• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.300-309
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• 2017

A spacecraft obtains a reaction momentum required for an orbit correction and an attitude control by exhausting a combustion gas through a small thruster in space. If the exhaust plume collides with spacecraft surfaces, it is very important to predict the exhaust plume behavior of the thruster when designing a satellite, because a generated disturbance force/torque, a heat load and a surface contamination can yield a life shortening and a reduction of the spacecraft function. The purpose of the present study is to ensure the core technology required for the spacecraft design by analyzing numerically the exhaust gas behavior of the 10 N class bipropellant thruster for an attitude control of the spacecraft. To do this, calculation results of chemical equilibrium reaction between a MMH for fuel and a NTO for oxidizer, and continuum region of the nozzle inside are implemented as inlet conditions of the DSMC method for the exhaust plume analysis. From these results, it is possible to predict a nonequilibrium expansion such as a species separation and a backflow in the vicinity of the bipropellant thruster nozzle.

• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 2008

The GTL(Gas to Liquids) technology, manufacturing synthesized oil from natural gas, had been developed about 1920 for the military purpose by Fischer and Tropsch, German scientists. And 1960, Sasol company had started commercializing the FT(Fischer-Tropsch) synthesis technology, for the transport fuel in South Africa. Until a recent date, the commercialization of GTL technology had been delayed by low oil price. But concern about depletion of petroleum resources, and development in synthesizing technology lead to spotlight on the GTL businesses. Especially, Qatar, which has rich natural gas fields, aims at utilizing natural gas like conventional oil resources. Therefore, around this nation, GTL plants construction has been promoted. There are mainly 3 processes to make GTL products(Diesel, Naphtha, lube oil, etc) from natural gas. The first is synthesis gas generation unit reforming hydrogen and carbomonoxide from natural gas. The second is FT synthesis unit converting synthesized gas to polymeric chain-hydrocarbon. The third is product upgrading unit making oil products from the FT synthesized oil. There are quite a little sulfur, nitrogen, and aromatic compounds in GTL products. GTL product has environmental premium in discharging less harmful particles than refinery oil products from crude to the human body. In short, the GTL is a clean technology, easier transportation mean, and has higher stability comparing to LNG works.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.120-130
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• 2013

A study was conducted for the performance characteristics of methane taking recently the limelight in the world as a next-generation propellant, with the survey for state of the art in the development of methane/oxygen rocket engine being accompanied. Liquid methane as a rocket fuel has the favorable characteristics such as non-toxic, low cost, regenerative cooling capability, and potential for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). The combination of liquid methane and liquid oxygen also provides the excellent performance including high specific impulse and low system mass. For these reasons, many researches have been actively carried out on the methane/oxygen engine, nevertheless, its technology readiness level is not that high enough just yet. Therefore, it is judged that it is the time to mitigate the technical gap with the space technology of advanced countries through a swift onset of the development of methane rocket engine.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.23-31
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• 2004

For the fabrication of high efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst of oxygen electrode for PEM URFC (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Unitized Regenerative Fuel Cell), which is a promising energy storage and conversion system using hydrogen as the energy medium, several bifunctional electrocatalysts were prepared and tested in a single cell URFC system. The catalysts for oxygen electrode revealed fuel cell performance in the order of Pt black > PtIr > PtRuOx > PtRu ~ PtRuIr > PtIrOx, whereas water electrolysis performance in the order of PtIr ~ PtIrOx > PtRu > PtRuIr > PtRuOx ~ Pt black. Considering both reaction modes PtIr was the most effective elctrocatalyst for oxygen electrode of present PEM URFC system. In addition, the water electrolysis performance was significantly improved when Ir or IrOx was added to Pt black just 1 wt.% without the decrease of fuel cell performance. Based on the catalyst screening and the optimization of catalyst composition and loading, the optimum catalyst electrodes for PEM URFC were $1.0mg/cm^2$ of Pt black as hydrogen electrode and $2.0mg/cm^2$ of PtIr (99:1) as oxygen electrode.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.339-356
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• 2018

Although fuel cell systems have advantages in terms of electric efficiency and environmental impact compared with conventional power systems, fuel cell systems have not been deployed widely due to their low reliability and high price. In order to guarantee the lifetime of 10 years, which is the commercialization goal of Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs), it is necessary to improve durability and reliability through optimized operation and maintenance technologies. Due to the complexity of components and their degradation phenomena, it's not easy to develop and apply the diagnose and prognostic methodologies for PEFCs. The purpose of the paper is to show the current state on PEFC prognostic technology for condition based maintenance. For the prognostic of PEFCs, the model driven method, the data-driven, and the hybrid method can be applied. The methods reviewed in this paper can contribute to the development of technologies to reduce the life cycle cost of fuel cells and increase the reliability through prognostics-based health management system.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.252-272
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• 2017

