• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.204-211
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• 2006

The electrolyte in the solid oxide fuel cell must be dense enough to avoid gas leakage and thin enough to reduce the ohmic resistance. In order to manufacture the thin and dense electrolyte layer, 8 mol% $Y_2O_3$ stabilized-$ZrO_2$ (8YSZ) electrolyte layers were coated on the porous tubular substrate by the novel vacuum slurry dip-coating process. The effects of the slurry concentration, presintering temperature, and vacuum pressure on the thickness and the gas permeability of the coated electrolyte layers have been examined in the vacuum slurry coating process. The vacuum-coated electrolyte layers showed very low gas permeabilities and had thin thicknesses. The single cell with the vacuum-coated electrolyte layer indicated a good performance of $495\;mW/cm^2$, 0.7 V at $700^{\circ}C$. The experimental results show that the vacuum dip-coating process is an effective method to fabricate dense thin film on the porous tubular substrate.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.723-732
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• 2022

Cracking ammonia inside solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stack is a compact and simple way. To prevent sharp temperature fluctuation and increase cell efficiency, the decomposition reaction should be spread on whole cell area. This leading to a question that, how does anode thickness affect the conversion rate of ammonia and the cell voltage? Since the 0D model of SOFC is useful for system level simulation, how accurate is it to use equilibrium solver for internal ammonia cracking reaction? The 1D model of ammonia fed SOFC was used to simulate the diffusion and reaction of ammonia inside the anode electrode, then the partial pressure of hydrogen and steam at triple phase boundary was used for cell voltage calculation. The result shows that, the ammonia conversion rate increases and reaches saturated value as anode thickness increase, and the saturated thickness is bigger for lower operating temperature. The similar cell voltage between 1D and 0D models can be reached with NH₃ conversion rate above 90%. The 0D model and 1D model of SOFC showed similar conversion rate at temperature over 750℃.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.47-54
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• 2022

In this study, we performed numerical analysis for 1 kWe SOFC stack of internal manifold types according to the different manifold sizes to verify the influence of the flow uniformity into each cell. To simulate the flow phenomena in the stack, the continuity and momentum conservation equations including the standard k-𝜺 turbulent model for the steady-state conditions were applied. From the calculation results, we verified that the pressure drop from inlet pipes to outlet pipes decreased to a log scale as the manifold size increased in the internal manifold types. Also, we found that the flow uniformity increased on an exponential scale as the manifold size increased. In addition, the calculation results showed that the flow uniformity gradually improved as the fuel and oxygen utilization increased.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.40-47
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• 2024

Ammonia is drawing attention as carbon free fuel due to its ease of storage and transportation compared to hydrogen. This study suggests ammonia fueled solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system with electrochemical hydrogen compressor (EHC)-based recirculation. Performance of electrochemical hydrogen pump is based on the experimental data under varying hydrogen and nitrogen concentration. As a result, the suggested system shows 62.04% net electrical efficiency. The efficiency is 10.33% point higher compared to simple standalone SOFC system (51.71%), but 0.02% point lower compared to blower-based recirculation system (62.06%). Further improvement in the EHC-based SOFC recirculation system can be achieved with EHC performance improvement.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.256-263
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• 2010

A Crofer 22 APU mesh coated with a conductive ceramic material was developed as an alternative cathode current collector to Ag-based materials for solid oxide fuel cells. $(La_{0.80}Sr_{0.20})_{0.98}MnO_3$ (LSM) layer was deposited onto the Crofer mesh using a spray-coating technique, in an attempt to mitigate the degradation of electrical properties due to surface oxidation at high temperatures. The oxidation experiments at $800^{\circ}C$ in air indicated that the areaspecific resistance (ASR) of the LSM-coated Crofer mesh was strongly dependent on the wire diameter and the contact morphology between mesh and cell. In addition, the post-heat-treatment in $H_2/N_2$ resulted in a reduced thickness of Cr-containing oxide scales at the interface between Crofer mesh and LSM layer, leading to a decreased ASR.

• Clean Technology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.426-431
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• 2012

Carbon-rich coal can be utilized as a fuel for direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC). However, left-behind ash after the electrochemical oxidation may hinder the electrochemical reactions. In this study, we produced ash-free coal (AFC) by thermal extraction and then tested it as a fuel for DCFC. DCFC was built based on solid oxide electrolyte and the electrochemical performance of AFC mixed with $K_2CO_3$ was compared with AFC only. Significantly enhanced power density was found by catalytic steam gasification of AFC. However, an increase of the power density by catalytic pyrolysis was negligible. This result indicated that a catalyst activated the steam gasification reactions, producing much more $H_2$ and thus increasing the power density, compared to AFC only. Results of a quantitative analysis showed much improved kinetics in AFC with $K_2CO_3$ in agreement with DCFC results. A secondary phase of potassium on yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) surface was observed after the cell operation. This probably caused poor long-term behavior of AFC with $K_2CO_3$. A thin YSZ (30 ${\mu}m$ thick) was found to be higher in the power density than 0.9 mm of YSZ.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.525-530
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• 2019

