• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.469-474
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• 2006

Partial nitrification blocking of the oxidation of nitrite ($NO_{2}^{-}$) to nitrate ($NO_{3}^{-}$) has cost-efficient advantages such as lower oxygen and organics demand for nitrification and denitrification, respectively. A nitrifying membrane bioreactor of submerged type was operated for the treatment of synthetic ammonium wastewater with the purpose of nitrite build-up without affecting the efficiency of ammonium oxidation. A high ammonium concentration (1,000 mg/l) was completely converted to nitrate at up to 2 kg $N/m^3$ day under sufficient aeration. The control of pH under sufficient aeration was not a reliable strategy to maintain stable nitrite build-up. When the dissolved oxygen concentration was kept at 0.2-0.4 mg/l by adjusting the aeration rate, about 70% of nitrite content was obtained with ammonium oxidation efficiency higher than 93%. The increase of suction pressure due to membrane fouling was not significant under lowered aerating environment over a 6-month period of operation. The composition of nitrifier community, including relative abundance of nitrite oxidizers in a nitrite-accumulating condition, was quantified by fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.571-579
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• 2004

There is a need to improve the efficiency of the existing sanitary treatment facilities, because the effluent standard becomes more stricter and septic sludge increased. Thus, operating processes of sanitary treatment system in M city changed with installation of additional facilities. Process modifications were as follows: Dilution water was added to the next process after primary aeration tank. Some secondary sedimentation sludge was recycled to primary aerator so that most of the organics were stabilized in primary aeration tank under automatic control of dissolved oxygen. The line of effluent from dewatering process flowing to the activated sludge tank was changed to the primary aerator. The primary sedimentation sludge line was linked to a thickener. Polymer was added to the activated sludge tank. The effluent of primary aerator and aerobic digester was recycled from the 5th to the 1st sector. As consequencies of above process modifications, the improvement of removal efficiency was achieved as BOD 54%, COD 42%, SS 61%, T-N 39%, and T-P 12%, respectively.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.57-62
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• 1994

This study uses pervaporation process to separate small amount of organic trichloroethylene, chloroform and perchloroethylene from contaminated water, since chlorinated hydrocarbones are known to be cancer suspecting compounds. For the separation of small amount of halogenated organic compound dissolved in wastewater, pervaporation membranes should be polymers that possess affinity with orgnic compounds and hydrophobicity. We used polyisobutylene, polyetheramide and polydimethylsiloxane membranes. The degree of affinity between organics and polymers were measured by contact angle method. We had good separation results that separation factor ranged from 34 to 19100 and permeate flux was$19.7~140g/m^2hr$.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.35-51
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• 2017

The use of Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) and naturally occurring silica (Sand) as filtration media in water and waste water treatment systems is very common. While GAC offers the additional functionality of being an "adsorptive" filter for dissolved organics it is also more expensive. In this paper we present an experimental evaluation of the performance of a bed of GAC for colloid removal and compare the same with that from an equivalent bed of Sand. The experiments are performed in an "intermittent" manner over extended time, to "simulate" performance over the life of the filter bed. The experiments were continued till a significant drop in water flow rate through the bed was observed. A novel "deposition" and "detachment" rate based transient mathematical model is developed. It is observed that the data from the experiments can be explained by the above model, for different aqueous phase electrolyte concentrations. The model "parameters", namely the "deposition" and "detachment" rates are evaluated for the 2 filter media studied. The model suggests that the significantly better performance of GAC in colloid filtration is probably due to significantly lower detachment of colloids from the same. While the "deposition" rates are higher for GAC, the "detachment" rates are significantly lower, which makes GAC more effective than sand for colloid removal by over an order of magnitude.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.107-116
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• 2019

Nitrogen removal, nitrous oxide ($N_2O$) emission and microbial community in sequencing batch and continuous-flow intermittent aeration processes were investigated. Two sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) and two continuous-flow multiple anoxic and aerobic reactors (CMRs) were operated under high dissolved oxygen (DO) (SBR-H and CMR-H) and low DO (SBR-L and CMR-L) concentrations, respectively. Nitrogen removal was enhanced under CMR and low DO conditions (CMR-L). The highest total inorganic nitrogen removal efficiency of 91.5% was achieved. Higher nitrifying and denitrifying activities in SBRs were observed. CMRs possessed higher $N_2O$ emission factors during nitrification in the presence of organics, with the highest $N_2O$ emission factor of 60.7% in CMR-L. SBR and low DO conditions promoted $N_2O$ emission during denitrification. CMR systems had higher microbial diversity. Candidatus Accumulibacter, Nitrosomonadaceae and putative denitrifiers ($N_2O$ reducers and producers) were responsible for $N_2O$ emission.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2019

This study presents a technical perspective to the fate characteristics of phenol and m-cresol, which represent some of the most common organic chemicals found in chemical spill accidents, and likely to persist in soil and groundwater due to their highly stable physicochemical properties. Some cases of domestic and foreign chemical accidents linked to phenol and m-cresol contamination were compiled. Due to their low organic carbon-water partitioning coefficient (Koc), phenol and m-cresol tend to migrate into groundwater and remained as dissolved phase. On the other hands, phenol and m-cresol can be readily decomposed by microbes in soil and groundwater under appropriate conditions. Therefore, the fate characteristics of these chemicals are highly contingent on environmental conditions. Thus, if a great quantity of leakage is occurred by chemical accidents, the up-to-date and correct information about fate characteristics taking into account both the chemical and environmental conditions is greatly needed to minimized the potential hazards from these chemicals.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.573-578
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• 2001

