• Resources Recycling
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.3-8
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• 2023

This study discussed production, demand, and future prospects of rubidium, which is an alkali group metal that is highly reactive to various media and requires carefulness in handling, but no significant environmental hazard of rubidium has been reported yet. Rubidium is used in various fields such as optoelectronic equipment, biomedical, and chemical industries. Because of difficulty in production as well as limited demand, the transaction price of rubidium is relatively high, but its detail information such as market status and potential growth is uncertain. However, if the mass production of versatile ultra-high-performance equipment such as quantum computers and the necessity of rubidium use in the equipment are confirmed, there is a possibility that the rubidium market will expand in the future. Rubidium is often found together with lithium, beryllium, and cesium, and may be present in granite containing minerals such as lepidolite and pollucite, as well as in seawater and industrial waste. Several technologies such as acid leaching, roasting, solvent extraction, and adsorption are used to recover rubidium. The maximum recovery efficiency of the rubidium from the sources and the processing above is generally high, but, in many practices, rubidium is not the main recovery target, and therefore the actual recovery effects should depend on presence of other valuable components or impurities, together with recovery costs, energy consumption, environmental issues, etc. In conclusion, although the current production and consumption of rubidium are limited, with consideration of the possible market fluctuations according to the emergence of large-scale demand sources, etc., further investigations by related institutions should be necessary.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.172-172
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• 2011

Anaerobic digestion(AD) has successfully been used for many applications that have conclusively demonstrated its ability to recycle biogenic wastes. AD has been successfully applied in industrial waste water treatment, stabilsation of sewage sludge, landfill management and recycling of biowaste and agricultural wastes as manure, energy crops. During AD, i.e. organic materials are decomposed by anaerobic forming bacteria and fina1ly converted to excellent fertilizer and biogas which is primarily composed of methane(CH4) and carbon dioxide(CO2) with smaller amounts of hydrogen sulfide(H2S) and ammonia(NH3), trace gases such as hydrogen(H2), nitrogen(N2), carbon monoxide(CO), oxygen(O2) and contain dust particles and siloxanes. The production and utilisation of biogas has several environmental advantages such as i)a renewable energy source, ii)reduction the release of methane to the atomsphere, iii)use as a substitute for fossil fuels. In utilisation of biogas, most of biogas produced from small scale plant e.g. farm-scale AD plant are used to provide as energy source for cooking and lighting, in most of the industrialised countries for energy recovery, environmental and safety reasons are used in combined heat and power(CHP) engines or as a supplement to natural. In particular, biogas to use as vehicle fuel or for grid injection there different biogas treatment steps are necessary, it is important to have a high energy content in biogas with biogas purification and upgrading. The energy content of biogas is in direct proportion to the methane content and by removing trace gases and carbon dioxide in the purification and upgrading process the energy content of biogas in increased. The process of purification and upgrading biogas generates new possibilities for its use since it can then replace natural gas, which is used extensively in many countries, However, those technologies add to the costs of biogas production. It is important to have an optimized purification and upgrading process in terms of low energy consumption and high efficiency giving high methane content in the upgraded gas. A number of technologies for purification and upgrading of biogas have been developed to use as a vehicle fuel or grid injection during the passed twenty years, and several technologies exist today and they are continually being improved. The biomethane which is produced from the purification and the upgrading process of biogas has gained increased attention due to rising oil and natural gas prices and increasing targets for renewable fuel quotes in many countries. New plants are continually being built and the number of biomethane plants was around 100 in 2009.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.479-482
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• 2008

