• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.560-567
• /
• 2009

Treated or untreated wastewater may be a major source of refractory organic matters (R-OM) in drinking water sources. For this study, spectroscopic characteristics of wastewater OM were investigated using the samples from 20 wastewater treatment plants, which are located at the upstream of the lake Paldang, to suggest a estimate index for R-OM in wastewater. R-OM was quantified by measuring total organic carbon (TOC) concentration of the wastewater samples remaining after 28-day dark incubation. Among the traditional OM indices such as chemical oxygen demand (COD) and initial TOC, CODMn showed the lowest correlation coefficients with R-TOC of the samples. The ratios of carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand (CBOD) to $COD_{Cr}$ had a better correlation with the percent distribution of R-OM than $BOD/COD_{Cr}$ ratios. terrestrial humic-like fluorescence (THLF) exhibited the highest correlation coefficient with R-TOC among the indices obtained from the synchronous fluorescence spectra of the samples. Milori index, one of the humification indices, showed a good correlation with the percent distribution of wastewater. This study demonstrated that fluorescence properties might be a better indices to estimate the concentrations and the distributions of wastewater OM compared to the specific UV absorbance (SUVA) values. Some useful formulas based on OM spectroscopic characteristics were finally suggested to predict R-OM in wastewater.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.204-213
• /
• 1997

In this paper, an application of fuzzy-neuron reasoning to the control of an activated sludge plant is presented. The activated sludge process is widely used in modern wastewater treatment plants. The operation control of the activated sludge process, however, is difficult due to the following reasons : 1)The complexity of the wastewater components, 2)the change of the wastewater influent, and 3)the adjustment errors in the control process. Because of these reasons, it is difficult to obtain mathematical model that really reflect the relationship between the variables and parameters in the process of wastewater treatment correctively and effectively. In this paper, the activated sludge process(A.S.P.) is modeled by a new fuzzy-neuron network representing nonlinear characteristics. These fuzzy-neurons have fuzzy rules with complementary membership function. Based on the constructed model, graphic simulator on X-window system as a graphic integrated environment is implemented. The efficacy of the proposed control scheme was evaluated and demonstrated by means of the field test.

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.120-125
• /
• 2009

Water stress has become a major concern in agriculture. Korea suffers from limited agricultural water supply, and wastewater reuse has been recommended as an alternative solution.A study was performed to examine the effects of microorganism concentration in the ponded-water of a paddy rice field with reclaimed-water irrigation for evaluating the microbial risk to farmers and neighborhoodchildren.Most epidemiological studies were performed based on an upland field, and they may not directly applicable to paddy fields. Beta-Poisson model was used to estimate the microbial risk of pathogen ingestion. Their risk value increased significantly high level after irrigation and precipitation.It implies that agricultural activities such as plowing, and fertilizing, and precipitation need be practiced a few days after irrigation considering health risks. The results about field application of the microbial risk assessment using E. coli showed difference according to monitoring time and treatment plot. Result of the microbial risk assessment showed that risk values of ground-water and reclaimed secondary waste water irrigation were lower than directly use of wastewater treatment plants' effluent. This paper should be viewed as a first step in the application of quantitative microbial risk assessment of E. coli to wastewater reuse in a paddy rice farming.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.57-63
• /
• 2015

Recently, Korea's municipal wastewater treatment plants generated amount of wastewater sludge per day. However, ocean dumping of sewage sludge has been prohibited since 2012 by the London dumping convention and protocol and thus removal or treatment of wastewater sludge from field sites is an important issue on the ground site. The hydrothermal carbonization is one of attractive thermo-chemical method to upgrade sewage sludge to produce solid fuel with benefit method from the use of no chemical catalytic. Hydrothermal carbonization improved that the upgrading fuel properties and increased materials and energy recovery, which is conducted at temperatures ranging from 200 to $350^{\circ}C$ with a reaction time of 30 min. Hydrothermal carbonization increased the heating value though the increase of the carbon and fixed carbon content of solid fuel due to dehydration and decarboxylation reaction. Therefore, after the hydrothermal carbonization, the H/C and O/C ratios decreased because of the chemical conversion. Energy retention efficiency suggest that the optimum temperature of hydrothermal carbonization to produce more energy-rich solid fuel is approximately $200^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.241-249
• /
• 2013

Ethanolamine (ETA) is widely used for alkalinization of water in steam cycles of nuclear power plants with pressurized water reactor. When ETA contained wastewater was released, it could increase COD and T-N. The treatment of the COD and T-N from ETA wastewater was investigated using the GAC as particle electrodes in three-dimensional electrode reactor (TDE). This study evaluated the effectiveness of GAC as particle electrode using different packing ratio at 300 V. The results showed that GAC-TDE could reduce ETA much more efficiently than ZVI-TDE at the mass ratio of GAC to insulator, 1:2. Additionally, The effect of applied electric potential to COD and T-N reduction was investigated. The results showed the high COD, T-N reduction and current efficiency at the low electric potential. Using the GAC-TDE will provide a better ETA reduction with reducing electrical potential dissipation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.603-610
• /
• 2013

