Lee In-ho, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Convergence Management of Technology and CEO of Groon Co., Ltd., served as the Principal Investigator (PI) on the project 'Demonstration of a Hybrid Village Sewage Treatment Plant Effluent Reuse System Using Low-Temperature Plasma and Microbubbles' and was selected in 2021 for the Ministry of Environment's Top 20 Environmental Technology Development Achievements.

The outstanding environmental R&D achievements, overseen by the Ministry of Environment and the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute, are finalized by the Ministry after comprehensively considering target attainment, the effects of science and technology development, and economic and social ripple effects. The Ministry issues certificates for the selected outstanding achievements.

Lee intensively researched and developed low-temperature plasma in 2019 with the team led by Professor Kim Hyun-woo (Department of Environmental Engineering) at Jeonbuk National University (JBNU). After being selected among the Top 20 achievements in 2019, they achieved the distinction again this year.

This demonstration project was conducted from April 2019 to April 2021 as part of the Global Top Environmental Technology Program. It employs glow discharge plasma technology to enable reuse of village sewage treatment plant effluent as agricultural irrigation water.

Operating costs for the glow discharge plasma technology are up to 30% more economical compared with existing technologies, and the oxygen transfer rate in sewage and wastewater was found to be over 40% higher.

Groon Co., Ltd. CEO Lee In-ho was the first in Korea to commercialize plasma technology, and currently around ten domestic plasma commercialization facilities are in operation. He is also pursuing further R&D on nitrogen treatment methods for landfill leachate with Professor Kim Hyun-woo's research team in the Department of Environmental Engineering at JBNU. Through collaboration with the JBNU MOT Project Group, he is providing mentoring on technology management to MOT-RS (undergraduate) students.