• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.391-407
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• 2013

Micropollutants emerge in surface water through untreated discharge from sewage and wastewater treatment plants (STPs and WWTPs). Most micropollutants resist the conventional systems in place at water treatment plants (WTPs) and survive the production of tap water. In particular, pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors (ECDs) are micropollutants frequently detected in drinking water. In this review, we summarized the distribution of micropollutants at WTPs and also scrutinized the effectiveness and mechanisms for their removal at each stage of drinking water production. Micropollutants demonstrated clear concentrations in the final effluents of WTPs. Although chronic exposure to micropollutants in drinking water has unclear adverse effects on humans, peer reviews have argued that continuous accumulation in water environments and inappropriate removal at WTPs has the potential to eventually affect human health. Among the available removal mechanisms for micropollutants at WTPs, coagulation alone is unlikely to eliminate the pollutants, but ionized compounds can be adsorbed to natural particles (e.g. clay and colloidal particles) and metal salts in coagulants. Hydrophobicities of micropollutants are a critical factor in adsorption removal using activated carbon. Disinfection can reduce contaminants through oxidation by disinfectants (e.g. ozone, chlorine and ultraviolet light), but unidentified toxic byproducts may result from such treatments. Overall, the persistence of micropollutants in a treatment system is based on the physico-chemical properties of chemicals and the operating conditions of the processes involved. Therefore, monitoring of WTPs and effective elimination process studies for pharmaceuticals and ECDs are required to control micropollutant contamination of drinking water.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.1011-1019
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to examine the basis of design condition of existing treatment processes, namely, Extended Aeration Process, Conventional Activated Process, High Rate Aeration Process and Modified Aeration Process, by clarifying the correlations of influent wastewater concentration, hydraulic retention time, food-to-microorganism ratio and sedimentation of sludge, as well as to ascertain the feasibility of design, regardless of the existing design condition. In particular, this study made a priority investigation of hydraulic retention time and sludge sedimentation, because sludge sedimentation is the main factor$^{1)}$ which determines the operating conditions of existing treatment processes. Therefore, it is generally known that in case exceeds the sphere of design presented for each treatment, sludge bulking may occur. The results of Lesperance's test$^{1)}$, which formed the basis of design, showed the sphere of loading without security of sludge sedimentation, as in Fig. 1. The reason for sludge bulking in a certain condition, as above, is due to failure in application of optimum loading corresponding to each retention time by employing a few operating condition, which proved to be consecutively workable after years of trials and failures by Lesperance, for test conditions. However, the result of this test showed that in case of proper maintenance of loading. sludge sedimentation can be ensured under 120 SVI. Therefore, this study suggested hydraulic retention time and its corresponding optimum loading, and identified the hydraulic retention time as a determinant of sludge sedimentation. And. on the basis of these findings, this study suggested the feasiblity of UHR(Ultra High Rate), a new operating process, exceeding several times the applicable loading value of High Rate Aeration Process under one hour retention time which has not yet applied to the existing treatment processes.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.201-212
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• 2002

The objective of this study was to investigate the treatment efficiency, kinetics, and morphological characteristics of biofilm in upflow $Biobead^{(R)}$ process, a kind of biological aerated filter(BAF). The $Biobead^{(R)}$ system showed high removal rates of $COD_{Mn}$(76~83%), $BOD_5$(67~88%) and SS(71~91%) for food wastewater with high salt concentration ($>4,000mg/{\ell}$) under short reaction times(2~3hrs). Even at aerobic condition, the system had high treatment efficiency for both T-N (51~63%) and T-P(62~81%). The removal kinetics of $COD_{Mn}$, $BOD_5$, T-N, T-P, and $Cl^-$ in the $Biobead^{(R)}$ system showed a plug-flow pattern with reaction rate constants($hr^{-1}$) of 0.58, 0.63, 0,30, 0.48, and 0.38 respectively. A backwashing process to remove excess biomass and filtered solids was needed at least once during 22-hour operation at $0.5kg\;BOD\;m^{-3}{\cdot}d^{-1}$ loading. At the higher loading($1.0kg\;BOD\;m^{-3}{\cdot}d^{-1}$) the backwashing interval was shorten by 8 hours. The COD, BOD, T-N, and T-P were removed from 43 to 66% only by aerobic biodegradation. The SS was removed over 70% by the filtering of $Biobead^{(R)}$ media in the treatment system. The first one of three serial Biobead reactors showed the highest removal values for $COD_{\alpha}$(52.3%), $COD_{Mn}$(38.8%), BOD(62.5%), and T-N(40.0%). The SS and T-P had the highest removal values(47.5% and 29.2%) at the second one of the serial reactors. The biofilm had non-homogeneous spatial distribution and the colonies were embedded in the sunk area of the Biobead. The thickness of the biofilm was very thin ($5.0{\sim}29.4{\mu}m$) compared to the biofilm thickness($200{\sim}300{\mu}m$) used in other BAF systems.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.911-916
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• 2005

