• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.453-466
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• 2020

As the demand for eco-friendly energy increases to overcome the energy shortage and environmental pollution crisis, hydrogen economy has been proposed as a potential solution. Accordingly, an economical and efficient hydrogen production is considered to be an essential industrial process. Research on applying hydrogen separation membranes for H₂/CO₂ separation to the production of highly concentrated hydrogen by purifying H₂ and capturing CO₂ simultaneously from synthetic gas produced by gasification is in progress nowadays. In high temperature environments, the membrane separation process using glassy polymeric membrane with H₂ selectivity has the potential for CO₂ capture performance, and is an energy and cost effective system since polybenzimicazole (PBI)-based separators show excellent chemical and mechanical stability under high-temperature operation conditions. Thus, the development of high-performance PBI hydrogen separators has been rapidly progressing in recent years. This overview focuses on the recent developments of PBI-based membranes including structure modified, cross-linked, blended and carbonized membranes for applications to the industrial hydrogen separation process.

• Strategy21
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• s.37
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• pp.104-143
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• 2015

China's new grand strategy, the "One Belt, One Road Initiative" (also Belt Road Initiative, or BRI) has two primary components: Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the "Silk Road Economic Belt" in September 2013 during a visit to Kazakhstan, and the "21^st Century Maritime Silk Route Economic Belt" in a speech to the Indonesian parliament the following month. The BRI is intended to supply China with energy and new markets, and also to integrate the countries of Central Asia, the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN), and the Indian Ocean Region - though not Northeast Asia - into the "Chinese Dream". The project will be supported by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), due to open in 2016 with 57 founding members from all around the world, and China has already promised US$ 50 billion in seed funding. China's vision includes networks of energy pipelines, railways, sea port facilities and logistics hubs; these will have obvious commercial benefits, but also huge geopolitical significance. China seems to have two distinct aims: externally, to restore its historical sphere of influence; and internally, to cope with income inequalities by creating middle-class jobs through enhanced trade and the broader development of its economy. In South Korea, opinion on the BRI is sharply polarized. Economic and industrial interests, including Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL), support South Korean involvement in the BRI and closer economic interactions with China. They see how the BRI fits nicely with President Park Geun-hye's Eurasia Initiative, and anticipate significant commercial benefits for South Korea from better connections to energy-rich Russia and the consumer markets of Europe and Central Asia. They welcome the prospect of reduced trade barriers between China and South Korea, and of improved transport infrastructure, and perceive the political risks as manageable. But some ardently pro-US pundits worry that the political risks of the BRI are too high. They cast doubt on the feasibility of implementing the BRI, and warn that although it has been portrayed primarily in economic terms, it actually reveals a crucial Chinese geopolitical strategy. They are fearful of China's growing regional dominance, and worried that the BRI is ultimately a means to supplant the prevailing US-led regional security structure and restore the Middle Kingdom order, with China as the only power that matters in the region. According to this view, once China has complete control of the regional logistics hubs and sea ports, this will severely limit the autonomy of China's neighbors, including South Korea, who will have to toe the Chinese line, both economically and politically, or risk their own peace and prosperity.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.11 no.2 s.35
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• pp.5-9
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• 2007

There have been 3E problems of energy, economy and environment since the earth has its history. Especially, the energy and environment problems have been getting serious after the modem industry revolution. Therefore, the demand of gas as an eco-friendly energy source is getting increased. With the demand of gas, the installation and use of gas boiler is also increased, so human life injury by the waste gas(CO) of boiler goes on increasing every you. Hence, we want to find out the harm to human body through the study on the concentration of CO by the length of the straight exhaust tube of gas boiler. The allowable concentration of CO is 50 ppm. The 3 m of once bended tube starts exceeding the allowable concentration of CO after 5 minutes, and the 4 m and 5 m starts exceeding after 3 minutes.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.3-18
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• 2019

