This study proposes the use of a cobalt-based Prussian blue analogue (Co-PBA; potassium cobalt hexacyanoferrate), as an adsorbent for the cost-effective recovery of aqueous ammonium ions. The characterization of Co-PBA involved various techniques, including Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis, and zeta potential. The prepared Co-PBA reached an adsorption equilibrium for ammonium ions within approximately 480 min, which involved both surface adsorption and subsequent diffusion into the interior. The isotherm experiment revealed a maximum adsorption capacity of 37.29 mg/g, with the Langmuir model indicating a predominance of chemical monolayer adsorption. Furthermore, the material consistently demonstrated adsorption efficiency across a range of pH conditions. Notably, adsorption was observed even when competing cations were present. Co-PBA emerges as a readily synthesized adsorbent, underscoring its efficacy in ammonium removal and selectivity toward ammonium.

Ammonium (NH4 +) serves as a nitrogen source, but its elevated levels can hinder plant growth and production. Excess NH4 + with α-ketoglutarate is assimilated into glutamate, a precursor of proline and glutathione (GSH). This study aimed to investigate the effects of excessive NH4 + on the regulation of proline and GSH synthesis. Detached leaves from oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) were fed with 0, 50, 100, 500, and 1000 mM NH4Cl for 16 h. As the NH4 + concentrations increased, the leaves exhibited progressive wilting and yellowing. Furthermore, total carotenoid and chlorophyll concentrations declined in response to all NH4 + treatments, with the lowest levels observed in 1000 mM NH4 + treatment. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) concentration showed a minor increase at low NH4 + concentration (50 and 100 mM) treatments but a significant increase at high NH4 + (500 and 1000 mM), which was consistent with the localization of H2O2. Amino acid concentrations increased with increasing in NH4 + concentration, while the protein concentration displayed the opposite trend. Proline and cysteine concentrations exhibited a gradual increase in response to increasing NH4 + concentrations. However, GSH concentrations rose only in the 50 mM NH4 + treatment and decreased in the 500 and 1000 mM NH4 + treatments. These results indicate that excessive NH4 + is primarily assimilated into proline, while GSH synthesis is adversely affected.

Cs-137, a radioactive isotope of caesium, is a commonly occurring fission product that is generated during the nuclear fission of U-235 and other fissionable isotopes in both nuclear reactors and weapons. Due to its long half-life of about 30 years and propensity to accumulate in sediments and marine organisms, Cs-137 is considered a major radionuclide for environmental radioactivity monitoring. In April 2021, as the Japanese government decided to discharge Fukushima contaminated water into the sea, the monitoring of marine radioactivity in South Korea has become increasingly significant. In this study, as an initial step towards establishing a standardized procedure for analyzing radioactive caesium in seawater, the radioactivity of Cs-137 was analyzed on a 2 L of seawater spiked with 10 Bq of Cs-137 standard solution supplied by KRISS. The seawater was collected from Im-nang Beach, situated at a distance of approximately 2 kilometers from DIRAMS. The radioactivity of Cs-137 in seawater was determined according to the improved AMP procedure presented by M.Aoyama in 2000. The seawater was pretreated using Ammonium Phosphomolybdate (AMP) coprecipitation, which has a high selectivity for caesium (Kd = ~5500), and the activity of Cs-137 was determined by gammaspectroscopy and subsequently corrected via the weight yield. The weight yield of the dried AMP/Cs compound was more than 93%. For the gamma-spectroscopy analysis, the AMP/Cs compound was dissolved in a cylindrical U8 beaker with NaOH to ensure that its shape and volume were consistent with the CRM (KRISS, 221U890-1) used to calibrate the detector. The dissolved compound was then positioned directly onto the detector housing and subjected to a measurement duration of 80,000 seconds utilizing a p-type HPGe (Ortec, GEM60) with a relative efficiency of 54%. The activity of Cs-137 was determined to be 10.81 Bq, confirming the reproducibility of the AMP coprecipitation and weight yield methods. The present experiment was carried out using a 2 L sample, but a large volume of seawater would be required to achieve a sufficient minimum detectable activity (MDA) for Cs-137 in natural seawater. Thus, a standardized procedure for analysis of radioactive caesium in natural seawater will be established through the analysis of a large volume of seawater in future studies.

