• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.1495-1501
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• 2012

In this study, an experiment was conducted on influent water with low concentrations of organic matter, such as river water or secondary treatment water of a sewage treatment plant, according to HRT changes by using aerobic biofilm. In the biofilm process, as the biofilm increases in thickness, the inner membrane can be low in oxygen transfer rate and become anaerobic conditions, while the detachment of biomass from biofilm occurs. To overcome these limitations in the detachment of microorganisms in biofilm, the yarn, which was made from poly propylene(PP), was weaved and manufactured into a tube. Then, a test was carried out by injecting air so that the interior of the biofilm could create aerobic conditions. The results of the experiment showed that the removal efficiency of $TCOD_{cr}$ reached 66.1~81.2% by HRT 2hr, and 50.9 ~61.8% after HRT 1 hr. The removal efficiency of $SCOD_{cr}$ was 45.9 to 55.1% by HRT 1hr, and 26.1% in HRT 0.5hr, showing the highest removal efficiency in HRT 1hr. The SS removal efficiency was at 81.8 to 94.6%, and the effluent SS concentration was very low, indicating less than 2.2 mg/L in all HRT's. As a result, the $SCOD_{cr}$ and $NH_4{^+}$-N that were removed per specific surface area and attached to microbial biofilm showed the highest efficiency in HRT 1hr with 8.37 $gSCOD_{cr}/m^2{\cdot}d$, 2.93 $gNH_4{^+}-N/m^2{\cdot}d$. From the result of reviewing the characteristics of biofilm growth, microorganisms were found to be attached, and increased by 36 days. Later, they decreased in number through detachment, but showed a tendency to increase again 41 days later due to microbial reproduction.

• 한국해양학회지
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.137-144
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• 1992

Picoplankton in the size range of $0.2-2.0{\;}\mu\textrm{m}$ were enumerated in the Nakdong River estuary on 17 October, 1991 by using an epifluorescence microscope. Numerous minute cells emitting yellow to orange fluorescence at various strengths were recognized and the cells were moistly spherical in shape. Picocyanobacteria seem to comprise most of the picoplankton observed. They also occurred in very polluted water. Cell densities of picoplankton were in the range of $683-3,878{\;}cells{\cdot}ml^{-1}$ at the surface water. In vertical profiles, the Numbers were maximum at subsurface and minimum at surface layer. Percentage picoplankton biomass determined by chlorophyll ranged from undetectable levels to 5.9% of the total chlorophyll. The cell density and chlorophyll a concentrations of picoplankton were relatively low in the study area compared to those of other locations in world ocean, but the study of picoplankton may be important in understanding of microbial food web in the sea.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.84-98
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• 2000

Control of Trihalomethanes(THMs) is a major concern of many water treatment plants. A number of researchers have studied the effectiveness of activated carbon adsorption process in removing THMs or organic halogen compounds. Recently, attention has been paid to the biological activated carbon (BAC) treatment of THM precursors as an alternative to the carbon adsorption treatment because of its effectiveness as well as its low running cost. In this study, changes of THM formation potential(THMFP) and removal of substrates in the SBR effluent were investigated in an attempt to clarify the mechanisms of the decrease/increase of THMFP in the BAC treatment. The increase and decrease of THMFP concentrations were observed in effluents during prolonged operation. When PCP or DBS was feeded as substrate contained in SBR effluent, the THMFPs were easyly removed with TOCs removal. But the case of SBR effluent containing SDS or glycine was introduced, and when microbial growth came to its near steady state, the THMFPs of treated effluents were increased more or less in comparison to those in the influents. Such increases of THMFP coincided with the increase in microbial growth within the activated carbon fiber(ACF) column. In the case of only sucrose was feeded as substrate on ACF colume, THMFP concentrations of effluent were higher than those of influent. The THMFP concentration was significantly increased on inlet part of ACF column, which biomass inhabits abundantly, then they were decreased gradually. These increases mean production of the secondary THM precursors by biological activities, which can be removed by adsorption and biological degradation on ACF column.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.33-42
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• 2005