The performance and stability of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) depend on the microstructure of the electrode and electrolyte. In anode, porosity and pore distribution affect the active site and fuel gas transfer. In an electrolyte, density and thickness determine the ohmic resistance. To optimizing these conditions, using costly method cannot be a suitable research plan for aiming at commercialization. To solve these drawbacks, we made high performance unit cells with low cost and highly efficient ceramic processes. We selected the NiO-YSZ cermet that is a commercial anode material and used facile methods like die pressing and dip coating process. The porosity of anode was controlled by the amount of carbon black (CB) pore former from 10 wt% to 20 wt% and final sintering temperature from $1350^{\circ}C$ to $1450^{\circ}C$. To achieve a dense thin film electrolyte, the thickness and microstructure of electrolyte were controlled by changing the YSZ loading (vol%) of the slurry from 1 vol% to 5 vol. From results, we achieved the 40% porosity that is well known as an optimum value in Ni-YSZ anode, by adding 15wt% of CB and sintering at $1350^{\circ}C$. YSZ electrolyte thickness was controllable from $2{\mu}m$ to $28{\mu}m$ and dense microstructure is formed at 3vol% of YSZ loading via dip coating process. Finally, a unit cell composed of Ni-YSZ anode with 40% porosity, YSZ electrolyte with a $22{\mu}m$ thickness and LSM-YSZ cathode had a maximum power density of $1.426Wcm^{-2}$ at $800^{\circ}C$.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.295-298
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• 2009

Oxygen ionic conductors of CeScSZ electrolyte in SOFC unit cell are applied to anode and cathode as well as electrolyte to have the triple-phase-boundaries of electrochemical reaction, and it is required to decrease the sintering temperature of anode-supported electrolyte by the nanoscale of CeScSZ electrolyte powder. In this report, nanoscale CeScSZ electrolyte powder was synthesized by chemical synthesis method. The particle size, surface area and morphology of the powder were observed by SEM and BET. Thin film electrolyte of under $10{\mu}m$ was fabricated by tape casting using the synthesized CeScSZ electrolyte powder, and ionic conductivity and gas permeability of electrolyte film were evaluated. Finally the SOFC unit cell was fabricated using the anode-supported electrolyte prepared by a tape casting method and co-sintering, in which the active layer, measuring $20{\mu}m$, was introduced in the anode layer to provide a more efficient reaction. Electrochemical evaluations of the SOFC unit cell, including measurements such as power density and impedance, were performed and analyzed.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.93.2-93.2
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• 2012

연료전지는 전기화학반응을 이용한 발전 장치로서 기존 장치에 비하여 발전 효율이 높아 화석연료를 사용하면서 현재 당면 과제인 $CO_2$ 배출량 절감이 가능하고, 환경 보전성이 우수하여 미래의 전원으로 많은 연구개발이 진행되고 있다. 특히 제3세대 연료전지라 불리는 고체산화물 연료전지(Solid Oxide Fuel Cell이하 SOFC)는 고가의 외부 개질 장치 없이도 연료가 갖는 화학에너지를 연소과정 없이, 공기와 $H_2$, CO, $CH_4$와 같은 환원성 가스를 공급받아 $600{\sim}1000^{\circ}C$에서 전기화학적 반응을 통하여 직접 전기를 얻는 방식이며, 낮은 소음과 진동으로 인하여 온 사이트(On-site) 발전이 가능한 장점이 있는 연료전지이다. Decalcomanie는 전사용지에 Screen printing하여 건조 후 coating하는 방법으로 기존의 여러 coating 방법보다 다전지셀 제작이나 Buffer layer의 적용이 용이하고, 소재의 크기나 두께조절이 간편하며, 구성층의 표면조도나 굴곡에 대응이 용이한 방법이다. 새로운 Decalcomanie를 사용하여 평관형 다전지식 SOFC Cell 제작 및 각 Buffer layer에 적용, Screen printing법과 동일한 Cell 제조 후 MPD와 Impedance 분석을 통하여 Support 위에 전사지를 이용, 적층한 Cell의 전기화학적 특성에 관하여 분석하였다.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.110-115
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• 2007

Solid oxide fuel cell(SOFC) has high fuel flexibility due to its high operating temperatures. Hydrocarbonaceous fuels such as diesel has several advantages such as high energy density and established infrastructure for fuel cell applications. However diesel reforming has technical problems like coke formation in a reactor, which results in catastrophic failure of whole system. Performance degradation of diesel autothermal reforming (ATR) leads to increase of undesirable hydrocarbons at reformed gases and subsequently degrades SOFC performance. In this study, we investigate the degradation of SOFC performance(OCV, open circuit voltage) under hydrocarbon(n-Butane) feeds and characteristics of diesel performing under various ratios of reactants($H_2O/C,\;O_2/C$ molar ratios) for improvement of SOFC performance. Especially we achieved relatively high performance of diesel ATR under $H_2O/C=0.8,\;O_2/C=3$ condition.