Cleaner production has been spreading to almost
every industrial sector and many researchers have
devoted themselves to the development of clean technologies
in the food industry [1].
Kimchi, a salt-pickled and fermented vegetable, is one
of the most popular foods in Asian countries, such as
Korea, and more and more people in the world get used
to its taste. There are more than 200 Kimchi manufacturing
industries in South Korea and the annual production
of Kimchi reached about 2.1 million tons in 1997. In
the Kimchi manufacturing industry, the brining of raw
materials (e.g. Chinese cabbage) and successive rinsing
of brined raw materials generate a large amount of brining
wastewater and rinsing wastewater, respectively. To
comply with the effluent discharge limit the two kinds
of wastewater are mixed together and passed through a
conventional end-of-pipe wastewater treatment system,