• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.161-170
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• 2014

It is essential to decrease energy consumption and excess sludge to economically operate sewage treatment plant. This becomes more important along with a ban on sea dumping and exhaustion of resource. Therefore, many researchers have been study on energy consumption reduction and strategies for minimization of excess sludge production from the activated sludge process. The aeration cost account for a high proportion of maintenance cost because sufficient air is necessary to keep nitrifying bacteria activity of which the oxygen affinity is inferior to that of heterotrophic bacteria. Also, additional costs are incurred to stabilize excess sludge and decrease the volume of sludge. There were anoxic, aerobic, membrane, deairation and concentration zone in this MBR process. Continuous aeration was provided to prevent membrane fouling in membrane zone and intermittent aeration was provided in aerobic zone through ammonia sensor. So, there was the minimum oxygen to remove $NH_4-N$ below limited quantity that could be eliminated in membrane zone. As the result of this control, energy consumption of aeration system declined by between 10.4 % and 19.1 %. Besides, we could maintain high MLSS concentration in concentration zone and this induced the microorganisms to be in starved condition. Consequentially, the amount of excess sludge decrease by about 15 %.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.694-699
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• 2008

Considering the severe regulation associated with sludge treatment such as direct landfill and ocean dumping, there is no doubt in that an advanced study for the proper treatment of sludge is urgently needed in near feature. As one of viable method for sludge treatment, fry-drying of sludge by waste oil has been investigated in this study. The fundamental mechanism of this drying method lies in the phenomenon of rapid moisture escape in the sludge pore toward oil media. This is caused by the severe pressure gradient formed by the rapid oil heating between sludge and oil. As part of research effort of fry-drying using waste oil, a series of basic study has been made experimentally to obtain typical drying curves as function of important parameters such as drying temperature, drying time, oil type and geometrical shape of sludge formed. Based on this study, a number of useful conclusion can be drawn as following. The fry-drying method by oil immersion was found quite effective in the removal efficiency of sludge moisture, in general, the moisture content decreases significantly after 10 minutes and the whole moisture content was less than 5% after 14 minutes regardless of the drying temperature. The increase of oil temperature up to 140$^{\circ}C$ favors significantly for the removal of moisture but there was no visible difference above 140$^{\circ}C$. As expected, the decrease of diameter in sludge was efficient in drying due to the increased surface area per unit volume. Further, the effect of oil property by the change of oil type was noted. To be specific, for the case of engine oil the efficiency was found to be remarkably delayed in moisture evaporation compared with that of vegetable oil due to the increased viscosity of engine oil. It produced a result of increasing the evaporation of moisture largely relatively high in the drying temperature over 140$^{\circ}C$ compared with the drying temperature 120$^{\circ}C$ drying temperature as the drying time passed. Accordingly, the drying temperature is considered desirable as keeping over 140$^{\circ}C$ regardless of a sort of used oil.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.60-70
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• 2012

Zn, Cu, Fe, Al contents of sludges produced from sewage treatment plants and night soil treatment plant in Pocheon City, Gyeong-gi Province were investigated. And the accumulated contents of those metals in the earthworm Eisenia fetida were also investigated while 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105 grams(dw) of sludges were cumulatively supplied to the earthworms. Zn contents of sludges were 75.1~196.1 mg/kg, Cu contents 3.74~76.1 mg/kg, Fe contents 219.9~857.8 mg/kg, Al contents 198.4~991.7 mg/kg, all of which would not cause acute toxicity to the earthworm, but could cause sublethal effects on earthworm and reduce the density of next generation's population. However, cumulative supplies of sludges didn't increase the bioaccumulation rates of metals in the earthworm body, and BAFs of those metals after 60g of sludge supply were 0.0~0.43, which meant that the accumulated Zn, Cu, Fe, Al contents in the earthworm were lower than those of sludges.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.662-669
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• 2019

Anaerobic digestion is a popular sewage sludge (Ss) treatment method as it provides significant pollution control and energy recovery. However, the low C/N ratio and poor biodegradability of Ss necessitate pretreatment methods that improve solubilization under anaerobic conditions in addition to anaerobic co-digestion with other substrates to improve the process efficiency. In this study, three pretreatment methods, namely microwave irradiation, ultrasonication, and heat treatment, were investigated, and the corresponding improvement in methane production was assessed. Additionally, the simplex centroid design method was utilized to determine the optimum mixture ratio of food waste (Fw), livestock manure (Lm), and Ss for maximum methane yield. Microwave irradiation at 700 W for 6 min yielded the highest biodegradability (62.0%), solubilization efficiency (59.7%), and methane production (329 mL/g VS). The optimum mixture ratio following pretreatment was 61.3% pretreated Ss, 28.6% Fw, and 10.1% Lm. The optimum mixture ratio without pretreatment was 33.6% un-pretreated Ss, 46.0% Fw, and 20.4% Lm. These results indicate that the choice of pretreatment method plays an important role in efficient anaerobic digestion and can be applied in operational plants to enhance methane production. Co-digestion of Ss with Fw and Lm was also beneficial.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.376-383
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• 2006

