• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 1994

With the rapid industrialization, an ever-increasing quantity and kind of new organic compounds pose environmental problems due to their toxicity and physiological effect. However, research on the biodegradation of these compounds under anaerobic condition is very limited inspite of its efficiency and economical advantage. In this research, the pH effect on the ring cleavage of phenol under anaerobic condition was investigated, and the theory of phase separation was applied to the degradation of phenol for investigating the role of acidogenic bacteria. Results, obtained from biochemical methane potential(BMP) assay for 15.5 days of incubation, showed that acidic condition was more desirable for phenol degradation than alkaline condition. By both unacclimated methanogenic granular sludge and two mixed cultures, phenol was completely removed within six weeks of incubation with a gas conversion rate of over 86% of theoretical one. However, phenol was not degraded by unacclimated acidogenic culture, and thus it is considered as a syntrophic substrate. In case of phase separated biochemical methane potential(PSBMP) assay, in which acidogenic and methanogenic culture were seeded separately and consecutively, those that had been subjected to normal acidogens for 3 to 4 weeks showed higher gas production than those seeded with sterile or frozen culture.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.395-409
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• 2017

Membrane bioreactor (MBR) is a compact and efficient wastewater treatment and reclamation technology; but, it is limited by membrane fouling. The control of membrane fouling significantly increases operational and maintenance costs. Bacteria and their byproducts - extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) - are major contributors to membrane fouling in MBRs. A recent attempt at fouling mitigation is the development of aerobic granular sludge membrane bioreactor (AGMBR) through the integration of a novel biotechnology - aerobic granulation - and MBR. This paper provides an overview on the development of AGMBR to mitigate membrane fouling caused by bacteria and EPS. In AGMBR, EPS are used up in granule formation; and, the rigid structure of granules provides a surface for bacteria to attach to rather than the membrane surface. Preliminary research on AGMBR using synthetic wastewater show remarkable membrane fouling reduction compared to conventional MBR, thus improved membrane filtration. Enhanced performance in AGMBR using actual municipal wastewater at pilot-scale has also been reported. Therefore, further research is needed to determine AGMBR optimal operational conditions to enhance granule stability in long-term operations and in full-scale applications.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.1055-1064
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• 2006

Extremely slow growing anammox(anaerobic ammonium oxidation) bacteria were cultivated using a combination of UASB(Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket) reactor seeded with anaerobic granular sludge and carbon-fiber cultivating reactor. After 180 days of continuous cultivation, average nitrogen removal rate showed 0.54 kg $N/m^3-day$ when 0.6 kg $N/m^3-day$ of nitrogen loading was applied. The black granule was changed to brown and red granule as continuous operation, and the red granule was highly dependant on the high anammox activity. Microbial community structure of red granule in the UASB reactor was analyzed by molecular methods such as gene cloning, phylogenetic tree analysis, and FISH(Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization) method. As a result of gene cloning and phylogenetic tree analysis, 5 kinds of phylum were found to be Planctomycetes, Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Chlorobi and Chloroflexi. 13 clones were matched to anammox bacteria among 51 clones in the red anammox granule. In-silico test which used cloning information and FISH probe of the AMX368 was conducted to detect the presence of anammox bacteria in the red anammox granule. As a result of in-silico test only one clone was exactly matched to AMX368 but 11 clones was mutated one base among 18 bases representing all 12 clones are anammox bacteria. A filamentous Chloroflexi might be related to the granulation of anammox bacteria. As a result of FISH analysis, anammox bacteria was abundant in the red anammox granule.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.1319-1330
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• 2000

Activated carbons prepared by chemical activation of organic waste sludges with $ZnCl_2$ and $K_2S$ have been studied in terms of their pore development and adsorptivity. Pore development of the carbons prepared from organic waste sludges was characterized by the nitrogen adsorption at 77K. The $ZnCl_2$-activated carbon produced by chemical activation with zinc chloride exhibited type I isotherm characteristics according to the BDDT classification, suggesting the presence of micropores formed by activation process. The isotherms of the commercial powdered activated carbon and $K_2S$-activated carbon reveal a hysteresis similar to that of type IV in BDDT classification, indicating the formation of mesopores. This result implies that the major pores of $K_2S$-activated carbon are composed of meso and micropores, and a macropores are minor. The adsorptive capacities of metal on the $K_2S$-activated carbon prepared from organic waste sludges were found to be superior to those on a commercial granular activated carbon. The Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms yield a fairly good fit to the adsorption data, indicating a monolayer adsorption of metals onto $K_2S$-activated carbon. The adsorptive capacity of the $K_2S$-activated carbon was superior to $ZnCl_2$-activated carbon for $PO_4$-P, and vice versa for $NO_3$-N. From the results of the studies reported here, it can be concluded that activated carbons with adsorptivity superior to commercial granular activated carbons can be produced from organic waste sludge using a two-step carbonization/activation procedure with zinc chloride or potassium sulfide as the activating agents.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.137-143
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• 2013

The diversity and distribution of methanogenic archaea in a four-compartment anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) treating sugar refinery wastewater were investigated by polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE). At an organic loading rate of 5.33 kg $COD/m^3{\cdot}day$, the ABR could perform steadily with the mean chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of 94.8% and the specific $CH_4$ yield of 0.21 l/g $COD_{removed}$. The $CH_4$ content in the biogas was increased along the compartments, whereas the percentage of $H_2$ was decreased, indicating the distribution characteristics of the methanogens occurred longitudinally down the ABR. A high phylogenetic and ecological diversity of methanogens was found in the ABR, and all the detected methanogens were classified into six groups, including Methanomicrobiales, Methanosarcinales, Methanobacteriales, Crenarchaeota, Arc I, and Unidentified. Among the methanogenic population, the acid-tolerant hydrogenotrophic methanogens including Methanoregula and Methanosphaerula dominated the first two compartments. In the last two compartments, the dominant methanogenic population was Methanosaeta, which was the major acetate oxidizer under methanogenic conditions and could promote the formation of granular sludge. The distribution of the hydrogenotrophic (acid-tolerant) and acetotrophic methanogens in sequence along the compartments allowed the ABR to perform more efficiently and steadily.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.214-219
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• 2009

