• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.229-234
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• 2008

Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) has started the nation's first biogas-microturbine project in the city of Gongju as an effort to encourage the utilization of wasted biogas containing useful energy source in the form of $CH_4$. The goal of the project is to set up the biogas microturbine co-generation system for utilizing biogas as an energy source and improving the economics of the wastewater treatment plant. Wastewater treatment processes were investigated in depth to find improvement possibility. Changes in internal recirculation ratio and pre-treatment degree are needed to optimize plant operation and biogas production. Biogas pre-treatment system satisfies Capstone's fuel condition requirement with the test result of 99.9% and 90.2% of hydrogen sulphide and ammonia is removal performance. Installation of microturbine and manufacture of heat exchanger to warm anaerobic digester has been done successfully. Expected economic profit produced by the system is coming from energy saving including electricity 115,871kWh/year and heat contained in exhaust gas 579GJ/year.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.1452-1456
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• 2016

Overexpression of the genes encoding phosphoeneolpyruvate carboxykinase (pckA) and NAD-dependent malic enzyme (maeA) facilitates higher intracellular ATP and NAD(P)H concentrations, respectively, under aerobic conditions in Escherichia coli. To verify a hypothesis that higher intracellular energy reserves might contribute to H₂ fermentation, wild-type E. coli strains overexpressing pckA and maeA were cultured under anaerobic conditions in a glucose minimal medium. Overexpression of pckA and maeA enabled E. coli to produce 3-times and 4-times greater H₂ (193 and 284 nmol, respectively) than the wild type (66 nmol H₂). The pckA and maeA genes were further overexpressed in a hydrogenase-3-enhanced E. coli strain. The hydrogenase-3-enhanced strain (W3110+fhlA) produced 322 nmol H₂, whereas the ATP-enhanced strain (W3110+fhlA+pckA) produced 50% increased H₂ (443 nmol). Total H₂ in the NAD(P)H-enhanced strain (W3110+fhlA+maeA) was similar to that in the control strain at 319 nmol H₂. Possible explanations for the contribution of the increased cellular energy reserves to the enhanced hydrogen fermentation observed are discussed based on the viewpoint of metabolic engineering strategy.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.326-332
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• 2011

The authors examined the effects of operating parameters on the $H_2$ production by dark fermentation of the wastewater generated from food waste recycling facilities, in short "food waste wastewater (FWW)". Central composite design based response surface methodology was applied to analyze the effect of initial pH (5.5-8.5) and substrate concentration (2-20 g Carbo. COD/L) on $H_2$ production. The experiment was conducted under mesophilic ($35^{\circ}C$) condition and a heat-treated ($90^{\circ}C$ for 20min)anaerobic digester sludge was used as a seeding source. Although there was a little difference in carbohydrate removal, $H_2$ yield was largely affected by the experimental conditions, from 0.38 to 1.77 mol $H_2$/mol $hexose_{added}$. By applying regression analysis, $H_2$ yield was well fitted based on the coded value to a second order polynomial equation (p = 0.0243): Y = $1.78-0.17X_1+0.30X_2+0.37X_1X_2-0.29X_1{^2}-0.35X_2{^2}$, where $X_1$, $X_2$, and Y are pH, substrate concentration (g Carbo. COD/L), and hydrogen yield (mol $H_2$/mol $hexose_{added}$), respectively. The 2-D response surface clearly showed a high inter-dependency between initial pH and substrate concentration, and the role of these two factors was to control the pH during fermentation. According to the statistical optimization, the optimum condition of initial pH and substrate concentration were 7.0 and 13.4 g Carbo. COD/L, respectively, under which predicted $H_2$ yield was 1.84 mol $H_2$/mol $hexose_{added}$. Microbial analysis using 16S rRNA PCR-DGGE showed that $Clostridium$ sp. such as $Clostridium$ $perfringens$, $Clostridium$ $sticklandii$, and $Clostridium$ $bifermentans$ were main $H_2$-producers.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.126-137
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• 2006