In this study, variations of water quality, sediment size and contaminant substances are analyzed at upstream and downstream in sewer systems in order to evaluate the characteristics of wastewater transformation by physico-chemical and biological reactions. The differences of DOC concentration between up and down stream showed the range of $-5.8{\sim}18.6$ from the result of continuous measurement at up and down stream. About 8.4% of DOC concentration was reduced and reduction rate was 2.3 mg/L/km. SS reduction rate was measured by 5.5 mg/L/km, 0.22 mg/L/min from upstream to downstream, which was twice than DOC reduction rate. When pollution load reduction was evaluated considering infiltration/inflow effect, DOC load was eliminated from 1,230 ka/d to 1,167 kg/d by physi-chemical and biological reaction in a sewer and 7.8% of the SS in upstream station was reduced under dry weather condition. The results showed that the characteristics of transformation process of wastewater in sewer should be considered for design and operation of wastewater treatment plant.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.1 no.1 s.1
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• pp.81-96
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• 1986

510 random samples were studied during the months of may through November 1985 at the various industries and conclustions were made as follows; 1. $43.94\%$ of the plants studied operated their plants with semiautomatic control system, and better efficiency were observed at the plants where automatic control systems emplorid and also large industries showed more tendency adopting the automatic plant control system. 2. Overall efficiency of the treatment plants were seen much higher at the first and secand discharge class categories then the lower discharge classes, $80.79\%$ of the plants were see their daily plant operation being controlled by the operator himself. 3. The main causes of the plant stopage and in efficient discharge control were found to be malfunctioning of the plants machineries and equipment or inadequate decision made by the management to save chemicals or electricity. 4. The study showed $60\%$ of the industry treated their wastwater wholly and the rest discharged only with dilution without receiving any further treatment, and this tendency pronounced at the 4th and 5th class discharge category industries. 5. $66.17\%$ of the industry had their storage capacity to accommodate the waste discharge during plants outage while $92.67\%$ of the air pollution discharge industries had no means for the plant outage. 6. $56.77\%$ of the studied industry maintained 24 hour operation of their discharge control systems whill $18.67\%$ of air pollution discharge industries and $10.53\%$ of the waste water discharge industries showed no control effort during the night.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.1338-1347
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• 2018

In this study, Ti-mesh based electrodes were fabricated for the application of anode to the electrolysis process for wastewater treatment using Pd electroless plating method. The removal performance of the prepared Pd / Ti-mesh electrode was evaluated as representative dye RO16, and the durability and performance were maximized by varying the electrode manufacturing conditions. As a result, it was confirmed that the coating condition had no significant effect on the performance, and that the heat treatment process greatly affected the performance and the durability was improved. In addition, we tried to maximize performance and durability by complexing Ir, Ru, and Ta. However, as the thickness of the layer increased due to the limitation of the coating method, the resistance increased and the performance decreased accordingly.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.743-752
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• 2009

