• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.129-137
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• 2000

In this study, biological treatment process of MWWT(Municipal wet-waste Treatment) has been developed through a moduling of the containerized closed ATAD(Auto thermal aerobic digestion) system & closed vertical dynamic acerator, which were used for food waste and cattle manure, respectively. Though biological process has several advantages such as low concentrations of heavy metals and salts, proper and stable C/N ratio and constant reaction rate against the process treating two wastes separately, it has a obstacles of salt concentration and much usage of bulking agent such as wood chip. After rapid oxidation in the boxed tower reactor for 5 days, the content of sewage sludge would be reduced 65% on around, might be mixed with the food waste that had been treated in the static closed reactor during 6 days and put in the secondary static reactor for curing. During composting process, the odor contained in the gas generated from the reactor was removed by passing it through a biofilter as well as the leachate was treated in the wastewater treatment facility. Consequently, it seemed to be possible to compost sewage sludge at mild and stable operating condition and at low cost through the biological ATAD process resulting in the production of organic compost satisfying the specifications regulated by itself.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Environment and Ecology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.105-126
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• 2003

In Korea most of annual rainfall is concentrated in several episodic heavy rains during the season of summer monsoon and typhoon. Because of uneven rainfall distribution many dams have been constructed in order to secure water supply in dry seasons. The Han River system has the most dams among Korean rivers, and the river is a series of dams now. Reservoirs need different strategy of water quality control from river water. Autochthonous organic matter and phosphorus should be the major target to be controlled in lakes. In this Paper some problems are discussed that makes efforts of water quality improvement ineffective in lakes of Korea, even after the substantial investment to wastewater treatment facilities.1) Phosphorus is the key factor controlling eutrophication of lakes and the reduction ofphosphors should be the major target of water treatment. However, water quality management strategy in Korea is still stream-oriented, and focused on BOD removal from sewage. Phosphorus removal efficiency remains as low as 10-30%, because biological treatment is adopted for both secondary treatment and advanced treatment. The standard for TP concentration of the sewage treatment plant effluent is 6 mgP/l in most of regions, and 2 mg/l in enforced region near metropolitan water intake point. TP in the effluents of sewage treatment plants are usually 1-2 mg/1, and most of plants meet the effluent regulation without a further phosphorus removal process. The generous TP standard for effluents discourages further efforts to improve phosphorus removal efficiency of sewage treatment. Considering that TP standard for the effluent is below 0.1 mg/l in some countries, it should be amended to below 0.1 mg/l in Korea, especially in the watershed of large lakes.2) Urban runoff and combined sewer overflow are not treated, even though their total loading into lakes can be comparable to municipal sewage discharges on dry days. Chemical coagulation and rapid settling might be the solution to urban runoff in regard of intermittent operation on only rainy days.3) Aggregated precipitation in Korea that is concentrated on several episodic heavyrains per year causes a large amount of nonpoint source pollution loading into lakes. It makes the treatment of nonpoint source discharge by methods of other countries of even rain pattern, such as retention pond or artificial wetland, impractical in Korea.4) The application rate of fertilizers in Korea is ten times as high as the average ofOECD countries. The total manure discharge from animal farming is thought to be over the capacity of soil treatment in Korea. Even though large portion of manure is composted for organic fertilizer, a lot of nutrients and organic matter emanates from organic compost. The reduction of application rate and discharge rate of phosphorus from agricultural fields should be encouraged by incentives and regulations.5) There is a lot of vegetable fields with high slopes in the upstream region of the HanRiver. Soil erosion is severe due to high slopes, and fertilizer is discharged in the form of adsorbed phosphorus on clay surface. The reduction of soil erosion in the upland area should be the major preventive policy for eutrophication. Uplands of high slope must be recovered to forest, and eroded gullies should be reformed into grass-buffered natural streams which are wider and resistant to bank erosion.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Urban Environment
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.401-408
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• 2018

EQPS (Effluent Quality Prediction System, Dynamita, France) was applied to analyze the appropriateness of the design of a bioreactor in A sewage treatment plant. A sewage treatment plant was designed by setting the design concentration of the secondary clarifier effluent to total nitrogen and total phosphorus, 10 mg/L and 1.8 mg/L, respectively, in order to comply with the target water quality at the level of the hydrophilic water. The retention time of the 4-stage BNR reactor was 9.6 hours, which was 0.5 for the pre-anoxic tank, 1.0 for the anaerobic tank, 2.9 for the anoxic tank, and 5.2 hours for the aerobic tank. As a result of the modeling of the winter season, the retention time of the anaerobic tank was increased by 0.2 hours in order to satisfy the target water quality of the hydrophilic water level. The default coefficients of the one step nitrification denitrification model proposed by the software manufacturer were used to exclude distortion of the modeling results. Since the process modeling generally presents optimal conditions, the retention time of the 4-stage BNR should be increased to 9.8 hours considering the bioreactor margin. The accurate use of process modeling in the design stage of the sewage treatment plant is a way to ensure the stability of the treatment performance and efficiency after construction of the sewage treatment plant.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.15-22
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• 2020

The landfill gas produced in landfill is generally made up of methane(CH4) and carbon dioxide(CO2) of more than 90%, with the remainder made up of hydrogen sulfide(H2S). However, separate pre-treatment facilities are essential as hydrogen sulfide contained in landfill gas is combined with oxygen during the combustion process to generate sulfur oxides and acid rain combined with moisture in the atmosphere. Various desulfurization technologies have been used in Korea to desulfurize landfill gas. Although general desulfurization processes apply various physical and chemical methods, such as treatment of sediment generation according to the CaCO3 generation reaction and treatment through adsorbent, there is a problem of secondary wastes such as wastewater. As a way to solve this problem, a biological treatment process is used to generate and treat it with sludge-type sulfide (S°) using a biological treatment process.In this study, as a basic study of technology for utilizing the biological treatment by-products of hydrogen sulfide in landfill gas, an experiment was conducted to use the by-product as a mixture of concrete. According to the analysis of the mixture concrete strength of sulfur products, the mixture of sulfur by-products affects the strength of concrete and shows the highest strength value when mixing 10%.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.123-133
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• 2023

