• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.55-61
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• 2011

NDMA(N-Nitrosodimethylamine) has been considered as a carcinogenic pollutant even at extremely low-concentration (10ng/L). However, previous researches on NDMA have focused on mainly high concentration due to a difficulty of analysis. In this study, removal efficiencies were evaluated for individual or combined methods with PAC(Powder Activated Carbon), GS(Granular Sludge), MF(Microfiltration), UF(Ultrafiltration) and Silica gel(MCM-41, Diatomite, Spherical silica gel) at both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Combined method of GS, PAC and UF membrane at anaerobic condition showed the highest removal efficiency of 65% while Silica gel showed the lowest removal efficiency of 6%. The outcomes of this study could be used further study of extremely low-concentration NDMA removal.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.167-177
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• 2011

Billions of barrels of briny produced water are generated in the United States every year during oil and gas production. The first step toward recovering or reusing this water is to remove the hazardous organics dissolved in the briny produced water. Biological degradation of hazardous volatile compound could be possible regardless of salinity if they were extracted from briny water. In the current work, the effectiveness of a vapor phase biofilter to degrade the gas-phase contaminants (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes, BTEX) extracted from briny produced water was evaluated. The performance of biofilter system responded well to short periods when the BTEX feed to the biofilter was discontinued. To challenge the system further, the biofilter was subjected to periodic spikes in inlet BTEX concentration as would be expected when it is coupled to a Surfactant-Modified Zeolite (SMZ) bed. Results of these experiments indicate that although the BTEX removal efficiency declined under these conditions, it stabilized at 75% overall removal even when the biofilter was provided with BTEX-contaminated air only 8 hours out of every 24 hours. Benzene removal was found to be the most sensitive to time varying loading conditions. A passive, granular activated carbon bed was effective at attenuating and normalizing the peak BTEX loadings during SMZ regeneration over a range of VOC loads. Field testing of a SMZ bed coupled with an activated carbon buffering/biofilter column verified that this system could be used to remove and ultimately biodegrade the dissolved BTEX constituents in briny produced water.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 2020

Astragalus uliginosus L.-stems as a by-product of oriental medicine are produced largely in a northern area of Chungbuk province. These by-products do not have any demand and thus usually discarded into the fields as a waste. In this work, a biochar was prepared from the Astragalus uliginosus L.-stem waste for recycling. The biochar was used to investigate the removal characteristics of cadmium and manganese ions dissolved in water. When adsorption equilibrium experiments were performed to treat 50 and 100 mg/L of cadmium ions, the removal efficiencies of cadmium were 100 and 95%, respectively. In addition, the maximum of adsorption amount for manganese ions in 5 h at an initial concentration of 50 and 100 mg/L was found to be as 36.1 and 37.9 mg/g, respectively. Based on the experimental results, it was found that the adsorption amount of Astragalus uliginosus L.-stem biochar for the removal of both cadmium and manganese ions was four times higher than that of the activated carbon. The surface analysis of both biochar and activated carbon samples using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis showed that the oxygen content and O/C ratio of biochar was 2.1 and 2.4 times higher than that of the activated carbon, respectively. In order to enhance the removal capability of manganese, 50 and 100 mg/L of manganese ions were operated at different temperatures. It was observed that these equilibrium was attained in 4 h under 45 ℃ and removal efficiencies were 92 and 53%, respectively. Consequently, the experimental results can be utilized as a new removal technology for eco-friendly and economically treating cadmium and manganese ions dissolved in water.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.45-53
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• 2008

In this paper, the property of influent water and variations of removal efficiencies in each unit processes were studied based on the experiment data from the advanced water treatment plant in a city of Korea. The microbial species in the biological activated carbon(BAC) after backwashing of activated carbon filtration tank(ACFT) were also identified. The property and the removal efficiencies were evaluated by considering 8-9 items. The variations of 4 items were investigated from the influent and effluent of ACFT. SEM recording were conducted on BAC samples before and after backwashing. And the existence of attached microorganisms were identified through HPC(Heterotrophic Plate Counter) investigation. For the property of influent water, the concentrations of most items were maintained in the constant ranges, some items had seasonal properties. For the removal efficiencies, there were some items showing similar monthly-pattern and increasing with time, other items decreasing at the ozone contactor. Through these investigations, it was possible to distinguish the target items, which were removed by the advanced processes. The existence of microorganisms in ACFT could be predicted based on the variation curve of NH$_3$-N, and this fact were proved by SEM and HPC.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.414-422
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• 2008

Adsorption experiments for $H_2$, $CH_4$, CO, $CO_2$ on activated carbon and zeolite 5A were performed by static volumetric method. A 4-bed pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process was to study separation of hydrogen from multi-component mixture gases ($H_2$ 72.2%, $CH_4$ 4.06%, CO 2.03%, $CO_2$ 21.6%). Dual-site langmuir (DSL) isotherm showed good or fair agreement with the experimental results. The optimum height of activated carbon layer was 55 cm with breakthrough results on the packing ratio of activated carbon to zeolite 5A. In PSA process, the effects of the process parameters such as total cycle time ($T_c$), ${\Delta}P$ at the provide purge step and adsorption pressure on the PSA performance were studied experimentally and theoretically.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.53-60
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• 2000