Wetlands often function as a nutrient sink. It is well known that increased input of nutrient increases the primary productivity but it is not well understood what is the fate of produced biomass in wetland ecosystem. Water and sediment quality, decomposition rate of cellulose, and sediment accumulation rate in 11 montane marshes in northern Sierra Nevada, California were analyzed to trace the effect of nitrogen and phosphorus content in water on nutrient dynamics. Concentrations of ammonium, nitrate, soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) in water were in the range of 27 to 607, 8 to 73, and 6 to 109 ppb, respectively. Concentrations of ammonium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium in water were the highest in Markleeville, which has been impacted by animal farming. Nitrate and SRP concentrations in water were the highest in Snow Creek, which has been impacted by human residence and a golf course. Cellulose decomposition rates ranged from 4 to 75 % per 90 days and the highest values were measured in Snow Creek. Concentrations of total carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in sediment ranged from 8.0 to 42.8, 0.5 to 3.0, and 0.076 to 0.162 %, respectively. Accumulation rates of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus fluctuated between 32.7 to 97.1, 2.4 to 9.0, and 0.08 to $1.14gm^{-2}yr{-1}$, respectively. Accumulation rates of carbon and nitrogen were highest in Markleeville and that of phosphorus was highest in Lake Van Norden. Correlation analysis showed that decay rate is correlated with ammonium, nitrate, and SRP in water. There was no correlation between element content in sediment and water quality. Nitrogen accumulation rate was correlated with ammonium in water. These results showed that element accumulation rates in montane wetland ecosystems are determined by decomposition rate rather than nutrient input. This study stresses a need for eco-physiological researches on the response of microbial community to increased nutrient input and environmental change because the microbial community is responsible for the decomposition process.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.381-384
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• 2002

Response surface methodology (RSM) was successfully applied to optimize for the production of Ganoderma lucidum in batch fermentations using the whey (40,000 mg latose/L) as substrate. This study was performed according to the central composite design (CCD) with respect to pH and temperature, where the designed intervals were 3.3$22.9^{\circ}C$$37.1^{\circ}C$, respectively. A second-order factorial design of the experiments was used to build empirical models providing a quantitative interpretation of the relationships between the two variables. The optimum conditions to maximize the production of G. lucidum were pH 4.2 and $28.3^{\circ}C$. At optimum conditions, the mycelial dry weight (MDW) and residual soluble COD (SCOD) were simultaneously used to evaluate the biokinetic coefficients assocoated with substrate inhibition model by nonlinear least squares method with 95% confidence interval. The. maximum microbial growth rates (${\mu}m$), half saturation coefficient ($K_s$), and the inhibition substrate concentration ($K_{is}$) were determined to be 0.095 l/hr, 128,000 mg SCOD/L and 49,000 mg SCOD/L, respectively. And the microbial yield coefficient (Y), biomass decay rate coefficient ($K_d$), and the maintenance energy coefficient ($m_s$) were determined to be 0.37 mg MDW/mg SCOD, 0.001 1/hr, and 0.0015 1/hr, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.314-324
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• 2011

Algal biomass cultivated by wastewater is potentially useful resource for biodiesel production. However, little is known about algal nutrient metabolism and microbial interaction with bacteria under real municipal wastewater condition. In this work, we characterized nitrogen and phosphorus removals of municipal wastewater by a representative wastewater-growing algal population. Ankistrodesmus gracilis SAG 278-2, and analyzed its ecological interaction with wastewater bacterial communities. Compared to wastewater sludge itself, algal-bacterial co-culture improved nutrient removal. According to bacterial community analysis with 16S rRNA genes, a selective and dominant growth of a Unclassified Alcaligenaceae population resulted from algal growth in the algal-bacterial co-culture. The selectively stimulated bacterial population is phylogenetically close to Alcaligenes faecalis subsp. 5659-H, which is known to be co-present interact with algae in aquatic environment. These findings suggest that algal growth/metabolism may have effects on selection of a specific bacterial population in algal-bacterial co-cultures that can efficiently remove nutrients from municipal wastewater.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1605-1613
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• 2010