This study was undertaken to control sludge bulking and foaming problems at the biological nutrient removal processes. A sewage treatment plant(STP) had a severe sludge settling problem usually over 90% in 30 min settled sludge volume and 300 mL/g in SVI and also thick and heavy brown foam in the secondary clarifiers. Identification study shows that causative filament was Microthrix parvicella which has not been previously reported in Korea. According to the inspection of processes and other related parameters, excessive growth of this particular filament was associated with high SRT caused by lack of proper capacity in sludge treatment line. After providing an extension of the sludge treatment capability, the plant can decrease SRT by wasting more sludge from the processes and also decreasing SS concentration in recycled stream. Subsequently we were able to control growth of M. parvicella. The SVI value was reduced to half of those observed during the severe bulking, but also sludge blanket and its concentration in the clarifier became compact and dense. However, decrease in population of M. parvicella caused increase of total phosphorus concentration in the effluent.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.187-196
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• 2016

In this study, a newly developed agitator with hydrofoil impeller applied to actual biological process in advanced wastewater treatment plant was evaluated. Several series of experiments were conducted in two different wastewater treatment plants where actual problems have been occurred such as the production of scums and sludge settling. For more effective evaluation, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and measurements of MLSS (Mixed Liquor Suspended Solids) and DO (Dissolved Oxygen) were used with other measuring equipments. After the installation of one unit of vertical hydrofoil agitator in plant A, scum and sludge settling problems were solved and more than seventy percent of operational energy was saved. In case of plant B, there were three cells of each anoxic and anaerobic tanks, and each cell had one unit of submersible horizontal agitator. After the integration of three cells to one cell in each tank, and installation of one vertical hydrofoil agitator per tank, all the problems caused by improper mixing were solved and more than eighty percent of operational energy was found to be saved. Simple change of agitator applied to biological process in wastewater treatment plant was proved to be essential to eliminate scum and sludge settling problems and to save input energy.

• Clean Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.39-49
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• 2000

Ultra Rapid Coagulation (URC) can dramatically remove pollutants loaded in wastewater by adding weighted coagulation additives (WCA) and recycling sludge into the coagulation basin to increase settling velocity and surface adsorption ability of floc. Also settling chamber together with lamella plates offers the high rate settling velocity, which can economically treat a considerable amount of pollutants like as combined sewage overflow (CSO) during the heavy rainfall and reduce the pollutants load into the receiving water for securing water source. It was estimated optimal configuration of settling chamber by using fluent model and the possibilities of reusing the sludge generated in this system.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.551-558
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• 2007

From the view point of biological wastewater treatment, C/N ratio is one of the most important factor in biological nutrient removal process. However, municipal sewage in Korea is characterized by extremely low content of carbon source and relatively higher portion of N source. Accordingly, it is necessary to dose external carbon source in order to obtain higher degree of carbon source within the process. In this study, the effects of pH pretreatment as an alternative plan for increasing carbon source on the cell disruption and COD solubility of waste activated sludge were conducted under well defined experimental conditions. During 5 hours, the value of COD solubilization rate ($S_R$) at pH 11.5 is approximately 4.4 times higher than the value of $S_R$ at pH 9.5. It is expected that the level of SCOD increased due to the result from cell disruption. However, VSS/TSS ratio was not significantly changed after 5 hours. As Alkalinity changes gradually from less than 15, 30 and 60 meq NaOH/L, average RBCOD/SCOD fraction showed 34, 36 and 45%,respectively.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.35-40
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• 2021

In order to investigate the degree of solubilization of sewage sludge using sono-activated persulfate(UV/PP), VSS reduction rate, solubilization rate and extracellular polymeric substances were measured. Ultrasonic(US) and alkali·ultrasonic method using sodium hydroxide(US/SH) were compared. Under the persulfate·ultrasonic conditions, the VSS reduction rate and the solubilization rate increased to 27.6% and 58.9%, respectively. TB-EPS as Carbohydrate and Protein were extracted by 770 mg/L and 2,162 mg/L. Compared to the other methods, US and US/SH, the VSS reduction rate and solubilization rate were higher. And also, according to the TB-EPS values, cell wall destruction was more efficient.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.117-124
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• 2018

For the effective removal of phosphorus in water, a novel type of composite was prepared by combining Poly Alumiun Chloride, widely used in sewage/wastewater treatment plants, and Humic Acid particles, which are known to have phosphorus removal ability, with CI. The surface of the ferromagnetic CI particles was oxidized and activated, and then PAC and HA were synthesized to finally produce CIPAC and CIHA. CIPAC and CIHA prepared by this study showed similar results to the phosphorus removal efficiencies of PAC and HA coagulants. The novel composite has a larger weight than the conventional coagulant, and the coagulated sludge precipitates rapidly. The sludge could be easily separated in a short time if the external magnetic field was given by the ferromagnetic force of CIPAC and CIHA prepared with CI as support. Therefore, it can be concluded that if phosphorus removal is carried out using CIPAC and CIHA prepared through this study with external magnetic field, the sedimentation rate will be much faster than that of conventional coagulant. Thus it is possible to obtain a high economic benefit in the sludge recovery part.