• Advances in environmental research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.77-93
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• 2023

The water can be contaminated by natural sources or by industrial effluents. One such contaminant is fluoride. Fluoride contamination in the water environment due to natural and artificial activities has been recognized as one of the major problems worldwide. Among the commonly used treatment technologies applied for fluoride removal, the adsorption technique has been explored widely and offers a highly efficient simple and low-cost process for fluoride removal from water. This review paper the recent developments in fluoride removal from surface water by adsorption methods. Studies on fluoride removal from aqueous solutions using various carbon materials are reviewed. Various adsorbents with high fluoride removal capacity have been developed, however, there is still an urgent need to transfer the removal process to an industrial scale. Regeneration studies need to be performed to more extent to recover the adsorbent in field conditions, enhancing the economic feasibility of the process. Based on the review, technical strategies of the adsorption method including the Nano-surface effect, structural memory effect, anti-competitive adsorption and ionic sieve effect can be proposed. The design of adsorbents through these strategies can greatly improve the removal efficiency of fluoride in water and guide the development of new efficient methods for fluoride removal in the future. This paper describes brief discussions on various low-cost adsorbents used for the effective removal of fluoride from water.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.215-221
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• 2013

Purpose: Opuntia Humifusa has been used in the food and beauty industry after removing spines and glochids clearly. This study compared the methods used in removing spines and analyzed the design factors for developing a spine removal device. Method: This study compared the spine removal ratios in accordance with the length of brush, water spray pressure, the number of water spray, and the size of Opuntia Humifusa in a rotating brush device and a water spray device. In addition, this study compared the reversal ratios according to the inclination angle of a conveyor, the drop height of Opuntia Humifusa, and the speed of the conveyor to analyze the reversal factors. Results: The spines were not removed clearly in the rotating brush method, and the glochids were nailed deeply. The spine removal ratio was 96.9% with the water spray pressure of 20 $kgf/cm^2$ and the conveyor speed of 10 cm/s in the water spray method. The number of water spray was correlated with the spine removal ratio, and the average spine removal ratio was 95.6% with three cycles of water spray. The reversal ratio was 97% with the inclination angle of the conveyor $20^{\circ}$, the drop height of 380 mm, and the conveyor speed of 10 cm/s. Conclusions: In order to develop a Opuntia humifusa spine removing device, this study compared the rotating brush and water spray methods. As a result, each spine removal performance of the rotating brush and water spray methods was 96.9% and 95.6%, respectively. Although the performance of the rotating brush method was slightly higher than that of the water spray method, the water spray method was suitable for removing spines from stem because the epidermis of stem was damaged and the glochids were nail deeply in the rotating brush method. Further studies on appropriate arrangement of spray nozzles, maintaining the optimal water spray pressure, the speed and angle control of the feeding conveyor, and devices for inducing the stem to the center will be needed in combining the water spray device and the reversal device.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.104-114
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• 2019

Energy is an essential driving force for modern society. In particular, electricity has become the standard source of power for almost every aspect of life. Electric power runs lights, televisions, cell phones, laptops, etc. However, it has become apparent that the current methods of producing this most valuable commodity combustion of fossil fuels are of limited supply and has become detrimental for the Earth's environment. It is also self-evident, given the fact that these resources are non-renewable, that these sources of energy will eventually run out. One of the most promising alternatives to the burning of fossil fuel in the production of electric power is the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell. The PEM fuel cell is environmentally friendly and achieves much higher efficiencies than a combustion engine. Water management is an important issue of PEM fuel cell operation. Water is the product of the electrochemical reactions inside fuel cell. If liquid water accumulation becomes excessive in a fuel cell, water columns will clog the gas flow channel. This condition is referred to as flooding. A number of researchers have examined the water removal methods in order to improve the performance. In this paper, a new water removal method that investigates the use of vibro-acoustic methods is presented. Piezo-actuators are devices to generate the flexural wave and are attached at end of a cathode bipolar plate. The "flexural wave" is used to impart energy to resting droplets and thus cause movement of the droplets in the direction of the traveling wave.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.561-568
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• 2019

Objectives: The most commonly detected heavy metals in rocks and soils, including Pb, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn and As, are representative pollutants discharged from abandoned mines and have been listed as potential sources of contamination in drinking water. This study focused on increasing the removal efficiency of heavy metals from drinking water resources by surface modification of natural adsorbents to reduce potential health risks. Methods: Iron oxide coating and graft polymerization with zeolites and talc was conducted for bipolar surface modification to increase the combining capacity of heavy metals for their removal from water. The removal efficiency of heavy metals was measured before and after the surface modification. Results: The removal efficiency of Pb, Cu, and Cd by surface modified zeolite showed 100, 92, and 61.5%, respectively, increases compared to 64, 64, and 38% for non-modified zeolite. This implies that bipolar surface modified natural adsorbents have a good potential use in heavy metal removal. The more interesting finding is the removal increase for As, which has both cation and anion characteristics showing 27% removal efficiency where as non-modified zeolite showed only 2% removal. Conclusions: Zeolite is one of the most widely used adsorptive materials in water treatment processes and bipolar surface modification of zeolite increases its applicability in the removal of heavy metals, especially As.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.817-827
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• 2016