Twenty-nine P. polymyxa strains isolated from rhizospheres of various crops were clustered into five genotypic groups on the basis of BOX-PCR analysis. The characteristics of several plant growth-promoting factors among the isolates revealed the distinct attributes in each allocated group. Under gnotobiotic conditions, inoculation of pepper roots with P. polymyxa isolates significantly increased the biomass in 17 of total 29 treated plants with untreated plants. Experiments on induced systemic resistance (ISR) against bacterial spot pathogen Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. vesicatoria in pepper by P. polymyxa strains were conducted and only one isolate (KNUC265) was selected. Further studies into ISR mediation by the KNUC265 strain against the soft-rot pathogen Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora in tobacco demonstrated that the tobacco seedlings exposed to either bacterial volatiles or diffusible metabolites exhibited a reduction in disease severity. In conclusion, ISR and plant growth promotion triggered by P. polymyxa isolates were systemically investigated on pepper for the first time. The P. polymyxa KNUC265 strain, which elicited both ISR and plant growth promotion, could be potentially used in improving the yield of pepper and possibly of other crops.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2014

One of the major challenges in metabolic engineering for enhanced synthesis of value-added chemicals is to design and develop new strains that can be translated into well-controlled fermentation processes using bioreactors. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of various fed-batch strategies in the performance of metabolically engineered Pseudomonas putida strains, ${\Delta}gcd$ and ${\Delta}gcd-pgl$, for improving production of medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoates (mcl-PHAs) using glucose as the only carbon source. First we developed a fed-batch process that comprised an initial phase of biomass accumulation based on an exponential feeding carbon-limited strategy. For the mcl-PHA accumulation stage, three induction techniques were tested under nitrogen limitation. The substrate-pulse feeding was more efficient than the constant-feeding approach to promote the accumulation of the desirable product. Nonetheless, the most efficient approach for maximum PHA synthesis was the application of a dissolved-oxygen-stat feeding strategy (DO-stat), where P. putida ${\Delta}gcd$ mutant strain showed a final PHA content and specific PHA productivity of 67% and $0.83g{\cdot}l^{-1}{\cdot}h^{-1}$, respectively. To our knowledge, this mcl-PHA titer is the highest value that has been ever reported using glucose as the sole carbon and energy source. Our results also highlighted the effect of different fed-batch strategies upon the extent of realization of the intended metabolic modification of the mutant strains.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.1670-1680
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• 2017

Lignocellulose, composed mostly of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin generated through secondary growth of woody plant, is considered as promising resources for biofuel. In order to use lignocellulose as a biofuel, biodegradation besides high-cost chemical treatments were applied, but knowledge on the decomposition of lignocellulose occurring in a natural environment is insufficient. We analyzed the 16S rRNA gene and metagenome to understand how the lignocellulose is decomposed naturally in decayed Torreya nucifera (L) of Bija forest (Bijarim) in Gotjawal, an ecologically distinct environment. A total of 464,360 reads were obtained from 16S rRNA gene sequencing, representing diverse phyla; Proteobacteria (51%), Bacteroidetes (11%) and Actinobacteria (10%). The metagenome analysis using single molecules real-time sequencing revealed that the assembled contigs determined originated from Proteobacteria (58%) and Actinobacteria (10.3%). Carbohydrate Active enZYmes (CAZy)- and Protein families (Pfam)-based analysis showed that Proteobacteria was involved in degrading whole lignocellulose, and Actinobacteria played a role only in a part of hemicellulose degradation. Combining these results, it suggested that Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria had selective biodegradation potential for different lignocellulose substrates. Thus, it is considered that understanding of the systemic microbial degradation pathways may be a useful strategy for recycle of lignocellulosic biomass, and the microbial enzymes in Bija forest can be useful natural resources in industrial processes.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.51-58
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• 2006

In this study, uptake and toxicity of disel (TPH) by poplar specie, $P.\;nigra{\times}P.\;maximowiczii$ were assessed in laboratory soil column experiments. Poplar cuttings were grown for 2 months and exposed to various concentration (0, 200, 500, 1000, 2000 mg/kg) of disel for a period of 60 days. For disel removal experiments, disel was effectively removed in the range of lower concentration. but, the removal rate of disel was rapidly decreased as increasing initial disel concentrations. For the this reason, toxicity effetcs were evaluated by measuring in poplar cutting mass variation and monitoring transpiration. Exposure on higher disel concentration resulted in decrease of biomass and transpiration accompanied by chlorosis and abscission, indicating toxic effect of disel on the poplar tree. And also, we have observed that both removal efficiency of disel and the microbial activity were higher at the bottom of the soil column. It was suggested that the plant formed the root zone at contaminated soil, stimulated microbial activity by plant root exudates, and played an important role in enhanced biodegradation of disel.