Behaviors of simple organic compound and granular sludge in an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor treating propionate at high ammonia nitrogen levels were investigated for 12 months. The UASB reactor achieved about 80% removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) at ammonia nitrogen concentration up to 6000 mg-N/L. At higher concentration of ammonia nitrogen, the propionate in the effluent increased whereas the acetate was very low. At ammonia nitrogen concentration of 8000 mg-N/L, the volatile suspended solids (VSS) increased sharply due probably to the decrease of the content of extracellular polymer (ECP) although methane production was very low. The specific methanogenic activity (SMA) using formate, acetate, and propionate as substrate to granules decreased as ammonia nitrogen concentration increased. The ammonia nitrogen concentration $I^{50}$, causing 50% inhibition of SMA were 2666, 4778 and 5572 mg-N/L, respectively. The kinetic coefficients of ammonia inhibition using formate, acetate, and propionate as substrate were 3.279, 0.999 and 0.609, respectively. The SMA using formate was severely affected by ammonia nitrogen than those using acetate and propionate. This result indicated that the hydrogenotrophic methanogens was most affected by ammonia nitrogen. Granules were mainly composed of microcolonies of methanothrix-like bacteria resembling bamboo-shape, and several other microcolonies including propionate degrader with juxtapositioned syntrophic associations between the hydrogen-producing acetogens and hydrogen-consuming methanogens.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.268-273
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• 2000

A microbiological hydrogen production process was optimized. Anaerobic photosynthetic bacteria like Rhodospirillum rubrum which is known to produce hydrogen from carbon monoxide efficiently and remove sulfur was used. To evaluate the potenital of this microorganism the optimization of media fermentation condition light intensity and light requirement for CO conversionwas tried in batch cultures and the continuous fermenter was also applied for this process. The gas residence time on CO conversion was sought out to get high conversion of carbon monoxide to hydrogen. Through this study the possibility of microbial synthtics gas concersion process was proposed.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.422-427
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• 2003

Rhodopseudomonas palustris P4 can produce $H_2$ either from CO by water-gas shift reaction or from various sugars by anaerobic fermentation. Fermentative $H_2$ production by P4 is fast, but its yield is relatively low due to the formation of various organic acids. In order to increase $H_2$ production yield from glucose, P4 was investigated for the photo-fermentation of acetate which is a major by-product of fermentative $H_2$ production. Experiments were performed in batch modes using both light-grown and dark-grown cells. When the dark-grown P4 was challenged with light and acetate, $H_2$ was produced with the consumption of acetate after a lag period of 25 h. $H_2$ production was inhibited when a nitrogen source, especially ammonium, is present. When the dark-fermentation broth containing acetate was adopted for photo-fermentation with light-grown cells, $H_2$ production and concomitant acetate consumption occurred without a lag period. The $H_2$ yield was estimated as 2.4 - 2.8 mol $H_2/mol$ acetate and the specific $H_2$ production rate was as 9.8 ml $H_2/g$ cell${\cdot}$h, The fact that a single strain can perform both dark- and light-fermentation gives a great advantage in process development Compared to a one-step dark-fermentation, the combined dark- and light-fermentation can increase the $H_2$ production yield on glucose by two-fold.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.34 no.1 s.93
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• pp.54-61
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• 2001

Changes in methanogenic pathway at low temperature were studied by incubation experiments of sediment slurries from the littoral zone of Reservoir Paldang. Methane production rates in sediment slurries increased exponentially between $5＾{\circ}C$and $45＾{\circ}C$, reached a maximum rate of $7.4\;nmol\;{\cdot}\;g^{-1}\;{\cdot}\;h^{-1}$ at $45＾{\circ}C$, and then declined to low rate. The shift of incubation temperature from high temperature ($30＾{\circ}C$) to lowtemperature ($15＾{\circ}C$) resulted in a decrease of methane production rate and of hydrogen accumulation rate, and the transient accumulation of acetate concentration. Chlorofarm inhibited perfectly methanogenesis and resulted in the accumulation of hydrogen and acetate as immediate precursors for metltane formation at both incubation temperatures of $15＾{\circ}C$ and $30＾{\circ}C$. In terms of equivalent methane which was calculated from the two intermediary metabolites accumulated in absence of methanogenesis, methane production from acetate was accounted for 14% of total methanogenesis at $30＾{\circ}C$ and 75% at $15＾{\circ}C$, respectively. When the high acetate concentrations above 19 mM were added to sediment slurries, methane production was inhibited at the low temperature ($15＾{\circ}C$) . Our results demonstrate that contribution of acetate on methanogenesis increases at low temperature, but this pathway is inhibited by high concentration of acetate. Therefore acetate-utilizing methanogensis appears to be a key reaction at low temperature, and seems to be one of bottlenecks of the low temperature anaerobic degradation of organic matter in littoral sediments of the reservoir.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.52-57
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• 2007

