• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.339-349
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• 2013

Biological treatment of RO concentrate from wastewater reuse process is known to be very difficult due to its high concentration of non-degradable organics and salt ions such as chloride, nitrate and phosphate. In this research, the treatment performance of MBR was examined using RO concentrate mixed with raw wastewater as the influent of MBR. Addition of PAC (powdered activated carbon) to MBR was also evaluated in order to enhance the treatment performance and stability. The performance of MBR for treating only RO concentrate decreased gradually although external carbon source was added. The average removal performance of MBR with and without PAC decreased from 99.1 %(98.8 %) to 94.9 %(91.4 %) for COD, 81.3 %(80.3 %) to 42.0 %(41.9 %) for T-N and 57.3(55.0 %) to 30.0 %(21.0 %) for T-P with the increase of RO concentrate mixing rate of 0 % to 20 % in the feed water. Addition of PAC showed positive effect on the performance of MBR for the removal of COD and phosphorus in case that the ratio of RO concentrate to feed water increased.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.141-148
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• 2008

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of PAC(Powder Activated Carbon) retention time on stable operation of high concentration powered activated carbon(HCPAC-MBR) in the treatment of secondary domestic wastewater. The pilot scale HCPAC-MBR system was operated at two different SRTs, 25 days and 100 days. The main drawback of HCPAC-MBR system was the rapid increase of trans-membrane pressure. The increase rate of trans-membrane pressure was proportional to SRT value at constant flux. This result seemed to be caused by reduced amount of EPS adsorbed on the PAC in the reactor by decreasing the SRT of the PAC. The particle size of the PAC was also influenced by SRT. The PAC size was decreased as SRT was increased. The change of particle size could be one reason for the change of trans-membrane pressure. The pore volume in the cake-layer formed on the membrane surface became to be increased by reducing SRT, because the cake-layer was highly composed of the PAC. Therefore, increased pore volume might play a role to reduce the trans-membrane pressure. The removal rate of E260 and TOC was also inversely proportional to SRT value.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.102-115
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• 1990

Importance of anaerobic digestion as an energy generating device has been increased as fuel shortage becomes serieous. Several modification methods on the conventional digesters including Powdered Activated Carbon (PAC) addition and two-phase digestion were studied to enhance the gas production. This study investigated the effects of PAC on anaerobic digestion of chicken manure in terms of gas production and sludge stabilization. As a first experiment, an optimum PAC dose for efficient gas production was determined in a batch test. In semi-continuous experiments, an optimum Sludge Retention Time (SRT) at that PAC concentration and an overall substate utilization rate coefficient were investigated. A portion of gas increased by PAC addition was estimated using a substrate utilization rate coefficient of microorganisms attached on PAC. This test was performed in batch experiments using acetic acid as a substrate. The digesters for all experiments were kept 35${\pm}$ 1˚C in a heated water bath. Mixing was performed manually once a day and the produced gas was collected for daily reading. The following conclusions were made for this study. 1. Cptimum PAC concentration was 5% total solids, where gas production rate was increased by 20 percents. 2. Optimum SRT was 7.5 days. 3. Substrate utilization rate coefficient of microorganisms attached on PAC was about twice as much as that of suspended ones.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.285-292
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• 2018

In the following study, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is used for prediction of permeate flux decline during oily wastewater treatment by hybrid powdered activated carbon-microfiltration (PAC-MF) process using mullite and mullite-alumina ceramic membranes. Permeate flux is predicted as a function of time and PAC concentration. To optimize the networks performance, different transfer functions and different initial weights and biases have been tested. Totally, more than 850,000 different networks are tested for both membranes. The results showed that 10:6 and 9:20 neural networks work best for mullite and mullite-alumina ceramic membranes in PAC-MF process, respectively. These networks provide low mean squared error and high linearity between target and predicted data (high $R^2$ value). Finally, the results present that ANN provide best results ($R^2$ value equal to 0.99999) for prediction of permeation flux decline during oily wastewater treatment in PAC-MF process by ceramic membranes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.1319-1330
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• 2000

Activated carbons prepared by chemical activation of organic waste sludges with $ZnCl_2$ and $K_2S$ have been studied in terms of their pore development and adsorptivity. Pore development of the carbons prepared from organic waste sludges was characterized by the nitrogen adsorption at 77K. The $ZnCl_2$-activated carbon produced by chemical activation with zinc chloride exhibited type I isotherm characteristics according to the BDDT classification, suggesting the presence of micropores formed by activation process. The isotherms of the commercial powdered activated carbon and $K_2S$-activated carbon reveal a hysteresis similar to that of type IV in BDDT classification, indicating the formation of mesopores. This result implies that the major pores of $K_2S$-activated carbon are composed of meso and micropores, and a macropores are minor. The adsorptive capacities of metal on the $K_2S$-activated carbon prepared from organic waste sludges were found to be superior to those on a commercial granular activated carbon. The Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms yield a fairly good fit to the adsorption data, indicating a monolayer adsorption of metals onto $K_2S$-activated carbon. The adsorptive capacity of the $K_2S$-activated carbon was superior to $ZnCl_2$-activated carbon for $PO_4$-P, and vice versa for $NO_3$-N. From the results of the studies reported here, it can be concluded that activated carbons with adsorptivity superior to commercial granular activated carbons can be produced from organic waste sludge using a two-step carbonization/activation procedure with zinc chloride or potassium sulfide as the activating agents.