As temporary storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) are becoming saturated, there is a growing interest in finding solutions for treating SNF, which is recognized as an urgent task. Although direct disposal is a common method for handling SNF, it results in the entire fuel assembly being classified as high-level waste, which increases the burden of disposal. Therefore, it is necessary to develop SNF treatment technologies that can minimize the disposal burden while improving long-term storage safety, and this requires continuous efforts from a national policy perspective. In this context, this study focused on reducing the volume of high-level waste from light water reactor fuel by separating uranium, which represents the majority of SNF. We confirmed the chlorination characteristics of uranium (U), rare earth (RE), and strontium (Sr) oxides with ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) in previous study. Therefore, we prepared U-RE-SrOx simulated fuel by pelletizing each elements which was sintered at high temperature. The sintered fuel was again powdered by heating under air environment. The powdered fuel was reacted with NH4Cl to selectively chlorinate the RE and Sr elements for the separation. We will share and discuss the detailed results of our study.

Interests in molten salt reactor (MSR) using a fast spectrum (FS) have been increased not only for having a high power density but for burning the high-level waste generated from nuclear power plants. For developing the FS-MSR technologies, chloride-based fuels are considered due to the advantage of higher solubility of actinides and lanthanides over fluoride-based salts. Despite significant progress in development of MSR technology, the manufacturing technology for production of the fuel is still insufficiently understood. One of the option to prepare the MSR fuel is to use products from pyroprocessing where oxide form of spent nuclear fuel is reduced into metal form and useful elements can be collected via electrochemical methods in molten salt system at high temperature. In order to chlorinate the products into chloride form, previous study used NH4Cl to chlorinate U metal into UCl3 in an airtight reactor. It was found that the U metal was completely chlorinated into chloride forms; however, impurities generated by the reaction of NH4Cl and reactor wall were found in the product. Therefore, in this work, the air tight reactor was re-deigned to avoid the reaction of reactor wall by insertion of Al2O3 crucible inside of the reactor. In addition, the reactor size was increased to produce UCl3 over 100 g. Using the newly designed reactor, U metal chlorination experiments using NH4Cl chlorinating agent were performed to confirm the optimal experimental conditions. The detailed results will be further discussed.

Excess nitrogen (N) flowing from livestock manure to water systems poses a serious threat to the natural environment. Thus, livestock wastewater management has recently drawn attention to this related field. This study first attempted to obtain the optimal conditions for the further volatilization of NH3 gas generated from pig wastewater by adjusting the amount of injected magnesia (MgO). At 0.8 wt.% of MgO (by pig wastewater weight), the volatility rate of NH3 increased to 75.5% after a day of aeration compared to untreated samples (pig wastewater itself). This phenomenon was attributed to increases in the pH of pig wastewater as MgO dissolved in it, increasing the volatilization efficiency of NH3. The initial pH of pig wastewater was 8.4, and the pH was 9.2 when MgO was added up to 0.8 wt.%. Second, the residual ammonia nitrogen (NH4 +-N) in pig wastewater was removed by precipitation in the form of struvite (NH4MgPO4·6H2O) by adjusting the pH after adding MgO and H3PO4. Struvite produced in the pig wastewater was identified by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. White precipitates began to form at pH 6, and the higher the pH, the lower the concentration of NH4 +-N in pig wastewater. Of the total 86.1% of NH4 +-N removed, 62.4% was achieved at pH 6, which was the highest removal rate. Furthermore, how struvite changes with pH was investigated. Under conditions of pH 11 or higher, the synthesized struvite was completely decomposed. The yield of struvite in the precipitate was determined to be between 68% and 84% through a variety of analyses.

Thermodynamically, TRUOx, REOx, and SrOx can be chlorinated using ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) as a chlorinating agent, whereas uranium oxides (U3O8 and UO2) remain in the oxide form. In the preliminary experiments of this study, U3O8 and CeO2 are reacted separately with NH4Cl at 623 K in a sealed reactor. CeO2 is highly reactive with NH4Cl and becomes chlorinated into CeCl3. The chlorination yield ranges from 96% to 100%. By contrast, U3O8 remains as UO2 even after chlorination. We produced U/REOx- and U/SrOx-simulated fuels to understand the chlorination characteristics of the oxide compounds. Each simulated fuel is chlorinated with NH4Cl, and the products are dissolved in LiCl-KCl salt to separate the oxide compounds from the chloride salt. The oxide compounds precipitate at the bottom. The precipitate and salt phases are sampled and analyzed via X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive spectroscopy, and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy. The analysis results indicate that REOx and SrOx can be easily chlorinated from the simulated fuels; however, only a few of U oxide phases is chlorinated, particularly from the U/SrOx-simulated fuels.