A gas-circulating bioreactor was used for enrichment of autotrophic methanogens. Mixture of hydrogen and carbon dioxide (5:1) was used as a sole energy and carbon source. Anaerobic digestive sludge isolated from wastewater treatment system was inoculated into the gas-circulating bioreactor. The enrichment of two chemolithotrophic methanogens, Methanobacterium curvum and Methanobacterium oryzae was accomplished in the gas-circulating bioreactor. The enriched bacteria were cultivated in a bioreactor equipped with hollow-fiber hydrogen-supplying system (hollow-fiber bioreactor), and a hybrid-type bioreactor equipped with hollow-fiber hydrogen-supplying system and electrochemical redox control system. The methane productivity was maximally 30% (V/V) in the hollow-fiber bioreactors and 50% (V/V) in the hybrid-type bioreactor.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.458-463
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• 2005

[ $H_2$ ] from CO and water was continuously produced in a trickle bed reactor(TBR) using Citrobacter amalonaticus Y19. When the strain C. was cultivated in a stirred-tank reactor under a chemoheterotrophic and aerobic condition, the high final cell concentration of 13 g/L was obtained at 10 hr. When the culture was switched to an anaerobic condition with the continuous supply of gaseous CO, CO-dependent hydrogenase was fully induced and its hydrogen production activity approached 16 mmol/g cell/hr in 60 hr. The fully induced C. amalonaticus Y19 cells were circulated through a TBR packed with polyurethane foam, and the TBR was operated for more than 20 days for $H_2$ production. As gas retention time decreased or inlet CO partial pressure increased, $H_2$ production rate increased but the conversion from CO to $H_2$ decreased. The maximum $H_2$ production rate obtained was 16 mmol/L/hr at the gas retention time of 25 min and the CO inlet partial pressure of 0.4 atm. The high $H_2$ production rate was attributed to the high cell density in the liquid phase circulating the TBR as well as the high surface area of polyurethane foam used as packing material of the TBR.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.472-479
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• 2012

The formation of volatile fatty acids(VFAs) and changes in pH, oxidation and reduction potential(Eh) and acid volatile sulfide(AVS) with the addition of yellow clay were investigated using microcosm systems to examine the effects of yellow clay dispersion on the anaerobic decomposition of Cochlodinium polykrikoides in marine sediments. The acetate concentration reached a maximum by day 4 and was 1.2-1.8 fold less in the sample treated with yellow clay compared to the untreated sample (224-270 vs. 333 uM). The formate concentration reached a maximum by day 1 and was 1.3-2.8 fold less in the sample treated with yellow clay compared to the untreated sample (202-439 vs. 563 uM). The propionate concentration reached a maximum by day 2 and was 1.5-1.8 fold less in the sample treated with yellow clay compared to the untreated sample (32.6 vs. 57.2 uM). After the amounts of acetate, formate and propionate peaked the levels dropped dramatically due to the utilization by sulfate reducing bacteria. The Eh of the samples treated with yellow clay was similar to the untreated sample on day 0 but was higher in the sample treated with yellow clay(140-206 mV) from days 4 to 17. AVS started to form on day 3 and this was sustained until day 6, and 1.2-2.2 fold less was produced in the sample treated with yellow clay compared to the untreated sample (40.2-69.3 vs. 83.2-93.8 mg/L). Accordingly, during the anaerobic decomposition of C. polykrikoides in marine sediments, yellow clay dispersal seems to suppress the reduction state of Eh and the formation of volatile fatty acids(acetate, formate and propionate) used as an energy source by sulfate reducing bacteria, indicating that this process controls the production of hydrogen sulfide that negatively affects marine organisms and the marine sediment environment.