• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.585-595
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• 2019

Analysis of bacterial communities based on their 16S rDNA sequences revealed the predominance of Proteobacteria (Aeromonas sp., Acinetobacter sp. and Thaueraamino aromatica sp.) and uncultured bacterium in activated sludge from the effluent treatment plant (ETP) of Mother Dairy, Calcutta (India). Each isolate was used for bioremediation of dairy wastewater with simultaneous conversion of nitrogenous pollutants into ammonia. A consortium developed using seven of these isolates and three Bacillus strains from different environmental origins could reduce 93% nitrate with simultaneous production of ammonia (626 ㎍/100 ml) within 20 h in non-aerated, immobilized conditions as compared to 82% nitrate reduction producing 2.4 ㎍/100 ml ammonia in 96 h with extensive aeration in a conventional ETP. The treated ammonia-rich effluent could be used instead of freshwater and fertilizer during cultivation of mung bean with 1.6-fold increase in grain yield. The ETP with the surrounding agricultural land makes this process a zero liquid discharge technology for using the biofertilizer generated. In addition, the process requires minimal energy supporting sustained environmental health. This method is thus proposed as an alternative approach for small-scale dairy ETPs.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.436-442
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• 1994

The characteristics of activated sludge affecting the biodegradation of plastic materials under aerobic condition were studied using cellophane film as a model system. The activated sludges of site 3, which treat a mixture of domestic sewage and supernatant of septic tank, obtained from December 1993 to April 1994 showed similar biodegradation activities. Biodegradations for 28 days reached around 80%. Viable cell number of inoculums maintained at a level of 10$^{6}$~10$^{7}$ /ml. In this range, viable cell number showed no relationship with biodegradation activities. The activa- ted sludges of site 2, which treat a mixture of domestic sewage and anaerobic digest of nightsoil, obtained four times from April 1993 to April 1994 showed very different biodegradation activities ranged from 20% to 80% for 28 days. Inoculum size affects biodegradation significantly. One percent inoculum showed the best biodegradation among the inoculum sizes of 0.1, 1.0 and 10%. Ten percent inoculum revealed inhibitory effects on the biodegradation activity which can be greatly reduced by centrifugation and filtration. Filtration was better than centrifugation in reducing inhibitory effects.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.106-114
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• 1998

This study was carried out for the purpose of industrial reuse of effluent released from activated sludge unit by $\gamma $-ray irradiation technique. The dissolved organic carbon in the effluent of an activated sludge unit is mostly refractory or inert material which are difficult to be degraded by micro organism. The effluent generated from activated sludge unit was irradiated with Co$^{60}$ $\gamma $-ray under condition of air bubbling. The effects of irradiation on the pH, COD, TOC, color, molecular weight distribution were investigated by membrane filtration and u.v.-spectrum analysis. With increasing dose, the TOC was decreased smoothly. The COD was increased at lower dose, while the COD was decreased at higher dose. The TOC and COD, however, were decreased smoothly when TiO$_{2}$ was added to the solution. It was thought that the differential decreasing trend of COD and TOC in according to the absence or presence of TiO$_{2}$ was due to the molecular weight distribution shifted from group of higher molecular weight to group of lower one which are more easy to be decomposed. The removal efficiency of color was 71.5% and it was increased to 85.7% when TiO$_{2}$ was added to the solution. The $\gamma $-ray irradiation was effective on the production of chlorine.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.551-558
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• 2007

From the view point of biological wastewater treatment, C/N ratio is one of the most important factor in biological nutrient removal process. However, municipal sewage in Korea is characterized by extremely low content of carbon source and relatively higher portion of N source. Accordingly, it is necessary to dose external carbon source in order to obtain higher degree of carbon source within the process. In this study, the effects of pH pretreatment as an alternative plan for increasing carbon source on the cell disruption and COD solubility of waste activated sludge were conducted under well defined experimental conditions. During 5 hours, the value of COD solubilization rate ($S_R$) at pH 11.5 is approximately 4.4 times higher than the value of $S_R$ at pH 9.5. It is expected that the level of SCOD increased due to the result from cell disruption. However, VSS/TSS ratio was not significantly changed after 5 hours. As Alkalinity changes gradually from less than 15, 30 and 60 meq NaOH/L, average RBCOD/SCOD fraction showed 34, 36 and 45%,respectively.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.1174-1179
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• 2008

Many modeling and calibration methods have been developed to analyze and design the biological wastewater treatment process. For the systematic use of activated sludge model (ASM) in a real treatment process, a most important step in this usage is a calibration which can find a key parameter set of ASM, which depends on the microorganism communities and the process conditions of the plants. In this paper, a standardized calibration protocol of the ASM model is developed. First, a weighted effluent quality index(WEQI) is suggested far a calibration protocol. Second, the most sensitive parameter set is determined by a sensitive analysis based on WEQI and then a parameter optimization method are used for a systematic calibration of key parameters. The proposed method is applied to a calibration problems of the single carbon removal process. The results of the sensitivity analysis and parameter estimation based on a WEQI shows a quite reasonable parameter set and precisely estimated parameters, which can improve the quality and the efficiency of the modeling and the prediction of ASM model. Moreover, it can be used for a calibration scheme of other biological processes, such as sequence batch reactor, anaerobic digestion process with a dedicated methodology.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.32 no.4 s.91
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• pp.336-341
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• 2006

