Air Pollution in the Republic of Korea

This paper discusses the potential for using commercially available treatment techniques to remove VOCs from hazardous waste streams and addresses some of the issues associated with making waste treatment a viable VOC emission control technique for hazardous waste management facilities. It discusses the waste streams of concern because of their volatile constituents and describes potentially applicable treatment techniques. The use of models for treatment process design is described. Finally, the paper discusses treatment cost, treatment residuals, and considerations of importance in choosing where in the life cycle of a hazardous waste stream to treat it.     

Monitoring of non-point source pollutants load from a mixed forest land use

The aim of this study was to determine the unit load of NPS (non-point source) pollutants including organic variables such as BOD (biochemical oxygen demand),COD (chemical oxygen demand) and DOC (dissolved organic carbon),nitrogen and phosphorus constituents,and suspended solids (SS) and their event mean concentration (EMC) of runoff flows from a water-shed of mixed forest land use by intensive field experiments.Field monitoring for continuous measurements of rainfall,flow,and water quality was conducted over 12 storm events during 2008–2009 using automated and manual sampling methods.The EMCs of individual runoff event were estimated for each water quality constituent based on the flow rate and concentration data of runoff discharge.The average EMCs of BOD,COD,DOC,SS,TN (total nitrogen),NH 4+ -N,NO 3- -N,TP (total phosphorus),PO 43- -P from the mixed forest land were 1.794,3.498,1.462,10.269,0.862,0.044,0.634,0.034,and 0.005 mg/L,respectively.The annual unit loads of BOD,COD,DOC,SS,TN,NH 4+ -N,NO 3- -N,TP and PO 43--P were estimated as 66.9,133.2,55.5,429.8,36.5,1.6,26.9,1.3 and 0.1 kg/(ha·yr),respectively.In addition,affecting parameters on the EMCs were investigated by statistic analysis of the field data.As a result,significant correlations with precipitation,rainfall intensity,and total runoff flows were found in most constituents.     

Combined steam-dry reforming of toluene in syngas over CaNiRu/Al2O3 catalysts

Cracking, steam reforming, dry reforming, and combined steam and dry reforming of toluene in model syngas were performed using catalysts to simulate tar removal produced during biomass gasification. The catalysts were prepared by adding Ru, Ca, and Mn to Ni-based catalysts, and their properties were measured using BET, pulse CO chemisorption, XRD and TG. In steam and dry reforming of toluene, a high toluene conversion was observed with increasing Ca content in the catalyst and catalysts containing Ca showed a higher activity than those containing Mn. In combined steam-dry reforming with syngas, 1%CaNiRu/Al₂O₃ indicated a conversion of 93.9% at 800°C.     

Study of anaerobic co-digestion on wastewater treatment sludge and food waste leachate using BMP test

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - The study conducted basic component analyses including three component analyses, elementary analysis and heavy metal content and BMP test according...     

Development of combined plant of biogas and bio solid-refuse-fuel from swine manure slurry

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - An environment-friendly treatment of organic waste like swine manure and food waste is considered to be big challenge, because the residue of...     

When and where do we see the proximity effect of a new park? –A case study of the Dream Forest in Seoul,Korea

This study aimed to unpack the dynamic proximity effects of a park on residential values in the urban regeneration context: first by the development phase of the park, and second, by specific characteristics of the residential units. The study site is the Dream Forest in Seoul, South Korea, and the study period is from 2006 to 2015. The two-fold multilevel regression analysis suggests that the Dream Forest began exerting proximity effects from the time of site acquisition by the city, which peaked at a 3.7% price increment per 100-meter distance to the park from a prototypical housing unit, soon after the public announcement of the park procurement plan. During construction, inauguration and stabilization, the effect has remained at around 3.0%. The analysis also suggests that the proximity effect applies unevenly to housing units: apartment type or older housing units are more sensitive to the externality effects than their counterparts – multifamily type or newer housing units.     

