• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.362-367
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• 2006

Waste activated sludge(WAS) collected from domestic wastewater treatment plant is biomass that contains large quantities of organic matter. However, relevant literature show that the bio-hydrogen yield using WAS was too low. In this study, the effect of pretreatment of WAS on hydrogen yield was investigated. Pretreatment includes acid and alkali treatments, grinding, heating, ozone and ultrasound methods. After pretreatment organic matters of WAS were solubilized and soluble chemical oxygen demand(SCOD) was increased by 14.6 times. Batch experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of pre-treatment methods and buffer solution, hydrogen partial pressure, and sodium ion on hydrogen production from WAS by using heated anaerobic mixed cultures. Experimental results showed that addition of buffer solution, efficient pre-treatment method with alkali solution, and gas sparging condition markedly increased the hydrogen yield to 0.52 mmol $H_2/g$-DS.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.121-127
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• 2016

BACKGROUND: Anaerobic digestion is the most feasible technology because not only the energy embedded in organic matters can be recovered, but also they are stabilized while being degraded. This study carried out to improve methane yield of slaughterhouse wastewater treatment sludge cake by the thermal pre-treatment prior to anaerobic digestion.METHODS AND RESULTS: Slaughterhouse wastewater treatment sludge cake was pre-treated by the closed hydrothermal reactor at reaction temperature of 190℃. BMPs (Biochemical methane potential) of the thermal hydrolysate was tested in the different S(Substrate)/I(Inoculum) ratio conditions. COD(Chemical oxygen demand) and SCOD(Soluble chemical oxygen demand) contents of thermal hydrolysate were 10.99% and 10.55%, respectively, then, the 96.00% of COD was remained as a soluble form. The theoretical methane potential of thermal hydrolysate was 0.51 Nm³ kg^-1-VS_added. And BMPs were decreased from 0.56 to 0.22 Nm³ kg^-1-VS_added when S/I ratio were increased from 0.1 to 2.0 in the VS content basis. Those were decreased from 0.32 to 0.13 Nm³ kg^-1-COD_added when S/I ratio were increased from 0.1 to 2.0 based on COD content. The anaerobic degradability of VS basis have showed 196.9%, 102.2%, 80.7%, 67.4%, and 39.4% in S/I ratios of 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0, respectively. Also the COD of 119.6%, 76.3%, 70.1%, 69.0%, and 43.1% were degraded anaerobically in S/I ratios of 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0, respectively.CONCLUSION: BMPs obtained in the S/I ratios of 0.1 and 0.3 was overestimated by the residual organic matters remaining at the inoculum. And inhibitory effect was observed in the highest S/I ratio of 2.0. The optimum S/I ratios giving reasonable BMPs might be in the range of 0.5 and 1.0 in S/I ratio. Therefore VS biodegradability of thermal hydrolysate was in 67.4-80.7% and COD biodegradability showed 69.0-70.1%.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.580-586
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• 2010

Acid and alkali pretreatments were applied to tofu processing waste (TPW) to increase the solubility of ingredients in TPW. Pretreatment at 1.0% of HCl and 2.5% of NaOH condition resulted in the increase of SCOD concentration from 3.2 g COD/L to 27 g COD/L and 33 g COD/L, respectively. The acid and alkali-pretreated TPW was studied for its fermentative $H_2$ production capacity in batch mode using a thermophillic mixed culture. Alkali pretreatment on presence of 2.5% NaOH exhibited more soluble portion released compared to acid pretreatment using HCl, however the $H_2$ production from acid pretreated TPW was better than alkali-pretreated TPW probably due to the sodium inhibition on microbial activity. In addition, sewage sludge was externally added to the acid-pretreated (1.0% HCl) TPW by 20% (on volume basis). Average H2 production rate was increased from 31 to 78 ml/L-broth/hr, and it was attributed to the high buffer capacity and abundant nutrients especially divalent cation in sewage sludge.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.21-32
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• 2021

