• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.291-298
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• 2023

This research evaluates the sustainability of gasifying livestock manure to produce fuel gas from an economic and carbon emission perspective. The entire process, including gasification, fuel gas purification, and pipeline installation to transport the produced fuel gas to the demanding industrial complex, is analyzed for realistic feasibility. The study is conducted using an ASPEN PLUS simulation with experimental data. The results of the economic and CO₂ life cycle assessments confirm that the fuel gas produced from livestock manure is competitive with natural gas despite having a lower calorific value. When used as a fuel with a high hydrogen content, the fuel gas emits less CO₂ per calorific value, making it more environmentally friendly. A scenario analysis is also performed to determine the expected economics, with price competitiveness being influenced by several factors. Although a significant decrease in natural gas prices could reduce the price competitiveness of the proposed process, it can still be supported by government policies. The cash flow analysis also confirms the economic viability of the process.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.208-218
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• 2023

Photocatalysts are advanced materials which accelerate the photoreaction by providing ordinary reactions with other pathways. The catalysts have various advantages, such as low-cost, low operating temperature and pressure, and long-term use. They are applied to environmental and energy field, including the air and water purification, water splitting for hydrogen production, sterilization and self-cleaning surfaces. However, commercial photocatalysts only absorb ultraviolet light between 100 and 400 nm of wavelength which comprises only 5% in sunlight due to the wide band gap. In addition, rapid recombination of electron-hole pairs reduces the photocatalytic performance. Recently, studies on blackening photocatalysts by laser, thermal, and plasma treatments have been conducted to enhance the absorption of visible light and photocatalytic activity. The disordered structures could yield mid-gap states and vacancies could cause charge carrier trapping. Herein, liquid phase plasma (LPP) is adopted to synthesize Ag-doped black ZnO for the utilization of visible-light. The physical and chemical characteristics of the synthesized photocatalysts are analyzed by SEM/EDS, XRD, XPS and the optical properties of them are investigated using UV/Vis DRS and PL analyses. Lastly, the photocatalytic activity was evaluated using methylene blue as a pollutant.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.50-57
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• 2024

In this experiment, Pd-Ag-Cu membrane was manufactured using electroless plating on an α-Al₂O₃ support. Pd, Ag and Cu were each coated on the surface of the support through electroless plating and heat treatment was performed for 18 h at 500℃ in H₂ in the middle of electroless plating to form Pd alloy. The surface of the Pd-Ag-Cu membrane was observed through Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and the thickness of the Pd membrane was measured to be 7.82 ㎛ and the thickness of the Pd-Ag-Cu membrane was measured to be 3.54 ㎛. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the formation of a Pd-Ag-Cu alloy with a composition of Pd-78wt%, Ag-8.81wt% and Cu-13.19wt%. The gas permeation experiment was conducted under the conditions of 350~450℃ and 1~4 bar in H₂ single gas and H₂/N₂ mixed gas. The maximum H₂ flux of the hydrogen separation membrane measured in H₂ single gas is 74.16 ml/cm²·min at 450℃ and 4 bar for the Pd membrane and 113.64 ml/cm²·min at 450℃ and 4 bar for the Pd-Ag-Cu membrane. In the case of the separation factor measured in H₂/N₂ mixed gas, separation factors of 2437 and 11032 were measured at 450℃ and 4 bar.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.32-41
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• 2001

