• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.3351-3356
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• 2014

Recently, Importance of studying based on biomass materials have increased due to the concern about plastic waste problems. Cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) is a potential alternative to petroleum-based plastics because of its biodegradable property. Poly(ethylene-co-isosorbide terephthalate) (PEIT) is bio-based plastic, produced by isosorbide monomer. In this study, CAB/PEIT blends were prepared by solution blending to improve thermal stability of CAB. CAB and PEIT were dissolved in chloroform, and then precipitated in ethanol. To evaluate the compatibility of CAB/PEIT blends, the morphology and glass transition behaviors were analyzed by FE-SEM and DMA, respectively. TGA results revealed the improved thermal stabilities of the PEIT-rich and 50:50 compositions. No new or changed crystal structures were observed in the XRD result. Finally, CAB/PEIT solution blends showed good compatibility in overall compositions.

• Composites Research
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.398-403
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• 2018

Recently, environmental pollution caused by plastic waste, ecosystem disturbance of micro-plastics and human body accumulation are becoming big problems. In order to replace the traditional plastic, eco-friendly resin and natural fiber-based composite materials have been developed, but they have a disadvantage that their mechanical properties are significantly lower than those of synthetic fiber-based composites. In this study, eco - friendly nanofiber was extracted from seaweed and used as an additive in order to improve the mechanical properties of jute fiber-reinforced composites. Through the hand lay-up process, the composites were fabricated, and it was confirmed that the nanofiber was effective in improving the mechanical properties of natural fiber composites through tensile, bending and drop weight impact tests.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.76-85
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• 2004

Anaerobic decomposition of municipal solid waste (MSW) had potential adverse impacts such as the production of methane and long-term post closure on human health and the environment. It was demonstrated that aerobic degradation of MSW resulted in the reduction of a methane yield and the enhancement of stabilization of MSW. Excavated solid wastes were both aerobically and anaerobically treated in order to evaluate the effects of air injection on the stabilization of landfill site. The municipal solid waste (MSW) samples were excavated from a 10-year old landfill (operation period: 1991. 11~1994. 11), Jeonju, Korea. Excavated municipal solid wastes are primarily composed of soils and vinyl/plastics. For the two aerobic simulated lysimeters, the levels of $O_2$ ranged 1.6~23.1% and the levels of $CO_2$ ranged 1.5~15.1%, which confirmed the aerobic decomposition. Aeration did prevent methane formation. For the anaerobic simulated lysimeter, the $CO_2$ rose as $O_2$ was consumed and low levels of CH4 were produced. The pH levels ranged from 7.7 to 8.9 for anaerobic lysimeter and from 7.3 to 8.5 for aerobic lysimeters. As expected, aerobic treatment proved to enhance the removal of biodegradable materials in the excavated solid wastes when monitoring the concentration of BOD, COD, $NH_4-N$, and $NO_3-N$ in the leachate.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.55-61
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• 2018

This study evaluated if the selected samples meets the Solid Refuse Fuel quality criteria in Korea. Biomass and plastic wastes generated in D City were mixed in diverse ratio. When the biomass content was about 40%, the moisture content was close to the SRF criteria and was measured to be 9.8%. The ash contents were analyzed up to 4.19%, and the lower calorific values based on Steuer, Dulong Equation and Bomb Calorimeter were at least 4,851, 4,181 and 3,847 kcal/kg, respectively. As a result of the elemental analysis, sulfur and chloride content were measured up to 0.05%. Those values satisfied the SRF criteria. Also, heavy metals(Hg, Cd, Pb, As) were analyzed to be below the SRF criteria. This makes it possible to use efficiently the wood byproducts abandoned in the woods, and the physical properties of wood being weak to moisture can be supplemented with plastics. Consequently, if plastic and biomass were well mixed and made into SRF, it would overcome the problem of shortening the life span of incineration facilities due to the high temperature of plastic wastes in the incinerator.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.17 no.4 s.88
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• pp.499-504
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• 2005

Polymer concrete shows excellent mechanical properties and chemical resistance compared with conventional normal cement concrete. The polymer concrete Is drawing a strong interest as high-performance materials in the construction industry Resins using recycled PET offer the possibility of a lower source cost of materials for making useful polymer concrete products. Also the recycling of PET in polymer concrete would help solve some of the solid waste problems Posed by plastics and save energy. An objective of this paper is to estimate the damage of sulfuric acid, through investigating recycled PET polymer concrete, immersed at sulfuric acid solution for 84 days. As a result of testing, recycled PET PC, used $CaCO_3$ as filler, makes a problem of appearance and strength if they are exposed for long term at corrosion environment. On the other hand, recycled PET PC, used fly-ash as filler, had less effect on decrease in weight and strength. Recycled PET PC is excellent chemical resistance, resulting in the role of unsaturated polyester resin which consists of polymer chain structure accomplishes bond of aggregates and filler strongly. Also, recycled PET PC, used fly-ash as filler, is stronger resistance of sulfuric acid corrosion than $CaCO_3$, because it is composed of $SiO_2$ and very strong glassy crystal structure. Therefore, recycled PET PC, used fly-ash as filler, is available under corrosion circumstances like sewer pipe or waste disposal plant.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.281-289
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• 2021