One of the major problems associated with operation of domestic sewer lines involves hydraulic problems such as insufficient conveyance capacity, exceeding maximum velocity, and deficiency of minimum velocity. It has also been pointed out that influent concentration lower than design concentration of pollutants, which is mainly caused by unidentified inflow and infiltration, degrades the operational efficiency of many sewage treatment plants (STPs). A computer-added analysis method supporting a coupled simulation of sewage quality and quantity is essentially required to evaluate the status of existing STPs and to improve their efficiency by a proper sewer rehabilitation work. In this study, dynamic water quality simulations were conducted using MOUSE TRAP to investigate the principal parameters that governs the changes of BOD, ${NH_4}^+$, and ${PO_4}^{3-}$3- concentrations within the sewer networks based on data acquired through on-site and laboratory measurements. The BOD, ${NH_4}^+$ and ${PO_4}^{3-}$3- concentrations estimated by MOUSE TRAP was lower than theoretical pollution loads because of sedimentation and decomposition in the sewer. The results revealed that sedimentation is a most important factor than other biological reactions in decreasing pollutant load in the sewers of C-city. The sensitivity analysis of parameters pertaining to water quality changes indicated that the effect of the BOD decay rate, the initial DO concentration, the half-saturation coefficient of dissolved BOD, and the initial sediment depth is marginal. However, the influence of settling rate and temperature is relatively high because sedimentation and precipitation, rather than biological degradation, are dominant processes that affect water quality in the study sewer systems.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.5-10
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• 2002

Pistia stratiotes(Water Lettuce) can be applied to remove inorganic pollutants from the wastewater for the advanced treatment. This study attempts to remove heavy metals from the secondary treated wastewater. Three different initial concentrations of heavy metals were applied as 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 mg/L for Lead(Pb) and Chromium(Cr(VI)). In addition, the removal efficiency for the mixture of Lead and Chromium was also observed. The removal efficiency of Pb was in the range of 41.0~72.0% for Pb and it was in the range of 25.0~30.0% for Cr(VI) by Pistia stratiotes. The plants placed in static systems were able to remove the heavy metals in a few days of exposure. However, it was observed that the heavy metals affected produce phytotoxic effects on plants resulting in inhibition of chlorophyl synthesis, decrease in biomass production, and finally plant necrosis. The removal efficiencies of Pb and Cr(VI) by Pistia stratiotes were increased with plant growth.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.557-564
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• 2005

The objective of this study is to evaluate a criteria of intercepting capacity and a reduction goal of overflow pollution load in combined sewer system. In the current criteria of intercepting capacity in the domestic sewage facility standard, it is known that three times of peak sewage (Q) in dry period or runoff flow by 2mm/hr is not appropriate since the intercepted flow is estimated by runoff and show different result even in the same watershed. Though a reduction goal of overflow pollution load can be determined from 1) same level of storm-water runoff pollution load in separated storm sewer, 2) less than 5% sewage load in dry weather period, by the domestic sewage facility standard, the simulated results from storm-water model show large differences between two criteria. While it is predicted that sewage pollution load standard three time larger than separated storm sewer standard in high population density and urbanized area, it is shown that separate storm sewer standard larger than sewage pollution load standard in middle population density and developing area. Accordingly, it is proposed that more reasonable intercepting flow and reduction goal of overflows pollution load should be established to minimize discharging pollution load in combined sewer systems. For the purpose, a resonable standard has to be amended by pollution load balance considering the characteristics of a watershed for generation, collection, treatment, and discharging flow.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.247-254
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• 2010

Ultrasound and Surfactant aided soil washing process has been shown to be an effective method to remove diesel from soils. The use of surfactants can improve the mobility of diesel in soil-water systems by increasing solubility of adsorbed diesel into surfactant micelles. However, a large amount of surfactant is required for treatment. In addition, synthetic surfactants, specially anionic, are more toxic and the surfactant wastewater is hard to treat by conventional wastewater treatments even by AOPs. Ultrasound improves desorption of the diesel adsorbed on to soil. The mechanisms are based on physical breakage of bonds by hot spot, directly impact onto soil particle surface, the fragmentation of long-chain hydrocarbons by micro-jet and microstreaming in the soil pores. The use of ultrasound as an enhancement method in both anionic and nonionic surfactant aided soil-washing processes were studied. And all experiments were examined proceeded under CMC surfactant concentration, frequency 35 khz, power 400 W, Soil-water ratio 1:3(wt%), particle size 0.24 ~ 2mm and initial diesel concentration. 20,000 mg/kg. Combination with ultrasound showed significant enhancements on all the processes. Especially, nonionic surfactant Triton-X100 with ultrasound showed remarkable enhancements and diesel removal rate enhanced by ultrasound helps desorpting of surfactant adsorbed onto soils which prevented decreasing surfactant activity.