Due to the increasing demand for clean energy, the consumption of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) is expected to grow steadily. Therefore, stable supply of lithium is becoming an important issue globally. Commercially, most of lithium is produced from the brine and minerals viz., spodumene, although various processes/technologies have been developed to recover lithium from other resources such as low grade ores, clays, seawaters and waste lithium ion batteries. In particular, commercialization of such recycling technologies for end-of-life LIBs being generated from various sources including mobile phones and electric vehicles(EVs), has a great potential. This review presents the commercial processes and also the emerging technologies for exploiting minerals and brines, besides that of newly developed lithium-recovery-processes for the waste LIBs. In addition, the future lithium-supply is discussed from the technical point of view. Amongst the emerging processes being developed for lithium recovery from low-grade ores, focus is mostly on the pyro-cum-hydrometallurgical based approaches, though only a few of such approaches have matured. Because of low recycling rate (<1%) of lithium globally compared to the consumption of lithium ion batteries (56% of lithium produced currently), processing of secondary resources could be foresighted as the grand opportunity. Considering the carbon economy, environment, and energy concerns, the hydrometallurgical process may potentially resolve the issue.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.205-210
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• 2010

LED light has various advantages such as an energy saving effect of over 80% compared to existing lighting and environmentally friendly characteristics; however, there has been no affordable market for LED lighting because of its expensive price. This study discussed the validity of the expansion of distribution of LED lighting through an assessment of economic efficiency concerning LED lightening in order to analyze its efficiency in terms of energy savings and maintenance and repair, which will be generated as a result of the change from existing incandescent bulbs to LED lighting in the public sector. As to the target of analysis, the paper reviewed the validity of change to LED lighting as a result of the elimination of existing incandescent bulbs, by referring to 'the current incandescent bulb use and elimination performance' published by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy based on the "Elimination management system" executed by Korea Energy Management Corporation. The paper considered expenses for change, annual power savings amount and electric charges savings amount, repair and maintenance cost, $CO_2$ reduction volume, and the profit from the sale of CER (certified emission reduction). As a result of analyzing economic efficiency, when the discount rate during the change of existing incandescent bulb lighting to LED lighting is 3.26%, the profit was 8,648,400,000 won. Accordingly, NPV was analyzed to have a 'positive (+)' value, which means that this change is profitable.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.47-54
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• 2021

In this study, the performance of a honeycomb-type hydrogen oxidation catalyst to remove hydrogen in a hydrogen economy society to secure leaking hydrogen. The Pd/TiO₂ catalyst was prepared based on a liquid phase reduction method that is not exposed to a heat source, and it was showed through H₂-chemisorption analysis that it existed as very small active particles of 2~4 nm. In addition, it was found that the metal dispersion decreased and the active particle size increased as the reduction reaction temperature increased. It was meant that the active metal particle size and the hydrogen oxidation performance were in a proportional correlation, so that it was consistent with the hydrogen oxidation performance reduction result. The prepared catalyst was coated on a support in the form of a honeycomb so that it could be applied to the hydrogen industrial process. When 20 wt% or more of the AS-40 binder was coated, oxidation performance of 90% or more was observed under low-concentration hydrogen conditions. It was showed through SEM analysis that long-term catalytic activity can be expected by enhancing the adhesion strength of the catalyst and preventing catalyst desorption. It is a basic research that can secure safety in a hydrogen society such as gasification, organic resource, and it can be utilized as a system that can respond to unexpected safety accidents in the future.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.307-312
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• 2023

In this study, a catalytic oxidation-heat recovery system was designed that can remove unreacted with a concentration of about 1% to 6% in the exhaust gas of hydrogen fuel cells and recover heat to ensure safety in the hydrogen economy. The safety system was devised by filling hydrogen oxidation catalysts at room temperature that can remove unreacted hydrogen without any energy source, and an exhaust-heat recovery device was integrated to efficiently recover the heat released from the oxidation reaction. Through CFD analysis, variations in pressure and fluid within the system were shown depending on the filling conditions of the hydrogen oxidation system. In addition, it was found that waste heat could be recovered by optimizing the temperature of the exhaust gas, flow rate, and pressure conditions within the heat recovery system and securing hot water above 40 ℃ by utilizing the exhaust gas oxidation heat source above 300 ℃. Through this study, it was possible to confirm the potential of utilizing hydrogen processes, which are applied in small to medium-sized systems such as hydrogen fuel cells, as a safety system by evaluating them at a pilot scale. Additionally, it could be a safety guideline for responding to unexpected hydrogen safety accidents through further pilot-scale studies.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.110-116
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• 2007