This study reports for the first time the application of electrocoagulation (EC) from laboratory to pilot scales for the treatment of printing wastewater, a hazardous waste whose treatment and disposal are strictly regulated. The wastewater was taken from three real printing companies with strongly varying characteristics. The treatment process was performed in the laboratory for operational optimization and then applied in the pilot scale. The weight loss of the electrode and the generation of sludge at both scales were compared. The results show that the raw wastewater should be diluted before EC treatment if its COD is higher than about 10,000 mg/L. Pilot scale removal efficiencies of COD and color were slightly lower compared to those obtained from the laboratory scale. At pilot scale, the effluent CODs removal efficiency was 81.9 - 88.9% (final concentration of 448 - 992 mg/L) and color removal efficiency was 95.8 - 98.6% (final level of 89 - 202 Pt-Co) which proved the feasibility of EC treatment as an effective pre-treatment method for printing wastewater as well as other high colored and hard-biodegradable wastewaters.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.53-57
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• 2009

In order to treat the complex wastewater containing organic compound and solids, pre-treatment system associated with molecular separation process were investigated. The reductions of COD and turbidity were obtained after coagulation processes using Alum (Aluminium sulfate, $Al_2(SO_4)_2{\cdot}18H_{2}O$) and PACl (poly aluminium chloride as 17% $Al_{2}O_{3}$). The results of study were as follows: using variable dosage of Alum, COD removal was highest at 4,000 mg/l, and the reduction of COD and turbidity was 42% and 92%, respectively. The optimum coagulation would be effective at pH 7.3 than pH 9.0 by the addition of alum at a concentration of 6,000 mg/l and PACl was add at 4.25% in raw complex wastewater with 2,000 mg/l alum at pH 7.3, the reduction of COD was reduced by 32%. But coagulation aid experiments indicated that PACl would be more effective in sludge separation ability than COD removal efficiency.

• Clean Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.74-80
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• 2019

Thermochemical treatment of sewage sludge is an energy-intensive process due to its high moisture content. To save the energy consumed during the process, the hydrothermal carbonization process for sewage sludge can be used to convert sewage sludge into clean solid fuel without pre-drying. This study is aimed to investigate co-firing characteristics of the hydrothermally carbonated sewage sludge (HCS) to a pulverized coal combustion system. The purpose of the measurement is to measure the pollutants produced during co-firing and combustion efficiency. The combustion system used in this study is a furnace with a down-firing swirl burner of a $80kW_{th}$ thermal input. Two sub-bituminous coals were used as a main fuel, and co-firing ratio of the sewage sludge was varied from 0% to 10% in a thermal basis. Experimental results show that $NO_x$ is 400 ~ 600 ppm, $SO_x$ is 600 ~ 700 ppm, and CO is less than 100 ppm. Experimental results show that stable combustion was achieved for high co-firing ratio of the HCS. Emission of $NO_x$ and $SO_x$ was decreased for higher co-firing ratio in spite of the higher nitrogen contents in the HCS. In addition, it was found that the pollutant emission is affected significantly by composition of the main fuel, regardless of the co-firing ratios.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.103-114
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• 2017

A membrane bioreactor by sequentially alternating the inflow and by applying a two-stage coagulation control based on pre-coagulation was evaluated in terms of phosphorus removal efficiency and cost-savings. The MBR consisted of two identical alternative reaction tanks, followed by aerobic, anoxic and membrane tanks, where the wastewater and the internal return sludge alternatively flowed into each alternative reaction tank at every 2 hours. In the batch-operated alternative reaction tank, the initial concentration of nitrate rapidly decreased from 2.3 to 0.4 mg/L for only 20 minutes after stopping the inflow, followed by substantial release of phosphorus up to 4 mg/L under anaerobic condition. Jar test showed that the minimum alum doses to reduce the initial $PO_4$-P below 0.2 mg/L were 2 and 9 mol-Al/mol-P in the wastewater and the activated sludge from the membrane tank, respectively. It implies that a pre-coagulation in influent is more cost-efficient for phosphorus removal than the coagulation in the bioreactor. On the result of NUR test, there were little difference in terms of denitrification rate and contents of readily biodegradable COD between raw wastewater and pre-coagulated wastewater. When adding alum into the aerobic tank, alum doses above 26 mg/L as $Al_2O_3$ caused inhibitory effects on ammonia oxidation. Using the two-stage coagulation control based on pre-coagulation, the P concentration in the MBR effluent was kept below 0.2 mg/L with the alum of 2.7 mg/L as $Al_2O_3$, which was much lower than 5.1~7.4 mg/L as $Al_2O_3$ required for typical wastewater treatment plants. During the long-term operation of MBR, there was no change of the TMP increase rate before and after alum addition.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.363-371
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• 2018

