• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.181-190
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• 2019

Recently, Low impact development techniques, a form of nature-based solutions (NBS), were seen cost-efficient alternatives that can be utilized as alternatives for conventional stormwater management practices. This study evaluated the effectiveness of an infiltration trench (IT) and a small constructed wetland (SCW) in treating urban stormwater runoff. Long-term monitoring data were observed to assess the seasonal performance and cite the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing the facilities. Analyses revealed that the IT has reduced performance during the summer season due to higher runoff volumes that exceeded the facility's storage volume capacity and caused the facility to overflow. On the other hand, the pollutant removal efficiency of the SCW was impacted by the winter season as a result of dormant biological activities. Sediment data also indicated that fine and medium sand particles mostly constituted the trapped sediments in the pretreatment and media zones. Sediments in SCW exhibited a lower COD and TN load due to the phytoremediation and microbiological degradation capabilities of the system. This study presented brief comparison LID facilities equipped with pre-treatment zones. The identified factors that can potentially affect the performance of the systems were also beneficial in establishing metrics on the utilization of similar types of nature-based stormwater management practices.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.395-408
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• 2020

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have gained much attention as eco-friendly energy conversion devices without emission of environmental pollutant. Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) that can transfer proton from anode to cathode and also prevent fuel cross-over has been regarded as a key component of PEMFCs. Although perfluorinated polymer membranes such as Nafion® were already commercialized in PEMFCs, their high cost and toxic byproduct generated by degradation have still limited the wide spread of PEMFCs. To overcome these issues, development of hydrocarbon based PEMs have been studied. Incorporation of cross-linked structure into the hydrocarbon based PEM system has been reported to fabricate the PEMs showing both high proton conductivity and outstanding physicochemical stability. This study focused on the various cross-linking strategies to the preparation of cross-linked PEMs based on hydrocarbon polymers with ion conducting groups for application in PEMFCs.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.784-793
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• 2011

Activities on golf courses are believed to contribute to the degradation of water quality in receiving waters due to the excessive use of farm chemicals including fertilizers and pesticides. The objective of this study was to collect basic data that could explain the characteristics of non-point source (NPS) pollution discharged from a golf course. Twenty seven water quality monitoring was conducted at a golf course during the rainy season of 2008 and 2009. The results indicated that the ranges of the Event Mean Concentration (EMC) at the golf course were $BOD_5$ 1.8~11.3 (ave. 5.6) mg/L, $COD_{Mn}$ 19.2~51.4 (ave. 39.6) mg/L, TOC 11.0~31.0 (ave. 16.8) mg/L, TN 1.545~16.098 (ave. 5.623) mg/L, TP 0.230~4.528 (ave. 1.525) mg/L, and SS 2.2~57.3 (ave. 10.1) mg/L. The unit loads of the golf course estimated were $BOD_5$ $3.35kg/km^2/day$, SS $6.43kg/km^2/day$, $COD_{Mn}$ $30.00kg/km^2/day$, TN $4.04kg/km^2/day$, TP $1.14kg/km^2/day$, and TOC $12.16kg/km^2/day$. Golf courses are currently classified as a grass field in which the unit loads are different from golf courses. Therefore, it was recommended that golf courses need to be separated from the grass field when the surveys and modelings for Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) development and the evaluation of TMDL implementation were performed.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.25-31
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• 2007

Characterizing the risk posed by a mixture of chemicals is a challenging task due to the chemical interactions of individual components that may affect their physical behavior and hence alter their exposure to receptors. In this study, cell tests that represent subsurface environment were carried out using benz[a]anthracene (BaA) and p-xylene focusing on phasetransforming interaction to verify increased mobility and risk of highly sorbed pollutants in the presence of less sorbed, mobile liquid pollutants. A transport model was also developed to interpret results and to simulate the same process on a field scale. The experimental results showed that BaA had far greater mobility in the presence of p-xylene than in the absence of that. The main transport mechanisms in the vadose zone were by dissolution to p-xylene or water. The transport model utilizing Defined Time Steps (DTS) was developed and tested with the experimental results. The predicted and observed values showed similar tendency, but the more work is needed in the future study for more precise modeling. The field-scale simulation results showed that transport of BaA to groundwater table was significantly faster in the presence of NAPL, and the oral carcinogenic risk of BaA calculated with the concentration in groundwater was 15${\sim}$87 times larger when mixed with NAPL than when solely contaminated. Since transport rate of PAHs is very slow in the subsurface without NAPL and no degradation of PAHs was considered in this simulation during the transport, the increase of risk in the presence of NAPL is expected to be greater for the actual contaminated site.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.12
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• pp.647-655
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• 2016

