• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.81-84
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• 1999

The aqueous geochemical characteristics of Cr(III) and Cr(Ⅵ) in environmental systems are very different from one another: Cr(Ⅵ) is highly soluble, mobile and toxic relative to Cr(III) Reduction of Cr(Ⅵ) to Cr(III) are beneficial in aquatic systems because of the transformation of a highly mobile and toxic species to one having a low solubility in water, thus simultaneously decreasing chromium mobility and toxicity. Fe(II) species are excellent reductants for transforming Cr(Ⅵ) to Cr(III), and in addition, keeping Cr(III) concentrations below the drinking water standard of 52 ppb at pH values between 5 and 11. Investigations of the effects of NOM on Cr(Ⅵ) reduction are for examining the feasibility of using ferrous iron to reduce hexavalent chromium in subsurface environments. Experiments in the presence of soils, however, showed that the solid phase consumes some of the reducing capacity of Fe(II) and makes the overall reduction kinetics slower. The soil components bring about consumption of the ferrous iron reductant. Particular attention is devoted to the complexation of Fe(II) by NOM and the subsequent effect on Cr(Ⅵ) reduction. Cr(Ⅵ) reduction rate by Fe(II) was affected by the presence of NOM (humic acid), The effects of humic acid was different from the solution pH values and the concentration of humic acid. It was probably due to the reactions between humic acid and Cr(Ⅵ), humic acid and Fe(II), and between Cr(Ⅵ) and Fe(II), at each pH.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.467-473
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• 2008

Natural organic matter (NOM) removal by physico-chemical adsorption and biological oxidation was investigated in five slow sand filters with different media depths. Non-purgeable dissolved organic carbon(NPDOC) and $UV_{254}$ absorbance were measured to evaluate the characteristics of NOM removal at different filter depths. Removal efficiency of NOM was in the range of 10-40% throughout the operation time. At start-up of the filters packed with clean sand media, NOM was probably removed by physico-chemical adsorption on the surface of sand through the overall layer of filter bed. However, when Schumutzdecke layer was built up after 30 days operation, the major portion of NPDOC was removed by biological oxidation and/or bio-sorption in lower depth above 50 mm. NOM removal rate in the upper 50 mm filter bed was $0.82hr^{-1}$. It was about 20 times of the rate($0.04hr^{-1}$) in the deeper filter bed. Small portion of NPDOC could be removed in the deeper filter bed by both bio-sorption and biodegradation. SEM analysis and VSS measurement clearly showed the growth of biofilm in the deeper filter bed below 500 mm, which possibly played an important role in the NOM removal by biological activity besides the physco-chemical adsorption mechanism

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.843-849
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• 2007

Monitoring of NOM characteristics is important for improving removal efficiency of natural organic matter (NOM) in water treatment processes. In this study, several NOM characteristics, which include specific UV absorbance (SUVA), total carbonate content, molecular weight distribution, and fluorescence properties, were measured using samples collected from a pilot-scale water treatment plant consisting of coagulation/flocculation (C/F), filtration, ozonation and granular activated carbon (GAC) processes. The highest removal of NOM was observed in C/F and filtration processes as demonstrated by the reduction of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) by 25% and 21%, respectively. Despite nearly no change in DOC, however, the lowest SUVA value and the highest total carbohydrate content were observed in the sample from ozonation process. This indicates that non-degradable aromatic compounds become depleted and biodegradable organic compounds are enriched during the process. Comparison of synchronous fluorescence spectra of the samples showed that ozoation process increased protein-like fluorescence while it decreased fulvic-like and terrestrial humic-like fluorescence. Consistently, a slight peak of protein-like fluorescence was observed in the sample from ozonation process. The greatest change in molecular weight distributions of the samples was observed in C/F process. Comparison of size exclusion chromatogram of the samples revealed that NOM fractions with the molecular weight greater than 2000 Da were reduced by over 90% after C/F process. SUVA values and total carbohydrate content of the samples were well correlated with a ratio of protein-like fluorescence and terrestrial humic-like fluorescence intensities with the correlation coefficients of 0.99 and 0.91, respectively. This suggests that synchronous fluorescence properties of NOM could be used as useful tolls for monitoring changes of some NOM characteristics during water treatment processes.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.354-361
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• 2008

