Construction of a chemical ranking system of soil pollution substances for screening of priority soil contaminants in Korea

The Korean government recently proposed expanding the number of soil-quality standards to 30 by 2015. The objectives of our study were to construct a reasonable protocol for screening priority soil contaminants for inclusion in the planned soil quality standard expansion. The chemical ranking system of soil pollution substances (CROSS) was first developed to serve as an analytical tool in chemical scoring and ranking of possible soil pollution substances. CROSS incorporates important parameters commonly used in several previous chemical ranking and scoring systems and the new soil pollution parameters. CROSS uses soil-related parameters in its algorithm, including information related to the soil environment, such as soil ecotoxicological data, the soil toxic release inventory (TRI), and soil partitioning coefficients. Soil TRI and monitoring data were incorporated as local specific parameters. In addition, CROSS scores the transportability of chemicals in soil because soil contamination may result in groundwater contamination. Dermal toxicity was used in CROSS only to consider contact with soil. CROSS uses a certainty score to incorporate data uncertainty. CROSS scores the importance of each candidate substance and assigns rankings on the basis of total scores. Cadmium was the most highly ranked. Generally, metals were ranked higher than other substances. Pentachlorophenol, phenol, dieldrin, and methyl tert-butyl ether were ranked the highest among chlorinated compounds, aromatic compounds, pesticides, and others, respectively. The priority substance list generated from CROSS will be used in selecting substances for possible inclusion in the Korean soil quality standard expansion; it will also provide important information for designing a soil-environment management scheme.     

Fecal source tracking based on fecal coliform concentration and bacterial community structure in the Bong stream,Korea

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Fecal source tracking of the Bong stream, a representative inland pollutant around the drainage basin of Gangjin Bay (an area where shellfish are...     

A real-time monitoring and assessment method for calculation of total amounts of indoor air pollutants emitted in subway stations

Subway systems are considered as main public transportation facility in developed countries. Time spent by people in indoors, such as underground spaces, subway stations, and indoor buildings, has gradually increased in the recent past. Especially, operators or old persons who stay in indoor environments more than 15 hr per day usually influenced a greater extent by indoor air pollutants. Hence, regulations on indoor air pollutants are needed to ensure good health of people. Therefore, in this study, a new cumulative calculation method for the estimation of total amounts of indoor air pollutants emitted inside the subway station is proposed by taking cumulative amounts of indoor air pollutants based on integration concept. Minimum concentration of individual air pollutants which naturally exist in indoor space is referred as base concentration of air pollutants and can be found from the data collected. After subtracting the value of base concentration from data point of each data set of indoor air pollutant, the primary quantity of emitted air pollutant is calculated. After integration is carried out with these values, adding the base concentration to the integration quantity gives the total amount of indoor air pollutant emitted. Moreover the values of new index for cumulative indoor air quality obtained for 1 day are calculated using the values of cumulative air quality index (CAI). Cumulative comprehensive indoor air quality index (CCIAI) is also proposed to compare the values of cumulative concentrations of indoor air pollutants. From the results, it is clear that the cumulative assessment approach of indoor air quality (IAQ) is useful for monitoring the values of total amounts of indoor air pollutants emitted, in case of exposure to indoor air pollutants for a long time. Also, the values of CCIAI are influenced more by the values of concentration of NO2, which is released due to the use of air conditioners and combustion of the fuel. The results obtained in this study confirm that the proposed method can be applied to monitor total amounts of indoor air pollutants emitted, inside apartments and hospitals as well. Implications: Nowadays, subway systems are considered as main public transportation facility in developed countries. Time spent by people in indoors, such as underground spaces, subway stations, and indoor buildings, has gradually increased in the recent past. Especially, operators or old persons who stay in the indoor environments more than 15 hr per day usually influenced a greater extent by indoor air pollutants. Hence, regulations on indoor air pollutants are needed to ensure good health of people. Therefore, this paper presents a new methodology for monitoring and assessing total amounts of indoor air pollutants emitted inside underground spaces and subway stations. A new methodology for the calculation of cumulative amounts of indoor air pollutants based on integration concept is proposed. The results suggest that the cumulative assessment approach of IAQ is useful for monitoring the values of total amounts of indoor air pollutants, if indoor air pollutants accumulated for a long time, especially NO2 pollutants. The results obtained here confirm that the proposed method can be applied to monitor total amounts of indoor air pollutants emitted, inside apartments and hospitals as well.     

Effect of competing solutes on arsenic(V) adsorption using iron and aluminum oxides

The study focused on the effect of several typical competing solutes on removal of arsenic with Fe2O3 and Al2O3. The test results indicate that chloride, nitrate and sulfate did not have detectable effects, and that selenium(IV) (Se(IV)) and vanadium(V) (V(V)) show slight effects on the adsorption of As(V) with Fe2O3. The results also showed that adsorption of As(V) on Al2O3 was not affected by chloride and nitrate anions, but slightly by Se(IV) and V(V) ions. Unlike the adsorption of As(V) with Fe2O3, that with Fe2O3 was affected by the presence of sulfate in water solutions. Both phosphate and silica have significant adverse effects on the adsorption of As(V) adsorption with Fe2O3 and Al2O3. Compared to the other tested anions, phosphate anion was found to be the most prominent solute affecting the As(V) adsorption with Fe2O3 and Al2O3. In general, Fe2O3 has a better performance than Al2O3 in removal of As(V) within a water environment where multi competing solutes are present.     

