• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.2-4
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• 1998

Proliferation of Nocardia amarae cells in activated sludge has often been associated with the generation of nuisance foams. Despite intense research activities in recent years to examine the causes and control of Nocardia foaming in activated sludge, the foaming continued to persist throughout the activated sludge treatment plants in United States. In addition to causing various operational problems to treatment processes, the presence of Nocardia may have secondary effects on the fate of heavy metals that are not well known. For example, for treatment plants facing more stringent metal removal requirements, potential metal removal by Nocardia cells in foaming activated sludge would be a welcome secondary effect. In contrast, with new viosolid disposal regulations in place (Code o( Federal Regulation No. 503), higher concentration of metals in biosolids from foaming activated sludge could create management problems. The goal of this research was to investigate the metal sorption property of Nocardia amarae cells grown in batch reactors and in chemostat reactors. Specific surface area and metal sorption characteristics of N. amarae cells harvested at various growth stages were compared. Three metals examined in this study were copper, cadmium and nickel. Nocardia amarae strain (SRWTP isolate) used in this study was obtained from the University of California at Berkeley. The pure culture was grown in 4L batch reactor containing mineral salt medium with sodium acetate as the sole carbon source. In order to quantify the sorption of heavy metal ions to N amarae cell surfaces, cells from the batch reactor were harvested, washed, and suspended in 30mL centrifuge tubes. Metal sorption studies were conducted at pH 7.0 and ionlc strength of 10-2M. The sorption Isotherm showed that the cells harvested from the stationary and endogenous growth phase exhibited significantly higher metal sorption capacity than the cells from the exponential phase. The sequence of preferential uptake of metals by N. amarae cells was Cu>Cd>Ni. The specific surFace area of Nocardia cells was determined by a dye adsorption method. N.amarae cells growing at ewponential phase had significantly less specific surface area than that of stationary phase, indicating that the lower metal sorption capacity of Nocardia cells growing at exponential phase may be due to the lower specific surface area. The growth conditions of Nocardia cells in continuous culture affect their cell surface properties, thereby governing the adsorption capacity of heavy metal. The comparison of dye sorption isotherms for Nocardia cells growing at various growth rates revealed that the cell surface area increased with increasing sludge age, indicating that the cell surface area is highly dependent on the steady-state growth rate. The highest specific surface area of 199m21g was obtained from N.amarae cell harvested at 0.33 day-1 of growth rate. This result suggests that growth condition not only alters the structure of Nocardia cell wall but also affects the surface area, thus yielding more binding sites of metal removal. After reaching the steady-state condition at dilution rate, metal adsorption isotherms were used to determine the equilibrium distributions of metals between aqueous and Nocardia cell surfaces. The metal sorption capacity of Nocardia biomass harvested from 0.33 day-1 of growth rate was significantly higher than that of cells harvested from 0.5- and 1-day-1 operation, indicatng that N.amarae cells with a lower growth rate have higher sorpion capacity. This result was in close agreement with the trend observed from the batch study. To evaluate the effect of Nocardia cells on the metal binding capacity of activated sludge, specific surface area and metal sorption capacity of the mixture of Nocardia pure cultures and activated sludge biomass were determined by a series of batch experiments. The higher levels of Nocardia cells in the Nocardia-activated sludge samples resulted in the higher specific surface area, explaining the higher metal sorption sites by the mixed luquor samples containing greater amounts on Nocardia cells. The effect of Nocardia cells on the metal sorption capacity of activated sludge was evaluated by spiking an activated sludge sample with various amounts of pre culture Nocardia cells. The results of the Langmuir isotherm model fitted to the metal sorption by various mixtures of Nocardia and activated sludge indicated that the mixture containing higher Nocardia levels had higher metal adsorption capacity than the mixture containing lower Nocardia levels. At Nocardia levels above 100mg/g VSS, the metal sorption capacity of activate sludge increased proportionally with the amount of Noeardia cells present in the mixed liquor, indicating that the presence of Nocardia may increase the viosorption capacity of activated sludge.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.103-110
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• 1996

Excessive phosphorus (P as orthophosphate) is one of the major pollutants in natural water that are responsible for algal blooms and eutrophication. P removal by slag is an attractive solution if the P sorption capacity of the slag is significant. To design an efficient land treatment facility, basic information on the behaviour of P in the media-water environment is required. In this study, detailed column experiments were conducted to study the P transport under dynamic condition, and mathematical models were developed to describe this process. The column experiments conducted with dust and cake waste products (slag) from BHP steel industry in Australia as adsorbing media indicated that they had higher sorption capacity of P than that of a sandy loam soil from North Sydney, Australia. P transport in the dust and cake columns exhibited characteristics S-shaped or curvilinear breakthrough curves. The simulated results from a dynamic physical non-equilibrium sorption model (DPNSM) and Freundlich isotherm constants satisfactorily matched the corresponding experimental breakthrough data. The mobility of P is restricted proportionally to the adsorbent's sorption capacity.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.129-134
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• 1992

