Yong Sik Ok

Yong Sik Ok
Korea University | KU · Divison of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering

https://www.nature.com/articles/d42473-020-00128-6

About

1,048
Publications
651,485
Reads
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103,921
Citations
Introduction
https://www.nature.com/articles/d42473-020-00128-6 In 2019, Ok was the first South Korean to be selected as a highly cited researcher (HCR) in the field of environment and ecology by the Web of Science’s HCR index, with 85 highly cited papers and hot papers. He is working at the vanguard of global efforts to develop sustainable waste management strategies and technologies to address the rising crisis in electronic and plastic waste, and pollution of soil and air with particulate matter.
Additional affiliations
June 2013 - June 2014
University of Alberta
Position
  • Professor
Description
  • http://yongsikok.korea.ac.kr/

Publications

Publications (1,048)
Article
Full-text available
Trace elements (TEs) contamination is one of the main abiotic stresses which limit plant growth and deteriorate the food quality by their entry into food chain. In recent, biochar (BC) soil amendment has been widely reported for the reduction of TE(s) uptake and toxicity in plants. This review summarizes the role of BC in enhancing TE(s) tolerance...
Article
Biochar, produced through pyrolysis of biomass under low or no oxygen conditions, has found a wide range of applications from soil fertility improvement to removal of contaminants. Initial interest in biochar is to use it as a means to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; however, recent developments are seeing biochar being applied in engin...
Article
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PurposeBiochar, the by-product of thermal decomposition of organic materials in an oxygen-limited environment, is increasingly being investigated due to its potential benefits for soil health, crop yield, carbon (C) sequestration, and greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation. Materials and methodsIn this review, we discuss the potential role of biochar for...
Article
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“Biochar offers a chance for sustainable agriculture with co-benefits of carbon sequestration and contaminant immobilization in soil“
Article
This study aims to analyze HL groups’ corporate efforts concerning the environmental (E) aspects of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) practices and propose future considerations. The analysis examined sustainability reports from 2021 to 2023 for HL groups’ subsidiaries – HL Holdings, HL Mando, HL D&I, and HL Klemove. The study focused on carb...
Article
Objectives : As the importance of ESG in industry increases, global pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies are actively adopting circular economy principles in alignment with ESG reporting standards. With stricter environmental regulations emerging in Europe and the U.S., it is necessary for Korean companies focusing on the CDMO (Contract Develop...
Article
Purpose : ESG management, which enhances corporate sustainability, is being highlighted as an essential management strategy to respond to social and environmental changes. Especially with the global emphasis on climate change, the importance of reducing and offsetting carbon emissions in the environmental (E) pillar of ESG management is increasing....
Article
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Corporation operations and other anthropogenic activities threaten global biodiversity and ecosystem services. They also raise financial risks for the sustainability of society. International organizations and initiatives have developed guidelines on the disclosure of nature-positive business practices to support the conservation of biodiversity. H...
Article
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Loss of biodiversity and natural degradation are vital issues that have significant impacts on society and economy. Businesses, investors, and regulators have focused on corporate efforts to support biodiversity and nature-positive activities. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the importance of biodiversity for businesses, its materi...
Article
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Hospital waste management often classifies all waste, including uncontaminated plastic packaging, as hazardous, leading to incineration as the primary treatment method. While effective for safe treatment, incineration incurs high costs and significant environmental impacts. This study explores an alternative approach through the segregation and sus...
Article
Upcycling waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles has attracted intensive research interests. This simultaneously alleviates plastic pollution and achieves a waste-to-resource strategy. Waste PET water bottles were used to fabricate value-added activated carbon (AC) electrodes for capacitive deionization (CDI). The KOH activation temperature...
Article
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Hydrocarbon recovery from conventional and unconventional wells, such as those using hydraulic fracturing (HF), generates significant volumes of highly saline wastewater, known as flowback and produced water (FPW). Traditional evaluations of FPW management have focused on volume and chemical additives in HF fluids, neglecting variations in FPW volu...
Preprint
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The biodegradability of plastic is a critical factor in environmental sustainability. However, plastic degradation has been focused on closed systems via physical changes and CO 2 generation. We innovated a methodology on open system degradation in soil environments to reveal the authentic process of plastic degradation in nature. Polybutylene succ...
Preprint
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Biodiversity loss and nature degradation are pressing issues with huge impacts on our society and economy. Businesses, investors, and regulators focus on corporate efforts to support biodiversity and nature positive actions. This review provides a comprehensive overview about the importance of biodiversity in businesses, the materiality of biodiver...
Article
Objectives:In this study, we analyzed the corporation’s current status and issues related to biodiversity and provided insights based on the results for future consideration.Methods:We investigated the double materiality analysis, then analyzed whether the activities are valuable enough for the corporation to focus on and whether they have an actua...
Article
