• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.256-261
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• 2008

In this study, Nafion membrane was modified to prevent methanol crossover by layer-by-layer self assembly using polyaniline (PANi) as a polycation and sulfonated poly(ether sulfone) (SPES) as a polyanion onto the Nafion surface. Since PANi and SPES possess thermal and chemical stability and rigid backbone, their layer-by-layer self-assembled films on the Nafion are expected to reduce methanol permeability and to increase mechanical stability. UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy verified a linear build-up of the multilayers of PANi and SPES. We found that the thickness per bilayer was about 10 nm by TEM measurement. Although modified Nafion membrane exhibited 15% decrease of proton conductivity, it reduceded 67% of methanol permeability compared to that of the pristine Nafion membrane, resulting in 2.5 times larger selectivity. At the performance test of the fuel cell using 5M methanol as a fuel, the modified Nafion membrane showed 2.4 times higher maximum power density at $30^{\circ}C$ and 1.4 times larger at $60^{\circ}C$ than the pristine Nafion.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.115.2-115.2
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• 2010

Autothermal reforming(ATR) processes of hydrocarbon liquids such as diesel fuels are spotlighted as methods to produce hydrogen for Fuel cell. However, the use of heavy hydrocarbons as feedstocks for hydrogen production causes some problems which increase the catalyst deactivation by the carbon deposition. Coking can be inhibited by increasing the water dissociation on the catalyst surface. This results in catastrophic failure of whole system. Performance degradation of diesel autothermal reforming leads to increase of undesirable hydrocarbons at reformed gases and subsequently decrease the performance. In this study, perovskite-based catalysts were investigated as alternatives to substitute the noble metal catalyst for the ATR of diesel. The investigated perovskite structure was based on LaCrO3. and metals were added at the A-site to enhance oxygen ion mobility, transition metals were doped on the B-site to enhance the reformation. Substituted Lanthanum chromium perovskite were made by aqueous combustion synthesis, which can produce high surface area. And for the homogeneous fuel supply, we made ultrasonic injection system for reforming. We compared durability of evaporation system and ultrasonic system for fuel injection.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.78.1-78.1
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• 2010

The metal-supported solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) was studied. Hydrocarbon fueled operation is necessary to make SOFC system. Different operating characteristics for metal-supported SOFC are used than for conventional ones as hydrocarbon fueled operation. Metal-supported SOFC was successfully fabricated by a high temperature sinter-joining method and the cathode was in-situ sintered. Synthetic gas, which is compounded as the diesel reformate gas composition and low hydrocarbons was completely removed by the diesel reformer. Metal-supported SOFC with synthetic gas was operated and evaluated and its characteristics analyzed. Button cell and $5{\times}5cm^2$ single stack were mainly operated and analyzed. Long-term operation using diesel reformate shows degradation, and degradation analysis was completed in the view of metal oxidation. Solution to increase stability of long-term operation was tried in the way of materials and operating conditions. Finally, $5{\times}5cm^2$ metal-supported single stack using synthetic gas was operated for 1000 hours under the modified condition.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.403-408
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• 2006

The plate reformer consisting of combustion chamber and reforming chamber for 25 kW MCFC stack has been operated and computational fluid dynamics was applied to estimate reactions and thermal fluid behavior in the reformer. The methane air 2-stage reaction was assumed in the combustion chamber, and three step steam reforming reactions were included in the calculation. Flow uniformity, reaction rate and species distribution, and temperature distribution were analyzed. In particular, temperature distribution was compared with the measurements to show good agreement in the combustion chamber, however, inappropriate agreement in the reformer chamber.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.108-114
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• 2011

Steam reformer was organized with steam reforming process and CO removing process. The steam reforming process needed high temperature, 600~900 $^{\circ}C$, for catalytic-reaction which was extract of hydrogen from steam and hydrocarbon. The effects of the evaporator configuration on its heat transfer characteristics were investigated both experimentally and numerically to pursue the miniaturization. In this study, three configurations were considered where the different structures were tested; empty, embossing and mesh filled. For the comparison of heat transfer performance of shape evaporator disk, numerical analysis using SC-Tetra code and experiment were carried out. In case of reformer system design, it should be considered heat transfer rate, differential pressure and fluid flow direction.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.558-565
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• 2008