We measured the fluxes of COD, TN and 55 in addition to composition and quality of sediment in Komso Bay, West Coast of Korea. The fluxes of TN, SS and COD were measured during flood tide and ebb tide in April and August, 2000. Denitrification rates in the sediments was also measured by direct produced $N_2$ gas technique on April and August from 1999 to 2000 in the same sea area. The composition of the sediments were 0.33~5.67 % of sand, 20.2~25.6 of gravel and 68.7~77.0 % of silt. Ignition loss of the sediments were 6.58~7.50 %. The concentration of hydrogen sulfide in the sediments were 0.028~0.326 mg/gㆍdry and oxidation reduction potential of the sediments were -28~-15 mV Diurnal fluxes of COD, total nitrogen, and suspended solids with tidal current and denitrification rate in the tidal flat have been determined in Komso Bay The diurnal net flux of COD was same in April. While 14.4 ton COD/hr of net influx into the tidal flat was recorded in August. The diurnal net influx of total nitrogen was 0.16 ton N/hr in April and 1.13 ton N/hr in August. The diurnal net influx of suspended solids was 0.05 ton SS/hr in April, and also net influx of suspended solids was 0.29 ton SS/hr in August. The overall purification ability of the tidal flat were estimated 0.00~5.69 g COD/$m^2/day$, 0.06~0.45 g N/m²/day and 0.02~0.12 g SS/$m^2/day$ for COD, TN and SS, respectively. Denitrification rate was 0.009~1.720 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$ (average 0.702 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$) in April and 0.033~0.133 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$ (average 0.077 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$) in August, 1999. 0.000~l.909 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$ (average 0.756 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$) in April, 0.000~1.691 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$ (average 0.392 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$) in August, 2000. Even with a wide range of denitrification rate depending on the sampling location and studied periods, the average denitrification rate was estimated 0.482 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$ in the tidal flat of Komso Bay.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2008

Titanium dioxide ($TiO_2$) is one of the most researched semiconductor oxides that has revolutionised technologies in the field of environmental purification and energy generation. It has found extensive applications in heterogenous photocatalysis for removing organic pollutants from air and water and also in hydrogen production from photocatalytic water-splitting. Its use is popular because of its low cost, low toxicity, high chemical and thermal stability. But one of the critical limitations of $TiO_2$ as photocatalyst is its poor response to visible light. Several attempts have been made to modify the surface and electronic structures of $TiO_2$ to enhance its activity in the visible light region such as noble metal deposition, metal ion loading, cationic and anionic doping and sensitisation. Most of the results improved photocatalytic performance under visible light irradiation. This paper attempts to review and update some of the information on the $TiO_2$ photocatalytic technology and its accomplishment towards visible light region.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.445-449
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• 2012

We investigate the effects of redox reaction on preparation of high purity ${\alpha}$-alumina from selectively ground aluminum dross. Preparation procedure of the ${\alpha}$-alumina from the aluminum dross has four steps: i) selective crushing and grinding, ii) leaching process, iii) redox reaction, and iv) precipitation reaction under controlled pH. Aluminum dross supplied from a smelter was ground to separate metallic aluminum. After the separation, the recovered particles were treated with hydrochloric acid(HCl) to leach aluminum as aluminum chloride solution. Then, the aluminum chloride solution was applied to a redox reaction with hydrogen peroxide($H_2O_2$). The pH value of the solution was controlled by addition of ammonia to obtain aluminum hydroxide and to remove other impurities. Then, the obtained aluminum hydroxide was dried at $60^{\circ}C$ and heat-treated at $1300^{\circ}C$ to form ${\alpha}$-alumina. Aluminum dross was found to contain a complex mixture of aluminum metal, aluminum oxide, aluminum nitride, and spinel compounds. Regardless of introduction of the redox reaction, both of the sintered products are composed mainly of ${\alpha}$-alumina. There were fewer impurities in the solution subject to the redox reaction than there were in the solution that was not subject to the redox reaction. The impurities were precipitated by pH control with ammonia solution, and then removed. We can obtain aluminum hydroxide with high purity through control of pH after the redox reaction. Thus, pH control brings a synthesis of ${\alpha}$-alumina with fewer impurities after the redox reaction. Consequently, high purity ${\alpha}$-alumina from aluminum dross can be fabricated through the process by redox reaction.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.250-255
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• 2011

In this study, by using the polymeric membrane separation process, the $CO_{2}/CH_{4}$ separation and $H_{2}S$ removal from biogas were performed in order to $CH_{4}$ purification and enrichment for the fuel cell energy source application. Fibers were spun by dry/wet phase inversion method. The module was manufactured by fabricating fibers after surface coating with silicone elastomer. The scanning electron microscopy(SEM) studies showed that the produced fibers typically had an asymmetric structure; a dense top layer supported by a porous, sponge substructure. The permeance of $CO_{2}$ and $CO_{2}/CH_{4}$ selectivity increased with pressure and temperature. Mixture gas with increasing pressure and temperature, removal efficiency of the $CO_{2}$ and $H_{2}S$ were decreased while concentration of $CH_{4}$ was increased up to 100%. When retentate flow rate was increased with the decreasing of pressure and temperature the $CH_{4}$ recovery ratio in retentate side was increased while the $CH_{4}$ purity in retentate side was decreased.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.154-155
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• 2012