The resistance in series model has been frequently used for determination of various filtration resistance to correctly understand the membrane fouling behaviour in MBR (membrane bio-reactor) for wastewater treatment. The cake layer resistance ($R_c$) which is commonly determined by calculation of flux dataset that are obtained empirically before and after removing the cake layer on membrane surface. However, the calculated Rc values are very dependent on the cleaning methods adapted for removal of cake layer. This study investigated how the various cleaning options affect $R_c$. Seven different cleaning methods were employed: i) ultrasonication (100 W, 10 min), ii) ultrasonication (200 W, 60 min), iii) ultrasonication (400 W, 120 min), iv) water rinsing in a shaker (100 rpm, 10 min), v) water rinsing in a shaker (300 rpm, 60 min), vi) water rinsing, vii) sponge scrubbing. For the hydrophilic PES membrane, the cake layer removal efficiencies ranged from 64% to 10%, indicating that the removal of cake layer was highly dependent on the cleaning options. For the hydrophobic PVDF membrane, the cake layer removal efficiencies ranged from 79% to 97%. Consequently, a standardized method for cake layer removal to determine cake resistance ($R_c$) is needed for correct interpretation of the fouling phenomena.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.7-11
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• 2012

Among various wet cleaning methods, megasonic and jet spray gained their popularity in single wafer cleaning process for the efficient removal of particulate contaminants from the wafer surface. In the present study, we evaluated these two cleaning methods for particle removal efficiency (PRE) and pattern damage on the aluminum layered wafer surface. Also the effect of $CO_2$ dissolved water in jet spray cleaning is assessed by measuring PRE. It is observed that the jet spray cleaning process is more effective in terms of PRE and pattern damage compared to megasonic cleaning and the mixing of $CO_2$ in the water during jet sprays further increases the PRE. We believe that the outcome of the present study is useful for the semiconductor cleaning process engineers and researchers.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.725-730
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• 2011

In this study, it was investigated that the feasibility of utilizing inorganic mesostructures for removal of phosphate in water. The comparison of the efficiency for phosphate adsorption between inorganic mesostructures was conducted. X-ray diffraction(XRD) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller(BET) methods were used to characterize these mesostructures. The efficiencies of silica and titanium mesostructures for the removal of phosphate from aqueous solution were investigated. Equilibrium data were analyzed using the Langmuir isotherm. The maximum adsorption capacities of mesostructure adsorbents were found to be 49.3 and 19.5 mg $g^{-1}$ for the titanium and silica mesostructures, respectively. The adsorption kinetics was described by a pseudo third-order kinetic model. The results from this study indicated that the titanium mesostructure has the potential to be utilized for the cost-effective removal of phosphate from wastewater.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.455-460
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• 2008

Powered activated carbon(PAC) has been widely applied for controling odor causing compounds(OCCs) from water treatment plants. Because of their volatility, the OCCs can also be removed from water by air stripping methods. In this study, OCCs removal was tested with PAC adsorption, air stripping, and both PAC adsorption and air stripping from the Taecheong lake water. Removal efficiency of OCCs in terms of threshold odor number(TON) were 39.6% by both PAC (15mg/L) adsorption and aeration for 30 min, 33.6% by PAC(15mg/L) adsorption alone for 30 min, and 22.9% by aeration alone for 30 min, respectively. OCCs could be removed up to 50% by aeration for 120 min without PAC adsorption. At an extended aeration with 15mg/L of PAC, OCCs removal occurred mainly by PAC adsorption within 30 min aeration while it continued by air stripping afterward. At simulated jar tests with the raw water, removal efficiencies of geosmin and MIB were 48.3, 36.1% by coagulation and sedimentation without PAC addition. With 15mg/L of PAC on the same jar tests, the removal efficiencies were 83.1, 60.1%, respectively. Without PAC, OCCs could be possibly removed by stripping during the agitation processes.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.916-921
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• 2009

This study was aimed to both enhance the fluoride removal and to reduce the phosphorus removal in treating semiconductor wastewater using $Ca(OH)_2$ at low pH so as to facilitate struvite crystallization reaction. The struvite crystallization could be introduced after fluoride removal by retaining the phosphorus source. As the results, the method applied in this study achieved high fluoride removal efficiency (about 91%) with retardation of phosphorus removal at pH 4, compared to conventional methods where the removal of fluoride and phosphorus were done at pH 11. Therefore, the fluoride removal at low pH would contribute to the enhancement of nitrogen and phosphorus removals in a consecutive struvite crystallization reactor. Treatment of semiconductor wastewater at low pH using $Ca(OH)_2$ also had lower (about 20%) water content of precipitated sludge compared to conventional method. As the molar ratio of Ca to F increased the removal efficiencies of fluoride and phosphorus increased. Although the amount of seed dosage didn't affect the removal of fluoride and phosphorus, its increase reduced the water content of precipitated matter. Finally, considering consecutive struvite reaction, the optimum condition for the removal of fluoride and phosphorus was as follow: pH: 4, the molar ratio of Ca:F: 1:1.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.130-135
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• 2021

Water vapor has received worldwide large attention due to its broad technological implications ranged from resource production and environmental remediation. Especially, one of the typical areas where the water vapor is important is the removal of PM (particulate matter) which causes a critical hazard to human health. However, most vapor-based PM removal methods are limited in removing PM2.5 by using relatively large water droplets and consume large energy. Here, we propose a superhydrophilic thermally-insulated macroporous membrane to generate steam flow. The water vapor directly captures PM with steam flow and hygroscopic characteristic of PM. The steam, the cluster of water vapor, from the membrane gives rise to high removal efficiencies compared to those of the control case without light illumination. To reveal PM removal mechanism, the steam flow and PM were quantitatively analyzed using PIV measurement. The proposed steam generator could be utilized as an economical and ecofriendly platform for effective PM removal at a fairly low cost in a sustainable, energy-free, and harmless-to-human manner.