Pukyong National University Student Wins Excellent Poster Presentation Award at Green Environment Support Center Research Conference

Se-eun Kim, Master's Student in Environmental Engineering

Kim Se-eun, a master's student majoring in Environmental Engineering in the Department of Earth Environmental System Science at Pukyong National University, won the Excellent Poster Presentation Award at the 2024 Green Environment Support Center Research Presentation.

Kim Se-eun, affiliated with the Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery Laboratory at Pukyong National University, received this award for her presentation titled "Evaluation of Integrated Anaerobic Digestion Inoculum Sources for Sewage Sludge and Food Waste" at the recent research presentation held at the Korea Press Center.

This research presentation was held to share research achievements in the environmental field and to explore practical policy and industrial utilization methods, organized by the Central Green Environment Support Center and 18 Green Environment Support Centers nationwide.

Kim Se-eun has participated in the 2024 collaborative research project between the Busan Green Environment Support Center at Pukyong National University (Director Lee Tae-yoon) and the Busan Environmental Corporation titled "Optimization of Chemical Injection and Discovery of Excellent Inoculum Sources to Enhance Organic Residue Treatment and Biogas Production at Busan Sewage Treatment Plants" (Principal Investigator Professor Lee Jun-yeop), and received excellent evaluations for presenting the research results.

She presented a comparative evaluation of the performance of inoculum sources by targeting five full-scale anaerobic digesters in Busan to secure essential excellent digester inoculum sources to shorten the startup period of integrated anaerobic digestion of high-concentration organic wastes such as sewage sludge and food waste. She also identified the microbial communities of the inoculum sources through next-generation sequencing analysis.

The research results were recognized as achievements that improve waste treatment efficiency at sewage treatment plants in the Busan area and lead to industrial applications producing biogas as an energy source, thereby enhancing the status of the Busan Green Environment Support Center.