Effects of operational conditions and solution chemistry on permeate flux in a hybrid ozone-ceramic ultra-filtration (UF) membrane system treating natural organic matter (NOM) were investigated. Results showed that the extent of permeate flux decline was higher at higher cross-flow velocity and ozone dosage, but it was higher at lower transmembrane pressure (TMP). The mechanism of fouling mitigation was found to be more dependent upon reaction between ozone and natural organic matter at/near catalytic membrane surface than scouring effect due to ozone gas bubbles. Addition of calcium into model NOM solution at high pH led to significant decline in permeate flux while the calcium effect on permeate flux decline was less pronounced at lower pH. After permeate flux decline during the early stage of filtration, the flux started recovering and approached fully to the initial value of it due to degradation of NOM by catalytic ozonation at ceramic membrane surface in the hybrid ozone-ceramic membrane system.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.133-142
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• 2022

Natural organic matter (NOM) is a heterogeneous mixture of organic matter with various polarities and molecular weights in an aquatic environment. This study investigated the effects of separation conditions (resin volume, organic matter, etc.) and the repeated use of the resin for the fractionation of organic components in the DAX resin fractionation method. The distribution characteristics of the organic components ((hydrophilic [Hi], hydrophobic acid [HoA], and hydrophobic neutral [HoN]) under the derived fractionation conditions were also analyzed. Constant fractionation results (i.e. HoA/Hi ratio) were obtained in the column capacity factor (i.e. the packed resin volume) in the range of 50 to 100. The resin-packed column maintained constant separation efficiency for up to two repeated uses. The above conditions were applied to wastewater and stream water samples (before and after rainfall). The results showed that the concentration of organic matter in the wastewater effluent was 2-15 times lower with an increased ratio of hydrophilicity to hydrophobicity (i.e. Ho/Hi) compared to the influent depending on the industrial wastewater classification. Particularly, HoN was found to have a high content distribution, 10.2-50.4% of the total dissolved organic matter (DOM), in the effluents. For the stream water, the content of Hi or HoN increased significantly after rainfall, suggesting a correlation with the distribution characteristics of pollutants from the stream watershed. The results provide useful data to enhance the reliability of the DAX resin fractionation and its application to environmental samples.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.653-661
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• 2007

The Disinfectants/Disinfection By-products (D/DBP) Rule proposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency requires the implementation of enhanced coagulation as a control strategy for natural organic matter (NOM) removal and as a means of limiting the formation of all DBPs, i.e., not just the trihalomethanes and haloacetica acids. To control DBP formation, several best available technologies (BATs) were determined for removal of DBPs and DBP precursors. The enhanced coagulation is one of the BATs for DBP precursors removal. Treatment facilities that achieve a specified percent removal of total organic carbon (TOC) prior to the application of a continuous disinfectant or that achieve a residual TOC concentration < 2mg/L prior to the application of a continuous disinfectant are considered to be in compliance with enhanced coagulation. The enhanced coagulation was applied to raw water in Korea, the Han River. Raw water were examined and effects of different raw water qualities on enhanced coagulation were investigated. Three analyses were used for raw water characteristics, water quality measurement, molecular weight distributions, hydrophobic/hydrophilic fractionation. The Han River had the relatively low alkalinity and low organic carbon concentration. The results of molecular weight distributions showed significant portions of low molecular weight organics, which is very different from most water in USA. The alum doses for the required TOC removal guided from USEPA manual were quite low (i.e. 10~30 mg/L alum) for the water, probably due to the specific water quality of the Han River.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.09a
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• pp.68-71
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• 2004