The promise of nano-crystalites (nc) as a technological material, for applications including display backplane, and solar cells, may ultimately depend on tailoring their behavior through doping and crystallinity. Impurities can strongly modify electronic and optical properties of bulk and nc semiconductors. Highly doped dopant also effect structural properties (both grain size, crystal fraction) of nc-Si thin film. As discussed in several literatures, P atoms or radicals have the tendency to reside on the surface of nc. The P-radical segregation on the nano-grain surfaces that called self-purification may reduce the possibility of new nucleation because of the five-coordination of P. In addition, the P doping levels of ${\sim}2{\times}10^{21}\;at/cm^3$ is the solubility limitation of P in Si; the solubility of nc thin film should be smaller. Therefore, the non-activated P tends to segregate on the grain boundaries and the surface of nc. These mechanisms could prevent new nucleation on the existing grain surface. Therefore, most researches shown that highly doped nc-thin film by using conventional PECVD deposition system tended to have low crystallinity, where the formation energy of nucleation should be higher than the nc surface in the intrinsic materials. If the deposition technology that can make highly doped and simultaneously highly crystallized nc at low temperature, it can lead processes of next generation flexible devices. Recently, we are developing a novel CVD technology with a neutral particle beam (NPB) source, named as neutral beam assisted CVD (NBaCVD), which controls the energy of incident neutral particles in the range of 1~300eV in order to enhance the atomic activation and crystalline of thin films at low temperatures. During the formation of the nc-/pm-Si thin films by the NBaCVD with various process conditions, NPB energy directly controlled by the reflector bias and effectively increased crystal fraction (~80%) by uniformly distributed nc grains with 3~10 nm size. In the case of phosphorous doped Si thin films, the doping efficiency also increased as increasing the reflector bias (i.e. increasing NPB energy). At 330V of reflector bias, activation energy of the doped nc-Si thin film reduced as low as 0.001 eV. This means dopants are fully occupied as substitutional site, even though the Si thin film has nano-sized grain structure. And activated dopant concentration is recorded as high as up to 1020 #/$cm^3$ at very low process temperature (＜ $80^{\circ}C$) process without any post annealing. Theoretical solubility for the higher dopant concentration in Si thin film for order of 1020 #/$cm^3$ can be done only high temperature process or post annealing over $650^{\circ}C$. In general, as decreasing the grain size, the dopant binding energy increases as ratio of 1 of diameter of grain and the dopant hardly be activated. The highly doped nc-Si thin film by low-temperature NBaCVD process had smaller average grain size under 10 nm (measured by GIWAXS, GISAXS and TEM analysis), but achieved very higher activation of phosphorous dopant; NB energy sufficiently transports its energy to doping and crystallization even though without supplying additional thermal energy. TEM image shows that incubation layer does not formed between nc-Si film and SiO2 under later and highly crystallized nc-Si film is constructed with uniformly distributed nano-grains in polymorphous tissues. The nucleation should be start at the first layer on the SiO2 later, but it hardly growth to be cone-shaped micro-size grains. The nc-grain evenly embedded pm-Si thin film can be formatted by competition of the nucleation and the crystal growing, which depend on the NPB energies. In the evaluation of the light soaking degradation of photoconductivity, while conventional intrinsic and n-type doped a-Si thin films appeared typical degradation of photoconductivity, all of the nc-Si thin films processed by the NBaCVD show only a few % of degradation of it. From FTIR and RAMAN spectra, the energetic hydrogen NB atoms passivate nano-grain boundaries during the NBaCVD process because of the high diffusivity and chemical potential of hydrogen atoms.

