• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.699-704
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• 2001

Until recently, disposal to landfill has been the most convenient way to deal with the increasing amount of residues the shredding industries produce. But the shortage of such disposal sites and the risk that liquid drained from these waste dusts may pollute ground water have increased the environmental pressures to find more effective solutions. The present study is an alternative approach that suggests identifying waste dusts characteristics and selecting an appropriate binder for hazardous materials to reduce the amount of contaminants (mainly lead) that were leaking into the soil. Investigations on the characteristics of automobiles waste dusts show that these materials are composed mainly of cottons and sponge like substances, plastics, rubber, glasses and gravel, metals, and electric wires. Besides, the percentage in weight of organic (inflammable) materials is about 70% and the lead contamination, which has not a ionic but a particulate nature, is particularly remarkable in cottons and sponge like materials. Binding additives such as K-20 and sodium carbonate were not effective but the addition of 5 % of cement (in weight of the investigated sample) followed by a 3-minute stirring and a 4-hour storage could drastically reduce the run off of lead below the maximum authorized level. No addition of water was necessary in this method.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.3535-3541
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• 2014

Bisphenol A is considered as pollutant, because it is toxic and hazardous to living organisms even at very low concentrations. Biological oxidation used for removing this organic from waste water is not suitable and consequently application of catalytic wet oxidation has been considered as one of the best options for treating bisphenol A. We have developed Fe/SBA-15, Ni/SBA-15 and Fe-Ni/SBA-15 as heterogeneous catalysts using the advanced impregnation method for oxidation of bisphenol A in water. The catalysts were characterized with physico-chemical characterization methods such as, powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), FT-IR measurements, N2 adsorption-desorption isotherm, thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) analysis. This work illustrates activity of the catalysts for heterogeneous catalytic degradation reaction revealed with excellent conversion and recyclability. The degradation products identified were not persistent pollutants. GC-MS analysis identified the products: 2,4-hexadienedioic acid, 2,4-pentadienic acid and isopropanol or acetic acid. The leachability study indicated that the catalysts release very little metals to water. Therefore, the possibility of water contamination through metal leaching was almost negligible.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.409-419
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• 2019

Although the rare earth elements (REEs) recycling industry is expected to increase worldwide in hightech industry, regulations for worker safety have yet to be established. This study was conducted to understand the potential hazard/risk of REE recycling and to support the establishment of regulations or standards. We review the extensive literature on the toxicology, occupational safety, and health issues, and epidemiological surveys related to the REEs, and propose suitable management measures. REE recycling has four key steps such as collection, dismantling, separation, and processing. In these processes, hazardous substances, such as REEs-containing dust, metals, and chemicals, were used or occurred, including the risk of ignition and explosion, and the workers can be easily exposed to them. In addition, skin irritation and toxicities for respiratory, nervous, and cardiovascular systems with the liver toxicity were reported; however, more supplementary data are needed, owing to incompleteness. Therefore, monitoring systems concerning health, environmental impacts, and safety need to be established, based on additional research studies. It is also necessary to develop innovative and environment-friendly recycling technologies, analytical methods, and biomarkers with government support. Through these efforts, the occupational safety and health status will be improved, along with the establishment of advanced REE recycling industry.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.99-107
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• 2000

Through the results of off-gas analysis at 3 sampling points in Plasma Arc Melting vitrification pilot plant, it was evaluated the partitioning of spiked materials in off-gas and the decontamination characteristic of off-gas treatment system. Spiked materials are hazard_us heavy metals(Pb, Cd, Hg), radioactive surrogate(Co, Cs) and radioactive materials($^{60}Co,\;^{137}Cs$). Through the Trial burn tests, Decontamination factor of spiked materials in off-gas treatment system is calculated.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.681-688
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• 2020

Bacterial cell-based biosensors, or whole-cell bioreporters (WCBs), are an alternative tool for the quantification of hazardous materials. Most WCBs share similar working mechanisms. In brief, the recognition of a target by sensing domains induces a biological event, such as changes in protein conformation or gene expression, providing a basis for quantification. WCBs targeting heavy metal(loid)s employ metalloregulators as sensing domains and control the expression of genes in the presence of target metal(loid) ions, but the diversity of targets, specificity, and sensitivity of these WCBs are limited. In this study, we genetically engineered the metal-binding loop (MBL) of ZntR, which controls the znt-operon in Escherichia coli. In the MBL of ZntR, three Cys sites interact with metal ions. Based on the crystal structure of ZntR, MBL sequences were modified by site-directed mutagenesis. As a result, the metal-sensing properties of WCBs differed depending on amino acid sequences and the new selectivity to Cr or Pb was observed. Although there is room for improvement, our results support the use of currently available WCBs as a platform to generate new WCBs to target other environmental pollutants including metal(loid)s.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.52-60
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• 2010

