정세영 Se Young Jeong , 양민서 Min Seo Yang , 이은수 Eun Su Lee , 김상엽 Sang Yeob Kim , 맹승규 Sung Kyu Maeng

DOI:10.15681/KSWE.2024.40.4.161 Vol.40(No.4) 161-167, 2024

The demand for bottled water in South Korea is steadily increasing, but there are challenges regarding water sources and violations of water quality standards. Consumers struggle to identify products that do not meet these standards, highlighting the need for improved water management. This study aims to investigate the use of flow cytometry to identify microbial behavior in bottled water. Twelve different bottled water brands were selected for this study. A novel non-culture-based analysis method called total cell count via flow cytometry was utilized, which is not commonly used to assess drinking water quality. This method was compared to conventional culture-based methods for heterotrophic plate count and E. coli experiments, in order to introduce new indicators for hygiene management. Adenosine triphosphate analysis was also conducted to assess cell activity, and total organic carbon was measured to determine the presence of organic matter. The total cell counts varied among the different bottled water brands. The adenosine triphosphate levels ranged from 37.1ng/L to 221.7ng/L, while the total organic carbon ranged from 0.4 to 0.6 mg/L. Furthermore, E. coli was not detected in any of the bottled waters, and with the exception of two cases, the levels of heterotrophic bacteria did not exceed the drinking water standard of 100 CFU/mL. This study demonstrated a correlation between total cell count and heterotrophic plate count, suggesting that non-culture-based analysis could be valuable in promptly assessing microbial contamination, in contrast to the conventional methods that require approximately 48 hours for incubation.

Adenosine triphosphate, Bottled water, Drinking water, Heterotrophic bacteria, Total cell count

백지원 Baek Jiwon , 김종락 Kim Jongrack , 유광태 You Kwangtae , 김예진 Kim Yejin

DOI:10.15681/KSWE.2024.40.4.168 Vol.40(No.4) 168-178, 2024

Wastewater treatment plants are constantly exposed to influent wastewater that is constantly changing. This poses a major challenge to the operation of the plants. It is crucial to have a rapid and accurate measurement of the influent concentrations of wastewater in order to maintain and optimize treatment performance, as well as to develop energy-saving strategies. While laboratory measurements provide the highest accuracy in determining influent water quality, they are inevitably time-consuming procedures. In order to cope with the ongoing disturbances from wastewater influent, absorption-based optical measuring instruments have been developed. These instruments can detect the influent water quality in a short amount of time, improving their practicality and reliability. However, when these optical measuring instruments malfunction, the accuracy of the measured values decreases, leading to unreasonable operation of the treatment plant. This paper proposes a method for detecting anomalies in optical water quality measurement devices. The Harmony Search algorithm is used to validate the measured water quality values and detect abnormalities such as contamination or physical anomalies in the measurement apparatus. To assess the performance of the developed algorithm in detecting anomalies, validation was conducted by installing it in a field-scale wastewater treatment plant. The results consistently showed that the developed fault detection method for optical water quality measurements equipment provided acceptable results for normal, temporary abnormal, and long-term abnormal conditions.

Fault detection, Harmony search algorithm, Influent characteristics, Optical measurement sensor, Wastewater treatment

이병준 Byung Joon Lee

DOI:10.15681/KSWE.2024.40.4.179 Vol.40(No.4) 179-194, 2024

Biophysicochemical processes in water environments and treatment systems have been great concerns of engineers and scientists for controlling the fate and transport of contaminants. These processes are practically formulated as mathematical models written in coupled differential equations. However, because these process-based mathematical models consist of a large number of model parameters, they are complicated in analytical or numerical computation. Users need to perform substantial trials and errors to achieve the best-fit simulation to measurements, relying on arbitrary selection of fitting parameters. Therefore, this study adopted a Bayesian calibration method to estimate best-fit model parameters in a systematic way and evaluated the applicability of the calibration method to biophysicochemical processes of water environments and treatment systems. The Bayesian calibration method was applied to the microbial growth-decay kinetics and flocculation kinetics, of which experimental data were obtained with batch kinetic experiments. The Bayesian calibration method was proven to be a reasonable, effective way for best-fit parameter estimation, demonstrating not only high-quality fitness, but also sensitivity of each parameter and correlation between different parameters. This state-of-the-art method will eventually help scientists and engineers to use complex process-based mathematical models consisting of various biophysicochemical processes.

Bayesian calibration, Biophysicochemical process, Kinetics, Mathematical model, Parameter estimation