Graduate students Hye-bin Kim (PhD candidate; advisor: Professor Ki-tae Baek) and So-jeong Cheon (Master's student; advisor: Professor Hyun-woo Kim) from the Department of Environment and Energy Convergence recently presented outstanding research findings at the Korean Society of Environmental Engineers conference and each received an Outstanding Paper Award.

At the conference, Hye-bin Kim presented a paper titled 'Reduction of Arsenic Mobility by Encapsulated CaO2 and Biochar,' which received favorable reviews.

The study was an experiment designed to prevent increases in arsenic mobility in soil caused by biochar. It applied encapsulated CaO2, which releases oxygen, together with biochar to the soil.

The experiments demonstrated that applying encapsulated CaO2 can not only prevent pH increases but also inhibit the rise in arsenic mobility caused by biochar.

So-jeong Cheon presented a paper titled 'Study on Nitrogen and Phosphorus Reduction by Recovering Struvite from Centrate of Sewage Sludge Digestion,' which received favorable reviews.

Her work was highly evaluated for recovering high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus present in the centrate as struvite, proposing an alternative post-treatment process for sludge, and producing value-added products from pollutants.

Meanwhile, students from the Department of Environment and Energy Convergence have enhanced the department's standing by winning consecutive awards for their outstanding research—not only at this Korean Society of Environmental Engineers conference but also the Outstanding Paper Award from the Korean Society of Groundwater and Soil and the Grand Prize of the Young Researcher Award from the Korea Society of Waste Management and Resources Circulation.