According to industrialization, increased toxic chemicals discharge has been causing water pollution. Especially domestic sewage is a major source of water pollution. Sixty percent of the total wastewater discharged is domestic sewage. Self-purification capacity of rivers and streams is drastically reduced by the emission of domestic sewage, industrial wastewater and livestock wastewater. Although domestic sewage is managed by implementing standards and regulations, toxicity effect of domestic sewage to humans and the environment is not yet clearly understood. In this study, by using daphnia magna, the ecotoxicity of domestic swage was assessed. Cl, Cu, Pb, COD, T-N, DO, pH and residual chlorine were investigated as background concentrations. The experiments were conducted with water samples obtained from three local sewage treatment plants. The experiment results indicated that higher level of toxicity corresponds to the higher pollution concentrations. The higher level of combinations of background concentrations such as heavy metals leads to the worse ecotoxicity. Especially, the Cu concentration affects the TU value.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.36 no.2
• /
• pp.107-119
• /
• 2022

The frequent detection and occurrence of micropollutants (MPs) in aquatic ecosystems has raised public health concerns worldwide. In this study, the behavior of 50 MPs was investigated in three different domestic wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Furthermore, the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to assess the geographical and seasonal variation of MPs in the WWTPs. The results showed that the concentrations of 43 MPs ranged from less than 0.1 to 237.6 ㎍ L^-1, while other seven MPs including 17-ethynylestradiol, 17-estradiol, sulfathiazole, sulfamethazine, clofibric acid, simvastatin, and lovastatin were not detected in all WWTPs. Among the detected MPs, the pharmaceuticals such as metformin, acetaminophen, naproxen, and caffeine were prominent with maximum concentrations of 133.4, 237.6, 71.5, and 107.7 ㎍ L^-1, respectively. Most perfluorinated compounds and nitrosamines were found at trace levels of 1.2 to 55.3 ng L^-1, while the concentration of corrosion inhibitors, preservatives (parabens), and endocrine disruptors ranged from less than 0.1 to 4310.8 ng L^-1. Regardless of the type of biological treatment process such as MLE, A2O, and MBR, the majority of pharmaceuticals (except lincomycin, diclofenac, iopromide, and carbamazepine), parabens (except Methyl paraben), and endocrine disruptors were removed by more than 80%. However, the removal efficiencies of certain MPs such as atrazine, DEET, perfluorinated compounds (except PFHxA), nitrosamines, and corrosion inhibitors were relatively low or their concentration even increased after treatment. The results of statistical analysis reveal that there is no significant geographical difference in the removal efficacy of MPs, but there are temporal seasonal variations in all WWTPs.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.179-187
• /
• 2002

Constructed wetland was built for industrial factory wastewater treatment with environmentally sound method from July to October, 2000. Ultimately this case study was carried out to conserve water quality of river and underground water and to provide wildlife habitat and rest place for people in the industrial area. The size of constructed wetland was 10m$\times$6m (upper area) with a treatment capacity of 2.5㎥ per day. It was supplied with wastewater 0.625㎥ at intervals of six hours. Vertical flow system was chosen to promote efficiency. Draining layer was built one meter in soil depth out of sand mixed with pebbles in a ratio of two to one. Perennial emergent plants, Phragmites communis, Typha orientalis, Juncus effusus, Iris pseudoacorus, 20 individuals per square meter were planted. In the aspect of reusing, eco-pond was created for increasing biological species diversity and also deck and information signboard were established for the education of environment. As the result of monitoring, it was revealed that the constructed wetland was effective in removal of BOD$_{5}$, COD, T-N, T-P and has being gradually improved as a wildlife habitat(biotope).

• ALGAE
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.157-167
• /
• 2003

Effect of the effluent of the sewage and wastewater plants on the algal growth was investigated from the 19 plants located in the Nakdong river basin. Most of the samples showed high values of the algal growth potential (AGP) when they were mixed with natural river water at 20% of final concentration. At 20% of the mixing ratio, the mixed effluents of sewage and wastewater showed 3.5 and 1.8 times higher AGP than those of the natural river water. The higher AGP values are attributable to the high contents of phosphorus and ammonium in the effluent. The mixing ratio of effluents of the discharge/river flow was highest in the Kumho River (42.8%) followed by the middle of Nakdong River (22.7%), Kam Stream (13.9%), Byungsung Stream (13.3%), Yangsan Stream (7.9%), and Young River (5.4%). Comparison of the trophic state of the effluents with natural river water indicated that the effluents showed higher trophic values than natural water. Concentrations of total phosphorus, total nitrogen and conductivity in the effluents were 12.3, 4.9 and 5.3 times higher than the those found in natural river water respectively. The AGP values were highly related with the trophicity of the water especially on the concentrations of phosphate and ammonium. Toxicities of the treated sewage water, wastewater and livestock waste water tested by the luminescent bacteria, Vibrio fischerii were generally low.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.389-396
• /
• 2006

A quantitative survey of the protozoa microfauna at two advanced wastewater treatment plants has been carried out on a weekly basis. The abundance of the protozoa were compared with operating parameters and effluent quality using statistical procedures. The protozoa distribution indicated it seemed the composition of the influent wastewater and operating conditions of plant influenced the structure of protozoa in the plant. In statistical analysis, the distribution of protozoa showed the present operating condition of plant and predicted near-future effluent qualify. Enough data concerning protozoa, operating parameters and effluent has been gathered, the operator has a valuable tool for predicting plant performance and near-future data of effluent based on microscopic examination. Perhaps more importantly it can be used to actually control the plant to adjust the operating conditions to obtain the protozoal populations that have been shown to provide the best effluent quality.