Fuel cell systems have to satisfy acceptable operating reliability, sufficient lifetime and price to enter the market in competition with existing products. Fuel cells are made up of complex element technologies and various problems related to the failure of the components can affect the reliability and safety of the system. This problem can be overcome by introducing a monitoring and supervisory control system in addition to automatic control to detect the failure of the fuel cell quickly and properly diagnose the performance degradation. For the fault detection and diagnosis of polymer electrolyte fuel cells, the model based method using the theoretical superposition value and the non-model based method of checking the signal tendency or the converted signal characteristic can be applied. The methods analyzed in this paper can contribute to the development of integrated monitoring and control technology for the whole system as well as the stack.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.556-566
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• 2019

Recently, as the supply of residential polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) increases, the durability and lifetime of the PEMFC system are becoming important. The related studies have been mainly focused on the durability and lifetime of materials while the research on the durability and maintenance of the system level is insufficient. In this paper, a model-based fault detection method is developed considering an air supply system that is dominant to the system performance and efficiency. A commercial 1 kW residential fuel cell system is built, and experiments are conducted under various operation loads and states (normal, 6 faults). From the experimental data, nominal models and residuals are generated. With the residual pattern obtained from real-time data, the detection and classification of various faults can be possible. The technical importance of this paper is to minimize extra sensor installation by using the empirical model rather than a complex mathematical model, and to decrease the number of models by using the applicable model at three loads. Finally, the model-based fault detection method for the air supply system of a PEMFC is established and is expected to be applicable to other subsystems.

• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.69-78
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• 2021

Vegetable oils, such as palm oil and cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL), are used as major raw materials for bio-diesel in transportation and bio-heavy oil in power generation in South Korea. However, due to the high unsaturation degree caused by hydrocarbon double bonds and a high content of oxygen originating from the presence of carboxylic acid, the range of applications as fuel oil is limited. In this study, hydrotreating to saturate unsaturated hydrocarbons and remove oxygen in mixed bio-oil containing 1/1 v/v% palm oil and CNSL on monometallic catalysts (Ni and Cu) and bimetallic catalysts (Ni-Zn, Ni-Fe, Ni-Cu Ni-Co, Ni-Pd, and Ni-Pt) was perform under mild conditions (T = 250 ~ 400 ℃, P = 5 ~ 80 bar and LHSV = 1 h-1). The addition of noble metals and transition metals to Ni showed synergistic effects to improve both hydrogenation (HYD) and hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) activities. The most promising catalyst was Ni-Cu/��-Al2O3, and in the wide range of the Ni/Cu atomic ratio of 9/1~1/4, the conversion for HYD and HDO reactions of the catalysts were 90-93% and 95-99%, respectively. The tendency to exhibit almost constant reaction activity in these catalysts of different Ni/Cu atomic ratios implies a typical structure-insensitive reaction. The refined bio-oil produced by hydrotreating (HDY and HDO) had significantly lower iodine value, acid value, and kinetic viscosity than the raw bio-oil and the higher heating value (HHV) was increased by about 10%.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.109-114
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• 2008

Though ethanol can theoretically generate 12 electrons during oxidation to carbon dioxide, the complete oxidation of ethanol is hard to achieve due to the strong bond between the two carbons in its molecular structure. Therefore, development of high activity catalyst for ethanol oxidation is necessary for the commercialization of direct ethanol fuel cell. In this study, some binary and ternary electrocatalysts of PtSn/C and PtSnAu/C have been synthesized and characterized. The catalysts were fabricated with modified polyol method with the amounts of 20 wt%, where the Pt : Sn ratios in the PtSn/C were 1 : 0, 4 : 1, 3 : 1, 2 : 1, 1.5 : 1, 1 : 1, 1 : 1.5 and Pt:Sn:Au ratios in the PtSnAu/C were 5 : 5 : 0, 5 : 4 : 1, 5 : 3 : 2, 5 : 2 : 3. From the XRD and TEM analysis results, the catalysts were found to have face centered cubic structure with particle size of around $1.9{\sim}2.4\;nm$. The activity in the ethanol oxidation was examined with cyclic voltammetry and the results indicated that PtSn(1.5 : 1)/C and PtSnAu(5 : 2 : 3)/C had the highest activity in each catalyst system. Further tests with single cell were performed with those catalysts. It was found that PtSn/C(1.5 : 1) exhibited the best performance while the long term stability of PtSnAu/C(5 : 2 : 3) is better than PtSn/C(1.5 : 1).

• 한국전기화학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.103-110
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• 2005

Fuel cell systems are consisted of various parts, for example fuel cell stack, fuel supplier, electrical converters, controllers and so on. Each components of system should have appropriate specification for their applications as well as simplicity. Because thermal load can be managed simply by using fans without any water cooling system, the air-cooled PEMFC is widely used in sub kW and around 1kW systems. The performance of an air-cooled system is highly dependent on ambient temperature and humidity. In this paper, the air-cooled PEMFC systems are developed and investigated to study the operating characteristics in the aspect of the thermal and water coupled management by the control of the axial fans and compressors. Various experiments were also conducted to get the cell voltage distribution, the relative humidity of the reactant gas and the thermal management by axial cooling fans, which cannot be observed in single cell experiment. After then, as practical applications, portable fuel cell system and a hybrid electric cart were successfully integrated and operated by using this air-cooled stack.