TiO$_2$ as the same amount of TiO$_2$, and UV light intensity increased. Based on results of current study, they can be applied to the design of air cleaning system over low level VOCs in the indoor air.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.468-475
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• 2005

Biofilters packed with various materials have emerged as a sustainable technology for the treatment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs); however, problems including low performance and clogging are commonly encountered. Recently, a bioactive foam reactor (BFR) using surfactants has been suggested to ensure efficient and stable VOCs removal performance. This study was mainly conducted to investigate the feasibility of BFRs using toluene as a model compound. Prior to bioreactor studies, a series of bottle tests were used to select a suitable surfactant for the BFR application. Experimental results of the batch bottle tests indicated that TritonX-100 was the most appropriate one among the surfactants tested, since it showed a minimal effect on the toluene biodegradation rate while the other surfactants lowered the toluene biodegradation rate significantly. Using the selected surfactant, the BFR performance was determined by changing operating parameters including gas residence time and toluene loading. As the gas residence time increased from 0.5 minutes to 2 minutes, the toluene removal efficiency increased from approximately 50% to 80%. In addition, an increase of the toluene loading from $38\;g/m^3/hr$ to $454\;g/m^3/hr$ resulted in a decrease of toluene removal efficiency from approximately 70% to 20%. The BFR had a maximum elimination capacity of $108\;g/m^3/hr$ for toluene, which was much higher than those generally reported in the literature. The high toluene-elimination performance indicates that the BFR be a potential alternative to the conventional, packed-type biofilters. However, the limitation of toluene solubilization and foam stability at either high or low gas flow rate are still problems to be challenged.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.69-77
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• 2005

The electronic nose (e-nose) has been used in food industry and quality controls in plastic packaging. Recently it finds its applications in medical diagnosis, specifically on detection of diabetes, pulmonary or gastrointestinal problem, or infections by examining odors in the breath or tissues with its odor characterizing ability. Moreover, the use of portable e-nose enables the on-site measurements and analysis of vapors without extra gas-sampling units. This is expected to widen the application of the e-nose in various fields including point-of-care-test or e-health. In this study, a PDA-based portable e-nose was developed using micro-machined gas sensor array and miniaturized electronic interfaces. The rich capacities of the PDA in its computing power and various interfaces are expected to provide the rapid and application specific development of the diagnostic devices, and easy connection to other facilities through information technology (IT) infra. For performance verification of the developed portable e-nose system, Six different vapors were measured using the system. Seven different carbon-black polymer composites were used for the sensor array. The results showed the reproducibility of the measured data and the distinguishable patterns between the vapor species. Additionally, the application of two typical pattern recognition algorithms verified the possibility of the automatic vapor recognition from the portable measurements. These validated the portable e-nose based on PDA developed in this study.