The proliferation of global regulations concerning sustainability and environmental protection poses a significant challenge to maintaining corporate sustainability. Consequently, companies must strategically respond to navigate these regulations in their management plans. The objective of this research was to analyze how Korean companies(LG Energy...
Article
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Despite that biodegradable plastics are perceived as environmentally friendly, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of their fate in soil. Current Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks, along with new UNEP regulations on plastic pollution, necessitate scientific information on plastic degradation in soils for developing s...
Article
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Biomass waste-derived engineered biochar for CO2 capture presents a viable route for climate change mitigation and sustainable waste management. However, optimally synthesizing them for enhanced performance is time- and labor-intensive. To address these issues, we devise an active learning strategy to guide and expedite their synthesis with improve...
Preprint
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Overbalance of ecosystems triggers global biodiversity loss and threatens the sustainability of society by emerging financial risks from the disruption of ecosystem services. Several initiatives and international organizations have developed guidelines on biodiversity conservation to support the increasing demand for the disclosure of nature-positi...
Article
Microplastic (MP) pollution is an important environmental problem owing to its widespread use, long residence time, and overall persistence. MPs threaten the health of humans, animals, and plants. However, studies on the effects of MPs on terrestrial plants are less common compared to those conducted in aquatic systems. This review discusses the so...
Article
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The ascent of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting has established itself as a global standard in financial markets, reflecting a paradigm shift toward corporate sustainability. Despite this, persistent concerns surround the quality of ESG reporting and its tangible impact on Sustainable Development (SD). To address the imperative...
Article
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The incorporation of organic amendments, such as food waste (FW) and biochar, into soil is an established agronomic practice known for enhancing soil fertility and improving overall soil health. However, the individual and combined effects of FW and biochar on soil properties in microplastic (MP)-contaminated soil–plant systems remain poorly unders...
Article
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Dietary exposure to methylmercury (MeHg) causes irreversible damage to human cognition and is mitigated by photolysis and microbial demethylation of MeHg. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) has been identified as a major dietary source of MeHg. However, it remains unknown what drives the process within plants for MeHg to make its way from soils to rice and the...
Article
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Biochar from biomass and waste is a valuable component of various urban green infrastructures, including green roofs, permeable pavements, green walls, and green parking lots. Incorporating biochar into substrate mixtures...
Article
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Biochar has a large specific surface area, well-developed pore structure, abundant surface functional groups, and superior nutrient supply capacity, which is widely available and environmentally friendly with its advantages in waste resource utilization, heavy metal(loid) remediation, and carbon storage. This review focuses on the interactions betw...
Article
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In the last few decades, sulfonated carbon materials have garnered significant attention as Brønsted solid acid catalysts. The sulfonation process and catalytic activity of sulfonated biochar can be influenced by the aromaticity and degree of condensation exhibited by biochar. However, the relationships between the aromaticity, sulfonating ability,...
Article
Production and utilization of renewable materials receive considerable attention to achieve the goals of carbon neutrality and carbon peaking and create a sustainable society. Phase-change materials (PCMs) have emerged as a novel energy storage technology but usually suffer inherent insufficient thermal stability and liquid leakage, thereby requiri...
Article
Research on the removal of heavy metals (HMs) from contaminated waters, aiming at ensuring the safety of water bodies, has shifted from direct experimental tests to machine learning (ML)-aided investigations. This approach offers advantages such as reduced time and labor as well as deeper insights into HM removal behaviors. Recent advancements in M...
Article
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Microplastic (MP) pollution in agricultural soils, resulting from the use of plastic mulch, compost, and sewage sludge, jeopardizes the soil microbial populations. However, the effects of MPs on soil chemical properties and microbial communities remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated the effects of different concentration levels (0, 0.1, 1,...
Article
Vanadium(V) is a highly toxic multivalent, redox-sensitive element. It is widely distributed in the environment and employed in various industrial applications. Interactions between V and (micro)organisms have recently garnered considerable attention. This Review discusses the biogeochemical cycling of V and its corresponding bioremediation strateg...
Article
Plastic pollution is a global issue that severely threatens the environment if not managed properly. Plastic waste is widely treated in unsustainable ways such as landfill and incineration that generally do not contribute to the circular economy or to the principles of the United Nation's sustainable development goals. Catalytic pyrolysis of plasti...
Article
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An integrated strategy combining 3D architecture design and chemical doping holds great promise for enhancing the performance of bio-based engineered carbon materials in environmental applications. This review paper critically examines the use of integrated hierarchical porous carbon derived from biomass (bio-based IHPC) as an engineered catalyst a...
Article