• Clean Technology
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• v.13 no.1 s.36
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• pp.54-63
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• 2007

Even traces of CO in the hydrogen-rich feed gas to proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) poison the platinum anode electrode and dramatically decrease the power output. In this work, a variety of catalytic materials consisting of $Cu/Ce_xZr_{1-x}O_2$, (x = 0.0-1.0) were synthesised, characterized and tested for CO oxidation and preferential oxidation of CO (PROX). These catalysts prepared by hydrothermal and deposition-precipitation methods. The catalysts were characterized by XRD, XRF, SEM, BET, $N_2O$ titration and oxygen storage capacity (OSC) measurement. The effects of composition of the support and degree of excess oxygen were investigated fur activity and $CO_2$ selectivity with different temperatures. The composition of the support markedly influenced the PROX activity. Among the various $Cu/Ce_xZr_{1-x}O_2$ catalysts having different composition, $Cu/Ce_{0.9}Zr_{0.1}O_2$ and $Cu/Ce_{0.7}Zr_{0.3}O_2$ showed the highest activities (>99%) and selectivities (ca.50%) in the temperature range of $150{\sim}160^{\circ}C$. It was found that by using of $Ce_xZr_{1-x}O_2$ mixed oxide support which possesses a high oxygen storage capacity, oxidation-reduction activity of Cu-based catalyst was improved, which resulted in the increase of catalytic activity and selectivity of CO oxidation in excess $H_2$ environments.

• 보존과학연구
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• s.25
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• pp.119-132
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• 2004

Annals of the Joseon Dynasty is the authentic record of the historical facts and events taken place throughout the entire period of 472 years(25 generations, 1392~1863)described in a chronological order. The tremendous volume of the records contains the factual events taken place in almost all the fields of the Joseon Dynasty ranging from politics, economy to history of the dynasty. Not only because of its affluent contents but also with the precision of its records, it was designated as the National Treasure No. 151 in1973 by the Korean government and also registered as the Memory of the World by UNESCO in October 1997.This study is to report a exhaustive investigation results on the conservation state of annals of the Joseon Dynasty, especially Mt. Jeongjoksan edition, under the storage of the Kyujanggak in order to obtain the current condition, and thereby to estimate the any deterioration of the waxed volumes in the future. According to results of the investigation, we are going to verify damage causes of annals of the Joseon Dynasty, and to consider scientific conservation methods for the permanent preservation of invaluable cultural heritage. The major problem with the preservation of annals has arisen particularly from the deterioration of the waxed volumes of the Mt. Jeongjoksan edition. In order to provide for the counter measures for this problem, we have conducted twice investigations(first :1998~1999, second : 2003) to the internal and external conditions of waxed volumes(Annals of King Taejo~Annals of King Myeongjong).The result of the investigation has indicated that the paper quality of the some of the waxed volumes (Annals of King Taejong~Annals of King Sejong) is cracked and folded and the pages are imbedded to each other due to the hardened or congealed wax on the paper. Some of the pages are even getting moldy. And in order to detect as to whether“ there has been any deterioration progressed to the waxed books in the modern storage facility of the Kyujanggak equipped with constant temperature and humidity condition, the first investigation(1998~1999) and the second investigation(2003) have recorded the values of acidity, whiteness and moisture rate of the waxed paper, reporting an observation that there has been no difference on the measuring items. This indicates that no virtual deterioration has been progressed so far to the waxed volumes preserved in the Kyujanggak. Also, except for the causes of deterioration to the paper by insects and microorganisms, the major cause for the paper damage seems to the change of moisture of the paper caused from the alteration of the temperature and humidity of the storage environment. With this understanding in mind, we have conducted an environmental investigation on the three selected points of the storage in the aspects of the temperature, humidity, air current, $CO_2$,HCHO, and $SO_2$.It has been observed that the temperature stood at $16.9^{\circ}C~20.2^{\circ}C$ and the humidity was stable between 53%~56% during the period of the investigation. The concentration of the carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide of the storage were very similar to those in the air. These data lead to presume that there is no problem in the aspect of carbon oxidization. But the concentration of sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and formaldehyde of the storage were detected a little higher than those of standard. Therefore, we consider that it is necessary to ventilate the internal air of the store room by means of operating air purification devices.