• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.491-504
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• 2020

Given the continued climate change and global warming, various technologies for greenhouse gas reduction were discussed worldwide as all 195 countries participated in the Paris Agreement on the reduction of greenhouse gases. The agreement was adopted at the 21st Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC (COP21), which was held in Paris, France, in December 2015, and it revealed that reducing CO₂ is the most efficient method of greenhouse gas reduction. Accordingly, carbon capture/utilization/storage (CCUS) technology has been noted as a means of making practical contributions to CO₂ reduction, and research and development (R&D) activities in many countries are active in the field of CCUS technology. Therefore, this study aims to provide a basis for CCUS R&D and strategic support measures by analyzing patent trends in technologies related to CCUS. The patent analysis collected a total of 10,137 patents in the United States, Korea, Japan, Europe, and China; the number of patents in the United States was the highest according to patent analysis by country. According to an analysis by technology, capture-related technology was high at 60%, but given the recent increase in technology related to utilization, technology demonstration, R&D, and policy support should be continued.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.253-263
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• 2015

Ordinary Portland cement is a widely favored construction material because of its good strength and durability and its reasonable price; however, spalling behaviour during fire exposure can be a serious risk that can lead to strength degradation or collapse of a building. Geopolymers, which can be synthesized by mixing aluminosilicate source materials such as metakaolin and fly ash, and alkali activators, are resistant to fire. Because the chemical composition of geopolymers controls the properties of the geopolyers, geopolymers with various Si:Al ratios were synthesized and evaluated as fire resistant construction materials. Rejected fly ash generated from a power plant was quantitatively analyzed and mixed with alkali activators to produce geopolymers having Si:Al ratios of 1.5, 2.0, and 3.5. Compressive strength of the geopolymers was measured at 28 days before and after heating at $900^{\circ}C$. Geopolymers having an Si:Al ratio of 1.5 presented the best fire resistance, with a 44% increase of strength from 29 MPa to 41 MPa after heating. This material also showed the least expansion-shrinkage characteristics. Geopolymer mortar developed no spalling and presented more than a 2 h fire resistance rating at $1,050^{\circ}C$ during the fire testing, with a cold side temperature of $74^{\circ}C$. Geopolymers have high potential as a fire resistant construction material in terms of their increased strength after exposure to fire.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.286-294
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• 2010

Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) has installed and operated seven seismoacoustic (infrasound) arrays as well as seismic stations in Korea. The seismo-acoustic array, which consists of co-located seismometers and micro-barometers, can observe both seismic and infrasonic signals from distant explosive phenomena. The infrasound is defined as low frequency (<20 Hz) acoustic waves in atmosphere. In particular, it can be detectable at long distance due to its low energy attenuation during propagation in atmosphere. KIGAM adopted the infrasound technology to discriminate surface explosions from earthquakes only because the surface explosion generally generates infrasound following seismic signal. In addition to surface explosions, these arrays have detected diverse geophysically natural and artificial phenomena, such as infrasound signal from the North Korean nuclear test. This review introduced the state-of-the-art studies and examples of infrasonic signals in and around the Korean Peninsula. In conclusion, infrasound technology would be clearly accepted itself as a new Earth monitoring technology by expanding its detectable regime to lithosphere-Earth surface-atmosphere. In future, an advanced technology, which allows to analyze seismic and infrasonic wave fields together, will enlarge the understanding of geophysical phenomena and be used as a robust analysis method for remote explosive phenomena in the broad infrasound regime.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.134-141
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• 2013

Pond ash produced from Seochun Power Station was quantitatively characterized to manufacture geopolymers with a range of Si/Al compositional ratios. Mix consistency was kept nearly constant for comparing the compressive strengths of geopolymers. The amorphous composition of coal ash was determined using XRF and quantitative X-ray diffraction. Different mix compositions were used in order to achieve Si/Al ratios of 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 in the geopolymer binder. Geopolymers synthesized from coal ash with a Si/Al ratio of 3.0 exhibited the highest compressive strength in this study. It was found that geopolymers activated with aluminate produced different microstructure from that of geopolymers activated with silicate. High silica in alkali activators produced the fine-grained microstructure of geopolymer gel. It was also found that high compressive strength was related to low porosity and a dense, connected microstructure. The outcome of the reported experiment indicates that quantitative formulation method made it possible to choose suitable activators for achieving targeted compositions of geopolymers and to avoid efflorescence.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.517-532
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• 2021