The biological wastewater treatment system is known to have an important role in reducing the quantify of enteric virus in water environments. To clarify the roles of activated sludge microbes in decreasing the virus infectivity, the behavior of the virus in bacteria, protozoa, and metazoa was examined by pure or mixed culture system using poliovirus type 1(Lsc, 2ab strain). In the bacterial culture systems, the virus infectivity in the liquid phase decreased by a reversible adsorption of the virus to the bacteria or bacterial flocs. On the other hand, in the protozoa and the metazoa culture systems using T. pyriformis and P. erythrophthalma, respectively, with a variety of bacterial strains as prey, the main virus decrease mechanism of reversible adsorption in early stage was changed to irreversible predation, which was not eluted in this study. The virus decrease was more effective in the P. erythrophthalma culture system, which had high predation and floc forming abilities. However, in the mixed culture system of Z. ramigera and P. erythrophthalma, the more rapid reversible adsorption of virus to Z. ramigera flocs preceded the irreversible predation of P. erythrophthalma.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.47-54
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• 2014

Nanotechnology has become one of the fastest developing technologies and recently applied to a variety of industries. Thus, increasing number of nano materials including various nanoparticles would be discharged into wastewater and consequently entering a biological wastewater treatment process. However, the impact of the nano particles on biological wastewater treatment has not been estimated intensively. In this research, we investigated the effect of silica nanoparticle on the oxygen uptake rates (OURs) of activated sludge used in a conventional wastewater treatment process. The inhibition (%) values were estimated from the results of OURs experiments for the silica nanoparticles with various sizes of 10-15, 45-50, and 70-100 nm and concentrations of 50, 250, and 500 ppm. As results, the inhibition value was increased as the size of silica nano particles decreased and the injected concentration increased. The maximum inhibition value was investigated as 37.4 % for the silica nanoparticles with the size of 45-50 nm and concentration of 50 ppm. Additionally, the effect of size and concentration on the inhibition should be considered cautiously in case that the aggregation of particles occurred seriously so that the size of individual particles was increased in aquatic solution.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.41-47
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• 1981

The characteristics of septic tank sludges were investigated and the kinetic coefficients in the aerobic biodegradation were evaluated from bach treatability tests. Using an unbiased statistical method, the estimated values, k (substrate removal rate coefficient) =0. 0175hr-1 at 17\ulcornerC, K. (Michaelis Menten constant) = 248mg/ e, a (cell yield coefficient)=0.625, and Kd (cell decay coefficient:' =0. 00192hr-1 were obtained based on biodegradable COD(mg/ \ulcorner) and volatile suspended solids(mg/\ulcorner). The relationship between COD and BOD, COD (mg/\ulcorner) =2. 1 BOD(mg/\ulcorner) +250, also was established for the septic tank sludges. Dilution was inevitable for the grit removal because of the high viscosity of the sludges. An aerobic activated sludge process rather than anaerobic processes was recommended for the removal of soluble organics after the removal of grit and suspended solids. A multi-stage activated sludge process was adapted for this highly concentrated and not easily-degradable waste. It was estimated that a four-stage activated sludge process would require 40 hours retention time compared to 92 hours for a single-stage process, 52 hours for a double-stage process, and 46 hours for a three stage process in order to achieve an effluent quality of 84mg/ e COD( 40mg/ e BOD) with about 4, OOOmg/ \ulcorner MLSS from an influent quality of I, 500mg/ t COD(714mg/.e BOD), while multi-stages beyond four stage would not save the required retention time significantly.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.147-153
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• 2018

This study investigates the role of microbial extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) as bioflocculants to harvest microalgae (water-microalgae separation). The EPS extracted from waste activated sludge (WAS) by heat extraction were fractionated into soluble EPS (S-EPS), loosely-bound EPS (LB-EPS) and tightly-bound EPS (TB-EPS) forms. All the EPSs facilitated the flocculation of microalgal cells from stable growth medium. Of those EPSs, the TB-EPS showed the highest flocculating activity (FA) resulting in the substantial decrease in the amount of EPS added in terms of total organic carbon (TOC) during flocculation. The FA of microalgae was improved with the increase in TB-EPS dose, however, excessive dose of TB-EPS adversely affected it due to destabilization. Both LB- and TB-EPS could be utilized for flocculating microalgae as a sustainable option to the existing chemical-based flocculants. In addition to the conventional assessments, the effectiveness of the two bioflocculants for floc forming was also confirmed using a novel assessment of lens-free shadow imaging technique (LSIT), which was firstly applied for the rapid and quantitative assessment of microalgal flocculation.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.155-162
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• 2018

Process modeling with activated sludge models (ASMs) is useful for the design and operational improvement of biological nutrient removal (BNR) processes. Effective utilization of ASMs requires the influent fraction analysis (IFA) of the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). However, this is difficult due to the time and cost involved in the design and operation steps, thereby declining the simulation reliability. Harmony Search (HS) algorithm was utilized herein to determine the relationships between composite variables and state variables of the model IWA ASM1. Influent fraction analysis was used in estimating fractions of the state variables of the WWTP influent and its application to 9 wastewater treatment processes in South Korea. The results of influent $S_s$ and $Xs+X_{BH}$, which are the most sensitive variables for design of activated sludge process, are estimated within the error ranges of 8.9-14.2% and 3.8-6.4%, respectively. Utilizing the chemical oxygen demand (COD) fraction analysis for influent wastewater, it was possible to predict the concentrations of treated organic matter and nitrogen in 9 full scale BNR processes with high accuracy. In addition, the results of daily influent fraction analysis (D-IFA) method were superior to those of the constant influent fraction analysis (C-IFA) method.