• Resources Recycling
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.18-30
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• 2012

Zirconium is one of the most important material used as cladding of fuel rods in nuclear reactors because of its high dimensional stability, good corrosion resistance and especially low neutron-absorbing cross section. However, Hf free nuclear grade Zr sponge is commercially produced by only three countries including USA, France and Russia. So, Zr has been thoroughly managed as a national strategic material in Korea. Most of the zirconium is used for Korean nuclear industry as nuclear fuel cladding materials manufactured from Hf free Zr alloy raw material. Also, there are some other applications such as alloying element and detonator. In this review, zirconium production and recycling technologies have been reviewed and current industrial status was also analyzed. And recent achievements in innovative reduction technologies such as electrolytic reduction process and molten oxide electrolysis were also introduced.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.64-71
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• 2013

Mineral carbonation has been proposed as a possible way for $CO_2$ sequestration. The electric arc furnace slags consist of calcium, magnesium and aluminum silicates in various combinations. If they could be used instead of natural mineral silicates for carbonation, considerable energy savings and $CO_2$ emissions reductions could be achieved. Indirect aqueous carbonation of the slags consists of two steps, extraction of calcium and carbonation. Acetic acid leaching of electric arc furnace slags had been already studied to extract Ca in them, but it was reported that the carbonation of the extracted $Ca^{2+}$ in the leached solution would suffer from too slow kinetics, even at high pressure of $CO_2$. In this work, to develop more efficient extraction of the electric arc furnace slags, hydrochloric acid leaching to separate calcium from them was studied, and the results were compared with the acetic acid ones. The phase boundary between $Ca^{2+}$ and $CaCO_3$ in the solution with pH was determined by thermodynamic calculations. Hydrochloric acid was more effective than acetic acid for the extraction of Ca in electric arc furnace slag, and there is a possibility to recycle an unreacted hydrochloric acid in the leached solution by electrolysis or evaporation.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.261-267
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• 2010

The pyrometallurgical nuclear fuel recycle process, called pyroprocessing, has been known as a promising nuclear fuel recycling technology. Pyroprocessing technology is crucial to advanced nuclear systems due to increased nuclear proliferation resistance and economic efficiency. The basic concept of pyroprocessing is group actinide recovery, which enhances the nuclear proliferation resistance significantly. One of the key steps in pyroprocessing is "electrowinning" which recovers group actinides with lanthanide from the spent nuclear fuels. In this study, a vertical cadmium distiller was manufactured. The evaporation rate of pure cadmium in vertical cadmium distiller varied from 12.3 to $40.8g/cm^2/h$ within a temperature range of 773 923 K and pressure below 0.01 torr. Uranium - cadmium alloy was fabricated by electrolysis using liquid cadmium cathode in a high purity argon atmosphere glove box. The distillation behavior of pure cadmium and cadmium in uranium - cadmium alloy was investigated. The distillation behavior of cadmium from this study could be used to develop an actinide recovery process from a liquid cadmium cathode in a cadmium distiller.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.837-842
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• 2014

A computer program is developed for the prediction of NO generation by the addition of water moisture and water electrolysis gas in LNG-fired turbulent reacting flow. This study is the first part to deal with the moisture effect on NO generation. In this study, parametric investigation has been made in order to see the reduction of thermal NO as a function of amount of moisture content in a LNG-fired flame together with the swirl and radiation effect. First of all, calculation results show that the flame separation together with the NO concentration separation are observed by the typical flow separation due to strong swirl flow. With a fixed amount of air, the increased amount of water moisture from 0 to 10% by 2% interval shows the decrease of NO concentration and flame temperature at exit are from $973^{\circ}C$ and 139 ppm to $852^{\circ}C$ and 71 ppm. The radiation effects on the generation on NO appears more dominant than swirl strength over the range employed in this study. However, for the strong swirl flow employed in this study, the flow separation cause the relatively high NO concentration observed near exit after peak concentration in the front side of the combustor.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.279-288
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• 2014

Nuclear energy is expected to meet the growing energy demand while avoiding CO2 emission. However, the problem of accumulating spent fuel from current nuclear power plants which is mainly composed of uranium oxides should be addressed. One of the most practical solutions is to reduce the spent oxide fuel and recycle it. Next-generation fuel cycles demand innovative features such as a reduction of the environmental load, improved safety, efficient recycling of resources, and feasible economics. Pyroprocessing based on molten salt electrolysis is one of the key technologies for reducing the amount of spent nuclear fuel and destroying toxic waste products, such as the long-life fission products. The oxide reduction process based on the electrochemical reduction in a LiCl-$Li_2O$ electrolyte has been developed for the volume reduction of PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor) spent fuels and for providing metal feeds for the electrorefining process. To speed up the electrochemical reduction process, the influences of the feed form for the cathode and the type of anode shroud on the reduction rate were investigated.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.347-354
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• 2014