Lead dioxide ($PbO_2$) is an electrode material that is effective for organic pollutant degradation based on hydroxyl radical ($^{\bullet}OH$) attack. Representative parameters for $PbO_2$ electrodeposition are summarized to current, temperature, reaction time, concentration of Pb(II) and electrolyte agent. In this study, $Ti/PbO_2$ electrodes were fabricated by electrodeposition method under controlled reaction time, current density, temperature, concentration of $HNO_3$ electrolyte. Effects of deposition parameters on $^{\bullet}OH$ evolution were investigated in terms of electrochemical bleaching of p-Nitrosodimethylaniline (RNO). As major results, the $^{\bullet}OH$ evolution was promoted at the $PbO_2$ that was deposited in longer reaction time (1-90 min), lower current density ($0.5-50mA/cm^2$), higher temperature ($5-65^{\circ}C$) and lower $HNO_3$ concentration (0.01-1.0 M). Especially, the $PbO_2$ which was deposited in 0.01 M of lowest $HNO_3$ concentration by applying $20mA/cm^2$ for above 10 min was most effective on $^{\bullet}OH$ evolution. The performance gap between $PbO_2$s that was best and worst in $^{\bullet}OH$ evolution was about 41%. Among the properties of $PbO_2$ related on $^{\bullet}OH$ evolution performance, conductivity of $Ti/PbO_2$ significantly influenced on $^{\bullet}OH$ evolution. The increase in conductivity promoted $^{\bullet}OH$ evolution. In addition, the increase in crystal size of $PbO_2$ interfered $^{\bullet}OH$ evolution at surface of some $PbO_2$ deposits.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.947-956
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• 2009

Residual petroleum hydrocarbons after an oil spill may accumulate in the marine benthic ecosystem due to their high hydrophobicity. A lot of monitoring data are required for the estimation of ecosystem exposure to residual petrochemicals in an ecological risk assessment in the affected region. To save time and cost, the environmental exposure to them in the affected ecosystem can also be assessed using a simple food-web bioaccumulation model. In this study, we evaluated residual concentrations of four selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (phenanthrene, anthracene, pyrene, and benzo[a]pyrene) in a hypothetic benthic ecosystem composed of six species under two exposure scenarios. Body-residue concentration ranged 5~250 mg/kg body depending on trophic positions in an extreme scenario in which the aqueous concentrations of PAHs were assumed to be one-tenth of their aqueous solubility. In addition, bioconcentration factors (BCFs) and bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) were evaluated for model species. The logarithm of bioconcentration factor (log BCF) linearly increased with increasing the logarithm of 1-octanol-water partition coefficient (log $K_{OW}$) until log $K_{OW}$ of 7.0, followed by a gradual decrease with further increase in log $K_{OW}$ without metabolic degradation. Biomagnification became significant when log $K_{OW}$ of a pollutant exceeded 5.0 in the model ecosystem, indicating that investigation of food-web structure should be critical to predict biomagnifications in the affected ecosystem because log $K_{OW}$ values of many petrochemicals are higher than 5.0. Although further research is required for better site-specific evaluation of exposure, the model simulation can be used to estimate the level of the ecosystem exposure to residual oil contaminants at the screening level.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.68-74
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• 2016

Perchlorate (ClO₄⁻) is an emerging pollutant detected in surface water, soil, and groundwater. Previous studies provided experimental evidence of autotrophic ClO₄⁻ removal with elemental sulfur (S⁰) particles and activated sludge, which are inexpensive and easily available, respectively. In addition, ClO₄⁻ removal efficiency was shown to increase when an enrichment culture was used as an inoculum instead of activated sludge. PCR-DGGE was employed in the present study to investigate the microbial community in the enrichment culture that removed ClO₄⁻ autotrophically. Microorganisms in the enrichment culture showed 99.71% or more ClO₄⁻ removal efficiency after a 7-day incubation when the initial concentration was approximately 120 mg ClO₄⁻/l. Genomic DNA was isolated from the enriched culture and its inoculum (activated sludge), and used for PCR-DGGE analysis of 16S rRNA genes. Microbial compositions of the enrichment culture and the activated sludge were different, as determined by their different DGGE profiles. The difference in DGGE banding patterns suggests that environmental conditions of the enrichment culture caused a change in the microbial community composition of the inoculated activated sludge. Dominant DGGE bands in the enrichment culture sample were affiliated with the classes β-Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Spirochaetes. Further investigation is warranted to reveal the metabolic roles of the dominant populations in the ClO₄⁻ degradation process, along with their isolation.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.36-43
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• 2024

Fishing net waste (FNW) constitutes over half of all marine plastic waste and is a major contributor to the degradation of marine ecosystems. While current treatment options for FNW include incineration, landfilling, and mechanical recycling, these methods often result in low-value products and pollutant emissions. Importantly, FNWs, comprised of plastic polymers, can be converted into valuable resources like syngas and pyrolysis oil through pyrolysis. Thus, this study presents a process for generating high-purity hydrogen (H₂) by catalytically pyrolyzing FNW in a CO₂ environment. The proposed process comprises of three stages: First, the pretreated FNW undergoes Ni/SiO₂ catalytic pyrolysis under CO₂ conditions to produce syngas and pyrolysis oil. Second, the produced pyrolysis oil is incinerated and repurposed as an energy source for the pyrolysis reaction. Lastly, the syngas is transformed into high-purity H₂ via the Water-Gas-Shift (WGS) reaction and Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA). This study compares the results of the proposed process with those of traditional pyrolysis conducted under N₂ conditions. Simulation results show that pyrolyzing 500 kg/h of FNW produced 2.933 kmol/h of high-purity H₂ under N₂ conditions and 3.605 kmol/h of high-purity H₂ under CO₂ conditions. Furthermore, pyrolysis under CO₂ conditions improved CO production, increasing H₂ output. Additionally, the CO₂ emissions were reduced by 89.8% compared to N₂ conditions due to the capture and utilization of CO₂ released during the process. Therefore, the proposed process under CO₂ conditions can efficiently recycle FNW and generate eco-friendly hydrogen product.