• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2004

Gasification is the essential technology that can meet the interim hydrogen demand of large quantity before entering the hydrogen economy. Although the hydrogen production that is based upon the pure renewable energy like wind and solar power will eventually prevail, the interim mass production of hydrogen for the next ten to twenty years will come from the technologies that can demonstrate the economic feasibility in production cost with a high potential in minimizing CO$_2$ generation and in improving plant efficiency. Particularly, feedstock such as natural gas, coal, petroleum residual oil, wastes, and biomass appears to be utilized in Korea as hydrogen source, at least during the short and medium period of time, owing to the advantage in production cost. Because one of the main reasons behind the recent hydrogen issue is the reduction requirement of CO$_2$ that would be controlled according to the climate change protocol, hydrogen production technologies must be developed to yield the minimal CO$_2$ generation.

• Carbon letters
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.192-200
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• 2010

Common reed (Fragmites australis), a local invasive grass, was investigated as a possible feedstock for the production of activated carbon. Dried crushed stems were subjected to impregnation with phosphoric acid (30, 40 and 50%) followed by pyrolysis at $400{\sim}500^{\circ}C$ with final washing and drying. Obtained carbons were characterized by determining: carbon yield, ash content, slurry pH, textural properties and capacity to remove color bodies from factory-grade sugar liquor. Produced carbons possessed surface area up to 700 $m^2/g$, total pore volumes up to 0.37 $cm^3/g$, and proved to be microporous in nature. Decolorization of hot sugar liquor at $80^{\circ}C$ showed degrees of color removal of 60 up to 77% from initial color of 1100~1300 ICU, at a carbon dose of 1.0 g/100 ml liquor. No correlation seems to hold between synthesis conditions and % R but depends on the degree of microporosity. A commercial activated carbon N showed a comparative better color removal capacity of 91%. Common reed proved to be a viable carbon precursor for production of good adsorbing carbon suitable for decolorization in the sugar industry, as well as in other environmental remediation processes.

• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.325-337
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• 2016

Cerbera Odollam (sea mango) is a proven promising feedstock for the production of biodiesel due to its high oil content. Fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) were produced as the final reaction product in the transesterification reflux condensation reaction of sea mango oil and methyl acetate (MA). Potassium methoxide was used as catalyst to study its reacting potential as a homogeneous base catalyst. The initial part of this project studied the optimum conditions to extract crude sea mango oil. It was found that the content of sea mango sea mango oil was 55%. This optimum amount was obtained by using 18 g of grinded sea mango seeds in 250 ml hexane. The extraction was carried out for 24 hours using solvent extraction method. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to determine the optimum conditions of the reaction. The three manipulated variables in this reaction were the reaction time, oil to solvent molar ratio, and catalyst wt%. The optimum condition for this reaction determined was 5 hours reaction time, 0.28 wt% of catalyst and 1:35 mol/mol of oil: solvent molar ratio. A series of test were conducted on the final FAME product of this study, namely the FTIR test, GC-FID, calorimeter bomb and viscometer test.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.180-187
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• 2016

In the present work, bael shell (aegle marmelos) is used as the feedstock for pyrolysis, using a fixed bed reactor to investigate the characteristics of the pyrolysis oil. The product yields, e.g., liquid, char and gases are produced from the biomass at different temperatures with the particle size of 0.5-1.0 mm, at the heating rate of $150^{\circ}C/min$. The maximum liquid yield, i.e., 36.23 wt.%, was found at $5500^{\circ}C$. Some physical properties of the pyrolysis oil such as calorific value, viscosity, density, pH, flash point and fire point are evaluated. The calorific value of the bael shell pyrolysis oil was 20.4 MJ/kg, which is slightly higher than the biomass, i.e., 18.24 MJ/kg. The H/C and O/C ratios of the bio-oil were found as 2.3 and 0.56 respectively, which are quite higher than some other bio-oils. Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS) and Fourier Transform Infra-red (FTIR) analyses showed that the pyrolysis oil of bael shell is mostly composed by phenolic and acidic compounds. The results of the properties of the bael shell pyrolysis oil reveal the potential of the oil as an alternate fuel with the essential upgradation of some properties.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.608-617
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• 2019

The adsorption of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) onto a NaOH-activated pine wood-derived biochar was investigated via batch experiments and models. Surprisingly, the maximum adsorption capacity of activated biochar for SMX (397.29 mg/g) was superior than those of pristine biochars from various feedstock, but comparable to those of commercially available activated carbons. Elovich kinetic and Freundlich isotherm models revealed the best fitted ones for the adsorption of SMX onto the activated biochar indicating chemisorptive interaction occurred on surface of the activated biochar. In addition, the intraparticle diffusion limitation was thought to be the major barrier for the adsorption of SMX on the activated biochar. The main mechanisms for the activated biochar would include hydrophobic, π-π interactions and hydrogen bonding. This was consistent with the changes in physicochemical properties of the activated biochar (e.g., increase in sp² and surface area, but decrease in the ratios of O/C and H/C).

