In this study, an evaluation system that can be used to evaluate the feasibility of developing and supplying hydrothermal energy for the operation of large-scale complex facilities was developed. To this end, this study derived factors to be considered when selecting a location for the use of hydrothermal energy using raw water from multi-purpose dams and regional water supply systems through literature survey and expert interviews. The evaluation indicators derived from this study are divided into four sectors: hydrothermal energy utilization factors, location factors, planning factors, and disaster safety factors, and are composed of 10 mid-level indicators and 34 detailed planning indicators. The relative importance of all factors was derived using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique, and the developed evaluation indicators and relative importance were applied to four multi-purpose dam regions in the country. As a result, it was found that in the development and use of hydrothermal energy utilizing regional raw water supply line the urban planning conditions of the supply site can have a greater impact on the location selection results than the hydrothermal energy development itself. Due to the characteristics of the evaluation indicators developed in this study and their nature as comprehensive indicators, it is believed that the results should be applied to determine the overall adequacy of site selection in the early stages of hydrothermal energy development. In the future, it is believed that it will be necessary to analyze the problems in supplying and operating hydrothermal energy using raw water from multi-purpose dams and regional water resources. Based on the analysis the evaluation system developed in this study is expected to be improved and supplemented.

We report on the successful fabrication of ZnO nanorod (NR)/polystyrene (PS) nanosphere hybrid nanostructure by combining drop coating and hydrothermal methods. Especially, by adopting an atomic layer deposition method for seed layer formation, very uniform ZnO NR structure is grown on the complicated PS surfaces. By using zinc nitrate hexahydrate [Zn(NO3)2 ·6H2O] and hexamine [(CH2)6N4] as sources for Zn and O in hydrothermal process, hexagonal shaped single crystal ZnO NRs are synthesized without dissolution of PS in hydrothermal solution. X-ray diffraction results show that the ZnO NRs are grown along c-axis with single crystalline structure and there is no trace of impurities or unintentionally formed intermetallic compounds. Photoluminescence spectrum measured at room temperature for the ZnO NRs on flat Si and PS show typical two emission bands, which are corresponding to the band-edge and deep level emissions in ZnO crystal. Based on these structural and optical investigations, we confirm that the ZnO NRs can be grown well even on the complicated PS surface morphology to form the chestnut-shaped hybrid nanostructures for the energy generation and storage applications

Recently, Korea’s municipal wastewater treatment plants generated amount of wastewater sludge per day. However, ocean dumping of sewage sludge has been prohibited since 2012 by the London dumping convention and protocol and thus removal or treatment of wastewater sludge from field sites is an important issue on the ground site. The hydrothermal carbonization is one of attractive thermo-chemical method to upgrade sewage sludge to produce solid fuel with benefit method from the use of no chemical catalytic. Hydrothermal carbonization improved that the upgrading fuel properties and increased materials and energy recovery ,which is conducted at temperatures ranging from 200 to 350°C with a reaction time of 30 min. Hydrothermal carbonization increased the heating value though the increase of the carbon and fixed carbon content of solid fuel due to dehydration and decarboxylation reaction. Therefore, after the hydrothermal carbonization, the H/C and O/C ratios decreased because of the chemical conversion. Energy retention efficiency suggest that the optimum temperature of hydrothermal carbonization to produce more energy-rich solid fuel is approximately 200°C.

In this study, hydrothermal carbonization is used to recover energy from sludge. This hydrothermal carbonization is a feasible sustainable energy conversion technology to produce biofuel for renewable energy. The experiments were conducted at 170oC up to 220oC for a 30-min holding period to determine the optimum conditions for hydrothermal carbonization in a lab-scale reactor to apply to a scale-up reactor (1 ton/day). The biochars from sludge were assessed in terms of dewaterability characteristics and fuel properties. The results showed that the optimum temperature of labscale hydrothermal carbonization was 190oC. The 1 ton/day hydrothermal carbonization pilot plant operated at 190oC. The biochar had higher energy content but the char yield sharply decreased. Therefore, an energy of about 49% could effectively be converted from sludge biomass. This sludge from municipal wastewater treatment is a potential energy resource because sludge is composed of organic substances.