• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.81-89
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• 2015

In this paper, we describe the development of a bioreactor for a cell-culture experiment on the International Space Station (ISS). The bioreactor is an experimental device for culturing mouse muscle cells in a microgravity environment. The purpose of the experiment was to assess the impact of microgravity on the muscles to address the possibility of long-term human residence in space. After investigation of previously developed bioreactors, and analysis of the requirements for microgravity cell culture experiments, a bioreactor design is herein proposed that is able to automatically culture 32 samples simultaneously. This reactor design is capable of automatic control of temperature, humidity, and culture-medium injection rate; and satisfies the interface requirements of the ISS. Since bioreactors are vulnerable to cell contamination, the medium-circulation modules were designed to be a completely replaceable, in order to reuse the bioreactor after each experiment. The bioreactor control system is designed to circulate culture media to 32 culture chambers at a maximum speed of 1 ml/min, to maintain the temperature of the reactor at $36{\pm}1^{\circ}C$, and to keep the relative humidity of the reactor above 70%. Because bubbles in the culture media negatively affect cell culture, a de-bubbler unit was provided to eliminate such bubbles. A working model of the reactor was built according to the new design, to verify its performance, and was used to perform a cell culture experiment that confirmed the feasibility of this device.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.238-247
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• 2004

The objective of this study was to develop kinetic model for the MBR and investigate kinetic characteristics of the gravitational flow transverse direction MBR system. Kinetic model was derived by mass balance of substratc and biomass combined with empirical membranc filtration rerm for the MBR. To find kinctic values, permeale flux and COD removal were analyzed through the laboratory, MBR operation as different solids retention times. Permeate flux was ranged 2.5-5.0 LMH (L/m$^2$/hr) as sludge characteristics in each run. Although the soluble COD in the bioreactor was changed, the effluent COD was stable as average 99% removal rate during the experimental periods. Y$_g$ of this MBR system was higher than those of cross-flow MBR processes. The kinetics of this MBR showed that smaller k, larger b, and larger K$_s$ values than the conventional activated sludge process. These results indicated that substrate was used for cell maintenance rather than growth in this MBR system.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.139-144
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• 2016

Synthetic oscillators are gene circuits in which the protein expression will change over time. The delay of transcription, translation, and protein folding is used to form this kind of behavior. Here, we tried to design a synthetic oscillator by a negative feedback combined with a positive feedback. With the mutant promoter P_LacC repressed by LacIq and P_Lux activated by AHL-bound LuxR, two gene circuits, Os-LAA and Os-ASV, were constructed and introduced into LacI-deleted E. coli DH5α cells. When glucose was used as the carbon source, a low level of fluorescence was detected in the culture, and the bacteria with Os-ASV showed no oscillation, whereas a small portion of those carrying Os-LAA demonstrated oscillation behavior with a period of about 68.3 ± 20 min. When glycerol was used as the carbon source, bacteria with Os-ASV demonstrated high fluorescence value and oscillation behavior with the period of about 121 ± 21 min.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.1665-1671
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• 2009

Anaerobic digestion sludge was cultivated in an electrochemical bioreactor (ECB) to enrich the hydrogenotrophic methanogens. A modified graphite felt cathode with neutral red (NR-cathode) was charged with electrochemical reducing power generated from a solar cell. The methane and carbon dioxide collected in a Teflon bag from the ECB were more than 80 ml/l of reactant/day and less than 20 ml/l of reactant/day, respectively, whereas the methane and carbon dioxide collected from a conventional bioreactor (CB) was around 40 ml/l of reactant/day, respectively. Moreover, the maximal volume ratios of methane to carbon dioxide (M/C ratio) collected in the Teflon bag from the ECB and CB were 7 and 1, respectively. The most predominant methanogens isolated from the CB on the $20^{th}$, $80^{th}$, and $150^{th}$ days of incubation were hydrogenotrophs. The methanogenic diversity analyzed by temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TGGE) of the 16S rDNA variable region was higher in the ECB than in the CB. The DNA extracted from the TGGE bands was more than 95% homologous with hydrogenotrophic methanogens in the ECB, but was an aceticlastic methanogen in the CB. In conclusion, the ECB was demonstrated as a useful system for enriching hydrogenotrophic methanogens and increasing the M/C ratio of the gas product.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.120-124
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• 2009