Commercially used disposable cups undergo fragmentation in the environment and become microplastics (MPs). These MPs can be ingested by aquatic organisms and cause a range of adverse effects. We assessed the acute and chronic toxicity of disposable cup-derived MP fragments in Daphnia magna. MP fragments were identified as a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fragment with a size of 33.18 ± 7.76 ㎛. The presence of three additives including 1- Propanone. 1-phenyl-3-[2-(phenylmethoxy)phenyl]-, p-Xylene and ethylbenzene was analyzed from MP fragments. The 48 h acute toxicity revealed that 20 % of immobilization and mortality were found at the highest concentration of PET MP (200 mg L^-1). The 21 d chronic toxicity revealed that PET MP fragments significantly (p < 0.05) more reduced survival rate (31 %), total offspring (52 %) in D. magna compared with control group. The developmental abnormality of offspring (3.5%) by PET MP fragments was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than control groups (0.3%). These results are possibly induced by gut blocking by ingestion of MP fragments and their longer retention time. These findings indicate that the fragmentation of disposable cups (PET polymers) into small-sized MP fragments pose a significant ecological risk to aquatic organisms. Further studies are required to elucidate the underlying toxicity mechanisms.

• Clean Technology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.37-46
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• 2024

Environmental problems caused by plastic waste have been continuously growing around the world, and plastic waste is increasing even faster after COVID-19. In particular, PP and PE account for more than half of all plastic production, and the amount of waste from these two materials is at a serious level. As a result, researchers are searching for an alternative method to plastic recycling, and plastic pyrolysis is one such alternative. In this paper, a numerical study was conducted on the pyrolysis behavior of non-condensable gas to predict the chemical reaction behavior of the pyrolysis gas. Based on gas products estimated from preceding literature, the behavior of non-condensable gas was analyzed according to temperature and residence time. Numerical analysis showed that as the temperature and residence time increased, the production of H₂ and heavy hydrocarbons increased through the conversion of the non-condensable gas, and at the same time, the CH₄ and C₆H₆ species decreased by participating in the reaction. In addition, analysis of the production rate showed that the decomposition reaction of C₂H₄ was the dominant reaction for H₂ generation. Also, it was found that more H₂ was produced by PE with higher C₂H₄ contents. As a future work, an experiment is needed to confirm how to increase the conversion rate of H₂ and carbon in plastics through the various operating conditions derived from this study's numerical analysis results.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.16 no.6 s.84
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• pp.767-776
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• 2004

Polymer concrete shows excellent mechanical properties and chemical resistance compared with conventional normal cement concrete. The polymer concrete is drawing a strong interest as high-performance materials in the construction industry. Resins using recycled PET offer the possibility of a lower source cost of materials for making useful polymer concrete products. Also the recycling of PET in polymer concrete would help solve some of the solid waste problems posed by plastics and save energy. The purposed of this paper is to propose the model for the stress-strain relation of recycled-PET polymer concrete at monotonic uniaxial compression and is to investigate for the stress-strain behavior characteristics of recycled-PET polymer concrete with different variables(strength, resin contents, curing conditions, addition of silane and ages). The maximum stress and strain of recycled-PET polymer concrete was found to increase with an increase in resin content, however, it decreased beyond a particular level of resin content. A ascending and descending branch of stress-strain curve represented more sharply at high temperature curing more than normal temperature curing. Addition of silane increases compressive strength and postpeak ductility. In addition, results show that the proposed model accurately predicts the stress-strain relation of recycled-PET polymer concrete

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1955-1968
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• 2000

Thermal gravimetric change characteristics and gas phase product - CO, NO, $NO_2$, VOCs - generated in the process of pyrolysis and oxidation. were investigated with variation of process parameters including furnace reactor temperature both in pyrolytic and oxidative conditions. For the thermal gravimetric change characteristics. paper and wood were mainly decomposed at lower temperatures and they had similar thermal gravimetric change trend due to their similar compositions; plastics were mainly decomposed at higher temperatures; in the case of textile. natural compounds were decomposed at lower temperatures and synthetic compounds at relatively higher temperatures; food was decomposed in the wide range of temperatures possibly due to their different kinds of components. For the analysis results of gas phase product. the concentrations of NO, $NO_2$ were detected at higher level at the oxidative conditions than at the pyrolytic conditions except that of CO, which is due to complete combustion with sufficient oxygen at the oxidative condition; food gave off CO, NO, $NO_2$ more than the other wastes. VOCs were emitted more at the pyrolytic conditions than at the oxidative conditions.

• Composites Research
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.175-180
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• 2017

Currently, since carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs) are lightweight and have excellent physical properties, their demand has increased dramatically. Many works have studied the CFRPs based on recycled thermoplastics. In this study, the applicability of recycled composite was evaluated using recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET). PET was collected from waste materials used in beverage bottles and processed to produce PET films. Optimal thermoforming temperature and time were analyzed by comparing the mechanical properties with forming temperature and time difference for producing PET films. CF mat and PET film were used to determine the suitable parameters for the optimum thermoforming of CF/PET composites. The mechanical properties of each thermoforming condition were verified by bending test. The degree of impregnation of the PET film into the CF mat was evaluated by cross-sectional photographs, whereas the interfacial properties were evaluated by interlaminar shear strength (ILSS). Ultimately, it was confirmed that the thermoforming condition for forming the CF/recycled PET composites yielding the optimal mechanical and interfacial properties was at $270^{\circ}C$ for 5 minutes.