음용수 속 암모니아의 존재는 인간의 건강에 매우 해롭다. 농작물에서의 비료 사용, 산업 폐수, 화석 연료의 연소 와 같은 활동으로 인해 가용성 암모니아는 지하수를 오염시킨다. 물에 존재하는 암모니아 농도가 낮더라도 해양생물 등의 수 생환경을 훼손한다. 막 기술은 암모니아를 물로부터 효과적으로 제거하기 위한 매우 중요한 과정이다. 평평한 시트 막, 막 접 촉기, 그리고 막 증류법은 암모니아를 제거하여 물을 정화하는 데 사용되는 방법들 중 하나이다. 막 접촉기는 막 증류법과는 달리 상변화 없이 액체와 가스 간의 또는 액체와 액체간의 질량 전달을 통해 암모니아를 제거하는 효율적인 공정이다. 다만 이 방법은 pH가 매우 높아 암모니아 제거에 비용이 많이 든다. 제올라이트는 우수한 이온 교환 능력을 가지고 있는데, 이는 암모니아와의 상호작용을 향상시켜 폐수로부터 흡착하는 능력을 향상시킨다. 제올라이트를 함유한 혼합 매트릭스 막은 암모 니아 흡착 및 폐수로부터의 분리 효율을 향상시킨다. 이 리뷰에서는 위에서 소개된 내용이 자세히 논의될 것이다.

Vaccinations, surveillance, quarantine, and disposal of the infected poultry are the common strategies for prevention and control of the highly infectious poultry diseases; however, many pathogens still persist and are potential causes threatening the nationwide spread of poultry diseases. A strict biosecurity strategy including disinfection is the key to control the spread of avian pathogens, such as the Newcastle disease virus (NDV). It is important to select and use the disinfectants whose efficacy and the effective concentrations against the specific pathogens are known. Therefore, in the present study, we evaluated the virucidal efficacy of five active substances of commercial disinfectants, namely potassium peroxymonosulfate (PPMS), sodium dichloroisocyanurate (NaDCC), glutaraldehyde (GLT), benzalkonium chloride (BZK), and didecyldimethylammonium chloride (DDAC), that are used against NDV. Further, we validated the efficacy of eight pre-approved disinfectants. The minimal virucidal concentrations of the active substances against NDV were as follows: PPMS, 2.50 g/L; NaDCC, 2.00 g/L; GLT, 0.40 g/L; BZK, 2.00 g/L, and DDAC, 1.00 g/L. Furthermore, all the eight disinfectants were found to be effective against NDV at the recommended concentrations, thereby confirming that the active substances are functional against NDV. This is the first study reporting the virucidal activity of the active substances of commercial disinfectants against NDV, in accordance with the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency guidelines, in South Korea. The results of the virucidal efficacy testing of chemical disinfectants from this study will help poultry industries implement improved strategies for controlling infection.

ZnO particles are successfully synthesized at 150 oC for 30 min using zinc acetate as the Zn source and 1,4- butanediol as solvent using a relatively facile and convenient glycol process. The effect of ammonium hydroxide amounts on the growth behavior and the morphological evolution of ZnO particles are investigated. The prepared ZnO nanoparticle with hexagonal structure exhibits a quasi-spherical shape with an average crystallite size of approximately 30 nm. It is also demonstrated that the morphology of ZnO particles can be controlled by 1,4-butanediol with an additive of ammonium hydroxide. The morphologies of ZnO particles are changed sequentially from a quasi-spherical shape to a rod-like shape and a hexagonal rod shape with a truncated pyramidal tip, exhibiting preferential growth along the [001] direction with increasing ammonium hydroxide amounts. It is demonstrated that much higher OH− amounts can produce a nano-tip shape grown along the [001] direction at the corners and center of the (001) top polar plane, and a flat hexagonal symmetry shape of the bottom polar plane on ZnO hexagonal prisms. The results indicate that the presence of NH4+ and OH− ions in the solution greatly affects the growth behaviors of ZnO particles. A sharp near-band-edge (NBE) emission peak centered at 383 nm in the UV region and a weak broad peak in the visible region between 450 nm and 700 nm are shown in the PL spectra of the ZnO synthesized using the glycol process, regardless of adding ammonium hydroxide. Although the broad peak of the deep-level-emission (DLE) increases with the addition of ammonium hydroxide, it is suggested that the prominent NBE emission peaks indicate that ZnO nanoparticles with good crystallization are obtained under these conditions.

