**KICT Develops Nano-Technology Based Cleaning System**
**Ammonia 90% Removal and Reduced Cleaning Water Costs**
A system using nanotechnology to reduce odors from livestock waste has been developed. It’s expected to contribute to the reduction of fine dust and odors when applied not only to livestock farming but also to sewage treatment plants and general factory scrubbers.
The Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) announced on the 17th that Dr. Jung Wonsik’s research team has developed a nano-technology based cleaning system that can effectively reduce fine dust and ammonia generated in facilities producing organic fertilizers from livestock manure.
Currently, about 1,500 facilities manufacturing organic fertilizers from livestock waste operate in Korea. These facilities frequently receive complaints about odors caused by fine dust and ammonia. Approximately 30% of odor complaints come from the livestock sector. The government has reported organic fertilizer manufacturing facilities as air pollutant emission facilities and strictly manages ammonia emissions with standards set at 30 ppm or less.
Currently, the chemical cleaning systems widely used in emission facilities of composting facilities and manufacturing plants have low treatment efficiency and incur high costs for treating cleaning waste and chemicals.
The research team applied nano-emulsion devices and Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) to the existing cleaning systems, improving the collection efficiency of fine dust and odors and extending the use period of cleaning wastewater, thereby reducing chemical costs. In pilot tests conducted in Hongseong and Goyang, and in a demonstration test at a composting facility in Moga Agricultural Cooperative in Icheon, ammonia removal rates improved from 30-60% to over 90% with this new technology. The replacement cycle for cleaning water also increased from 7 days to over 45 days, proving its economic and efficient scalability.
The research team explained that although the installation cost is approximately 40 million KRW higher than existing scrubbers, they can reduce the costs of cleaning wastewater treatment and chemicals by 60% and 30% respectively, saving maintenance costs by 100 million KRW annually.
Seonkyu Park, President of KICT, stated, “This can be applied to various industrial fields, contributing to solving social environmental issues by resolving complaints about fine dust and odors.”