In this work, it was investigated the usability of artificial bee colony (ABC) and genetic algorithm (GA) in modeling adsorption of Co(II) onto drinking water treatment sludge (DWTS). DWTS, obtained as inevitable byproduct at the end of drinking water treatment stages, was used as an adsorbent without any physical or chemical pre-treatment in the adsorption experiments. Firstly, DWTS was characterized employing various analytical procedures such as elemental, FT-IR, SEM-EDS, XRD, XRF and TGA/DTA analysis. Then, adsorption experiments were carried out in a batch system and DWTS's Co(II) removal potential was modelled via ABC and GA methods considering the effects of certain experimental parameters (initial pH, contact time, initial Co(II) concentration, DWTS dosage) called as the input parameters. The accuracy of ABC and GA method was determined and these methods were applied to four different functions: quadratic, exponential, linear and power. Some statistical indices (sum square error, root mean square error, mean absolute error, average relative error, and determination coefficient) were used to evaluate the performance of these models. The ABC and GA method with quadratic forms obtained better prediction. As a result, it was shown ABC and GA can be used optimization of the regression function coefficients in modeling adsorption experiments.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.889-896
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• 2012

In this study, simulation results of nitrogen and phosphorus removals and microbial activities for an $A_2O$ process in wastewater treatment plant are presented by using Activated Sludge Models (ASMs). Simulations were performed using pre-calibrated model and layout implemented in GPS-X simulation software. The models were used to investigate variations of SRT, water temperature, DO and C/N ratio effect on nutrients removal and microbial activity. According to the simulated results, the successful nitrification required SRT higher than 10.3 days, whereas increase of $NO_3$-N loading in the anaerobic reactor caused phosphorus release by PAOs; the effluent $NH_4$-N showed rapid change between $12^{\circ}C$(21.7 mg/L) and $13^{\circ}C$(3.2 mg/L); the effluent phosphorus was increased up to 1.9 mg/L at water temperature of $25^{\circ}C$; the DO increase was positive for heterotrophs and autotrophs growths but negative for PAOs growth; the PAOs showed low activity when C/N ratio was lower than 2.5. The experimental results indicated that the calibrated models can assure the prediction quality of the ASMs and can be used to optimize the $A_2O$ process.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.345-350
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• 2006

This study investigated the removal of recalcitrant organics in dyeing wastewater using a fluidized bed reactor(FBR) that contained cell-immobilized pellets. The pellets were manufactured and condensing the gel phase by mixing PEG-polymer and cells to form micro-porous PEG-polymer pellets whose size were ${\Phi}\;4mm{\times}H\;4mm$ on average. An industrial activated sludge without any pre-adaptation was used for the cell immobilization because it gave an equivalent removal efficiency to a pre-adapted sludges. The feed was obtained from an effluent of a biological treatment plant, which contained $SCOD_{Cr}$ of 330 mg/L and $SBOD_5$ of 20 mg/L. The $SCOD_{Cr}$ removal efficiency was over 45% and the effluent $COD_{Mn}$ concentration was less than 100 mg/L at HRTs from 6 to 24 hrs. The optimum HRT in the FBR was determined as 12 hrs considering the removal efficiency and cost. When a raw wastewater containing 768 mg/L of $COD_{Cr}$ was fed to the FBR, the effluent $COD_{Cr}$ concentration increased only slightly, giving a 70% of $COD_{Cr}$ removal or a 97% of $BCOD_5$ removal. This indicated that the FBR had an excellent capability of biodegradable organics removal also. In conclusion, the FBR could be applied to textile wastewater treatment in place of an activated sludge process.