• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.55-61
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• 2011

NDMA(N-Nitrosodimethylamine) has been considered as a carcinogenic pollutant even at extremely low-concentration (10ng/L). However, previous researches on NDMA have focused on mainly high concentration due to a difficulty of analysis. In this study, removal efficiencies were evaluated for individual or combined methods with PAC(Powder Activated Carbon), GS(Granular Sludge), MF(Microfiltration), UF(Ultrafiltration) and Silica gel(MCM-41, Diatomite, Spherical silica gel) at both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Combined method of GS, PAC and UF membrane at anaerobic condition showed the highest removal efficiency of 65% while Silica gel showed the lowest removal efficiency of 6%. The outcomes of this study could be used further study of extremely low-concentration NDMA removal.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.104-109
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• 2011

The removal efficiencies of 2-methylisoborneol (MIB) and geosmin were investigated to reveal removal characteristics of typical organic compounds causing disagreeable taste and odor at the conventional water treatment plant installed with pulsator clarifier patented by the French company $Degr{\acute{e}}mont$. The injection rate of Powdered Activated Carbon (PAC) into water was changed step wisely as we conducted jar tests in the laboratory and water treatment in the actual plant. 2-MIB concentration decreased linearly while geosmin did exponentially along with the injection rate of PAC at our jar tests. The removal efficiency of geosmin by PAC injection was considerably higher than that of 2-MIB. In the real pulsator clarifier, 2-MIB concentration started decreasing as the injection rate reached up to 10 mg/L of PAC. On the other hand, the concentration of geosmin in water decreased proportional to the injection rate of PAC. In the sand filtration, removal efficiencies of 2-MIB and geosmin on July were much higher than those on March. It was carefully suggested beforehand and found afterwards that general microorganisms notably existed in the sand filter with no chlorine in filter influent and backwash water and the sand filter biologically activated removed much more odor compounds. It was considered as the reason why the removal efficiency of 2-MIB and geosmin was increased. The microbial activity maybe increased in summer with water temperature rising and low filtration rate possibly increased contact time between odor compounds and general microorganisms.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.892-899
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• 2005

Groundwater is naturally of excellent microbiological qualify and generally of adequate quality for drinking water use. However, recently, the impact of urbanization and intensification of agricultural production have led to serious deterioration in groundwater quality. The representative SOCs used in this study were trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE). Powdered activated carbon (PAC) is widely used for SOCs removal. The overall goal of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of using a hybrid use of PAC-UF and PAC-MF processes for treating groundwater contaminated with TCE and PCE. The results show that the flux decline rate was lower for the PAC-UF or PAC-MF process than for UF or MF only process. Therefore, applying PAC before UF or MF membrane filtration showed not only enhancing the removal of TCE and PCE, but also reducing membrane fouling.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.747-752
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• 2014

Iodine-131, an artificial radionuclide, mostly exists as iodide ion ($^{131}I^-$) and iodate ion ($^{131}IO_3{^-}$) in the water, and When a short time contacted, it could not be removed by poly aluminum chloride (PACl) and powdered activated carbon (PAC). Although the removal rate of iodine-131 was not related with turbidity of raw water, it showed linear relationship with contact time with PAC. With the mixture of PACl (24 mg/L or more) and PAC (40 mg/L or more), about 40% of iodine-131 could be removed. Iodine-131 could be removed little by sand filtration, but approximately 100% by granular activated carbon (GAC), both virgin-GAC and spent-GAC. Microfiltration process could remove little iodine-131 while reverse osmosis process could remove about 92% of iodine-131.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.380-383
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• 2004

Heavy metal release from wastewater is a serious environmental problem, and therefore, various wastewater treatment techniques have been developed. Among the techniques, sorption technique is most attractive. Considerable researches have been recently focused on finding out inexpensive sorbents, especially from various natural materials. In order to evaluate the applicability of the scoria taken from the Jeju Island, Korea to remove heavy metals (Pb, Cu, Zn, Cd) from aqueous solutions, equilibrium sorption experiments were conducted in this study. In equilibrium tests, powdered activated carbon (PAC), one of the most commonly used sorbents, was also tested to compare the effectiveness of the Jeju scoria with that of PAC. The Jeju scoria had larger adsorption capacity and affinity for metal ions (Pb(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II)) than PAC. The sorption parameters of the two sorbents were evaluated by using both the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms, and the sorption data were better fitted to the Freundlich isotherm. In addition, the sorption behavior of metal ions (Pb(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II)) onto the scoria displayed a typical characteristic of the cation sorption. The removal of metal ions decreased at a lower pH condition due to competition with hydrogen ions for the sorption sites of Jeju scoria, while the removal increased at a high pH condition due to hydroxide precipitation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.302-305
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• 2002

