• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.14-22
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• 2018

In this study, scarp of PCB containing copper and precious metals was manufactured as an anode, and electrorefining experiments were conducted on change of $H_2SO_4$ concentration and current density. Through electrolytic refining experiments, the concentration of Cu and slime recovered from each electrode was analyzed, element behavior was confirmed, and current efficiency was also calculated. As the $H_2SO_4$ concentration was increased, the current efficiency and the purity of Cu decreased, but the precious metals in the anode slime were maximally concentrated with 2.0 M $H_2SO_4$. In addition, as the current density was increased, the current efficiency decreased and the purity of Cu showed a tendency to increase, and the precious metals in the anode slime were maximally concentrated with $300A/m^2$. As a result of the pilot scale experiments, the Au content was 8,705 mg/kg, the Ag content was 35,092 mg/kg in the anode slime. As compared with the initial content, Au was concentrated 16 times and Ag concentrated 14 times.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.35-35
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• 2002

Atomic force microscopy was applied to study the formation and growth mechanism of thin chrome layers prepared under various pulse plating conditions. The chrome was electro-deposited from an electrolyte bath containing 250 gl-l of chromic acid, 25 gl-l of sulfuric acid using direct current density of $1.6{\;}mA.$\textrm{mm}^{-2} and pulse currents with on-off time from 5 to 900 ms. The higher current density enhanced nucleation rate which resulted in refining grain size. The chrome growth kinetics determining nodule size and shape significantly depends on the duration of on-time rather than duration of off-time and on/off time ratio.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.355-360
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• 2002

ElectroSlag Strip Overlaying (ESSO) process has been around since 1970. ESSO process had limited acceptance due to a few problems associated with the use of this process in its very early stage. Limited knowledge and, most significantly, poor quality of the equipment and welding flux gave the ESSO process a bad name. However, this process is well accepted today and used in North America, Europe and Japan. The ESSO process provides low dilution overlays at high deposition rates, excellent and consistent deposit chemistry with excellent surface quality, and virtually no defects. Capitan has taken this process one step further through extensive research and development of the process itself as well as the equipment. The improvement brought to the process warranted the issuance in May 2000 of an US patent. This study demonstrates the feasibility of this process with immediate positive production results. The main achievements of this work are as follows: $\textbullet$ Development of six various strip-flux combinations on three different base materials: carbon steel, $\frac{1}{4}$ Cr/.5 Mo and 2 $\frac{1}{4}$ Cr/l Mo, fully tested with: penetrant, ultrasound, bends, hardness, overlay chemistry, corrosion and hydrogen disbonding. $\textbullet$ 12" dia. 90 hot formed elbows from straight pipe electroslag overlayed with "1 layer" and "2 layer" Alloy 625 $\textbullet$ a very unique development of miniaturized overlaying equipment able to perform overlay in pipe with diameters as low as 10" (254 mm). This development has large applications in the field of offshore, petrochemical, refining, pulp and paper and power generation industries. The aftermath of this development was its immediate acceptance by major end users with the completion of four projects of overlayed pipe in the USA and Far East Asia.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.281-287
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• 2002

In order to investigate the variation of microstructure and property of the Electro-slag Remelted M2 steel, microstructure observation, hardness, and bending test were performed by using optical microscope. SEM/EDS, rockwell hardness tester, charpy impact tester and bending tester, respectively. It was revealed that the number of inclusions and content of gas elements(S, O, N) in M2 steel fabricated by ESR process decreased markedly compared to those of AIM. It seems to be due to refining effect of ESR process. The volume fraction of carbides in quenched and tempered specimens after austenitizing at 1150$^{\circ}C$ and 1240$^{\circ}C$ was measured. The volume fraction of grain boundary carbides were found to be similar for both specimens. However, The volume fraction of carbides in grain decreased with an increase of austenitizing temperature. When specimen was austenitized at 1150$^{\circ}C$, grain boundary carbides showed needle like morphology. But, the carbides were broken with an increase of austenitizing temperature. The specimen austenitized at 1240$^{\circ}C$ showed higher hardness and lower bending strength compared to that of 1150$^{\circ}C$. As expected, toughness increased with sub-zero quenching treatment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.180-185
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• 2003