Strain hardening effect of CF8M stainless steel in the environment fatigue test under pressurized water reactor condition

To develop a fatigue design curve of cast stainless steel CF8M that has been used in piping material of nuclear power plants, a low cycle fatigue tests were conducted in the environment of a pressurized water reactor at 15 MPa and 315 °C. Cylindrical solid fatigue specimens were used for the strain-controlled environmental fatigue tests. Fatigue life was measured in terms of the number of cycles with the variation of strain amplitudes at 0.04%/s strain rate. This paper focuses on the characteristics of the cyclic strain hardening effect caused during environment fatigue tests of the CF8M cast stainless steel. The process and method of correcting fatigue test data in this paper would be so useful to produce reliable data of environmental fatigue curves for the material in operating condition of high pressure and high temperature water environments.     

Feasibility of On-line Measurement of Sewage Components Using the UV Absorbance and the Neural Network

The objective of this study was to test the feasibility of a new method to improve the accuracy in the estimation of sewage components. Adding to the regression of sewage components with UV (ultraviolet) absorbance values, a proposed method considered an unclear but existing relationship among characteristic of sewage production. Sewage production showed very defined profiles due to the daily human activities. So the main idea was the combination of measuring the UV absorbance values and analyzing the characteristics of the sewage production. For this purpose, 446 sewage samples taken at every 2-h interval for 51 days at a wastewater treatment plant were statistically analyzed using neural network (NN). NN was trained with 350 data sets (about 29 days) of UV absorbance values, flow rate and time. And as a result, it could predict 96 data (12 days) as a validation, indicating that estimation accuracies were improved to higher level than those of the linear regressions. The proposed method could estimate concentrations of total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphate (TP) within practical accuracies as well as total suspended solid.     

Effect of CO on NO oxidation over platinum based catalysts for hybrid fast SCR process

The oxidation characteristics of NO over Pt/TiO2 (anatase, rutile) catalysts have been determined in a fixed bed reactor as a function of O2, CO and SO2 concentrations in the presence of 8% water. The conversion of NO to NO2 increases with increasing O2 concentration up to 12% and it levels off. This saturation effect is more pronounced over rutile-Pt/TiO2 (r-Pt/TiO2) than that of anatase-Pt/TiO2 (a-Pt/TiO2). The presence of CO increases NO oxidation significantly and this enhanced effect is more pronounced on a-Pt/TiO2 than that on r-Pt/TiO2 with increasing CO concentration at lower temperatures. The same effect is also observed on the catalysts with different Pt and tungsten oxide (WO3) loadings. With increasing Pt and WO3 loadings on TiO2 support (Pt-WO3/TiO2), formation of NO2 is high even at lower temperatures. The presence of SO2 significantly suppresses the oxidation of NO over both r-Pt/TiO2 and a-Pt/TiO2 catalysts but it is less pronounced due to low stability of sulfate on a-Pt/TiO2.     

Recycling of tailings from Korea Molybdenum Corporation as admixture for high-fluidity concrete

The main objective of this study is to develop an eco-friendly and a large recycling technique of flotation Tailings from korea (TK) from metal mines as construction materials such as admixtures for high-fluidity concrete (HFC). TK used in this study was obtained from the Korea Molybdenum Corporation in operation. TK was used as the alternative material to adjust flowability and viscosity of HFC in the form of powder agent which enables adjustment of concrete compressive strength. In this study, we have performed concrete rheological tests and concrete flowability tests to obtain the quality characteristics of TK for using as the admixture in producing HFC. The results indicated that the adequate mix ratio of cement to TK should be 8:2 (vol%). It is more effective to use the TK as admixture to control flowability, viscosity and strength of HFC than the normal concrete. It was found that TK could be recycled construction materials in bulk such as admixture for HFC, in terms of the economic and eco-friendly aspects.     

Pyrolysis of low-density polyethylene using synthetic catalysts produced from fly ash

Catalytic pyrolysis of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) was investigated using various fly ash-derived silica–alumina catalysts (FSAs). FSAs were prepared by a simple activation method that basically includes NaOH treatment of fly ash by a fusion method, followed by an aging process. A series of LDPE pyrolysis experiments was conducted and the catalytic performance of FSAs was assessed in terms of the degradation temperature and the simulated boiling point distribution of the liquid products. The effects of synthesis conditions such as NaOH/fly ash weight ratio and aging time were examined by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analyzer, and scanning electron microscope to clarify the controlling factors affecting the catalytic activity. To obtain catalyst with high activity, it is necessary to produce sufficient silica and alumina species that can be easily co-precipitated into solid acid catalyst by destruction of the fly ash structure and to optimize the activation time for catalyst synthesis to prevent the transformation into inactive phases. The catalytic performance of FSA obtained from optimal conditions was equivalent to that of commercial catalysts, demonstrating the effectiveness of the catalyst.