• KSBB Journal
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.183-187
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• 2001

The biological activities of wastewater and sludge taken from the wastewater treatment process of Hyangnam pharmaceutic factories in Hwaseong, Kyeonggi-Do was measured using a respirometer. Oxygen uptake rate (OUR) was used as a tool for measuring biological activity. OUR was measured for varying amounts of sludge and organic chemicals in wastewater, and its toxicity was evaluated. Maximum OUR was observed as 61, 75, and 89 mg O$_2$/L/hr when sludge was added as 3, 5, and 10% of total volume, respectively. When the concentration of organic chemicals was changed to 1,486, 337, and 164 mg COD/L, maximum OUR was 53, 13, 8 mg O$_2$/L/hr, respectively. The toxicity test results showed that there seemed that there seemed to be no observable toxic effect on microbes in pharmaceutic wastewater.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.34 no.10
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• pp.651-655
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• 2012

This study aimed to investigate the effect of an inorganic conditioner composed of natural inorganic materials on the dewaterbility of sewage sludge and compare the performance with those of conventional organic polymeric conditioners. A dosage of 2.0 mg inorganic conditioner/g sludge TS decreased time to filter test (TTF), specific resistance to filtration (SRF), water content of dewatered sludge cake, turbidity from 146 to 41 sec, from $8.3{\times}10^{14}$ to $2.4{\times}10^{14}$ m/kg, from 82.1 to 77.1%, from 112 to 61.1 NTU, respectively, which was compatible to the conventional cation organic polymer. An inorganic conditioner would be used in sewage sludge treatment as a suitable alternative conditioner. Regression analysis showed a strong relationship among TTF, SRF, and water content.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.84-89
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to evaluate and improve the pre-treatment facility for foodwaste and sewage sludge mixture treatment. The process of foodwaste pre-treatment consists of storage, classification with crushing, and thickening. The effluent of sewage treatment facility was used as the diluting and washing water. The panicle size of foodwaste after pre-treatment was almost under 2mm, the mixture of foodwastes and sewage sludge showed an advantage to the anaerobic digestion. The amount of gas production increased from 0.8ton/day ($CH_4$ : 0.5ton/day) to 3.5ton/day ($CH_4$ : 2.3ton/day) after the anaerobic digestion of the foodwastes and sewage sludge mixture. The amount of sludge cake increased from 11.2ton/day to 21.2ton/day. Therefore, the proper operation of the foodwaste pre-treatment facility was contributed to the efficient anaerobic digestion of foodwaste and sewage sludge mixture treatment.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.1167-1171
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• 2003

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are an important group of organic contaminants present in sewage sludge, due to their persistence, toxic, bioaccumulative and long range transfer. These characters make themselves as Persistent Organic Pollutants(POPs) in Long Range Transboundary Air Pollutions convention(LRTAP) of Europe. A method of the gas chromatographicmass spectrometric (GCMS) determination of PAHs present in sewage sludge was developed and applied to analyzed samples from five sewerage treatment plants (SWTPs), having different treatment types. PAHs were extracted from freeze-dried samples by toluene 16 hours in a soxhlet extraction system. The sludge extracts were cleaned-up by an activated silica gel column chromatography. The sum of the 16 US Environmental Protection Agency PAHs sewage sludge samples varied from 2.44 to 4.82 $\mu\textrm{g}$/g. Concentration of emission carcinogen PAHs(PAHcarc), such as Benzo(a)anthracene, Benzo(b)f1uoranthene, Benzo(k)f1uoranthene, Benzo(a)pyrene, Dibenzo(a,h)anthracene and Indeno( 1,2,3-cd)pyrene ranged from 0.62 to 1.03 $\mu\textrm{g}$/g. The total amount of PAHs emission from sewage sludge in Korea was calculated as a top-down approach. PAHs and $\Sigma$PAHcarc from sewage treatment plants had emitted to environment by several pathway. The highest amount of emission to the environment was remarked in the ocean dumping(PAHs and $\Sigma$PAHcarc emissions were 1155.95 kg/year and 5040.32 kg/year, respectively).

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.415-418
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• 2008

The application of sludge wastes into agricultural fields has been increasing annually in Korea. In particular, sewage sludge application has been widely accepted in decades. Sewage sludge application aid in the recycling of essential nutrients and act as a source of organic matter improving the structure and water-holding properties of the soil. The efficient use of sludge wastes, however, requires an individual assessment of waste products. This study assessed the biological characteristics of organic waste-treated lysimeter soils and develop its indicator to assess the soil health of organic waste-treated lysimeter soils. Several analytical techniques more recently developed such as restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA), and community level substrate utilization (CLSU) fingerprints allow for detailed analyses of soil microbial communities. PLFA and RFLP was, therefore, used in the study to characterize the microbial communities in soil without the need to isolate individual fungi and bacteria. PLFA, RFLP and CLSU have been utilized to assess microbial characteristics of the lysimeter soils with four different sludge wastes for eight consecutive years. Each of these methods was analyzed for a different aspect of soil microbial characteristics. The study would disclose those methods yielded highly reproductive results for each soil and allow distinguishing the soils based on the structures of specific geneand PLFA-pools more than CLSU fingerprints. PLFA methods, especially, revealed the same relative similarities of the treated soils based on cluster analysis of the biological characteristics. Pig manure compost-treated soil, however, was only the same relative resemblance among the three methods. These results indicated that PLFA easily assessed the biological soil characterization.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.82-90
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• 2023

