• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.531-538
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• 2019

As the performance of PEMFC has been improved, the water and heat generated by reaction have increased so, the water and heat management of PEMFC is becoming more important. In this study, hydrogen recirculation was applied as the water management technique and the effect of recirculation flow rate, purge interval and duration on the performance of PEMFC was investigated. Anode pressure, fuel humidity and utilization, water discharge amount was measured to check the effect of purge conditions on performance. As the recirculation flow rate has increased, the performance of PEMFC became lower due to decrease of anode outlet pressure. According to the purge conditions, instantaneous voltage drop has occurred because of accumulated water. In frequent purge conditions, the performance of PEMFC gradually decreased due to fuel humidity control failure. Stable performance and high fuel utilization was achieved on this work by analyzing the effect of purge conditions.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.24-27
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• 2007

한국에너지기술연구원에서는 가정용 고분자연료전지 열병합 발전시스템을 위한 통합형 천연가스 연료처리 시스템을 개발해 왔다. 본 고에서는 연료처리 시스템의 운전 시 모사 연료극 가스 공급이 미치는 영향에 대해 고찰하고, 부하 변동 시 각 단위 공정의 온도 변화와 CO 농도 변화 현상에 대처하기 위한 방법을 제시하고자 한다.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.481-487
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• 2011

A fuel cell vehicle using a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEM FC) as power source produces electric power by consuming the fuel, hydrogen. The unconsumed hydrogen is recirculated and reused to gain higer stack efficiency and to maintain the humidity in the anode side of the stack. So it is needed considering fuel efficiency to recirculated hydrogen. In this study, the indirect hydrogen recirculation flow rate measurement method for fuel cell vehicle is presented. By modeling of a convergent nozzle ejector and a hydrogen recirculation blower for the hydrogen recirculation of a PEM FC, the hydrogen recirculation flow rate was calculated by means of the mass balance and heat balance at Anode In/Outlet.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.337-344
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• 2011

The humidification of reactant gases is crucial for efficiently operating PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell systems and for improving the durability of these systems. The recycle of the energy and water vapor of exhaust gas improves the system performance especially in the case of automotive application. The available humidification methods are steam injection, nozzle spray, humidification by enthalpy wheel, membrane humidifier, etc. However, these methods do not satisfy certain requirements such as compact design, efficient operation and control. In this study, a hybrid humidification system consisting of a membrane humidifier and exhaust-air recirculation units was developed and the humidification performance of this hybrid humidifier was analyzed. Finally, a new practical method for optimal design of PEM-fuel-cell humidification system is proposed.

• Clean Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.329-335
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• 2020

Methanol synthesized from renewable hydrogen and captured CO2 has recently attracted great interest as a sustainable energy carrier for large-scale renewable energy storage. In this study, molten carbonate fuel cell's performance was investigated with the direct conversion of methanol into syngas inside the anode chamber of the cell. The internal reforming of methanol may significantly improve system efficiency since the heat generated from the electrochemical reaction can be used directly for the endothermic reforming reaction. The porous Ni-10 wt%Cr anode was sufficient for the methanol steam reforming reaction under the fuel cell operating condition. The direct supply of methanol into the anode chamber resulted in somewhat lower cell performance, especially at high current density. Recycling of the product gas into the anode gas inlet significantly improved the cell performance. The analysis based on material balance revealed that, with increasing current density and gas recycling ratio, the methanol steam reforming reaction rate likewise increased. A methanol conversion more significant than 90% was achieved with gas recycling. The results showed the feasibility of electricity and syngas co-production using the molten carbonate fuel cell. Further research is needed to optimize the fuel cell operating conditions for simultaneous production of electricity and syngas, considering both material and energy balances in the fuel cell.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.27-34
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• 2023

Using ammonia as fuel for solid oxide fuel (SOFC) cells has become an attractive topic nowadays due to its high efficiency, environmental friendliness, and ease of storage and transportation. Several configurations of ammonia-fed SOFC systems have been proposed and investigated, demonstrating high electrical efficiency. However, to further enhance efficiency, it is crucial to understand the inefficient components of the system. The exergy concept is well-suited for this purpose, making exergetic analysis essential for ammonia-fed SOFC systems. This study conducts an exergetic analysis for three selected systems: a simple fuel cell system (FC), an anode off-gas recirculation system (RC-FC), and a recirculation system with water removal (RC-WR-FC). The results reveal that the exergetic efficiencies of the FC, RC-FC, and RC-WR-FC are 48.7%, 51.6%, and 58.4%, respectively. In all three systems, the SOFC stack is the main source of exergy destruction. However, other components with relatively low exergetic efficiency, such as the burner, air heat exchanger, and cooler/condenser, offer greater opportunities for improvement.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.343-350
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• 2012

A planar solid oxide fuel cell (PSOFC) is studied in its application in a high-temperature stationary power plant. Even though PSOFCs with external reformers are designed for application from the distributed power source to the central power plant, such PSOFCs may sacrifice more system efficiency than internally reformed SOFCs. In this study, modeling of the PSOFC with an external reformer was developed to analyze the feasibility of thermal energy utilization for the external reformer. The PSOFC system model includes the stack, reformer, burner, heat exchanger, blower, pump, PID controller, 3-way valve, reactor, mixer, and steam separator. The model was developed under the Matlab/Simulink environment with Thermolib$^{(R)}$ modules. The model was used to study the system performance according to its configuration. Three configurations of the SOFC system were selected for the comparison of the system performance. The system configuration considered the cathode recirculation, thermal sources for the external reformer, heat-up of operating gases, and condensate anode off-gas for the enhancement of the fuel concentration. The simulation results show that the magnitude of the electric efficiency of the PSOFC system for Case 2 is 12.13% higher than that for Case 1 (reference case), and the thermal efficiency of the PSOFC system for Case 3 is 76.12%, which is the highest of all the cases investigated.