• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.540-559
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• 2018

The utilization of sewage sludge for liquid biofuel production is considered as a approach for achieving better energy security, sustainable productivity and economical raw material. Thermochemical technologies of sewage sludge into energy and fuel has been considered as one of the most effective process. Generally, sewage sludge contains more than 80% of moisture, has high metal contents and 14 ~ 20 MJ/kg of calorific value. This paper reviews the technologies of converting sewage sludge to liquid biofuel via three main thermochemical conversion processes namely pyrolysis, transesterification and supercritical. The fuel properties of liquid fuels produced by different technologies from sewage sludge and definition in relevant laws for liquid biofuels in Korea are also discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.129-138
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• 2008

Demand for alternatives to petroleum is increasing the production of biofuels from food crops such as corn, soybeans, sorghum and sugarcane, etc. At least for the next 5 years, ethanol demand will be increased greatly in the United States and in the world. Presently, most ethanol produced in the United States is corn (Zea mays) ethanol. As a result, especially in the Americas and Southeast Asia, agricultural land is diverted to biofuel production. Even though biofuel industry has many advantage including national security, economical, energetical and sustainable impacts, it is driving grain prices up and creating considerable concern about the potential negative impacts on a wide range of food products that depend on gain : chicken, pork, beef, and dairy products such as milk, cheese, yoghurt, cream and ice cream. Feedstock crops are crops such as switchgrass(Panicum virgatum, L.), corn stover and grasses that can be used in industrial processes such as fermentation into alcohol fuels. Feedstock is no compete with food. Furthermore it is friendly environmental bioenergy crops. In Korea, with increasing demand for fossil fuels the exploration of alternative sources of liquid fuel is inevitable. I suggest Korea need to research and to develop actively on feedstock for biofuel production through this review.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2017

Cellulosic biomass is a renewable source for biofuel production from non-edible biomass. An optimized pretreatment process is required for the efficient utilization of cellulosic biomass. Among various pretreatment processes, the use of ionic liquids has been reported recently. However, the residual ionic liquid after pretreatment acts as an inhibitor of microbial fermentation. Recently, we isolated mutant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains resistant to the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([EMIM][Ac]) by using a directed evolutionary approach. When 3% [EMIM][Ac] was added to a medium containing 80 g/l of glucose, mutants D452-B2 and D452-S3 produced 35.6 g/l and 36.3 g/l of ethanol, respectively, for 18 h while the parental strain (S. cerevisiae D452-2) produced 1.3 g/l of ethanol. Thus, these mutant S. cerevisiae strains might prove advantageous when ionic liquids are used for biofuel production from cellulosic biomass.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2011

Secondary walls have recently drawn research interest as a primary source of sugars for liquid biofuel production. Secondary walls are composed of a complex mixture of the structural polymers cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. A matrix of hemicellulose and lignin surrounds the cellulose component of the plant's cell wall in order to protect the cell from enzymatic attacks. Such resistance, along with the variability seen in the proportions of the major components of the mixture, presents process design and operating challenges to the bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fuel. Expanding bioenergy production to the commercial scale will require a significant improvement in the growth of feedstock as well as in its quality. Plant biotechnology offers an efficient means to create "targeted" changes in the chemical and physical properties of the resulting biomass through pathway-specific manipulation of metabolisms. The successful use of the genetic engineering approach largely depends on the development of two enabling tools: (1) the discovery of regulatory genes involved in key pathways that determine the quantity and quality of the biomass, and (2) utility promoters that can drive the expression of the introduced genes in a highly controlled manner spatially and/or temporally. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of the transcriptional regulatory network that controls secondary wall biosynthesis and discuss experimental approaches to developing-xylem-specific utility promoters.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.728-733
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• 2011

Endophytic fungi, isolated from a number of different species of tropical plants, were investigated for lipid biodiesel precursor production. The extracts produced from liquid cultures of these fungi were subjected to acidcatalyzed transesterification reactions with methanol producing methyl esters and then analyzed through chromatographic (GC-FID) and spectrometric techniques (MS, NMR $^1H$). The European Standard Method, EN 14103, was used for the quantification of methyl esters extracted from the fungi of the species and genera studied. Xylariaceous fungi exhibited the highest concentrations of methyl esters (91%), and hence may be a promising source for biofuel.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2008

Negative environmental consequences of fossil fuels and the concerns about their soaring prices have spurred the search for alternative energy sources. While other alternative energies-like solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, and tidal-offer viable options for electricity generation, around 40% of total energy consumption requires liquid fuels like gasoline or diesel fuel. This is where bio-energy/biofuels is especially attractive, where they can serve as a practical alternative to oil. The production of liquid biofuels for transportation will depend upon a stable supply of large amount of inexpensive cellulosic biomass obtained on a sustainable basis. This paper reviewed development status of transportation bio-energy for vehicles, technical barriers to the production of cellulosic ethanol, and the global future of bio-diesel and ethanol production.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.695-702
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• 2015

Liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) using various solvents was studied for recovery of acetic acid from a synthetic ethanol fermentation broth. The microbial fermentation of sugars presented in hydrolyzate gives rise to acetic acid as a byproduct. In order to obtain pure ethanol for use as a biofuel, fermentation broth should be subjected to acetic acid removal step and the recovered acetic acid can be put to industrial use. Herein, batch LLE experiments were carried out at $25^{\circ}C$ using a synthetic fermentation broth comprising $20.0g\;l^{-1}$ acetic acid and $5.0g\;l^{-1}$ ethanol. Ethyl acetate (EtOAc), tri-n-octylphosphine oxide (TOPO), tri-n-octylamine (TOA), and tri-n-alkylphosphine oxide (TAPO) were utilized as solvents, and the extraction potential of each solvent was evaluated by varying the organic phase-to-aqueous phase ratios as 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0. The highest acetic acid extraction yield was achieved with TAPO; however, the lowest ethanol-to-acetic acid extraction ratio was obtained using TOPO. In a single-stage batch extraction, 97.0 % and 92.4 % of acetic acid could be extracted using TAPO and TOPO when the ratio of organic-to-aqueous phases is 4:1 respectively. A higher solvent-to-feed ratio resulted in an increase in the ethanol-to-acetic acid ratio, which decreased both acetic acid purity and acetic acid extraction yield.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.450-458
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• 2012

In order to reduce the effects of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the South Korean government has announced a special platform of technologies as part of an effort to minimize global climate change. To further this effort, the Korean government has pledged to increase low-carbon and carbon neutral resources for biofuel derived from biomass to replace fossil and to decrease levels of carbon dioxide. In general, second generation biofuel produced form woody biomass is expected to be an effective avenue for reducing fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in road transport. It is important that under the new Korean initiative, pilot scale studies evolve practices to produce biomass-to-liquid (BTL) fuel. This study reports the quality characteristics of F-T(Fischer-Tropsch) diesel for production of BTL fuel. Synthetic F-Tdiesel fuel can be used in automotive diesel engines, pure or blended with automotive diesel, due to its similar physical properties to diesel. F-T diesel fuel was synthesized by Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) process with syngas($H_2$/CO), Fe basedcatalyst in low temperature condition($240^{\circ}C$). Synthetic F-T diesel with diesel compositions after distillation process is consisted of $C_{12}{\sim}C_{23+}$ mixture as a kerosine, diesel compositions of n-paraffin and iso-paraffin compounds. Synthetic F-T diesel investigated a very high cetane number, low aromatic composition and sulfur free level compared to automotive diesel. Synthetic F-T diesel also show The wear scar of synthetic F-T diesel show poor lubricity due to low content of sulfur and aromatic compounds compared to automotive diesel.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.153-153
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• 2010

The world is moving towards a post-carbon society and needs clean and renewable energy for sustainable development. There are many methodological approaches which are helping this shift based on analyzed data about energy resources and which focus on limited types of energy including liquid fossil, solid fossil, gaseous fossil, and biomass (e.g. IPCC Guidelines, ISO 14064-1, WRI Protocol, etc.). We should also consider environmental impact (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions, water use, etc.) and the economic cost of the renewable energy to make a better decision. Recently, researchers have addressed the environmental impact of new technologies which include photovoltaics, wind turbines, hydroelectric power, and biofuel. In this work, we analyze the environmental impact with a carbon emission factor to present a correlation between $CO_2$ emission and the cost of energy resources standardized by the energy output. In addition, we reviewed Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as another methodology. Researchers who are studying energy systems have ignored the impacts of entire energy systems, e.g. the extraction and processing of fossil fuels. In power sector, the assessment should include extraction, processing, and transportation of fuels, building of power plants, production of electricity, and waste disposal. Therefore LCA could be more suitable tool for energy cost and environmental impact estimation.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.1399-1409
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• 2019

Biodiesel is a renewable and environmentally friendly liquid biofuel for transportation. Insect is considered as a new valuable biomass to convert into biodiesel. In particular, BSF(Black Soldier Fly) containing high fat is a renewable source of biodiesel. Biodiesel drived BSF has high concentration of saturated fatty acid methyl ester and low concentration of polyunsaturted fatty acid methyl ester which makes it potentially an ideal substrate for producing excellent quality biodiesel. Most of the fuel properties of BSF biodiesel were met the requirements of standard EN 14214. BSF have a higher lipid yield and biodiesel productivity as compared to microalgae and vegetable oils. This review paper includes the overall summary and compilation of the insect research conducted on biodiesel production and includes the BSF biodiesel properties.