The effects of organic supplement (acetate) and dissolved oxygen concentration on the nitrification rate of wastewater were investigated in the 27.7 L pilot-scale airlift biofilm reactor with the granular activated carbon media of 0.613 mm diameter. The ammonium oxidation rate increased stepwise up to 5 kg N/㎥$.$d at the riser air velocity of 0.063 m/s, when the air velocity and the ammonium loading rate were raised alternately. The nitrite build-up was observed during the early stage of the biofilm formation, which disappeared after the reactor operation of 128 days. As increasing the organic loading rate, the organic oxidation rate increased up to 25.0 kg COD/㎥$.$d with the removal efficiency of 94% but the oxidation rates of ammonium and nitrite decreased. The oxidation rates of ammonium and nitrite increased with the dissolved oxygen concentrations. When the pure oxygen was sparged, the ammonium oxidation rate was almost five times higher than that with air at the same velocity.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.1024-1030
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• 2006

Genus Nitrospira and Nitrobacter species are the key nitrite-oxidizing bacteria(NOB) in nitrifying wastewater treatment plants. It has been hypothesized that genus Nitrospira are K-strategists(low $K_6$ value) that can exploit low amounts of nitrite more efficiently than Nitrobacter. In contrast, Nitrobacter species are r-strategists(high $V_{max}$) that can grow faster than Nitrospira. It has also been known that the availability of organic compounds and dissolved oxygen as well as nitrite affects the distribution of NOB. In this study, we determined the distribution and competition of NOB in wastewater nitrification systems where nitrite, organic compounds, and dissolved oxygen concentrations were compositively varied. For the purpose, several compounds of the laboratory-scale nitrificaiion bioreactor and full-scale $A_2O$ wastewater treatment plant and their distribution of NOB were analyzed and compared. The analysis showed that Nitrobacter was the dominant NOB in nitrification bioreactor where average nitrite was maintained at 5 mg-N/L with very low organic concentration in aerobic condition, whereas Nitrospira was the dominant NOB in full-scale $A_2O$ plant where nitrite was maintained very low and organic compounds were maintained relatively high in alternating aerobic-anoxic condition. The result indicates that nitrite concentration is more critical factor than organics and dissolved oxygen which determines the dominant NOB in nitrification system and it is confirmed that Nitrospira and Nitrobacter showed the characteristics of r-strategist and K-strategist, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.557-564
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• 2000

This study is aimed to develop the adsorbent which can effectively remove toxic hydrophobic organic compounds from the aqueous phase. The emphasis was made to elucidate the adsolubilization behavior of sparingly soluble organic compounds (SSOCs) into the cetyltrimetylammonium bromide(CTAB) layer formed on anthracite by the partition coefficient. The amount of SSOCs removed from aqueous solution was increased with increase of the amount of CTAB coated on the surface and wich increase of SSOCs's hydrophobicity. With the surface-modified solid shown in above. chloroform and benzene at the initial concentration of $6{\times}10^{-4}M$ were removed over 95%. Experimentally determined partition coefficient($K_d$) values between organo-anthracite and organics were 4~25 times higher than theoretical $K_d$ values of same organics Organo-anthracite formed by the addition of the CTAB can effectively immobilize organic contaminants dissolved in landfill leachate and can also be applicable to wastewater treatment containing toxic hydrophobic organic compounds such as chloroform and benzene.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.34 no.2 s.94
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• pp.106-118
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• 2001

The chemistry of porewater and exchangeable nutrients of sediment was determined to define potential influence of sediment nutrients on the water quality and the phytoplankton growth in Taechong Reservoir in March and May of 2000. The sediment-water interface showed almost anoxic state, < 0.5 mg $O_2/l$. Conductivity of the porewater was higher 1.9${\sim}$2.6 fold than that of sediment, and its variation was greater in the shallow water. Eh ranged from -12mV to -148 mV and bulk density from $1.17\;g/cm^3$ to $1.30\;g/cm^3$ and they did not differ among stations. The water content in the sediment ranged from 58% to 72% and organics from 8% to 13%, and they were higher toward the lower part of reservoir. Soil texture was in the order of sand>clay>silt and sandy sediment accounted for 97% of the total sediment. The total bacterial numbers and diatom abundance were high in the downstream of the reservoir. In porewater and exchangeable nutrients of sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus were mostly consist of the particulate form. Inorganic nitrogen was mostly composed of $NH_4$. Nitrogen of porewater was mostly an inorganic form while exchangeable nutrients were composed an organic form. However, phosphorus was composed of dissolved organic fraction in the porewater while inorganic fraction in the exchangeable nutrients. Silicon content of sediment was much exchangeable nutrients with 63%, and it was higher than in the porewater. In summary, the sediments of Taechong Reservoir were mostly composed of organics and assessed to be a eutrophic state.