• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.439-444
• /
• 2007

Using the anaerobic digester gas as a fuel, fuel cells have the potential to provide significant environmental and economic benefits. A molten carbonate fuel cell power plant was installed in the municipal sewage works of Tancheon in Seoul. The fuel cell unit operates on anaerobic digester gas and provides power and heat for the sewage works. This is the first project of its kind in Korea. This article outlines the experiences of gas purification process with planning, installation and operation. The engineering and installation phase is described regarding to the special features of digester gas, for example impurities in gas composition. Such impurities would be harmful to fuel cells. Operational results from the field test with a gas purification process plant are presented in this paper.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.496-502
• /
• 2015

Facilitated transport is one of the possible solutions to simultaneously improve permeability and selectivity, which is challenging in conventional polymer-based membranes. Olefin/paraffin separation using facilitated transport membrane has received much attention as an alternative solution to the conventional distillation process. Herein, we report olefin separation composite membranes based on the polymer blends containing $AgBF_4/Al(NO_3)_3$ mixed salts. Free radical polymerization process was used to synthesize an amphiphilic graft copolymer of poly(dimethyl siloxane)-graft- poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (PDMS-g-POEM). In addition, poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) was introduced to the PDMS-g-POEM graft copolymer to form polymer blends with various ratios. The propylene/propane mixed-gas selectivity and permeance reached up to 5.6 and 10.05 GPU, respectively, when the PEO loading was 70 wt% in polymer blend. The improvement of olefin separation performance was attributed to the olefin facilitating silver ions as well as the highly permeable blend matrix. The stabilization of silver ions in the composite membrane was achieved through the introduction of $Al(NO_3)_3$ which suppressed the reduction of silver ions to silver particles.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2007.06a
• /
• pp.117-120
• /
• 2007

Fuel cells are currently attracting tremendous interest because of their huge potential in stationary applications, in terms of substantiality of our energy use. They also offer environmental advantages, combining significantly higher efficiency with very much lower emission of SOx, NOx, and residual hydrocarbons, and significantly reduced $CO_{2}$ emissions compared to conventional power generation. The molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) was introduced from Fuel Cell Energy(FCE), which the one MCFC was operating by LNG and the other was operating by ADG. The ADG contains normally CH4, CO2 and various impurities such as sulfur compounds and siloxanes. Using the ADG as a fuel, MCFC have the potential to provide significant environmental and economic benefits. However, such impurities would be harmful to fuel cells. In this work, a purification process for the ADG was designed and installed in order to utilize the gas as a fuel for MCFC.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.164-170
• /
• 2007

The Tancheon wastewater treatment plant(WWTP) in Seoul using anaerobic digestion to reduce the outlet sludge produces anaerobic digester gas which contains 65% $CH_4$ and 35% $CO_2$. The gas purification equipment was installed and operated to use Anaerobic Digester Gas(ADG) as a fuel for molten carbonate fuel cell(MCFC). The processes consist of the desulfurizer and the adsorption tower to remove $H_2S$ and siloxane in the gas. The gas purification equipment removed virtually over 95% of $H_2S$ and over 99% of siloxane. Results has demonstrated that the fuel cell can produce electrical output and hot water with negligible air emissions of CO, NOx and $SO_2$. The site provides the first opportunity in Korea for demonstrating Molten carbonate fuel cell(MCFC) which the digester gas was applied to the fuel gas.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.174-180
• /
• 2014

A plasma hydrophobic coating on commercial fish feed was conducted to prolong the floating time of feed, thereby enhancing the feed consumption rate and reducing the contamination of water in fish farms. The hydrophobic coating on the fish feed was prepared using an atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma with hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO), toluene and n-hexane as the precursors. The effect of the parameters such as input power, precursor type and coating time on the coating performance were examined. The physicochemical properties of the coating layer were analyzed using a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer and a contact angle (CA) analyzer. The water CA increased after the coating preparation, indicating that the surface changed from hydrophilic to hydrophobic. The FTIR characterization revealed that the hydrophobic layer was comprised of functional groups such as $CH_3$, Si-O-Si and Si-C. As a result of the hydrophobic coating, the floating time of the fish feed increased from several seconds to 3 minutes, which suggested that the plasma coating method could be a viable means for practical applications. Compared to the water CA measured as soon as the coating layer was prepared, the 6-day aged sample exhibited a substantial CA increase, confirming the aging effect on the improvement of the hydrophobicity.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.25 no.5
• /
• pp.455-462
• /
• 2014

This work investigated the hydrophobic coating of silicate yellow phosphor powder in the form of divalent europium-activated strontium orthosilicate ($Sr_2SiO_4:Eu^{2+}$) by using an atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma with argon as a carrier and hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO), toluene and n-hexane as precursors. After the plasma treatment of the phosphor powder, the lattice structure of orthosilicate was not altered, as confirmed by an X-ray diffractometer. The coated phosphor powder was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, fluorescence spectrophotometry and contact angle analysis (CAA). The CAA of the phosphor powder coated with the HMDSO precursor revealed that the water contact angle increased from $21.3^{\circ}$ to $139.5^{\circ}$ (max. $148.7^{\circ}$) and the glycerol contact angle from $55^{\circ}$ to $143.5^{\circ}$ (max. $145.3^{\circ}$) as a result of the hydrophobic coating, which indicated that hydrophobic layers were successfully formed on the phosphor powder surfaces. Further surface characterizations were performed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry, which also evidenced the formation of hydrophobic coating layers. The phosphor coated with HMDSO exhibited a photoluminescence (PL) enhancement, but the use of toluene or n-hexane somewhat decreased the PL intensity. The results of this work suggest that the DBD plasma may be a viable method for the preparation of hydrophobic coating layer on phosphor powder.