The stone-dust is an unavoidable by-product of aggregate production, which is produced about 0.8~1.0 million $m^3$ annually. The stone-dust is currently regarded as a hazard material on environment because it is classified as an industrial waste in the Waste Management Law of Korea. At present, the stone-dust is considered as a environmentally hazardous material, and is classified as an industrial waste according to the Waste Management Law of Korea. In this study, we assessed the heavy-metal contamination of the stone-dust on surrounding environments by various leaching tests. Leaching experiments (such as Korea Standard Leaching Procedure (KSLP), Soil Environment Preservation Act of Korea (SEPAK), Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP), and Synthetic Precipitation Leaching Procedure (SPLP)) show that very low heavy metals (As, Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, Hg) and CN are leached out, or much less than each regulatory thresholds. The resuts of the leaching test with time in acidic solution (initial pH 5 and 3) indicate that pH-buffering minerals are present in the stone-dust. These results suggest that the stone-dust can not potentially affect adverse impact on surrounding environments such as surface water, groundwater and soil etc..

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.43-47
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• 1986

In order to evaluate the pollution potential of agricultural crops after the construction of Onsan Industrial Complex (non-ferrous metal refineries), concentrations of hazardous heavy metals were analyzed for crop samples (rice, barley, soybean, vegetables and fruits) grown near the Complex in 1978. Although a slight difference was found among the kinds, parts and growing regions of the crops, no definite tendency was observed. The mean/maximum concentrations of crop samples were 0.23/4.0ppm As, 0.4/1.2 ppm Cd, 4.88/12.7ppm Cu, 0.09/0.4 ppm Hg, 3.86/5.0 ppm Pb and 41.3/105 ppm Zn, which may serve as the natural background data for this region.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.04a
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• pp.83-86
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• 1998

1. Introduction : Low molecular harmful organics such as 1-naphthol and phenol are widely used in industries, and pose serious environmental problems. Wastewater containing low molecular harmful organics may be ejected from various sources including metal-plating industries, circuit-board manufacturing process, photographic and photo-processing industries, refineries and metal-tailing leachate. The pollution of nation harbors, waterways and ground water resources with these organics has reached critical portions, and might also give hazardous influence on human health. Micellar enhanced ultrafiltration(MEUF) is a recently developed process to remove dissolved organics and/or heavy metals present in small or trace quantities from aqueous solution. In this system, the fatal defect is leakage of surfactants especially at low concentration below CMC(critical micelle concentration), which becomes a secondary pollution. Our group proposed to use biosurfactant and polymeric micelle to solve problems mentioned above. In this study we investigated a modified MEUF using PEO-PPO-PEO (polyethyleneoxide-polypropyleneoxide-polyethyleneoxide) block copolymers for the removal of organic solutes such as 1-naphthol and phenol from aqueous wastewater. We proposed PEO-PPO-PEO block copolymers as new surfactants for forming micelles in MEUF, and investigated the solubilization characteristics and efficiency for the removal of 1-naphthol and phenol. PEO-PPO-PEO block copolymers are, environmentally mild and safe as biosurfactants.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.603-610
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• 2013

According to industrialization, increased toxic chemicals discharge has been causing water pollution. Especially domestic sewage is a major source of water pollution. Sixty percent of the total wastewater discharged is domestic sewage. Self-purification capacity of rivers and streams is drastically reduced by the emission of domestic sewage, industrial wastewater and livestock wastewater. Although domestic sewage is managed by implementing standards and regulations, toxicity effect of domestic sewage to humans and the environment is not yet clearly understood. In this study, by using daphnia magna, the ecotoxicity of domestic swage was assessed. Cl, Cu, Pb, COD, T-N, DO, pH and residual chlorine were investigated as background concentrations. The experiments were conducted with water samples obtained from three local sewage treatment plants. The experiment results indicated that higher level of toxicity corresponds to the higher pollution concentrations. The higher level of combinations of background concentrations such as heavy metals leads to the worse ecotoxicity. Especially, the Cu concentration affects the TU value.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.673-678
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• 2011

With an increased production of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) in electronic equipment, the consumption of solder alloys is growing globally. Recently, increasing importance of recycling solder scrap has been recognized. Generally, solder scrap contains many impurities such as plastics and other metals. Hazardous components must be eliminated for recycling solder scrap. The present work studied pretreatment for reuse of solder scrap alloys. An experiment was conducted to enhance the cleanliness of solder scrap melt and eliminate impurities, especially lead. Physical separation with sieving and magnetic force was made along with pyrometallurgical methods. A small decrease in lead concentration was found by high temperature treatment of solder scrap melt. The impurities were removed by filtration of the solder scrap melt, which resulted in improvement of the melt cleanliness. A very low concentration of lead was achieved by a zone melting treatment with repeated passage. This study reports on a pretreatment process for the reuse of solder scrap that is lead free.