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.218-226
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• 2006

It can be obtained from hydrocarbon and water, specially production of hydrogen from natural gas is most commercial and economical process among the hydrogen production methods, and has been used widely. However, conventional hydrogen production methods are dependent on fossil fuel such as natural gas and coal, and it may be faced with problems such as exhaustion of fossil fuels, production of greenhouse gas and increase of feedstock price. Thermochemical hydrogen production by nuclear energy has potential to efficiently produce large quantities of hydrogen without producing greenhouse gases. However, nuclear hydrogen must be economical comparing with conventional hydrogen production method. Therefore, hydrogen production cost was analyzed and estimated for nuclear hydrogen as well as conventional hydrogen production such as natural gas reforming and coal gasification in various range.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.553-558
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• 2014

Microalgae are a promising alternative feedstock for biodiesel production because their growth rates and oil contents are higher than those of conventional energy crops. Microalgal lipid is mainly triacylglyceride that can be converted to biodiesel as fatty acid methyl esters through trans-esterification. In this paper, the influence of several important lipid inducing factors such as nutrient limitation and changes in salinity and metallic components in microalgae and their potential strategies to be used for biodiesel production are reviewed. Depending upon strains/species that we use, microalgae react to stresses by producing different amount of triacylglyceride and/or by altering their fatty acids composition. Although the most widely applied method is the nitrogen starvation, other potential factors, including nutrient surplus conditions and changes in salinity, pH, temperature and metal concentrations, should be considered to increase biodiesel productivity.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.365-384
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• 2012

Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms that are highly productive in the presence of basic renewable natural sources (light, $CO_2$, water and nutrients). They can synthesize lipids, carbohydrates and proteins in a small number of days. Subsequently, these carbon-captured products can be processed into both biofuels and valuable co-products. Additionally, microalgae would be an ideal feedstock for replacing land-based food crops with cellular products as high energy density transportation fuels. These microscopic organisms could contribute a significant amount of renewable energy on a global scale. In Korea, microalgae biofuel research was common in the early 1990s. The research activities were unfortunately stopped due to limited governmental funds and low petroleum prices. Interest in algal biofuels in Korea has been growing recently due to an increased concern over oil prices, energy security, greenhouse gas emissions, and the potential for other biofuel feedstock to compete for limited agricultural resources. The high productivity of microalgae suggests that much of the Korean transportation fuel requirements can be met by biofuels at a production cost competitive with the increasing cost of petroleum seen in early 2008. At this time, the development of microlalgal biomass production technology remains in its infancy. This study reviewed microalgae culture systems and biomass production, harvesting, oil extraction, conversion, and technoeconomical bottlenecks. Many technical and economic barriers to using microalgal biofuels need to be overcome before mass production of microalgal-derived fuel substitutes is possible. However, serious efforts to overcome these barriers could become a large-scale commercial reality. Overall, this study provides a brief overview of the past few decades of global microalgal research.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.25-46
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• 2010

The demand for fuel and energy resources continues to grow due to increased consumption and emerging economies in all parts of the world. With this increase in demand, crude oil prices in the international market has jumped dramatically. Global warming, which is a consequence of increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, has become scientific, social, and political concerns. To cope with global warming and energy crisis, cost-competitive biofuels are urgently needed. In addition, development of an infrastructure, which supplies energy stably and diversifies energy resources, as well as new cost-saving technologies should be developed to reduce the costs of producing biofuels. Due to high oleic acid content, rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is currently the potential feedstock for biodiesel production in temperate zone region and the production and use of rapeseed oil is already commercialized in Europe. In Korea double-cropping (rice and rapeseed) became more prevalent because it reduces competitions from land constraints. Production of rapeseed as a biodiesel feedstock may reduce the influence of rising oil prices and nation's dependence on imported petroleum and increase job opportunities and farm incomes.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.460-467
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• 2016

A filamentous cyanobacterium, Limnothrix sp. KNUA012, was axenically isolated from a freshwater bloom sample in Lake Hapcheon, Hapcheon-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea. Its morphological and molecular characteristics led to identification of the isolate as a member of the genus Limnothrix. Maximal growth was attained when the culture was incubated at 25℃. Analysis of its lipid composition revealed that strain KNUA012 could autotrophically synthesize alkanes, such as pentadecane (C₁₅H₃₂) and heptadecane (C₁₇H₃₆), which can be directly used as fuel without requiring a transesterification step. Two genes involved in alkane biosynthesis－an acyl-acyl carrier protein reductase and an aldehyde decarbonylase－were present in this cyanobacterium. Some common algal biodiesel constituents－myristoleic acid (C_14:1), palmitic acid (C_16:0), and palmitoleic acid (C_16:1)－were produced by strain KNUA012 as its major fatty acids. A proximate analysis showed that the volatile matter content was 86.0% and an ultimate analysis indicated that the higher heating value was 19.8 MJ kg⁻¹. The isolate also autotrophically produced 21.4 mg g⁻¹ phycocyanin－a high-value antioxidant compound. Therefore, Limnothrix sp. KNUA012 appears to show promise for application in cost-effective production of microalga-based biofuels and biomass feedstock over crop plants.