Since late of 2000, KIER has developed a novel pyrolysis process for production of fuel oils from polymer wastes. It could have been possible due to large-scale funding of the Resource Recycling R&D Center. The target was to develop an uncatalyzed, continuous and automatic process producing oils that can be used as a fuel for small-scale industrial boilers. The process development has proceeded in three stages bench-scale unit, pilot plant and demonstration plant. As a result, the demonstration plant having capacity of 3,000 tons/year has been constructed and is currently under test operation for optimization of operation conditions. The process consisted of four parts ; feeding system, cracking reactor, refining system and others. Raw materials were pretreated via shredding and classifying to remove minerals, water, etc. There were 3 kind of products, oils(80%), gas(15%), carbonic residue(5%). The main products i.e. oils were gasoline and diesel. The calorific value of gas has been found to be about 18,000kcal/$m^3$ which is similar to petroleum gas and shows that it could be used as a process fuel. Key technologies adopted in the process are 1) Recirculation of feed for rapid melting and enhancement of fluidity for automatic control of system, 2) Tubular reactor specially-designed for heavy heat flux and prevention of coking, 3)Recirculation of heavy fraction for prevention of wax formation, and 4) continuous removal & re-reaction of sludge for high yield of main product (oil) and minimization of residue. The advantages of the process are full automation, continuous operation, no requirement of catalyst, minimization of coking and sludge problems, maximizing the product(fuel oil) yield and purity, low initial investment and operation costs and environment- friendly process. In this presentation, background of pyrolysis technology development, the details of KIER pyrolysis process flow, key technologies and the performances of the process will be discussed in detail.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.93-105
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• 2018

In Korea, a huge amount of radioactive concrete waste will be generated through decommissioning of nuclear facilities in the near future; therefore, optimum technology for the treatment of concrete waste should be reviewed thoroughly and the future direction of technology development should be discussed. In this paper, many domestic and foreign examples of generation of radioactive concrete waste were pieced together and the characteristics of radioactive concrete waste were examined. Moreover, we reviewed trends in technology development by analyzing the examples of various studies and practical applications of treatment technologies, such as mechanical decontamination, chemical decontamination, volume reduction, recycling and solidification, and also tried to understand the limitations of existing technologies and determine a direction for technical improvement.

• Clean Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.107-113
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• 2003

Printing process generates a vast amount of toxical waste and wastewater by the development of printing and publishing industry. The regulations for various environmental pollution material, which were indispensably used in printing industries, were getting stronger. The printing industries should develop the cleaner technologies in order to avoid the regulations. In this paper, the separation characteristics of microfiltration, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis were surveyed to make basic data for the optimization of process as cleaner technologies for printing industries. The $2kg/cm^2$ of operation pressure were suitable to the U/F System. Because of the permeate of U/F was below 3 NTU as turbidity, which was probed to be possible using the rinsing water in printing process. U/F System,

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.75-83
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• 2004

Temperature-phased anaerobic digestion (TPAD), anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR), and co-digestion technologies were combined together in order to overcome low efficiencies of conventional anaerobic sewage sludge digestion processes. In the performance, TPAD-ASBR process showed high VS removal efficiency over 60% up to the organic loading rate (OLR) of 2.7 g VS/L/d. The first-stage of TPAD-ASBR and control system played a most significant role in VS destruction and methane production. Methane production rate (0.79 l $CH_4/L/d$) of the system was higher than that (0.59 l $CH_4/L/d$) of the control system. The substrate characteristics of the sewage sludge, such as low VS concentration (1.5%, w/w) and biodegradability, were properly improved by the addition of food waste as a co-substrate, leading to more efficient VS removal and methane production. With several track studies, it was revealed that the independent solid retention time (SRT) of those systems prevented untreated particles from outflowing and also, extended the retention time of the active biomass for further degradation. Consequently, it was confirmed that the sequencing batch operation of the TPAD process using co-substrate was a promising alternative for the recycling of sewage sludge with low VS content.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.44-50
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• 2015

Recycling technologies would be required in consideration of increasing demand in lithium ion batteries (LIBs). In this study, the leaching behavior of Ni, Co and Mn is investigated with ammoniacal medium for spent cathode active materials, which are separated from a commercial LIB pack in hybrid electric vehicles. The leaching behavior of each metal is analyzed in the presence of reducing agent and pH buffering agent. The existence of reducing agent is necessary to increase the leaching efficiency of Ni and Co. The leaching of Mn is insignificant even with the existence of reducing agent in contrast to Ni and Co. The most conspicuous difference between acid and ammoniacal leaching would be the selective leaching behavior between Ni/Co and Mn. The ammoniacal leaching can reduce the cost of basic reagent that makes the pH of leachate higher for the precipitation of leached metals in the acid leaching.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.75-86
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• 2002