메타바나듐산 암모늄으로 제조한 전해액과 양이온교환막인 Nafion117을 활용하는 바나듐 레독스 흐름 전지 (vanadium redox flow battery, VRFB)의 전기화학적 성능을 평가하였다. VRFB의 전기화학적 성능은 전류밀도 60 mA/cm2에 서 측정하였다. 메타바나듐산 암모늄으로 제조된 전해액을 사용한 VRFB의 평균 전류효율은 94.9%, 평균 전압효율은 82.2%, 평균 에너지효율은 78.0%를 보였다. 그리고 메타바나듐산 암모늄으로 제조된 전해액을 사용한 VRFB의 각 효율은 바나딜 설 페이트(VOSO4)로 제조된 전해액을 사용한 VRFB의 각 효율과 비교하여 거의 동등한 값을 갖는다는 것을 확인하였다.

Aspergillus flavus (A. flavus) and Aspergillus fumigatus (A. fumigatus) are the main fungi that cause stonebrood in honey bees. Additionally, these fungi cause the declines of honey bee population and the economic loss in the beekeeping industry. In this study, the efficacy of a disinfectant, composed to chlorine dioxide (10%, w/v) and quaternary ammonium compound (12.5%, w/v), was evaluated against A. flavus and A. fumigatus. A fungicidal efficacy test by broth dilution method was used to determine the lowest effective dilution of the disinfectant following exposure to test fungi for 30 min at 4°C. The disinfectant and test fungi were diluted with low and high organic matter (OM) suspension according to treatment condition. On low OM condition, the fungicidal activity of the disinfectant against A. flavus and A. fumigatus was all 2.0 fold dilutions. On high OM condition, the fungicidal activity of the disinfectant against A. flavus and A. fumigatus was all 1.25 fold dilutions. The recommended dilution ratio of the disinfectant in low and high OM was 1.6 and 1.0 fold dilution, respectively. As the disinfectant possesses fungicidal efficacy against A. flavus and A. fumigatus, the disinfectant can be used to prevent the stonebrood in honey bees.

The activity of anaerobic ammonium oxidation (ANAMMOX) immobilized in synthetic media (Poly Ethylene Glycol, PEG) and granular form was evaluated comparatively to investigate the effect of influent nitrogen concentration and exposure of oxygen. In ANAMMOX granule reactor, when concentration of influent total nitrogen increased to 500mg/L, removal efficiency of ammonium, nitrite and nitrate were shown to 90.5±6.5, 96.6±4.9, and 93.2±6.1%, respectively. In the case of the PEG gel, it showed lower nitrogen removal performance, resulting in that the removal efficiency of ammonium, nitrite and nitrate were shown to 83.3±13.0, 96.4±6.1, and 90.3±7.5%, respectively. In second step, when exposed to oxygen, the nitrogen removal performance in the ANAMMOX granule reactor also remained stable, but the activity of PEG gel ANAMMOX was found to be inhibited. Consequently, the PEG gel ANAMMOX was a higher sensitivity than that of granular ANAMMOX with two variables applied in this study.

선박용 디젤엔진의 NOx 환원제로 액체 우레아를 사용하는 SCR 기술이 널리 사용되고 있다. 하지만 액체 우레아 대신에 고체 상의 암모늄 카바메이트를 NOx 환원제로 사용하면 저온 NOx 저감율 및 암모니아 저장용량 측면 등에서 다양한 장점이 있다. 이에 따라 본 연구에서는 암모늄 카바메이트를 EA, FTIR, XRD 방법으로 분석하여 순도를 관리하는 방법을 제시하고자 하였으며, 다양한 온도와 압력 조건에 암모늄 카바메이트가 노출되었을 때의 물질 변화 특성을 고찰하고자 하였다. 본 연구를 통하여 암모늄 카바메이트의 순도를 EA 분석을 통해 효과적으로 관리 할 수 있음을 알 수 있었으며, 선박용 디젤엔진의 SCR 시스템에 적용될 것으로 예상되는 열분해 온도 조건에서 가열과 냉각을 반복한 암모늄 카바메이트에 대한 FTIR 분석결과, 물질 특성은 변화하지 않는 것을 확인하였다. 또한, 대기 중에 장기간 노출된 암모늄 카바메이트는 암모늄 카보네이트로 물질 변화함을 알 수 있었다.