Wastewater generated in the secondary battery production process contains lithium and high-concentration sulfate. Recently, as demand as demand for high-Ni precursors with high-energy density has surged, nickel emission is also a concern. Lithium and sulfate are not included in the current water pollutant discharge standard, so if they are not properly processed and discharged, the negative effect on future environment may be great. Therefore, in this study, the ecotoxicity of lithium, nickel, and sulfate, which are potential contaminants that can be discharged from the secondary battery production process, was evaluated using water flea (Daphnia magna) and luminescent bacteria (Aliivibrio fischeri). As a result of the ecotoxicity test, 24-hour and 48-hour D. magna EC₅₀ values of lithium were 18.2mg/L and 14.5mg/L, nickel EC50 values were 7.2mg/L and 5.4mg/L, and sulfate EC₅₀ values were 4,605.5mg/L and 4,345.0mg/L, respectively. In the case of D. magna, it was found that there was a difference in ecotoxicity according to the contaminants and exposure time (24 hours, 48 hours). Comparing the EC₅₀ of D. magna for lithium, nickel, and sulfate, the EC₅₀ of nickel at 24h and 48h was 39.6-37.2% compared to lithium and 0.1-0.2% compared to sulfate, which was the most toxic among the three substances. The difference appeared to be at a similarlevelregardless of the exposure time. The EC₅₀ of sulfate was 253.0-299.7% and 639.5-804.6%, respectively, compared to lithium and nickel, showing the least toxicity among the three substances. The 30-minute EC₅₀ values of luminescent bacteria forlithium, nickel, and sulfate were 2,755.8mg/L, 7.4mg/L, and 66,047.3mg/L,respectively. Unlike nickel, it was confirmed that there was a difference in sensitivity between D. magna and A. fischeri bacteria to lithium and sulfate. Studies on the mixture toxicity of these substances are needed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.43-71
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• 1999

This research is an experimental work of developing a construction material using municipal wastewater sludge as liner and cover materials for waste disposal landfill. Weathered granite soil and flyash, produced as a by-product in the power plant, were used as the primary additives to improve geotechnical engineering properties of sludge. For secondary additives, bentonite and cement were mixed with sludge to decrease the permeability and to increase the shear strength, respectively. Various laboratory test required to evaluate the design criteria for liner and cover materials, were carried out by changing the mixing ratio of sludge with the additives. Basic soil properties such as specific gravity, grain size distribution, liquid and plastic limits were measured to analyze their effects on permeability, compaction, compressibility and shear strength properties of mixtures. Laboratory compaction tests were conducted to find the maximum dry densities and the optimum moisture contents of mixtures, and their effectiveness of compaction in field was consequently evaluated. Permeability tests of variable heads with compacted samples, and the stress-controlled consolidation tests with measuring permeabilities of samples during consolidation process were performed to obtain permeability, and to find the compressibility as well as consolidational coefficients of mixtures, respectively. To evaluate the long term stability of sludges, creep tests were also conducted in parallel with permeability tests of variable heads. On the other hand, for the compacted sludge decomposed for a month, permeability tests were carried out to investigate the effect of decomposition of organic matters in sludges on its permeability. Direct shear tests were performed to evaluate the shear strength parameters of mixed sludge with weathered granite, flyash and bentonite. For the mixture of sludge with cement, unconfined compression tests were carried out to find their strength with varying mixing ratio and curing time. On the other hand, CBR tests for compacted specimen were also conducted to evaluate the trafficability of mixtures. Various test results with mixtures were assessed to evaluate whether their properties meet the requirements as liner and cover materials in waste disposal landfill.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.345-353
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• 2022

A wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is a major gateway for the engineered nano-particles (ENPs) entering the water bodies. However existing studies have reported that many WWTPs exceed the No Observed Effective Concentration (NOEC) for ENPs in the effluent and thus they need to be designed or operated to more effectively control ENPs. Understanding and predicting ENPs behaviors in the unit and \the whole process of a WWTP should be the key first step to develop strategies for controlling ENPs using a WWTP. This study aims to provide a modeling tool for predicting behaviors and removal efficiencies of ENPs in a WWTP associated with process characteristics and major operating conditions. In the developed model, four unit processes for water treatment (primary clarifier, bioreactor, secondary clarifier, and tertiary treatment unit) were considered. Additionally the model simulates the sludge treatment system as a single process that integrates multiple unit processes including thickeners, digesters, and dewatering units. The simulated ENP was nano-sized TiO₂, (nano-TiO₂) assuming that its behavior in a WWTP is dominated by the attachment with suspendid solids (SS), while dissolution and transformation are insignificant. The attachment mechanism of nano-TiO₂ to SS was incorporated into the model equations using the apparent solid-liquid partition coefficient (Kd) under the equilibrium assumption between solid and liquid phase, and a steady state condition of nano-TiO₂ was assumed. Furthermore, an MS Excel-based user interface was developed to provide user-friendly environment for the nano-TiO₂ removal efficiency calculations. Using the developed model, a preliminary simulation was conducted to examine how the solid retention time (SRT), a major operating variable affects the removal efficiency of nano-TiO₂ particles in a WWTP.