• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.83-88
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• 2012

The algal bloom, resulting from eutrophication, has caused serious water quality problems in river and lake. Therefore, it has to be removed by any means including physicochemical or biological treatment for preserving water quality. This study was conducted to investigate the microalgae removal and energy production using combined electro-flotation and anaerobic hydrogen fermentation processes. The result showed that algae removal efficiency based on chlorophyll a removal increased with the current. At a current of 0.6A, the maximum microalgae removal efficiency of 95.9% was achieved. The treatability of anaerobic hydrogen fermentation was investigated to recover energy from microalgae removed by electro-flotation. The ultimate hydrogen yields of algae before and after ultrasonic pretreatment were 17.3 and 61.1 ml $H_2/g$ dcw(dry cell weight), respectively. The ultrasonic pretreatment of algae led to 3.4-fold higher $H_2$ production due to the increase of hydrolysis rate.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.534-541
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• 2003

Membrane processes are now frequently considered for application in drinking water treatment. The biggest impediment for applying membrane processes is fouling that comes from mass flux (such as particle and organic matter) to the membrane surface and its pores due to convection flow through the membrane. Natural organic matter (NOM) has been reported as the most detrimental foulant. Some research also indicated that particles were often the dominant cause of fouling. Therefore, both NOM and particle fouling need to be examined to better understand fouling in ultrafiltration. Two waters from natural sources, Lake Austin water and Missouri River water, were selected. Both waters are relatively hard waters but has significantly different particle concentrations, which will elucidate effects of particles on membrane fouling. Precipitative softening is traditionally designed to remove hardness ions in hard waters but it can also remove particles and organic matter. Therefore, the integrated water treatment with softening and ultrafiltration is proposed as a promising option for hard waters. The three levels of softening were used to represent different degrees of pretreatment to ultrafiltration in terms of organic matter (i.e., NOM fouling) and precipitates (i.e., particle fouling by further precipitation). Results showed that natural particles in Missouri River water was detrimental foulants of ultrafiltration. As the levels of softening were increased, NOM and particle removal was increased, and thus fouling was decreased. Direct images of the surface of the membranes by scanning electron microscopy allowed observation of the different properties of particles caught in fibril networks of natural organic matter.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.54-60
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• 2006

In this paper, we describe a bio-fluidic device for adaptive sample pretreatment, in order to optimize the conditions under which absorbance assays can be conducted. This device can be successfully applied to the measurement of Escherichia coli (E. coli) concentrations using adaptive dilution, with which the dilution ratio can be adjusted during the dilution. Although many attempts have been previously made to miniaturize complex biochemical analyses at the chip scale, very few sample pretreatment processes have actually been miniaturized or automated at this point. Due to the lack of currently available on-chip pretreatments, analytical instruments tend to suffer from a limited range of analysis. This occasionally hinders the direct and quantitative analysis of specific analyses obtained from real samples. In order to overcome these issues, we exploit two novel strategies: dilution with a programmable ratio, and to-and-fro mixing. The bio-fluidic device consists of a rectangular chamber constructed of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). This chamber has four openings, an inlet, an outlet, an air control, and an air vent. Each of the dilution cycles is comprised of four steps: detection, liquid drain, buffer injection, and to-and-fro mixing. When using adaptive sample pretreatment, the range in which E. coli concentrations can be measured is broadened, to an optical density (O.D.) range of $0.3{\sim}30$. This device may prove useful in the on-line monitoring of cell concentrations, in both fermenter and aqueous environments.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.58-64
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• 2008

Pretreatment of eliminating FFA is needed to make biodiesel from animal fat recovered from leather wastes because its acid value is high. This study was carried out to investigate the influence of 4 different pretreatment methods, which are heterogeneous catalyst method, ion exchange resin method, low pressure.high temperature method, and alkali method on the eliminating FFA and fatty acid composition. The results showed that the rate of eliminating FFA increased in the order of alkali method > catalyst method > low pressure high temperature method > ion exchange method. In the case of pretreatment of alkali method using NaOH, the rate of eliminating FFA appeared more than 86% regardless of acid value. Therefore, it was considered that alkali method using NaOH was the most effective in the view of economical and productive aspects, taking it into account that the acid value of animal fat recovered from fleshing scrap generated during leather making processes was 7 to 8.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.159-163
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• 2018

The feasibility of applying coagulation-integrated microfiltration (MF) as a pretreatment for an ultrafiltration (UF) feed in oily wastewater treatment was investigated. The effects of different coagulants on oil removal rates from wastewater were studied. The maximum oil removal rate of 82% was obtained after coagulation with 130 mg/L of polyaluminium chloride (PAC). UF flux reached $95L/(m^2{\cdot}h)$ with coagulation-integrated MF as pretreatment. This value was 2.5 times higher than that flux obtained without pretreatment. The value of UF flux increased as the transmembrane pressure (TMP) and cross-flow velocity (CFV) of the UF module increased. UF flux gradually increased when TMP and CFV exceeded 0.4 MPa and 3 m/s, respectively, because of concentration polarization and membrane fouling stabilization. Chemical oxygen demand reduction and oil removal rate reached 95.2% and 98.5%, respectively, during integrated membrane processing with a PAC concentration of 130 mg/L, TMP of 0.4 MPa, and CFV of 3 m/s for UF. In addition, sequentially cleaning the fouling membrane with NaOH and $HNO_3$ aqueous solutions caused UF flux to recover to 90%. These encouraging results suggested that the hybrid integrated membrane process-based coagulation and MF + UF are effective approaches for oily wastewater treatment.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.9
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• pp.802-809
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• 2001