The solubility of methane in poly(n-butyl methacrylate)(PnBMA) was determined at pressures up to 35 atm. These measurements were made by volumetric technique in the temperature range from -10 to 30$^{\circ}$C. The solubility was found to be a nonlinear function of the applied pressure and could be satisfactorily described by dual-mode sorption model at temperatures below the glass txansition temperature($T_g$) of the polymer. The Langmuir capacity constant decreased with increasing temperature and vanished near the glass transition temperature of PnBMA. The solubility isotherm became linear at temperatures above the glass transition temperature of PnBMA. The temperature dependence of the dual-mode sorption parameters was also discussed.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.3-13
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• 2001

It has been known that nonlinear characteristics of sorption affect the transport behavior of water soluble pollutants in soils. However detailed experimental studies have not been performed to verify the effect of non-linearity of adsorption isotherm on transport of chemicals in porous media. In this research, the distortion of breakthrough curves of a cationic surfactant (cetylpyridinium chloride, CPC) in a engineered stainless steel column packed with glass beads were investigated. Glass beads with about 110 $\mu\textrm{m}$diameter coated with a thin n-decane film were used as the media providing the sorption surface for CPC. The CPC adsorption isotherm on the surface of n-decane from aqueous solution was a typical Langmuir type. The breakthrough curve of CPC using step Input showed a late breakthrough on the front side and early breakthrough on the back side accordance to the shape of the isotherm. The retardation factor of CPC was found to be a strong function of the input concentration, which also a manifestation of the non-linearity of the isotherm. The retardation factors for the CPC with step input agreed with those of pulse input that the maximum concentrations are controlled to be the same as the step input concentrations. This results support the validity of the unproven field practices of using hydrogeotracers with non-linear adsorption isotherms to determine the hydrogeological parameters, e.g., NAPL saturation, air-water or NAPL-water interfacial areas.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.149-158
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• 1998

Biomass of non-living brown seaweed Sargassun fluitans pretreated with NaOH is capable of taking up more than $10\%$ $(q_{max}$ : 3.85 mmol/g for Al and 1.48 mmol/g for Cu) of its dry weight in the Al and Cu at pH of 4.5. However, the maximum Al and Cu uptakes calculated from Langmuir isotherm were 1.58 mmol/g for Al and 1.35 mmol/g for Cu at pH 3.5. Equilibrium batch sorption study was performed using two-metal system containing Al and Cu. The mathematical model of the two-metal sorption system enabled quantitative estimation of one-metal biosorption inhibition due to the influence of a second metal. NaOH-treated S. fluitans contained 2.19 mmol $(43\;wt.\%)$ carboxyl groups per gram of biomass. A modified form of Langmuir, which assumes binding of Cu as $Cu^{2+}$ and Al as $Al(OH)_2^+,$ was used to model the experimental data. This result agrees with the one of mono-valent sorption for Al in single-metal system. The modified Langmuir model gives the following affinity correlated coefficients: 0.196 for Cu and 6.820 for Ah at pH 4.5, and 2.904 for Cu and 3.131 for Al at pH 3.5. The interference of Al in Cu biosorptive uptake was assessed by `cutting' the three dimensional uptake isotherm surfaces at constant second-metal final concentrations. Equimolar final equilibrium concentrations of Cu and Al of 1 mM at pH 4.5 give Cu and hi uptakes reduced by $82.5\%\;and\;5.4\%,$ respectively. However, these values at pH 3.5 were $55\%\;(Cu)\;and\;31\%$ (Al).

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.513-518
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• 2010

This study was carried out to estimate the moisture sorption characteristics and prediction model of anchovy powders with different particle size as above 80 mesh, 80-60 mesh and 40-60 mesh. The equilibrium moisture content had higher values at lower storage temperatures, and higher water activity. The monolayer moisture content calculated using the GAB equation showed a higher level of significance than that of BET equation. The estimated monolayer moisture content was 0.024-0.052 g $H_2O/g$ dry solid. The absorption enthalpy was calculated with different particle size and various water activities. It showed that the absorption energy was decreased with increasing water activity but no difference was found on particle size increasement. The fitness of the isotherm curve was shown to be in the order of Khun, Halsey, Caurie and Oswin model. The prediction model equations for the moisture content were established by ln(time), water activity, and temperature, respectively. The model equation will be helpful for future work on drying and storage of anchovy powder.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.3-10
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• 2016