Economic evaluation of the manufacturing technology of high-value chemicals through the carbonation reaction of carbon dioxide contained in the flue gas was performed, and analysis of the IRR (Internal Rate of Return) and whole profit along the production plan of the final product was conducted. Through a carbonation reaction with sodium hydroxide that is generated from electrolysis and by using carbon dioxide in the combustion gas that is generated in the power plant, it is possible to get a high value products such as sodium bicarbonate compound and also to reduce the carbon dioxide emission simultaneously. The IRR (Internal Rate of Return) and NPV (Net Present Value) methods were used for the economic evaluation of the process which could handle carbon dioxide of 100 tons per day in the period of the 20 years of plant operation. The results of economic evaluation showed that the IRR of baseline case of technology was 67.2% and the profit that obtained during the whole operation period (20 years) was 346,922 million won based on NPV value. When considering ETS due to the emissions trading enforcement that will be activated in 2015, the NPV was improved to a 6,000 million won. Based on this results, it could be concluded that this $CO_2$ carbonation technology is an cost-effective technology option for the reduction of greenhouse gas.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.247-255
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• 2014

$La_{0.8}Sr_{0.2}CuO_3$ powder with the perovskite structure was prepared as electrode catalyst using citrate method. Porous electrode was made with as-prepared catalyst, carbon as supporter and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) as hydrophobic binder. As results of potentiostatic electrolysis with potential of -1.5~-2.5 V vs. Ag/AgCl in 0.1, 0.5 and 1.0 M KOH at 5 and $10^{\circ}C$ on the porous electrode, liquid products were methanol, ethanol, 2-propanol and 1, 2-butanol regardless reaction temperature, while gas products were methane, ethane and ethylene at $5^{\circ}C$, and methane, ethane and propane at $10^{\circ}C$ respectively. Optimal potentials for $CO_2$ reduction in the view of over all faradic efficiency were high values (-2.0 and -2.2 V) for gas products whereas low potential (-1.5 V) for liquid products regardless of concentration and temperature.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.41-51
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• 2016

In the stratosphere, the air is stable and a photovoltaic (PV) system can produce more solar energy compared to in the atmosphere. If unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) fly in the stratosphere, the flight stability and efficiency of the mission are improved. On the other hand, the weakened lift force of the UAV due to the rarefied atmosphere can require more power for lift according to the weight and/or wing area of the UAV. To solve this problem, it is necessary to minimize the weight of the aircraft and improve the performance of the power system. A regenerative fuel cell (RFC) consisting of a fuel cell (FC) and water electrolysis (WE) combined PV power system has been investigated as a good alterative because of its higher specific energy. The WE system produces hydrogen and oxygen, providing extra energy beyond the energy generated by the PV system in the daytime, and then saves the gases in tanks. The FC system supplies the required power to the UAV at night, so the additional fuel supply to the UAV is not needed anymore. The specific energy of RFC systems is higher than that of Li-ion battery systems, so they have less weight than batteries that supply the same energy to the UAV. In this paper, for a stratospheric long-endurance hybrid UAV based on an RFC system, three major design factors (UAV weight, wing area and performance of WE) affecting the ability of long-term flight were determined and a simulation-based feasibility study was performed. The effects of the three design factors were analyzed as the flight time increased, and acceptable values of the factors for long endurance were found. As a result, the long-endurance of the target UAV was possible when the values were under 350 kg, above 150 m² and under 80 kWh/kg H₂.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.199-205
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• 2015

This study is about ionic water generator filter Recently, a lot of people feel deep interest in health and drinking water. And there are various types of water. Ionic water generator is a system with special function, and can be classified as a medical device and should be manufactured after approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Basically ionized water is different from the packaged and stored water. When the tap water or ground water passes through the various filters of ionic water generator, it turns to the purified water of pH7 ~ 7.5 and we can electrolyze that water into anion and cation by diaphragm. And in negative electrode side, we can get alkaline water with calcium ($Ca^+$), potassium ($K^+$), magnesium ($Mg^+$), sodium ($Na^+$) for body. In general, we can change pH value from 5 to 9 of ionizer by controlling the level of electrolysis voltage in the ionizer. In general, 1stage (pH8), 2stage (pH8.5), 3stage (pH9), 4stage (pH9.5) are used as the alkaline ionized water, -1Stage (pH6.0), -2 stage (pH5.0) are used as the acidic water. But in early stage, the water that passed through filter was weakly alkaline water and that was problem. Therefore, when filter condition is stable, the pH and ORP value of water is different with the early one. the initial setting pH value of the ionizer was confirmed that changes significantly. In order to resolve this problem we need to wash filter for some period time and neutralize by acidification treatment of the filter.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.45 no.8
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• pp.1227-1232
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• 2016

Electrolyzed activated water (EAW) has been reported to exhibit strong bactericidal effects on foodborne microorganisms. However, the disinfection efficacy of EAW is affected by factors such as water source and hardness. This study investigated bactericidal effects of EAW against three gram-positive (Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes, and Staphylococcus aureus) and three gram-negative (Cronobacter sakazakii, Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Salmonella Enteritidis) foodborne pathogens. Six strains were treated with EAW prepared at different water temperatures (4, 22, and $40^{\circ}C$) for 15 min, and D-values were generated. The results show that the lowest D-values for Lis. monocytogenes by EAW produced at $4^{\circ}C$ and $40^{\circ}C$ were 6.60 and 1.57 min, respectively. The lowest D-value for Sal. Enteritidis by EAW produced at $22^{\circ}C$ was 2.92 min. D-values of all strains treated by EAW produced at $40^{\circ}C$ decreased significantly compared to those treated by EAW produced at $4^{\circ}C$ (P<0.05). These results demonstrate that applying EAW produced at warm temperature is more effective for reducing foodborne pathogens for food safety.