Safe geological disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) requires knowledge of the deep hydrochemical characteristics of the repository site. Here, we conducted a set of deep hydrochemical investigations using a 750-m borehole drilled in a model granite system in Wonju, South Korea. A closed investigation system consisting of a double-packer, Waterra pump, flow cell, and water-quality measurement unit was used for in situ water quality measurements and subsequent groundwater sampling. We managed the drilling water labeled with a fluorescein dye using a recycling system that reuses the water discharged from the borehole. We selected the test depths based on the dye concentrations, outflow water quality parameters, borehole logging, and visual inspection of the rock cores. The groundwater pumped up to the surface flowed into the flow cell, where the in situ water quality parameters were measured, and it was then collected for further laboratory measurements. Atmospheric contact was minimized during the entire process. Before hydrochemical measurements and sample collection, pumping was performed to purge the remnant drilling water. This study on a model borehole can serve as a reference for the future development of deep hydrochemical investigation procedures and techniques for siting processes of SNF repositories.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.199-210
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• 2008

Acoustic emission(AE)/Microseimsic(MS) activities are low-energy seismic events associated with a sudden inelastic deformation such as the sudden movement of existing fractures, the generation of new fractures or the propagation of fractures. These events rapidly increase before major failure and happen within a given rock volume and radiate detectable seismic waves. The main difference between AE and MS signals is that the seismic motion frequencies of AE signals are higher than those of MS signals. As the failure of geotechnical structures usually happens as a high velocity and small displacement, it is not easy to determine the precursor and initiation stress level of failure in displacement detection method. To overcome this problem, AE/MS techniques for detection of structure failure and damage have recently adopt in civil engineering. In this study, AE/MS monitoring system, which consist of sensor, data acquisition and operation program, is constructed with domestic technology. To verify and optimize the developed system, we are now carrying out the field application at an underground research laboratory and the developed AE/MS monitoring will be used in detecting of seismic events with various scales.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.199-209
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• 2010

Coal gasification technology in the sector of domestic clean coal technologies is being into the limelight since recent dramatic rise of international oil price. In this study, we used a low rank coal from Inner Mongolia, China as a starting material for gasification. Various properties including optical, mineralogical, X-ray spectroscopic, X-ray diffraction, and drying property were measured and tested in order to estimate the suitability of the coal to gasification. The coal was identified as a brown coal of lignite group from the measurement of vitrinite reflectance. The coal has very low slagging and fouling potentials, and the ignition temperature is about $250^{\circ}C$. The major impurities consist of quartz, siderite, and clay minerals. Additionally, the coal had moisture content above 28%. Tests for finding effective drying method showed that the microwave drying is more effective than thermal drying.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.219-225
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• 2010

Optimal grinding condition was examined by changing only the size of screen opening with fixing other factors to produce coal fines of particle sizes required for circulating fluidized bed gasifier. At least 85 wt% of the coal particles should fall into the size range of 0.045~1.0 mm for efficient gasification. In this study, hammer mill was used to grind Chinese low rank lignite coal following grinding condition designed by Taguchi method. The analysis of signal to noise ratio showed that optimum grinding condition for the gasifier was 3 mm in primary screen size and 1.3 mm in secondary screen size on the 95% level of significance.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.443-449
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• 2011

In this study, we carried out a survey on the degree of recognition for the brand of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) to contribute to reestablishing the status and role of KIGAM as an institution that people proud of by effectively delivering KIGAM's various research activities and achievements to people. About 49.9% of external publics recognized that there was relevance between research achievements of geo-technology and national brand. On the contribution of research achievements of geo-technology to promoting Korea's power of science and technology, 42.3% gave positive answers. On research achievements of mineral resources technology, just 14.4% replied they saw such results. As alternatives to promote the degree of recognition for brand, we suggested development of beneficial message, operation of brand management committee, promotion of involvement of research achievements of mineral resources technology about people-friendly subjects, development and distribution of "board game for education on mineral resources technology" for youths, activation of location PR, activation of online Q&A bulletin board, finding out star researchers, and president's PI activities.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.9-13
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• 2008

We have collected a batch of leaf samples at several main crossroads in Daejeon and a background site to obtain distribution of $CO_2$ (greenhouse gas) due to fossil fuel combustion. The leaf samples were treated with AAA method and ${\Delta}^{14}C$ values of them were measured using AMS. ${\Delta}^{14}C$ values of downtown sites were found to be lower by 27-102 ‰ than that of the background site, and the ratio of $CO_2$ originated from fossil fuel combustion in the atmosphere of Daejeon could be calculated from the differences of ${\Delta}^{14}C$ values. The average ${\Delta}^{14}C$ of the background site, around Kyeryong mountain, was measured to be $35{\pm}8$ ‰, and this value is lower than 66.3 ‰, which have been known as the backgdound values in USA.