• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.1319-1330
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• 2000

Activated carbons prepared by chemical activation of organic waste sludges with $ZnCl_2$ and $K_2S$ have been studied in terms of their pore development and adsorptivity. Pore development of the carbons prepared from organic waste sludges was characterized by the nitrogen adsorption at 77K. The $ZnCl_2$-activated carbon produced by chemical activation with zinc chloride exhibited type I isotherm characteristics according to the BDDT classification, suggesting the presence of micropores formed by activation process. The isotherms of the commercial powdered activated carbon and $K_2S$-activated carbon reveal a hysteresis similar to that of type IV in BDDT classification, indicating the formation of mesopores. This result implies that the major pores of $K_2S$-activated carbon are composed of meso and micropores, and a macropores are minor. The adsorptive capacities of metal on the $K_2S$-activated carbon prepared from organic waste sludges were found to be superior to those on a commercial granular activated carbon. The Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms yield a fairly good fit to the adsorption data, indicating a monolayer adsorption of metals onto $K_2S$-activated carbon. The adsorptive capacity of the $K_2S$-activated carbon was superior to $ZnCl_2$-activated carbon for $PO_4$-P, and vice versa for $NO_3$-N. From the results of the studies reported here, it can be concluded that activated carbons with adsorptivity superior to commercial granular activated carbons can be produced from organic waste sludge using a two-step carbonization/activation procedure with zinc chloride or potassium sulfide as the activating agents.

• 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.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.362-367
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• 2006

Waste activated sludge(WAS) collected from domestic wastewater treatment plant is biomass that contains large quantities of organic matter. However, relevant literature show that the bio-hydrogen yield using WAS was too low. In this study, the effect of pretreatment of WAS on hydrogen yield was investigated. Pretreatment includes acid and alkali treatments, grinding, heating, ozone and ultrasound methods. After pretreatment organic matters of WAS were solubilized and soluble chemical oxygen demand(SCOD) was increased by 14.6 times. Batch experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of pre-treatment methods and buffer solution, hydrogen partial pressure, and sodium ion on hydrogen production from WAS by using heated anaerobic mixed cultures. Experimental results showed that addition of buffer solution, efficient pre-treatment method with alkali solution, and gas sparging condition markedly increased the hydrogen yield to 0.52 mmol $H_2/g$-DS.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.38 no.5 s.174
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• pp.579-585
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• 2005

Cheap and environmental sound biosorbent was made for the adsorption of arsenate using an waste activated sludge. The biosorbents were methylated in 9hours and 24 hours respectively for the better adsorption of arsenate. The amount adsorbed of arsenate(V) increased with increasing methylation time. The specific arsenate adsorption was 0.06mmol As(V)/g biomass when the biosorbent was methylated in 24 hours. The methylated biosorbents were also studied with pH 5, 7 and 9. The pH of the solution affect the amount of adsorption of arsenate of the biosorbent even though it was methylated. The specific arsenate adsorption of the biosorbent at pH 5 was best and it was three times greater than the amount of arsenate adsorbed at pH 9.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.95-103
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• 2012

To treat nitrate and non-biodegradable organics effectively in sewage, industrial wastewater and livestock wastewater, the activated sludge process integrated by a membrane separation and a porous electrode- electrolysis was proposed and its efficiency was investigated. The proposed system was consisted of 3 processes; activated sludge, membrane filtration and electrolysis. In the study, the membrane filtration played a role in reducing the load of the electrolysis to operate the proposed process stably. The electrolysis consisted of a porous electrode to increase the efficiency due to the extension of the specific surface area. Additionally, redox reaction in the electrolysis was induced by decomposing influent water as current was applied. As a result, hydrogen free radicals and oxygen radicals as intermediates were produced and they acted as oxidants to play a role in decomposing non-degradable organics. It was environmentally-friendly process because intermediates produced by porous electrode were used to treat waste matters without supplying external reagent. Experimental data showed that the proposed process was more excellent than activated sludge process. SS removal efficiencies of the proposed process, membrane filtration and activated sludge process were about 100%, about 100% and about 90%, respectively. COD removal efficiencies of the proposed system, membrane filtration and activated sludge process were about 92%, about 84% and about 78%, respectively. T-N removal efficiencies of the proposed system, membrane filtration and activated sludge process were about 88%, about 67%, and about 58%, respectively. The SS data showed that SS was efficiently removed in the single of the membrane filtration. The COD/T-N data showed that COD/T-N of membrane hybrid process was treated by removing a little soluble organics and SS, and that COD/T-N of electrolysis hybrid process was treated by oxidize organics with high removal rate.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.669-678
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• 2014