This study examined the removal efficiency of the nitrogen and phosphorus in order to compensate for the combined process of ATAD(Autothermal Thermophilic Aaerobic Digestion) and EGSB(Expended Granular Sludge Bed), which are treatment methods for livestock wastewater, by introducing SBR(Sequencing Batch Reactor) as post-treatment process. The analysis on the treatment efficiency of each operation mode showed that, in the case of T-N, the treatment efficiency were 67.1% and 74.2% for Run-1 and Run-2, respectively, and in the case of T-P, the values were 71.2 and 74.1, respectively, which are indicating that the treatment efficacy is higher in the condition of Run-1, in which the time period of Anoxic and Aerobic segments were increased. In addition, the result of analyzing removal characteristics of nitrogen and phosphorus by Influx load showed that removal efficiency of nitrogen was better in the case of high influx load than in the case of low influx load. Regardless of Influx load, phosphorus showed constant influx concentration, so that removal efficiency of phosphorus was influenced littler by Influx load than that of nitrogen. This study also fed methanol as an external carbon source and performed experiment to induce denitrification under anoxic condition by using nitrate among nitrogen compounds of SBR reactor, and the results showed that intermittent feeding was more effective in Nitrogen Removal than composite feeding.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.485-492
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• 2011

Sorption of cyanide on granular activated carbon and attenuation of the cyanide by UV-light over a wide range of conditions such as pH and concentration were investigated through batch experiments. Cyanide uptake by activated carbon is much effective at $[CN]_{ini}$ < 2 mg/L. The sorption of cyanide on activated carbon at pH 7.0 is greater than that of pH 9.0. It is found that the ratio of CN uptake to CN in solution increases at pH 9.0 whereas at pH 7.0 the ratio decreases, suggesting that reactivity of activated carbon increases as a function of pH. The sorption of cyanide rapidly increases during the first 30 min, followed by sharp desorption until 3hr, and then the sorption increases and reaches the maximum sorption during the duration of experiments, implying that the sorption mode could be changed through conformational change during the initial stage of the cyanide uptake by activated carbon. Total amount of cyanide desorbed from the activated carbon during the period of desorption experiments is less than 1.5% of total sorbed cyanide, indicative of strong and stable sorption of cyanide on the activated carbon. The sorption with mixture of activated carbon and Ham-Baek sludge shows less effective on the removal of the cyanide. It is noted that UV-light is much effective on the removal of cyanide but also the attenuation is achieved until $[CN]_{tot}$ is up to 10 mg/L. Our findings demonstrate that both activated carbon and UV-light are very effective on the attenuation of cyanide over a wide range of environmental conditions.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.63-70
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• 2013

Experiments in a pilot-scale hybrid multi-stage unit system (HMUS) combination of ATAD and EGSB followed by SBR process for pig slurry treatment were conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of using autothermal thermophilic aerobic digestion (ATAD) and expended granular sludge bed (EGSB) followed by sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system. Contaminants in pig slurry with high organic matter, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) content were completely removed in the combined process. The highest removal rate for CODcr among contaminants in the feed pig slurry was attained by about 43.3% in ATAD unit process. Also TS removal rate of 96.5% was attained and the highest in the next coagulation unit process. The highest removal rate of CODcr under operating parameter conditions of OLR(organic loading rate), 3-6Kg $COD/m^3{\cdot}day$ and line velocity, 1.5-4m/h was earned at 3days of HRT. The disinfection of pathogens was effective at 50,000mg/L of TS in ATAD unit process. Biogas production per organic removal was $2.3{\sim}8.5m^3/kgTS{\cdot}d$ (average $5.2m^3/kgTS{\cdot}d$) in EGSB unit process. The average removal rates of CODcr 71.7%, TS 64.1%, TN 45.9%, and TP 50.4% were earned in the intermittent aeration SBR unit process.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.176-180
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• 2009

Two year-old female miniature schnauzer was presented with depression, abdominal pain and inappetence. Physical examination revealed tachypnea, fever, and abdominal pain. Leukocytosis with neutrophilia was shown in complete blood count. Radiograph revealed the increase of opacity in parallel to vertebra and dislocation of descending colon. Calculi and sludge in bladder, hydronephrosis and dilation of proximal ureter in right kidney were observed in ultrasonographic examination; also, irregular shape of structure in retroperitoneal cavity was observed. Urinalysis showed protein urine and hemtauria. Many epithelial cells, spindle cells, calcium oxalate dihydrate crystals, struvite crystals, amorphous crystals and granular casts, WBC, cocci were examined in urine sediment test. ERD-kit test result was highly positive. Based on those test and excretory urogram pyelonephritis and complete unilateral obstruction of ureter were confirmed. A balloon type structure in retroperitoneal cavity was found through the exploratory laparotomy. In cytologic examination of aspirated fluid from dilated area many degenerated neutrophils and phagocytized cocci were observed. Staphylococcus intermedius was cultured from aspirated fluid. Based on these clinical results retroperitoneal abscesses caused by Staphylococcus intermedius was diagnosed with ureter obstruction and concurrent cystic calculi. Nephrectomy of right kidney with ureter was performed.