• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.68 no.4
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• pp.392-401
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• 2023

Corn (Zea mays L.) is one of the world's most important crops, along with wheat and rice, with a global corn production expected to reach 1,154.5 million tons in 2023. Considering this grain production, The generation of corn cob is expected to reach approximately 207.8 million tons in 2023. However, as an agricultural by-product, corn cobs are often considered waste and remain underutilized. Phytosterols, which are abundant in vegetable oils such as corn oil, provide a number of health benefits, including liver health, cholesterol reduction, and protection against chronic diseases such as diabetes. In this study, we investigated the potential of Kwangpyeongok ears, which are commonly used as grain and silage corn in Korea. We also examined the variation in phytosterol content with the maturity of corn ears to identify the optimal time for utilization. At the beginning of physiological maturity, corn cobs had 113.3 mg/100g DW of total phytosterols, which was highest phytosterol abundance during the growth stage. Corn kernels also had the highest phytosterol content at the beginning of physiological maturity. While previous studies on corn bioactive compounds have mainly focused on the kernels, the results of this study highlight that cobs are an excellent source of these compounds. Furthermore, phytosterol levels were influenced by genetic factors and developmental stages, suggesting the to increase the use of cobs as a source of bioactive compounds.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.5-18
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• 2024

Chemical oxygen demand (COD), an organic material measurement index, has a limit to the management of the total amount of all organic materials including non-degradable organic materials due to low oxidation rate. So total organic carbon (TOC) that can measure organic materials more accurately is introduced and used as a measurement index. Several environmental companies including company A in Gyeonggi-do dilute raw wastewater first and then treats it with chemicals. And an activated carbon is used at the rear stage to treat total organic carbon even though various treatment processes can be applied to reduce TOC in wastewater. There are some problems such as use of a lot of diluting water and generation of an excessive amount of sludge, so it is urgent to come up with an alternative plan. Therefore, in this study, an application experiment was conducted on two different methods for improving the TOC reduction efficiency of waste water from Company A. The first method is the evaluation of the substitution potential of powered activated carbon(PAC), an adsorbent currently used, by manufacturing cellulose-based graphene like carbon (CGLC). This first study showed that CGLC had about 10% higher TOC adsorption efficiency than commercial PAC, showing the possibility of being applied as an alternative adsorbent for PAC in water treatment sites. The second method relates to the removal of TOC by sulfate radials produced by persulfate (PS) activation. Two activation methods were applied: using CGLC and PAC as carbon-based catalyst and using the high temperature of wastewater for PS activation. As a result of using PAC and CGLC as PS activation materials, the TOC removal rate was lower than the adsorption amount of TOC by CGLC and PAC due to excessive chlorine ions present in the real wastewater. However, as a result of using the high water temperature (55~60℃) of the field wastewater for PS activation, it showed a much greater TOC removal efficiency than PAC alone, CGLC alone, and using a carbon-based catalyst for PS activation. When PS was injected more than 0.5%, it showed a TOC removal efficiency of 95% or more within 24 hr. In addition, when PS was injected more than 0.3%, the TOC concentration could be lowered to less than 75 ppm, which is the wastewater discharge standard applied to company A. When these results were summarized, raw wastewater of high temperature can be treated with a simple process of only adding of PS and discharged by treating TOC below the wastewater discharge standard applied to company A.