The amount of waste water generated from the domestic sources is consistently increasing in proportion to economic growth, and the conventional activated sludge process is widely being used for general waste water treatment. But the ministry of environment becomes stringthent treatment standards of N and P (less than 20mg/L of N, 2mg/L of P) to prevent the eutrophication of lake water, and therefore highly advanced treatment technology is required not only in the existing treatment plants where the activated sludge process is being used, but also in newly constructed treatment plants for the treatment of N and P. This study is aimed at highly operating the engineering technology method was developed by domestic to eliminate N and P at the same time. Experiments were conducted in the treatment plant located in Yong In city. The bioreactor was started from the principal equipment for the elimination of N and P and the elimination of organic compounds. It consists of an internal recycle piping from the end of the aerobic tank to the anoxic tank and external recycle piping from the final settling basin to the denitrification tank. By experiment of 4 types separate inflow of waste water to the denitrification tank and the anaerobic tank, and changes in staying time at the anoxic tank and the aerobic tank, the elimination of organic compounds in each type and the relationship in the efficiency between the elimination of N and P were researched.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.701-706
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• 2003

A study on the electrosorption of U(VI) onto porous activated carbon fibers (ACFs) was performed to treat uranium-containing lagoon sludge. Effective U(Ⅵ) removal is accomplished when a negative potential is applied to the activated carbon fiber(ACF) electrode. For a feed concentration of 100mg/L, the concentration of U(VI) in the cell effluent is reduced to less than 1mg/L. The adsorbed uranium could be deserted from the ACF by passing a 1M NaCl solution through the cell and applying a positive potential onto the electrode. The regeneration of ACF from the cycling experiments was confirmed.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.21-25
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• 2019

This work experimentally determined the effect of microaerobic condition on anaerobic digestion of thickened waste activated sludge in semi-continuous mesophilic digesters at hydraulic retention time of 20 days. The concentration of hydrogen sulfide was $7{\pm}2ppm$ at the microaerobic condition and $14{\pm}2ppm$ at the anaerobic condition. Removal efficiency of volatile solid was not significantly different between microaerobic ($40{\pm}8%$) and anaerobic ($38{\pm}8%$) conditions. There was no important difference between microaerobic ($1,352{\pm}98ml/d$) and anaerobic ($1,362{\pm}104ml/d$) conditions in the biogas production, either. Therefore, it could be concluded that the application of the microaerobic condition was an efficient method of the hydrogen sulfide removal from the biogas.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.80-87
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• 2020

Landfill waste decomposition generates a dark effluent named, leachate which is characterized by high organic matter content. To minimize these polluting effects, it becomes necessary to develop an effective landfill leachate treatment process. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of an innovative approach based on air stripping, anaerobic digestion (AD) and aerobic activated sludge treatment. A reduction of 80% of ammonia and an increase of carbon to nitrogen ratio to 25 were obtained, which is a suitable ratio for AD. This latter AD was performed in fixed bed reactor with progressive loading rate that reached 2 and 3.2 g COD/L/d for the raw and diluted leachate (1:2), respectively. The anaerobic treatment led to significant removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biogas production, especially for the diluted leachate. The COD removal was of 78% for the raw leachate and a biogas production of 4 L/d with 70% methane content. The use of the diluted leachate led to 81% of COD removal and 7 L/d biogas with 75% methane content. It allowed a removal of 77% COD and more than 97% of the organic compounds present in the initial leachate sample.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.314-322
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• 2008

This study was carried out to assess aerobic stabilized waste sludge as liquid fertilizer for the growth of cucumber, cabbage and chrysanthemum. Sludge was pretreated with NaOH(40 meq/L) at 40$^{\circ}C$ for 330 min. The number of fecal coliforms in batch test sludge fertilizer was more efficiently reduced than those in continuous one, maybe due to longer SRT. All produced fertilizer belonged to class B according to US EPA requirement at least. Among 6 heavy metals regulated in Korea, As, Cd and Hg were not detectable in plant amended with fertilizer whereas the concentration of Cr, Cu and Pb in plant was less than 10 mg/kg dw. However, Zn and Ni, which were restricted in other country, but not in Korea, were detected in most amount of 118 mg/kg and 15.7 mg/kg, respectively. Furthermore, based on dry weight of plant, digested sludge(5.4 mg, dw) functioned as better fertilizer rather than activated sludge (4.3 mg, dw), much more fertile when those sludge was pretreated(1.24 mg, dw) compared to untreated one(1.12 mg, dw). But its fertility was 60$\sim$80% of commercial fertilizer and accumulation of Zn, Ti and Cr in plant was founded. Therefore, it could be concluded that sludge-fertilizer can be used for flower unlimitedly, but for edible plant limitedly as additive fertilizer.