Electroplating is an attractive alternative deposition method for copper with the need for a conformal and conductive seed layer In addition, the Cu seed layer should be highly pure so as not to compromise the effective resistivity of the filled copper interconnect structure. This seed layer requires low electrical resistivity, low levels of impurities, smooth interface, good adhesion to the barrier metal and low thickness concurrent with coherence for ensuring void-free fill. The electrical conductivity of the surface plays an important role in formation of initial Cu nuclei, Cu nucleation is much easier on the substrate with higher electrical conductivities. It is also known that the nucleation processes of Cu are very sensitive to surface condition. In this study, copper seed layers deposited by magnetron sputtering onto a tantalum nitride barrier layer were used for electroplating copper in the forward pulsed mode. Prior to electroplating a copper film, the Cu seed layer was cleaned by plasma H$_2$ and $N_2$. In the plasma treatment exposure tome was varied from 1 to 20 min and plasma power from 20 to 140W. Effects of plasma pretreatment to Cu seed/Tantalum nitride (TaN)/borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG) samples on electroplating of copper (Cu) films were investigated.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2024

The study investigated the impact of substrate pretreatment on depositing high-quality B-doped diamond (BDD) thin films using the HFCVD method. Films were deposited on Si and Nb substrates after sanding and seeding. Despite identical sanding conditions, BDD films formed faster on Nb due to even diamond seed distribution. Post-deposition, film average roughness (R_a) remained similar to substrate R_a, but higher substrate R_a led to decreased crystallinity. Nb substrate with 0.83 ㎛ R_a exhibited faster crystal growth due to dense, evenly distributed diamond seeds. BDD film on Nb with 0.83 ㎛ R_a showed a wide, stable potential window (2.8 eV) in CV results and a prominent 1332 cm^-1 diamond peak in R_aman spectroscopy, indicating high quality. The findings underscore the critical role of substrate pretreatment in achieving high-quality BDD film fabrication, crucial for applications demanding robust p-type semiconductors with superior electrical properties.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.86-90
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• 2012

Ethanol fermentations were carried out using simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) and separated hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) processes with monosaccharides from seaweed, Saccharina japonica (sea tangle, Dasima) as the biomass. The pretreatment was carried out by thermal acid hydrolysis with $H_2SO_4$ or HCl. Optimal pretreatment condition was determined at 10% (w/v) seaweed slurry with 37.5 mM $H_2SO_4$ at $121^{\circ}C$ for 60 min. To increase the yield of saccharfication, isolated marine bacteria Bacillus sp. JS-1 was used and 48 g/L of reducing sugar were produced. Ethanol fermentation was performed using SSF and SHF process with Pachysolen tannophilus KCTC 7937. The ethanol concentration was 6.5 g/L by SSF and 6.0 g/L by SHF.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.211-219
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• 2012

To enhance the efficiency of water treatment and reduce the extent of membrane fouling, the membrane separation process is frequently preceded by other physico-chemical processes. One of them might be ion exchange. The aim of this work was to compare the efficiency of natural organic matter removal achieved with various anion-exchange resins, and to verify their potential use in water treatment prior to the ultrafiltration process involving a ceramic membrane. The use of ion exchange prior to ceramic membrane ultrafiltration enhanced final water quality. The most effective was MIEX, which removed significant amounts of the VHA, SHA and CHA fractions. Separation of uncharged fractions was poor with all the resins examined. Water pretreatment involving an ion-exchange resin failed to reduce membrane fouling, which was higher than that observed in unpretreated water. This finding is to be attributed to the uncharged NOM fractions and small resin particles that persisted in the water.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.239-244
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• 2007

Corrosion protection of automotive steels has traditionally been assured by using a zinc phosphate metal pretreatment followed by the deposition of a cathodic electrocoat system. This system has been developed and optimized over the years into a highly robust and dependable system with a high performance. However, in terms of efficiency and use of resources and energy, the need is now felt to develop a simpler system with fewer steps, shorter lines, less energy requirements (curing and e-coat deposition) and less stringent waste disposal requirement (phosphate sludge). We report here on the development of a one-step system that can possibly replace both the zinc phosphate and the e-coating processes. Such a system is based on the so-called superprimer concept that we have recently developed for the replacement of chromate pretreatment and chromate-containing primers in the aerospace industry. With some modifications, such systems can also be adapted for use in the automotive industry.