The reductions in final waste form and material costs, which were induced from an introduction of salt waste regeneration system, have been estimated and compared with those of the present pyrochemical process, which is under development in KAERI. The results calculated on the basis of published data and proper assumption showed that the final waste form of LiCl waste from the Advanced Conditioning Process would be reduced about 3.7 to#ton HM (from 5.4 to 1.7 ton/ton HM). For the case of LiCl-KCl eutectic salt waste from the electro-refining process, the final waste form would be reduced 2.3 ton/ton U. Thus, these estimation suggested that the introduction of salt waste regeneration system was essential to improve the economical efficiency of the pyrochemical process.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.696-701
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• 2012

Non-aqueous processes have been developed for stable management and reuse of spent fuels. Nowadays, a plan for the management of spent fuel is being sought focusing on a non-aqueous process in Korea. Named as pyroprocessing, it includes an electrolytic reduction process using molten salt at high temperature for the spent fuels, which provides metallic product for a following electro-refining process. The electrolytic reduction process utilizes electrochemical reaction producing Li to convert oxides into metals in high temperature LiCl medium. Various kinds of elements in the spent fuels would be distributed in the system according to their respective reactivity with the reductant, Li, and the medium, LiCl. This study elucidates the reactions of the elements to understand the behavior of composite elements on the spent fuels by thermodynamic calculations. Uranium and transuranic are reduced into their metallic forms while rare-earth oxides, except for Eu, are stable against the reaction at a process temperature. This study also covers the tendency of reactions with respect to the temperature and, finally, estimates radioactivity and heat load on the distributed phases based on the reference spent fuel characteristics.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.125-133
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• 2017

KAERI is conducting research on spent cladding hulls and additive metals to generate a solidification host matrix for the noble metal fission product waste in anode sludge from the electro-refining process to minimize the volume of waste that needs to be disposed of. In this study, alloy compositions Zr-17Cr, Zr-22Cr, and Zr-27Cr were prepared with or without eight noble metals representing fuel waste using induction melting. The microstructures of the resulting alloys were characterized and electrochemical corrosion tests were conducted to evaluate their corrosion characteristics. All the compositions had better corrosion characteristics than other Zr-based alloys that were evaluated for comparison. Analysis of the leach solution after the corrosion test of the Zr-22Cr-8NM specimen indicated that the noble metals were not leached during corrosion under 500 mV imposed voltage, which simulates a highly oxidizing disposal environment. The results of this study confirm that Zr-Cr based compositions will likely serve as chemically stable waste forms.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.859-866
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to develop a supplemental healthy food that can help prevent high blood pressure-related diseases caused due to the excessive consumption of sodium in salt. This was achieved by using ion-displacement techniques to produce mineral salt with lower sodium content by using fermented brown rice by-products rich in minerals. Mineral salt containing 2019.2 mg/100 g of potassium, 678.5 mg/100 g of magnesium, 48.7 mg/100 g of calcium, and 19.5 mg/100 g of sodium was obtained by fermenting brown rice by-products to create a culture medium for the mineral salt. Mineral salt containing 1769.7 mg/100 g of potassium, 573.6 mg/100 g of magnesium, 35.3 mg/100 g of calcium, and 19.5 mg/100 g of sodium was obtained by filtering and refining the by-product extract of fermented brown rice. The results showed that when the stream velocity of the instrument used for electrolysis was 200 mL/min and the current and the concentration of the reactive liquid in the purified water chamber were higher, the effect of electrolysis was greater. Ion hot water extraction of the fermented brown rice by-products improved by up to 95% and was collected as purified water within 90 min of the reaction time. Chloride ions with pH 7.4 were produced by mixing sodium hydroxide in a purified saline water chamber with electro-analyzed water. The salt produced in this study contained low sodium, 5.7~30%, as compared to 40% sodium content of the normal salt.