This study was performed to investigate the application of submerged membrane bioreactor (MBR) system for biological nutrient removal of municipal wastewater. MBR bioreactor consists of four reactors such as anaerobic, stabilization, anoxic and submerged membrane aerobic reactors with two internal recycles. The hydraulic retention time (HRT), sludge retention time (SRT) and flux were 6.2 hr, 34.1 days and $19.6L/m^2/hr$ (LMH), respectively. As a result of operation, the removal efficiency of $COD_{Cr}$, SS, TN and TP were 94.3%, 99.9%, 69.4%, and 74.6%, respectively. There was no significant effect of microbial activity after the maintenance cleaning using 200 mg/L of NaOCl. Membrane filtration for the treatment of municipal wastewater was performed for longer than 9 months without chemical recovery cleaning.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.1079-1085
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to find the operational characteristics of nitrifier-dominated membrane bioreactor (MBR), which has been extensively studied for organic removal, especially in terms of nitrite ($NO_2$-N) build-up and membrane fouling. Membrane fouling is one of the important factor which determines the economics of MBR system. The characteristics of membrane fouling was monitored in terms of the fouling indices such as sludge volume index (SVI), the concentration of total organic carbon (TOC) and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in a membrane permeate or sludge extract, the absorbance of supernatant at 260 nm. Most of index values except for protein concentration in EPS had a close relation with the increase of suction pressure and SVI value. Nitrifying MBR was superior to the conventional organic-oxidizing MBR in terms of membrane fouling since the fouling index value of nitrifying MBR was lower than that of BOD-oxidizing MBR.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.113-121
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• 2012

Up-flow multi-layer bioreactor (UMBR) is a hybrid system using dual sludge that consists of an up-flow multi-layer bioreactor as anaerobic/anoxic suspended growth microorganisms followed by an aeration tank. The UMBR acts as a primary settling tank, anaerobic/anoxic reactor, thickener which requires low energy due to mixing by up-flow stream. This study focused on using a pilot UMBR plant with capacity of 20-30 $m^3$/day for domestic wastewater in HCMC. HRTs of UMBR and aeration tank were 4.8 h and 7.2 h, respectively. The average MLSS of UMBR ranged from 10,000-13,600 mg/l SS. Internal recycle rate and sludge return were 200-300% and 150-200%, respectively. The results obtained from this study at flow rate of 20 $m^3$/day showed that removal of COD, SS, TKN, N-$NH_4$, T-N, and color were 91%, 87%, 86%, 80%, 91% and 91%, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.581-590
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• 2013

A research was performed for zero discharge system of waste water which is produced from energy recovery process of waste and biomass. Leachate and all kinds of waste water should be separated and integrated into three categories in addition to converting existing leachate treatment facility into waste water treatment facility as well as introducing a management system of reverse osmosis membrane facility and bioreactor landfill. Following these conditions to better water treatment process, it was likely to produce over 3,000 tons of low-grade recycling water and 2,000 tons of high-grade recycling water per day when zero discharge system of waste water is applied starting from 2016. Economical efficiency was also surveyed in total treatment fee. Present system costs 18,129 million won per year, and suggested zero discharge system would cost 15,789 million won per year.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.231-240
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• 1991

Recently, developments of large scale and high density cell culture methods have been the objects of many researches, because the demand of various pharmaceutical products produced by animal cell culture has been rapidly increasing. The cell culture equipment should have the requirements such as sufficient oxygen transfer and mixing, low shear stress and surface tension, and small foaming. In order to develop a proper bioreactor meeting these requirements simultaneously, a perfluorocarbon having high solubility of oxygen was sprayed into the medium as an oxygen carrier instead of air. Also, a new impeller was developed and combined together with the perfluorocarbon spraying system so as to design a new bioreartor for cell cultivation. The new impeller had better characteristics of mixing and oxygen transfer than the paddle and cell-lift impellers based on the same, shear rate. But, it was observed that the volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient of the new bioreactor decreased with increasing cell density during E. coli fermentation.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.673-677
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• 2006

A perfusion culture of transgenic Nicotiana tabacum cell suspensions, transformed to express recombinant glucuronidase (GUS), was successfully performed in a 5-1 stirred tank bioreactor. With 0.1 $day^{-1}$ of perfusion rate, the maximum dry cell weight (DCW) reached to 29.5 g/l in 16 days, which was 2.1-fold higher than the obtained in batch culture (14.3 g/l). In terms of the production of GUS, the volumetric activity could be increased up to 12.8 U/ml by using perfusion, compared with 4.9 U/ml in batch culture. The specific GUS activities in both perfusion and batch cultures were maintained at similar levels, 200-400 U/g DCW. Consequently, a perfusion culture could be a good strategy for the enhanced production of recombinant proteins in a plant cell culture system.