• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 2019.10a
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• pp.134-134
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• 2019

Utilization of organic waste as a renewable energy source is promising for sustainability and mitigation of climate change. Pyrolysis converts organic waste to gas, oil, and biochar by incomplete biomass combustion. Biochar is widely used as a soil conditioner and adsorbent. Biochar adsorbs/desorbs metals and ions depending on the soil environment and condition to act as a nutrient buffer in soils. Biochar is also regarded as a carbon storage by fixation of organic carbon. Phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) are strictly controlled in many wastewater treatment plants because it causes eutrophication in water bodies. P and N is removed by biological and chemical methods in wastewater treatment plants and transferred to sludge for disposal. On the other hand, P is an irreplaceable essential element for all living organisms and its resource (phosphate rock) is estimated about 100 years of economical mining. Therefore, P and N recovery from waste and wastewater is a critical issue for sustainable human society. For the purpose, intensive researches have been carried out to remove and recover P and N from waste and wastewater. Previous studies have shown that biochars can adsorb and desorbed phosphates implying that biochars could be a complementary fertilizer. However, most of the conventional biochar have limited capacity to adsorb phosphates and nitrate. Recent studies have focused on biochar impregnated with metal salts to improve phosphates and nitrate adsorption by synthesizing biochars with novel structures and surface properties. Metal salts and metal oxides have been used for the surface modification of biochars. If P removal is the only concern, P adsorption kinetics and capacity are the only important factors. If both of P and N removal and the application of recovery are concerned, however, P and N desorption characteristics and bioavailability are also critical factors to be considered. Most of the researches on impregnated biochars have focused on P removal efficiency and kinetics. In this study, coffee waste is thermally treated to produce biochar and it was impregnated with Mg/Al to enhance phosphates and nitrate adsorption/desorption and P bioavailability to increase its value as a fertilizer. Kinetics of phosphates and nitrate adsorption/desorption and bioavailability analysis were carried out to estimate its potential as a P and N removal adsorbent in wasewater and a fertilizer in soil.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.20 no.1 s.55
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• pp.64-75
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• 2005

The total production of food waste was about 11,398ton/day('03) in Korea. Also, food waste was treated by landfill, incineration, reuse and anaerobic digestion. The method of food waste treatment depended primarily on landfill. However, the method of landfill causing social problems was prevented to treat food waste in the first of January 2005.12) Thus, anaerobic digestion is an important method to treat food waste because of possibility of energy recovery as methane gas. In this study, the possibility of food waste treatment containing high organic material and low pH in the one stage anaerobic reactor to save cost and time and energy recovery using $CH_{4}$ gas by the hybrid anaerobic reactor (HAR) was measured. The HAR was designed by combing the merits of the anaerobic filter (AF) to minimize the microorganism shock when food waste of very low pH was injected and up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) to prevent from plugging and channeling phenomena by large suspended solids when semi solids were injected. Granule was packed in the section of HAR. The purpose of the BMP experiment was to measure the amount of methane generated when organic material was resolved under anaerobic conditions, to grasp bio resolution of organic material. Total accumulated methane production per VS amount was $0.471(m^{3}/\cal{kg}\;VS)$. So, the value was about $81.2\%$ of theoretical methane production which was $0.58(m^{3}/\cal{kg}\;VS)$ by elementary analysis and organic matter removal velocity (K) was $0.18(d^{-1})$. From these results, food waste was treated by anaerobic treatment. From this study, $CH_{4}$ generation from food waste (11,398 ton/day) could be estimated. By using an energy conversion factor of Braun's study, $5.97KWh/m^{3}\;CH4,\;60\%\;of\;CH_{4}$ gas generation, the amount of total energy producing food waste is to 6,727MWh/day. It could be confirmed that energy recovery using $CH_{4}$ gas was possible. Above these results, food waste containing organic matters of high concentration could be treated in HRT 30 days under an anaerobic condition, using the hybrid anaerobic reactor and reuse of $CH_{4}$ gas was possible.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.970-976
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• 2013