The effects of ammonia loading on nitrification, especially on nitrite build-up, in an activated carbon fluidized bed reactor were investigated by increasing the ammonia loading rate stepwise from 0.1 to $7.5kg\;NH_3-N/m^3{\cdot}day$. Although effluent nitrite concentration and nitrification efficiency fluctuated at the loading rates above $1.8kg\;NH_3-N/m^3{\cdot}day$, an average nitrification efficiency of 90% was achieved. Nitrite build-up began at an ammonia loading rate of $l.8kg\;NH_3-N/m^3{\cdot}day$, at which the free ammonia concentration was estimated to be above 1 mg/L. During the nitrite build-up, the ratio of influent $NH_3-N$ concentration to the DO concentration of the reactor liquor and the ratio of effluent $NH_3-N$ concentration to the DO concentration of the reactor liquor was measured to be above 100 and 2, respectively. Considering the advantages of nitritation/denitrification, a fluidized bed reactor could be an effective means for biological nitrification of wastewaters with high ammonia concentration.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.23 no.9
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• pp.1655-1662
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• 2014

A comprehensive fractionation technique was applied to a set of water samples obtained along drinking water treatment process with ozonation and biological activated carbon (BAC) process to obtain detailed profiles of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and to evaluate the haloacetic acid (HAA) formation potentials of these DOM fractions. The results indicated that coagulation-sedimentation-sand filtration treatment showed limited ability to remove hydrophilic fraction (28%), while removal of hydrophobic and transphilic fraction were 57% and 40%, respectively. And ozonation and BAC treatment showed limited ability to remove hydrophobic fractions (6%), while removal of hydrophilic and transphilic fractions were 25% and 18%. The haloacetic acid formation potential (HAAFP)/dissolved organic carbon (DOC) of hydrophilic fraction was the highest along the treatment train and HAAFP/DOC of hydrophilic fraction was higher than hydrophobic and transphilic fraction as 23%~30%, because of better removal for hydrophobic fraction both in concentration and reactivity.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.107-114
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• 1995

The raw drinking water quality is getting worse because of the winter drought and the conventional treatment system is'nt suitable to obtain the satisfied quality of water. So, the advanced water system, BAC(Biological Activated Carbon) process is said to be effective to remove dissolved organics and ammonia nitrogen. In our study, the BAC pilot plant using Nak-dong river water is tested in low temperature. Following results are found from the study. The ammonia nitrogen removal rate of BAC system using wood-based carbon (PICABIOL) was 99% in $6^{\circ}C$ temperature. Chlorine dosage in wood-based BAC effluent was reduced to 67% of that in sand filtered wate. It resulted from the removal of ammonia nitrogen. Also, THM formed by chlorine addition in wood-based BAC effluent was decreased to 65% of that in sand filtered water. In the case of dual-filter, the removal efficiency of ammonia nitrogen was increased 30% more than in conventional sand filter. According to this result, the ammonia nitrogen load to BAC system could be lessened by the use of dual-filter.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.448-457
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• 2005

The conventional activated sludge processes were operated as a combined organic substrate removal and nitrification. So, it was necessary to provide with oxygen for both carbon and ammonia removal. But, in the BNR processes, nitrification is separated from carbon removal that causes fast ammonia oxidation and reduced oxygen demands. And most of the substrate is utilized by denitrification organisms and phosphorus accumulating organisms. with these appearances, mathematical model for BNR processes different from IWA ASM can be simplified and applied. In this study, it was performed that the existing equations as McKinney model, nitrification model published by U.S. EPA and oxygen demands from stoichiometry and the relationship between NUR and OUR were applied to full-scale BNR processes and the results were compared with the measured. and it is possible to make out the optimum design parameter from those equations.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.385-393
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• 2003

Microbial communities were analyzed in an anaerobic/aerobic sequencing batch reactor (SBR) fed with glucose as a sole carbon source. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that tetrad or cuboidal packet bacteria dominated the microbial sludge. Quinone, slot hybridization, and 165 rRNA gene sequencing analyses showed that the Proteobacteria beta subclass and the Actinobacteria group were the main microbial species in the SBR sludge. However, according to transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the packet bacteria did not contain polyphosphate granules or glycogen inclusions, but only separate coccus-shaped bacteria contained these, suggesting that coccus-shaped bacteria accumulated polyphosphate directly and the packet bacteria played other role in the enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR). Based on previous reports, the Actinobacteria group and the Proteobacteria beta subclass were very likely responsible for acid formation and polyphosphate accumulation, respectively, and their cooperation achieved the EBPR in the SBR operation which was supplied with glucose.