Plastic waste is increasing and is a serious environmental problem. Among the threats associated with plastics is the release of contaminants into the environment. This study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of metals release from plastics (low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polypropylene (PP)) as affected by dif...
Article
Arsenic (As) contamination in water is a significant environmental concern with profound implications for human health. Accurate prediction of the adsorption capacity of arsenite [As(III)] and arsenate [As(V)] on biochar is vital for the reclamation and recycling of polluted water resources, However, comprehending the intricate mechanisms that gove...
Article
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Ecological engineering of soil formation in tailings is an emerging technology towards sustainable rehabilitation of iron (Fe) ore tailings landscapes worldwide, which requires formation of well-organized and stable soil aggregates in finely textured tailings. Here we demonstrate an approach using microbial and rhizosphere processes to progressivel...
Article
The remediation performance of biochar varies based on the biomass used for its production. Further innovation involves developing tailor-made biochar by combining different raw materials to compensate for the limitations of pure biochar. Therefore, tailor-made combined biochar produced from the co-pyrolysis of pig manure and invasive Japanese knot...
Article
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The sustainability of life on Earth is under increasing threat due to human-induced climate change. This perilous change in the Earth's climate is caused by increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, primarily due to emissions associated with burning fossil fuels. Over the next two to three decades, the effects of cli...
Article
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The sustainable utilization of biochar produced from biomass waste could substantially promote the development of carbon neutrality and a circular economy. Due to their cost-effectiveness, multiple functionalities, tailorable porous structure, and thermal stability, biochar-based catalysts play a vital role in sustainable biorefineries and environm...
Article
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Microplastics (MPs) are found worldwide in high abundance, posing a potential threat to ecosystems. Despite the ubiquity of MPs in the environment, very little is known about the regional distribution of MPs and underlying factors affecting this distribution in the field, which likely include human activity, but also features of the environment its...
Article
Nanoplastics (NPs) have raised global concern owing to their potential health effects. Herein, after simulated and natural solar irradiation, polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, and poly(vinyl chloride) nanoplastics (PVC NPs) were observed to exhibit enhanced fluorescence, particularly PVC NPs. Furthermore, the role of photoaged NPs as a pote...
Article
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The impacts of macroplastics (macro-), microplastics (MPs, <5mm), and nanoplastics (NPs, <100 nm) on corals and their complex reef ecosystems are receiving increased attention and visibility. MPs represent a major, contemporary, sustainability challenge with known and unknown effects on the ocean, and coral reef ecosystems worldwide. However, the f...
Article
Recent studies showed that land is the most important sink for microplastics (MPs); however, limited information is available on the photoaging processes of land surface MPs that are exposed to the air. Herein, this study developed two in situ spectroscopic methods to systematically explore the effect of air humidity on MP photoaging using a micros...
Article
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have been globally reported at various sites. Currently, limited literature is available on VOC bioremediation using bacterial-immobilized biochar (BC–B). In this study, multiple VOC-degrading bacteria were enriched and isolated using a newly designed diffusion bioreactor. The most effective VOC-degrading bacteria...
Article
Due to its high energy density and non-polluting combustion, hydrogen has emerged as one of the most promising candidates for meeting future energy demands and realising a C-free world. However, the wider application of hydrogen is restricted by issues related to the generation, storage, and utilisation. Hydrogen production using steam reforming le...
Chapter
We are racing to manage a phenomenally increasing volume of organic wastes from urban, industrial and agricultural entities. Composting is one of the preferred ways to convert biodegradable wastes into nutrient-rich soil conditioners. The age-old technique of composting process is being improved with innovative scientific means. Biochar, a widely s...
Article
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a promising technology for recovering value-added resources from organic waste, thus achieving sustainable waste management. The performance of AD is dictated by a variety of factors including system design and operating conditions. This necessitates developing suitable modelling and optimization tools to quantify its of...
Article
Full-text available
Arsenic (As) is recognized as a persistent and toxic contaminant in the environment that is harmful to humans. Biochar, a porous carbonaceous material with tunable functionality, has been used widely as an adsorbent for remediating As-contaminated water and soils. Several types of pristine and modified biochar are available, and significant efforts...
Article
CO2-free power plants (PPs) with renewable electricity have promising sustainability implications, but the impact of their widespread use is yet to be determined. Here, the effect of an oxy-coal PP equipped with CO2 capture, water electrolysis, and CO2 methanation on electricity efficiency, CO2 emission rate, CO2 capture cost, and global surface te...
Article
Metal halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have gained extensive attention in the field of solar photovoltaic technology over the past few years. Despite being a remarkable alternative to fossil fuels, solar cells may have detrimental effects on the environment and human health owing to the use of toxic materials during manufacturing. Although mode...
Article
Over recent years, pyrolysis has grown into a mature technology with added value for producing soil improvers. Further innovations of this technology lie in developing tailor-made products from specific feedstocks (or mixtures thereof) in combination with adjusted mixing ratio-temperature regimes. In this context, co-pyrolysis of pig manure (PM) an...