Effects of polychlorinated biphenyls on whole animal energy mobilization and hepatic cellular respiration in rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss

The production of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) was banned in 1977 but these chemicals persist in the environment and threaten aquatic organisms. PCB exposure often results in activation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) and increases in hepatic detoxification mechanisms. Activation of these detoxification mechanisms is believed to be associated with energetic demands that may come at the expense of other physiological processes such as growth, activity and reproduction. We tested the hypothesis that exposure to sub-lethal levels of PCBs results in increased energy demand and energy mobilization using both an in vivo and in vitro approach. Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) received a single intraperitoneal sub-lethal dose (50 μg kg⁻¹) of 3,3’,4,4’,5-pentachlorobiphenyl (PCB 126) and left for 10 d after which standard oxygen consumption and plasma and liver metabolites were assessed. PCB 126 exposed trout did not alter standard oxygen consumption but did increase plasma glucose concentration implying the mobilization of glucose to cope with this exposure regime. Cellular respiration was assessed in trout hepatocytes exposed to PCB 126 or PCB 77 (3,3′4,4′-tetrachlorobiphenyl) two AhR activators but with different potencies (PCB 126 ? PCB 77). Mitochondrial respiration was assessed by stimulating complex II with succinate and although no increases in respiration were associated with PCB exposure in non-stimulated cells, PCB 77 impaired mitochondrial respiration by preventing stimulation of complex II respiration and potentially masking any actual energetic costs of PCB exposure. These studies suggest that energy is mobilized upon exposure to PCBs, however, actual increases in energy demand may be overshadowed by impaired mitochondrial respiration.     

Application of the “Climafor” baseline to determine leakage: the case of Scolel Té

The acceptance of forestry-based project activities to mitigate greenhouse gases emissions has been subjected to a number of methodological questions to be answered, of which the most challenging are baseline establishment and identification of and measuring leakage. Here we pose hypotheses for and quantify leakage of the Scolel Té project in Chiapas, Mexico. In this project small-scale farmers are implementing forestry, agroforestry, and forest conservation activities, with carbon sequestration as one of the goals. The main leakage monitoring domain is defined as the area owned by the participating farmers or communities outside the area where the specific project activities take place. The null-hypothesis (no leakage) is that non-project land owned by the farmer or community will experience the same carbon stock changes as predicted by the regional baseline, specifically developed for the project. First we assessed the most likely causes and sources of leakage that may occur in the project. From this analysis, one type of leakage seems to be important, i.e., activity shifting. Second we estimated the leakage of a sample of participating farmers and communities. Actual land use was then compared with expected land use derived from the baseline. The Plan Vivo of each participant, complemented with readily available tools to identify the main sources and drivers of leakage are used to develop simple leakage assessment procedures, as demonstrated in this paper. Negative leakage was estimated to be negligible in this study. Incorporating these procedures already in the project planning stage will reduce the uncertainties related to the actual carbon mitigation potential of any forestry project.

Characterizing dissolved organic matter and evaluating associated nanofiltration membrane fouling

Natural organic matter (NOM) characteristics were determined for three ground waters exhibiting different water quality conditions. The water quality of the three feed waters collected at various water table depths was characterized by XAD-8/-4 resin adsorption, high performance size exclusion chromatography with ultraviolet and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) detections, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to determine NOM fractionation, molecular weight, and NOM functional groups, respectively. Systematic studies were conducted to identify potential NOM foulants in ground water for nanofiltration (NF) membrane fouling. The results show that the hydrophobic fraction of NOM in all of the samples was significantly high (71-93%) compared to the hydrophilic (1.7-22.6%) and transphilic (5.3-6.6%) fractions. However, insignificant flux-decline (less than 5%) was observed for the highest DOC (36.9 mg l(-1)) and hydrophobic NOM (93%) containing groundwater compared to the other lesser DOC and hydrophobic NOM containing ground waters. This is presumably due to either higher fractions of hydrophilic and transphilic NOM or inorganic interactions that may be major foulants. Based on FTIR, aromatic foulants were observed at 1662 cm(-1) (CO-NH2 or CO conjugated with aromatic rings) for the fouled NF membrane with the relatively low DOC source waters. The contact angle of the clean membrane (52 degrees ) decreased with fouling up to 42-47 degrees for fouled membranes with the various samples.