• Carbon letters
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.167-172
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• 2012

Most heavy metals are well-known toxic and carcinogenic agents and when discharged into wastewater represent a serious threat to the human population and the fauna and flora of the receiving water bodies. The present study aims to develop a procedure for Pb (II) removal. This procedure is based on using powdered activated carbon, which was prepared from walnut shells that were generated as plant wastes and modified with potassium carbonate and phosphoric acid as chemical agents. The main parameters, such as effect of pH, effect of sorbent dosage, Pb (II) concentrations, and various contact times influence the sorption process. The experimental results were analyzed by using Langmuir, Freundlich, Tempkin, and Dubinin-Radushkevich adsorption models. The kinetic study of Pb (II) on activated carbon from walnut shells was performed based on pseudo- first order and pseudo- second order equations. The data indicate that the adsorption kinetics follow the pseudo- second order rate. The procedure was successfully applied for Pb (II) removal from aqueous solutions.

• Carbon letters
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.115-120
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• 2012

Most heavy metals are well-known toxic and carcinogenic agents and when discharged into wastewater represent a serious threat to the human population and the fauna and flora of the receiving water bodies. The present study aims to develop a procedure for Pb(II) removal. The study was based on using powdered activated carbon, which was prepared from walnut shells generated as plant wastes and modified with potassium carbonate or phosphoric acid as chemical agents. The main parameters, such as effect of pH, effect of sorbent dosage, Pb(II) concentrations, and various contact times influence the sorption process. The experimental results were analyzed by using Langmuir, Freundlich, Tempkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich adsorption models. The kinetic study of Pb(II) on activated carbon from walnut shells was performed based on pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order equations. The data indicate that the adsorption kinetics follow the pseudo-second order rate. The procedure was successfully applied for Pb(II) removal from aqueous solutions.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.511-516
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• 2008

Since 1989, Advanced drinking water treatment processes began to build in Korea, especially the water treatment plants around the Nak-dong river stream due to sequential pollutant accidents. Moreover, Advanced drinking water treatment processes, ozone and GAC, are again to be built in water treatment plants around Han-river stream to control taste and odor, micro pollutants. However, there are still a lot of discussion to decide the processes to apply for advanced treatment. Thus there are still need to understand clearly on the cost evaluation of each advanced treatment processes. The cost evaluation was accomplished based on the data of six water treatment plants which are currently being either operating or constructing. Exceptionally, PAC(Powdered Activated Carbon) process was evaluated with cost estimation from construction company. The capital cost per unit volume of ozone process was significantly decreased as the treatment capacity increased. The capital cost was in the order of GAC, ozone and GAC. The operation cost decreased in the order of PAC, GAC and ozone. The total cost considering present value shows that ozone process covers 84% of ozone and GAC process for $30,000m^3/d$ capacity while it covers less than 35% for over 140 thousands $m^3/d$ capacity. Comparing GAC only, and ozone/GAC process, ozone/GAC process is more cost effective for high capacity water treatment plant.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.301-308
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• 2018

We investigated simultaneous removal of heavy metals such as Cr, Ni, and Zn by adsorption onto powdered activated carbon (PAC) and PAC modified with sodium diethyldithiocarbamate (PAC-SDDC). Modification of PAC was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Both PAC and PAC-SDDC reached adsorption equilibrium within 48 h, and the adsorption kinetics followed a pseudo-second order reaction kinetics. The removal of metals was enhanced with increasing both adsorbent dosage and followed the descending order of Cr > Ni > Zn for PAC and Cr > Zn > Ni for PAC-SDDC, respectively. Adsorption kinetics followed pseudo-second order kinetics. Adsorption kinetic results were well fitted by the Freundlich isotherm except for Cr adsorption onto PAC. The optimum pH for heavy metal adsorption onto PAC was 5, whereas that for PAC-SDDC ranged from 7 to 9, indicating that modification of PAC with SDDC significantly enhanced heavy metal adsorption, especially under neutral and alkaline pH conditions. Our results imply that SDDC modified PAC can be applied to effectively remove heavy metals especially Cr in plating wastewaters without adjusting pH from alkaline to neutral.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.109-116
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• 1996

This work is a fundamental study for applying hybrid process coupling adsorption with microfiltration to waste-water treatment. Phenol was separated by adsorption on powdered activated carbon, adsorbed phenol with activated carbon was separated by microfiltration. As the particle size in suspension increased, filtration resistance decreased, and effect of particle concentration on resistance was less pronounced. The rate of uptake was greatly dependent on the degree of phenol loading. For a smaller amounts of activated carbon, the change of permeate concentration before break point and phenol loading with time were steeper than in the case of large amounts. Permeate concentration before break point decreased with decreasing particle size, this could be due to the increase of outer surface of particle and film mass transfer coefficient.