Graduate students in the Department of Environmental Engineering recently received awards for outstanding research at an international conference related to environmental engineering.

Master's students Hwang Bo-ram and Jeong Ji-min of the Department of Environmental Engineering (advised by Professor Baek Gi-tae) won second and third place, respectively, for outstanding paper presentations at the 11th Symposium on Electrokinetic Remediation (EREM 2012), held late last year in Sapporo, Japan.

EREM is an annual conference where researchers from around the world present and discuss research on the remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater using electrokinetic methods.

At the conference, Hwang Bo-ram presented a study titled "Evaluation on Operation Time Affect to Electrokinetic Remediation for Multi-Metal Contaminated Paddy Soil" and identified the impact of treatment duration, a key design parameter for electrokinetic remediation of agricultural soils contaminated with arsenic, copper, and lead.

Jeong Ji-min, meanwhile, presented a paper titled "Pulse Power Enhanced Electrokinetic Remediation for Heavy Metal Contaminated Soil," proposing a method to reduce power consumption in electrokinetic remediation by using a novel form of power supply.

This research was carried out as part of the Research Project "Electrokinetic Remediation of Multi-Metal Contamination and Enhancement of Remediation Efficiency," supported by the Ministry of Environment's Soil and Groundwater Pollution Prevention Technology Development (GAIA Project). The research results are planned to be applied to the remediation of the contaminated site of the former Janghang Smelter in Seocheon County, South Chungcheong Province.

EREM is an annual conference where researchers from around the world present and discuss research on the remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater using electrokinetic methods.