Effects of acid ($HNO_3$ and HCl) modification on the adsorption properties of Pb(II) and Cu(II) onto bamboo-based activated carbon (BAC) were investigated through a series of batch experiments. The carbon content increased and oxygen content decreased with acid treatment. $HNO_3$ induced carboxylic acids and hydroxyl functional groups while HCl added no functional group onto BAC. The pseudo-second order model better described the kinetics of Pb(II) and Cu(II) adsorption onto experimented adsorbents, indicating that the rate-limiting step of the heavy metal sorption is chemical sorption involving valency forces through sharing or exchange of electrons between the adsorbate and the adsorbent. The equilibrium sorption data followed both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The adsorption capacities of BAC were affected by the surface functional groups added by acid modification. The adsorption capacities were enhanced up to 36.0% and 27.3% for Pb(II) and Cu(II), respectively by the $HNO_3$ modification, however, negligibly affected by HCl.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.185-197
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• 2011

Sorption of chlorinated pesticides such as 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and atrazine onto natural clays (montmorillonite and zeolite) modified with cationic surfactant, hexadecyltrimethyl-ammonium (HDTMA) and a natural soil was investigated using batch adsorbers. The clays were transformed from hydrophilic to hydrophobic by the cation exchange between clay surface and HDTMA up to 100% of the cation exchange capacity (CEC). Physicochemical characteristics of the sorbents such as pH, PZC (point of zero charge), organic carbon content ($f_{oc}$), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), differential thermogravimetric analysis (DTGA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were analyzed. Sorption isotherm models such as Freundlich and Langmuir were fitted to the experimental data, resulting Langmuir model ($R^2$ > 0.986) was fitted better than Freundlich model ($R^2$ > 0.973). Sorption capacity ($Q^0$) for 2,4-D and atrazine was in the order of HDTMA-montmorillonite > HDTMA-zeolite > natural soil corresponding to the increase in organic carbon content ($f_{oc}$). The sorption of the pesticides was also affected by pH. The sorption of 2,4-D decreased with the increase in pH, whereas that of atrazine was not changed. This indicated that the sorption capacity ($Q^0$) of 2,4-D and atrazine was not affected by the solution pH because they exist as anionic (deprotonated) forms at pH above pKa. The results indicate that organoclay has a promising potential to reduce chlorinated pesticides in the effluent from golf courses.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.207-213
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• 2010

This study investigated the potential of using bottom ash to be used as an adsorbent for the removal of lead (Pb) from aqueous solutions. The physical and chemical characteristics of bottom ash were determined, with a series of leaching and adsorption experiments performed to evaluate the suitability of bottom ash as an adsorbent material. Trace elements were present, such as silicon and aluminum, indicating that the material had a good adsorption capacity. All heavy metals leached during the Korea standard leaching test (KSLT) passed the regulatory limits for safe disposal, while batch adsorption experiments showed that bottom ash was capable of adsorbing Pb (experimental $q_e$ = 0.05 mg/g), wherein the adsorption rate increased with decreasing particle size. The adsorption data were then fitted to kinetic models, including Lagergren first-order and Pseudo-second order, as well as the Elovich equation, and isotherm models, including the Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherms. The results showed that pseudo-second order kinetics was the most suitable model for describing the kinetic adsorption, while the Freundlich isotherm best represented the equilibrium sorption onto bottom ash. The maximum sorption capacity and energy of adsorption of bottom ash were 0.315 mg/g and 7.01 KJ/mol, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.111-126
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• 1992

Silica sorption isotherm belonged to the C-type with weak L-type characteristics according to the classification system of adsorption isotherm. Silica sorption isothem fitted well to the Freundlich and Tempkin equation but not to the Langmuir equation. The color interference probably due to $Fe^{2+}$ during spectrometric silca determination by Molybdenum-blue method affected the sorption isotherm in reduced soils or low pH. Four parameters such as the intercept of Freundlich equation, the slope of Tempkin equation, the "Silica reactivity", and the "C-type slope", where the last two parameters were termed in the current study, were examined to assess treatment effects on silica sorption. Among them the "C-type slope" was found out to be the best parameter. The C-type isotherms showed the same high correlation coefficient as Freundlich and Tempkin equation when regressed to the sorption isothem. Plotting the C-type slope on a logarithmic scale vs. the pH showed high linearity. Using the "C-type slope" as a perameter, the pH and soil type affected the silica sorption while the effect of redox condtion was not significant. All Fe and Al extracted by the various reagents, and OM were highly correlated to silica sorption. Among them $Fe_d$ was identified as the highest influencing soil property. Since there is no equivalent reliable method to discriminate the forms of the soil Al-oxides their likely importance remains unclear.