An evaluation of the organic matter removal efficiency showed high removal efficiencies of 91.1~96.3% and 91.4~97.5% for TCODcr and TBOD5, respectively, for 9hr or longer of HRT. However, the removal efficiencies decreased to 86.9~90.5% and 88.0~90.9%, respectively for 6hr of HRT. $NH_3$-N showed a high removal efficiency of 95% or higher for 9hr or longer of HRT. The total nitrogen removal efficiency was 67.6~76.7% for 9~12hr of HRT, and it decreased to 50% for 6hr of HRT, which seems to be due to the insufficient carbon source required for denitrification. The T-P removal efficiency was 32% on average. To comply with the legal standards, a chemical phosphorus removal process is needed after the reactor.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.901-908
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• 2002

The relationship between the layered structure of granules in UASB reactors and microbial resistance to toxicity was investigated using disintegrated granules. When no toxic materials were added to the media, the intact and disintegrated granules exhibited almost the same ability to decrease COD and to produce methane. However, when metal ions and organic toxic chemicals were added to a synthetic wastewater, he intact granules were found to be more resistant to toxicity than the disintegrated granules, as determined by the methane production. The difference in resistance between the intact and disintegrated granules was maximal, with toxicant concentrations ranging from 0.5 mM to 2 mM for trichloroethylene with toluene and 5 mM to 20 mM for metal ions (copper, nickel, zinc. chromium, and cadmium ions). The augmented COD removal rate by granulation compared to disintegrated granules was also measured in the treatment of synthetic and real wastewaters; synthetic wastewater, $-2.6\%$; municipal wastewater, $2.8\%$; swine wastewater, $6.4\%$; food wastewater, $25.0\%$; dye works wastewater, $42.9\%$; and landfill leachate, $61.8\%$. Continuous reactor operation also demonstrated that the granules in the UASB reactor were helpful in treating toxic wastewater, such as landfill leachate.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.929-935
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• 2002

The 5-stage biological nutrient removal (BNR) process with step feed system showed a very stable organic carbon and nutrient removal efficiency ($87\%\;COD\,;79\%\;nitrogen,\;and\;87\%$ phosphorus) for an operation period of 2 years. In each stage at the pilot plant, microbial communities, which are important in removing nitrogen and phosphorus, were investigated using fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) and 165 rDNA characterization. All tanks of 5-stage sludge had a similar composition of bacterial communities. The totat cell numbers of each reactor were found to be around $2.36-2.83{\times}10^9$ cells/ml. About $56.5-62.0\%$ of total 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindol (DAPI) cells were hybridized to the bacterial-specific probe EUB388. Members of ${\beta}$-proteobacteria were the most abundant proteobacterial group, accounting for up to $20.6-26.7\%$. The high G+C Gram-positive bacterial group and Cytophaga-Flexibacter cluster counts were also found to be relatively high. The beta subclass proteobacteria did not accumulate a large amount of polyphosphate. The proportion of phosphorus-accumulating organisms (PAOs) in the total population of the sludge was almost $50\%$ in anoxic-1 tank. The high G+C Gram-positive bacteria and Cytophaga-Flexibacter cluster indicate a key role of denitrifying phosphorus-accumulating organisms (dPAOs). Both groups might be correlated with some other subclass of proteobacteria for enhancing nitrogen and phosphorus removal in this process.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.276-283
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• 2016

The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of effluents from conventional activated sludge (CAS) and biological nutrient removal (BNR) processes on algal bloom in receiving waters. We made multiple effluent sampling from one CAS and two BNR facilities, characterized their effluents, and conducted bioassay using river and ocean water. The bioassay results showed that CAS effluents brought similar productivity in both river and ocean water, while BNR effluents were more reactive and productive in ocean water. Unexpectedly, nitrogen-based biomass yields in ocean water were up to six times larger for BNR effluents than CAS effluent. These results indicated that nitrogen in BNR effluents, although its total concentration is lower than that of CAS effluent, is more reactive and productive in ocean water. The ocean water bioassay further revealed that effluents of BNR and CAS led to considerably different phytoplankton community, indicating that different characteristics of effluents could also result in different types of algal bloom in receiving waters. The present study suggests that effects of upgrading CAS to BNR processes on algal bloom in receiving waters, especially in estuary and ocean, should be further examined.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.114-122
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• 2020