Biological process is used worldwide to treat domestic and industrial wastewater. The process generally uses a mixed microbial culture of sludge. The growth of microorganisms in the sludge produces excess sludge from the wastewater treatment process. Some of the excess sludge is recycled as inoculum for wastewater treatment, but the rest is removed as waste from the process. As wastewater production is increasing worldwide every year, the number of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is also in- creasing, resulting in the generation of large amount of waste sludge. The increasing amount of waste sludge from WWTPs has led to concerns about its management. Sludge disposal has been reported to account for 50~60% of the total operating costs of a WWTP. Sludge disintegration is a new technology that can minimize volume of waste sludge and recover useful components (e.g., P, N, and soluble organic compounds) from it. Various methods of sludge disintegration have been developed based on physical, chemical, and biological treatments or combinations of these. In this review, we focus on sludge disintegration by acid hydrolysis, which is less studied among sludge disintegration methods. Such information can be useful in the development and implementation of a new technology for better sludge treatment.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.108-117
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• 2005

Pharmaceutical byproduct sludge and cosmetic industry wastewater sludge can be used as a raw material of compost. Effects of three types of pharmaceutical byproduct sludge and one type of cosmetic industry wastewater sludge on soil properties and red pepper growth were investigated in a field based concrete pot ($2{\times}2m$). These sludges and pig manure ($5Mg\;ha^{-1}$, dry basis) were incorporated into the upper of loam soil 30 days prior to transplanting red pepper. Changes in soil properties and contents of heavy metals and toxic organic compounds in soil and plant were measured. And also plant growth measurement and bioassay of soil phytotoxicity were included. Contents of heavy metals were increased in the soils treated with the sludges. Plant growth in the sludge treatments were mostly inferior to that of NPK treatment, especially in early stage. Content of N in plant was lower in all sludge treatments at early and middle growth stages, and it was especially caused by characteristics and concentration of nitrogen and organic matter of sludges. Total yield of red pepper was highest in the NPK treatment and followed by pharmaceutical sludge 3, pig manure, pharmaceutical sludge 1, and pharmaceutical sludge 2, and the yield of cosmetic sludge treatment was considerably lower than others. HEM and PAHs contents in soil of cosmetic sludge treatment were $4.80mg\;kg^{-1}$ and $2,263.2{\mu}g\;kg^{-1}$, respectively. Root elongation of lettuce exposed to the water extract of soil treated with cosmetic sludge was about 20% of that found in the test with soil extract of non fertilization treatment. At present, raw materials of compost were authorized according to the contents of organic matter, heavy metals and product processing. Toxic organic compounds analysis and bioassay would be helpful for authorization and assessment of suitability of raw materials of compost.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.608-618
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• 2004

Since polyelectrolytes have been used as conditioners, conventionally only a single polyelectrolyte has been added for sludge conditioning. However, the amount of polyelectrolyte needed for optimal conditioning of sludge is very critical. Overdosing reduces the sludge dewaterbility. In this experimental study, sludge conditioning with single or dual polyelectrolyte was conducted to avoid problems associated with overdosing. Single polyelectrolyte conditioning was conducted by one of cationic, nonionic, and anionic polyelectrolytes. The dual polyelectrolyte conditioning was performed by adding one polyelectrolyte and another one in sequence. The dewaterbility of sludges were measured by SRF(specific resistance to filtration), TTF(time to filter), CST(capillary suction time) respectively. Additionally, parameters such as turbidity, zeta potential, viscosity of conditioned sludges or supematant were measured to evaluate the changed characteristics of sludge by addition of polyelectrolytes. From the experiment results, it was concluded that single polyelectrolyte conditioning had a high probability of overdosing, whereas dual polyelectrolyte conditioning resulted in a better dewaterbility and less chance of overdosing. But, it was also found that dosing sequence in dual conditioning was very important according to the characteristics of sludge. Parameters such as viscosity, turbidity, zeta potential were found to be useful as a means of evaluating sludge dewaterbility.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• v.10 no.S_2
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• pp.73-77
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• 2001

The disposal of sewage sludge using landfills and ocean dumping is no longer a viable option due to land scarcity and increasingly stringent environmental control regulations. As such, various efforts have been made to develop new sewage sludge recycling technologies. This work investigates the fundamental physical and chemical characteristics of rural type sewage sludge from Chungnam province in South Korea. The average moisture content, ignition loss, elementary analysis, and average heating value of the sewage sludge samples were examined. The average moisture content of the dewatered sludge was about 80%, while the organic matter was about 50% of the total solid sludge weight. The average heating value of a sewage sludge and petroleum coke waste mixture(1:1 weight ratio) was about 5,000 ㎉/kg, thereby indicating a high potential for energy recycling.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.202-210
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• 2019

In order to maximize the utilization of sewage sludge, a waste from wastewater treatment facility, the residual sewage sludge generated after lipid and carbohydrate extraction for biodiesel and bioethanol production was used to produce bio-oil by pyrolysis. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that sludge pyrolysis mainly occurred between 200 and $550^{\circ}C$ (with peaks formed around 337.0 and $379.3^{\circ}C$) with the decomposition of the main components (carbohydrate, lipid, and protein). Bio-oil was produced using a micro-tubing reactor, and its yield (wt%, g-bio-oil/g-residual sewage sludge) increased with an increase in the reaction temperature and time. The maximum bio-oil yield of 33.3% was obtained after pyrolysis at $390^{\circ}C$ for 5 min, where the largest amount of energy was introduced into the reactor to break the bonds of organic compounds in the sludge. The main components of bio-oil were found to be trans-2-pentenoic acid and 2-methyl-2-pentenoic acid with the highest selectivity of 28.4% and 12.3%, respectively. The kinetic rate constants indicated that the predominant reaction pathway was sewage sludge to bio-oil ($0.1054min^{-1}$), and subsequently to gas ($0.0541min^{-1}$), rather than the direct conversion of sewage sludge to gas ($0.0318min^{-1}$).