Solid oxide fuel cell(SOFC) has a higher fuel flexibility than low temperature fuel cells, such as polymer electrolyte fuel cell(PEMFC) and phosphoric acid fuel cell(PAFC). SOFCs also use CO and $CH_4$ as a fuel, because SOFCs are hot enough to allow the CH4 steam reformation(SR) reaction and water-gas shift(WGS) reaction occur within the SOFC stack itself. Diesel is a good candidate for SOFC system fuel because diesel reformate gas include a higher degree of CO and $CH_4$ concentration than other hydrocarbon(methane, butane, etc.) reformate gas. Selection of catalyst for autothermalr reforming of diesel was performed in this paper, and characteristics of reforming performance between packed-bed and microchannel catalyst are compared for SOFC system. The mesh-typed microchannel catalyst also investigated for diesel ATR operation for 1kW-class SOFC system. 1kW-class diesel microchannel ATR was continuously operated about 30 hours and its reforming efficiency was achieved nearly 55%.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.244-249
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• 2012

Recently energy crisis and environmental pollution using fossil fuel became social issue. The Fuel Cell, one of the new and renewable energy has great advantage for the former mentioned problems. The PEM Fuel Cell needs highly purified hydrogen for fuel, in many cases CH4 was reformed to H2 basically using steam reforming. The purpose of this paper is to understand the probability of ceramic honeycomb to apply the combustor of STR. We tested the heat accumulation performance of ceramic honeycomb by change of excess air ratio. The results were suitable for our purpose and also these results can be used to make high temperature air at mild combustion field.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.731-734
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• 2009

KIER has been developed a compact and highly efficient fuel processor which is one of the key component of the residential PEM fuel cells system. The fuel processor uses methane steam reforming to convert natural gas to a mixture of water, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and unreacted methane. Then carbon monoxide is converted to carbon dioxide in water-gas-shift reactor and preferential oxidation reactor. A start-up time of the fuel processor is about 1h and CO concentration among the final product is maintained less than 5 vol. ppm. To achieve high thermal efficiency of 80% on a LHV basis, an optimal thermal network was designed. Internal heat exchange of the fuel processor is so efficient that the temperature of the reformed gas and the flue gas at the exit of the fuel processor remains less than $100^{\circ}C$. A compact design considering a mixing and distribution of the feed was applied to reduce the reactor volume. The current volume of the fuel processor is 17L with insulation.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.451-454
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• 2006

WGS reaction over Mo2C and ceria based catalysts was investigated to develop an alternative commercial Cu-Zn/Al2O3 catalyst for fuel processor and hydrogen station. The Mo2C catalysts were prepared by a temperature programmed method and the various metal supported cerium oxide catalysts were prepared by an Impregnation method. The catalysts were characterized by the N2 physisorption, Co chemisorption, XRD, TEM and TPR. It was found that Mo2C and 0.2wt% Pt-40wt%, Ni/CeO2 catalysts had higher activity and stability than the Cu-Zn/Al203 above $260^{\circ}C$. Moreover, CO conversion of more than 85% was observed at $280{\sim}300^{\circ}C$. But all catalysts were deactivated during the thermal cycling runs. The results suggest that these catalysts are an attractive candidate for the alternative Cu-Zn/Al2O3 catalyst for fuel processor and hydrogen station applications.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.473-481
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• 2007

Compared to other types of fuel cells, SOFC has advantages like a wide output range and the direct use of hydrocarbon fuel without the process of external reforming. Particularly because the direct use of fuel without reforming reaction is closely linked to overall system efficiency, it is a very attractive advantage. We tried the operation with methane. However, although methane has a small number of carbons compared to other hydrocarbon fuels, our experiment found the deposition of carbon on the surface of the SOFC electrode. To overcome the problem, we tried the operation through activating internal reforming. The reason that internal reforming was possible was that SOFC runs at high temperature compared to other fuel cells and its electrode is made of Ni, which functions as a catalyst favorable for steam reforming.