This study was aimed at using the Central Composite Design (CCD) and Box-Behnken Design (BBD) to compare the efficiency and to elucidate the main interacting parameters in the upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor, namely: Organic Loading Rate (OLR), Hydraulic Retention Times (HRT) and pH at a constant temperature of 35℃. Optimum HRT (15 h), OLR (3.5 kg.m^-3.d^-1) and pH (7) resulted in biogas production of 5,800 mL/d and COD removal of 80.8%. BBD produced a higher desirability efficiency of 94% as compared to the CCD which was 92%. The regression quadratic models developed with high R² values of 0.961 and 0.978 for both CCD and BBD, respectively, demonstrated that the interaction models could be used to pilot the design space. BBD model developed was more reliable with a higher prediction of biogas production (5,955.4 ± 225.3 mL/d) and COD removal (81.5 ± 1.014%), much close to the experimental results at a 95% confidence level. CCD model predictions was greater in terms of COD removal (82.6 ± 1.06% > 80.8%) and biogas production (4,636.31 mL/d ± 439.81 < 5,800 mL/d) which was less than the experimental results. Therefore, RSM can be adapted for optimizing various wastewater treatment processes.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.45-53
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• 1987

The purpose of this research was to study the kinetics of a packed bed aerobic biofilm process. Experiments were carried out by feeding an aerated packed bed reactor with a synthetic wastewater. The reactor packed with glass beads as media had a nominal hydraulic detention time of 5 hours. The flow pattern in the reactor was determined by a tracer test using a NaCl solution to be a completely-mixed type. The results of the research showed that the F/M ratio in the reactor was almost constant since the the biomass increased due to the growth of biofilm as the volumetric organic loading increased. It was also proved theoretically and experimentally that packed bed aerobic biofilm process could be analyzed by the kinetics of completely-mixed activated sludge process with sludge recycle.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.457-465
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• 2004

The objective of this study is to evaluate the possibility to apply the Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor(MBBR) in the activated sludge treatment process with existing aerobic HRT. Optimal operation conditions were assumed according to the analysis of organic matter and nutrients removal efficiencies depending on loading variations. The process was operated under different conditions: RUN I(HRT=7.14hr, $I{\cdot}R=100%$), RUN II(HRT=6.22hr, $I{\cdot}R=100%$), RUN III(HRT=6.22 hr, $I{\cdot}R=150%$), RUN IV(HRT=6.22hr, $I{\cdot}R=200%$), the TBOD removal efficien cies are 88%, 88.5%, 94.6%, 97.6%, respectively. Overall TSS removal efficiency is 90%, and it is increasing in RUN IV. In the case of Nitrogen, the highest removal efficiency of 90% was observed in RUN III and RUN IV, Nitrification and Denitrification rates are 0.013-0.016kg $NH_3-N/kg$ Mv-d and 0.009-0.019kg $NO_3/kg$ Mv-d, respectively. Phosphorus removal efficiencies are 89.6% in RUN I, 91.5% in RUN II, 84.3% in RUN III, and 76.4% in RUN IV. The process under shorter SRT yields better performance in terms of phosphorus removal. It was noticed that to achieve the effluent phosphorus concentration ofless than 1mg/L and removal efficiency higher than 80%, SRT should not be longer than 10 days. Experimental result shows that HRT of 6.22 hours is suitable for this treatment process, and, as a result, the aerobic reactor including moving media and DO depletion tank have a sufficient effect to the process performance.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.220-226
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• 1997

To study the possibility of agricultural utilization of the municipal sewage and the industrial wastewater sludges, the chemical properties of soil, the growth response of corn plant and uptake of inorganic nutrients in plant tissues were investigated by application of the composts made of the sludges to the pots at the rate of 2,000kg/10a. The contents of organic matter, T-N, $P_2O_5$ and K in soil were increased by application of the composts. Each heavy metals contents in soil were increased very slightly by application of the composts. The fresh weights of corn plant were increased with $9{\sim}19%\;and\;60{\sim}79%$ at the plot of compost and NPK+composts in comparing with the plot of NPK, respectively. Uptake of N, $P_2O_5,\;K_2O$, CaO and MgO in stem and leaf of corn plant were increased by applications of the composts.