Effects of surfactants and natural organic matter (NOM) on the sorption and reduction of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and chromate with iron were examined in this study. PCE and chromate reduction by iron depended on the ionic type of the surfactants in this study. The apparent reaction rate constants of PCE with Triton X-100 and hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium (HDTMA) at one half and two times of the critical micelle concentration (CMC) were relatively higher than without surfactants because of the enhanced PCE partitioning and surface concentration. In the presence of sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDDBS) at 2000 mg/L and NOM at 50 mg/L, the apparent reaction rate constants of PCE increased, but TCE production decreased. The enhanced removal rate of PCE was not due to the dechlorination, and the sorption was dominant iron with SDDBS and NOM. The apparent reaction rate constants of chromate by iron with Triton X-100 and NOM were 1.4-3.1 times lower than without surfactants while that with HDTMA was two times higher than without HDTMA, When the sorbed HDTMA molecules form admicelles, negatively-charged chromate has an affinity for the positively-charged HDTMA head group.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 2000

The experiments were performed using both batch and continuous column reactors. Batch biodegradation studies were performed under aerobic conditions to determine the biodegradable fraction of the natural organic matter (NOM) source. NOM source was evaluated for its biodegradability at three different UV irradiation conditions and compared to its biodegradability without UV irradiation. In continuous experiments, system operating parameters of empty bed contact time (EBCT), recycle ratio, and influent concentration affected the extent of biofiltration in the biofilters. The effluent UV254/DOC ratios fro the biologically active columns were consistently lower than the influent values, which indicated that the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removed by biodegradation was not a significant part of the UV-absorbable material. The increase in UV254/DOC ratio was caused by the DOC decrease across the biofilter because there was essentially no difference between the feed and effluent UV254 absorbance values over time. The results of this research showed that biofiltration was an effective method for removing the biodegradable fraction of NOM from water supplies.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.358-363
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• 2011

This study investigated the characteristics of natural organic matter(NOM) with tXAD resin and FT-IR in the Yeongsan river system of Gwangju region. NOM fractionation by XAD 8/4 resins was used to classify hydrophobic and hydrophilic substances. FTIR was applied to classify functional groups in the structure of NOM. In the XAD investigation, most of the four site-samples were mainly hydrophilic substances. In March, hydrophobic substances were dominant in the Gwangju 1 site (GJ-1), while hydrophilic substances were dominant for the other sites. In May, samples of all four sites were hydrophilic with a vigorous activity of microorganism due to increasing temperatures. The October results were very similar with those from March. In the FT-IR investigation, most of the broad and large peaks were assigned to the aliphatic group, particularly the OH group, C-H, $C-H_2$, $C-H_3$, and C-O alcohol group. All were related to hydrophilic substances. Other peaks showed the aromatic group, particularly the C=O (Ketone) Group. As a result, there is an identification of NOM in the Yeongsan river system composing mainly of hydrophilic substances and functional groups (OH, C-H etc.) of the aliphatic compound.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.559-571
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• 2006

The overall objective of this research was to find out the interrelation of coagulant and organic matter during rapid mixing process and to identify the change of organic matter by mixing condition and to evaluate the effect of coagulation pH. During the coagulation, substantial changes in dissolved organics must be occurred by coagulation due to the simultaneous formation of microflocs and NOM precipitates. Increase in the organic removal efficiency should be mainly caused by the removal of microflocs formed during coagulant injection. That is, during the mixing period, substantial amount of dissolved organics were transformed into microflocs due to the simultaneous formation of microflocs and NOM precipitates. The results also showed that 40 to 80% of dissolved organic matter was converted into particulate material after rapid mixing process of coagulation. During the rapid mixing period, for purewater, formation of dissolved Al(III) (monomer and polymer) constant by rapid mixing condition, but for raw water, the species of Al hydrolysis showed different result. During the rapid mixing period, for high coagulant dose, Al-ferron reaction increases rapidly. At A/D(Adsorption and Destabilization) and sweep condition, both $Al(OH)_3(s)$ and dissolved Al(III) (monomer and polymer) exist, concurrent reactions by both mechanism appear to cause simultaneous precipitation.