This study was performed to investigate situation of livestock manure generated from Kangwon-do and to evaluate its composting probability. The scale of livesrock-farming is bigger and bigger in Korea. Regulation based on the heads of livestock is slightly different from that based on livestock-farming household. So it is needed ro evaluate regulations for livestock head and livestock-farming household. Composting and liquid fertilization were thought to be appropriate technologies to the trearment of Korean cattle and pig manures, respectively. Generation quantity of pig manure was the greatest among pig, Korean cattle, cow and chicken manures. Pig manure generated the greatest amounts of BOD in Kangwon-do. Pig manure contained nitrogen, Korean cattle manure contained $K_2O$, and chicken and pig manures contained $P_2O_5$ in great amount. Alternative ratio of livestock manure to crops-fertilizer was 51% for nitrogen, 38% for $K_2O$, and 34% for $P_2O_5$.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2020

Even asbestos-containing waste (ACW) are highly harmful to humans, it continues being produced due to the massive disposal of asbestos-containing products. A development of asbestos detoxification and recycling technologies is required. Heat treatment using microwave is the most efficient method for ACW detoxification. However, microwave heat treatment method has the limitation that asbestos does not absorb microwave at room temperature. That is why, in this study, ACW was detoxified by microwave heat treatment adding the ACW between SiC plates, which are inorganic heating elements that absorb microwaves at room temperature. In order to improove the heat transfer, ACW was crushed and pulverized and then heated using microwave. Microwave heat treatment temperature and time variables were adjusted to investigate the detoxification properties according to heat treatment conditions. After heat treatment, treated ACW was analyzed for detoxification properties through crystal structure and microstructure analysis using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Microwave heat treatment method using SiC plate can be heated up to the target temperature within a short time. Finally, complete asbestos detoxification was confirmed from the crystal structure and the microstructure when the microwave heat treatment was performed at 1,200℃ for at over 60 minutes and at 1,300℃ for at over 10 minutes.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.763-766
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• 2007

국내에서 발생되는 고형폐기물 중 자원으로 재활용 가능한 유기성폐기물은 하수슬러지, 음식물류폐기물, 축산분뇨 등을 대표 할 수 있다. 이들 유기성폐기물은 환경적인 측면에서 볼 때 다른 유기성 폐수 및 폐기물에 비하여 오염부하량이 상대적으로 높지만, 이를 생물자원 (Biomass)으로 인식하고 이용 할 경우 지구온난화와 같은 환경문제 뿐만아니라 향후 자원고갈문제를 동시에 해결할 수 있는 대체에너지 자원이다. 유기성폐기물을 대체에너지 자원으로 효율적으로 이용하기 위해서는 우선적으로 국제적 환경규제와 에너지 정책에 능동적으로 대응할 수 있는 자원순환형 폐기물관리 시스템 구축이 필요하며, 이를 위한 체계적인 정책적 지원책과 기술 개발이 뒷받침 되어야 할 것이다. 자원 재활용과 에너지회수 기술에 있어 혐기성소화(anaerobic digestion)는 유기성폐기물의 효과적인 감량화, 재이용화, 안정화를 만족시키는 동시에 유용 에너지원인 메탄가스를 회수할 수 있는 바이오가스 전환기술로 최근에 주목을 받는 biotechnology 중의 하나로 자리매김 하고 있다. 특히, 소비자원의 대부분이 해외에 의존하는 국내현실과 최근 고유가에 따른 국가 에너지 정책을 제고해야하는 현 시점에서 유기성폐기물을 이용한 바이오가스화 기술을 널리 보급하기 위해서는 요소기술 개발과 정부의 적극적인 정책적 지원 방안이 마련되어야 할 것이다.