Scoria is a bomb-sized, generally vesicular pyroclast that is red or black in color and light in weight. In this study, scoria from Cheju was examined for the use as a sorbent. It is composed of plagioclase, olivine, hornblende, pyroxene, and glass, with an average composition of 49.84% SiO$_2$, 14.07% A1$_2$O$_3$, End 9.14% Fe$_2$O$_3$. Studies on kinetic isotherm sorption of Zn(II) onto scoria under various parameters such as initial zinc concentration, particle size, and adsorbent/adsorbate ratio were carried out using an agitated batch. The results suggest that the smaller scoria size and the larger adsorbent/adsorbate ratio produce the higher degree of Zn(II) removal. More effective removal also appears at lower initial Zn concentration. The sorption behavior of Zn(II) onto scoria seems to be mainly controlled by cation exchange. Studies on equilibrium isotherm sorption of other heavy metals (Pb, Cu, Cd) onto scoria were also conducted and compared with those onto powdered activated carbon (PAC) and non-organic matter scoria (NOS), The results suggest that the Cheju scoria has the slightly higher sorption capability than PAC and NOS, and the order of the effective sorption onto scoria and PAC is Pb > Cu > Zn > Cd. The monometal sorption onto scoria is more stronger than the competitive sorption.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.609-618
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• 2009

Repeated phenol spill in the Nakdong River has been a big issue in Korea since 1991. In this study, treatment of phenol in each water treatment process and total water treatment system is evaluated. Phenol was highly volatile, easily oxidized by ozone, and readily absorbed onto GAC. When there was phenol of 0.3mg/L in water, by ozonation of 1mg/L or by GAC adsorption with EBCT of 10minutes or longer, it could be treated to lower than 0.005mg/L, the national drinking water standard of phenol. Even when a sufficient contact time(70minutes) was allowed, only 35 to 40% of phenol could be removed by powdered activated carbon(PAC). Based on the test results, it can be concluded that 1.0mg/L or less concentration of phenol can be treated at the plants adopting the combination process of ozone and GAC down to the safe level. In this study, removal characteristics for phenol were evaluated with the existing pilot plant and demo plant in different advanced water treatment processes(AWTPs). In the future, studies on changes in oxidation and adsorption characteristics caused by competitive matters such as DOC and removal characteristics by other various AWTPs including ozone/filter adsorber need to be performed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.913-917
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• 2008

Since the difficulty of analysis at low concentration and the uncertainty of the removal mechanism for Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) have been reported, this study has detected extremely low concentration $^{14}$C-NDMA using the LSC(Liquid Scintillation Counter) and tested NDMA removal by Powdered Activated Carbon(PAC). The results showed the highest correlation over 99% when samples were measured with the mixture ratio of sample to scintillation liquid of 10 : 10 and at the detection time of 10 min. For $^{14}$C-NDMA removal by the PACs(S-A(Sigma-Aldrich co.) and Dj(Daejung co.)) raging from 50$\sim$10,000 mg/L, $^{14}$C-NDMA was removed over 90% by adsorption treatment. In addition, S-A showed twice greater adsorption capacity than that of Dj. However, the required PAC amount for $^{14}$C-NDMA removal was higher than that of other amine compounds.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.221-229
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• 2002

For the efficient design of baffled Powdered activated carbon(PAC) contractor, which has been widely used in water treatment plant(WTP) against the algae-related odor problems, a CFD(computational fluid dynamics) program was applied. In order to verify the performance of FLOW-3D program, the previously reported results of tracer tests from a pilot-scale PAC contractor(working volume of 288 liters) were compared to those from FLOW 3D. The results of FLOW-3D simulation were very similar to those from tracer tests conducted with the Pilot-scale PAC contactor. On the other hand, the hydrodynamic characteristics of baffled contractor in the P-WTP were simulated by using FLOW-3D. Simulation results on the distribution of PAC particles showed that there are some stagnant parts in the back side of baffles in which PAC Particles are not present. These stagnant parts might decrease the adsorption capacity of PAC particles. When the baffles were changed to maze-type intra-basin baffling, PAC particles were evenly distributed and the amount of stagnant parts reduced. In conclusion, it is anticipated that FLOW-3D simulation could be a viab1e tool for analyzing the hydrodynamic characteristics of structures used in drinking water treatment plant.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.102-112
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• 1998

The fate of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons(PAMs) in soil has drawn increasing concern due to their toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic effects. These compounds have been most commonly carried into the soil in solvent, as in a coal tar or cresote. This study has been focused on the applicability of microwave treatment of soils contaminated by PAHs. Studies have been conducted with soil(particle diameter $150~500{\mu}m$), which was spiked with naphthalene, acenaphthene, fluorene, anthracene and pyrene, with different moisture contents. According to the results of the research, up to 95% removal efficiency of naphthalene was observed in 10% moisturized soil for five minutes microwave inducing And the removal efficiency of acenaphthene and fluorene were observed to be 88.9%, 67.2% in 30% moisturized soil, respectively. Due to the low vapor pressure, anthracene and pyrene showed the low removal efficiency. In case the powdered activated carbon was added to the soil as a sensitizer, anthracene and pyrene were decomposed into a various by-products. Decomposition rates of anthracene and pyrene were increased with incresing addition of a PAC to the soil. It is concluded that the developement of a microwave process to remediate soils contaminated with PAHs is foreseeable. But additional studies are also needed regarding continuous microwave heating process.