There have been 3E problems of energy, economy and environment since the earth has its history. Especially, as the industrial society is highly developing, human need in daily life has also changed drastically. With the introduction of 40 hour working week system, more households enjoy picnics on weekends. More gas accidents take place on Saturdays and on Sundays than any other days of week. Consequently, this study tries to find out the influence of flame caused by the explosion of butane canister on the adjacent combustibles and people by simulating relevant quantity of TNT. In addition, the damage estimation was conducted by using API regulations. If the scale of the radiation heat is known by calculating the distance of flame influence from the explosion site, the damage from the site can be easily estimated. And the accident damage was estimated by applying the influence on the adjacent structures and people into the PROBIT model. According to the pro bit analyze, the spot which is 50cm away from the flame has 97% of the damage probability by the first-degree burn, 8% of the damage probability by the second-degree burn and 4% of the death probability by the fire.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.309-322
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• 1990

The accelerated industrialization of Korean economy over the last couple of decades has brought an era of mass consumption of mineral commodities. This increased consumption has been satisfied mainly by imports from abroad. South Korea has about 50 useful mineral commodities for the mineral industry, among 330 kinds of minerals described. In 1988 the self-sufficiency ratio of domestic demand for 44 non-fuel(metallic and non-metallic) minerals as a whole was no more than 29 percent. The ratio for 26 non-metallic minerals was much higher, about 66 percent. On the other hand, the ratio for 18 metallic minerals was relatively very low, about 6.3 percent. The correlation between GNP and mineral consumption in South Korea shows well the slow down patterns during the last two decades.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.138.1-138.1
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• 2010

정부는 그린홈 100만호 보급 사업에서 연료전지의 보급 목표를 2010년 200대 2011년 300대, 2012년 500대로 결정하였고 이에 따라 2012년까지 누적 보급대수가 1000대에 달할 전망이다. 본 연구에서는 현재 상업화 되어있는 국내업체의 1kW급 가정용 연료전지 시스템을 2009년에 도입되는 것으로 가정하여 경제성평가를 수행하였다. 분석의 편의상 2009년 서울 지역 난방면적 $100m^2$을 기준으로 전제하였고, 대표가정의 전기와 열수요는 CES 소형 열병합 사업 타당성 분석 프로그램(GS파워, 2006)을 활용하여 구했다. 비용의 경우 기존 보일러의 설비가격은 60만원이며 연료전지시스템의 설비가격은 1200만원이다. 다만 연료전지의 고가 소모품인 스택은 2007년 발간된 한국에너지 기술연구원의 신재생에너지 경제성평가 보고서를 인용하여 스택의 수명은 5년, 교체비용은 1000만 원이나 5년마다 30%의 비용 하락을 전제하였다. 또한, 연료전지시스템의 수명을 20년으로 가정하였으며 할인율은 5.5%를 가정하였다. 한편, 가정용 연료전지의 최적 운전방안을 찾기 위해서 기존 설비를 이용한 비용과 전기추종운전, 열추종운전의 시뮬레이션을 수행한 뒤 세가지 결과를 시간대별로 비교함으로써 최적의 시간대별 운전방식을 선택하는 복합추종운전의 비용을 분석하였다. 시뮬레이션결과, 기존 설비 이용 시 에너지 비용은 1,934,864원으로 분석된 반면 연료전지를 이용한 전기추종은 1,123,691원, 열추종은 1,180,425원, 복합추종은 1,121,174원으로 계산되었다. 한편 편익면에서는 복합추종운전시 813,690원의 편익이 발생하는 것으로 분석되었으며 B/C ratio의 결과는 0.405로 현재로서는 연료전지 시스템이 경제성이 없는 것으로 분석되었다. 따라서 정부는 연료전지의 보급목표와 민간 주도의 자생적인 시장형성을 촉진하기 위해서 단순 설치 보조금 이외에 연료전지시스템과 스택의 비용을 획기적으로 저감 시킬 수 있는 기술개발을 촉진하는 정책 병행이 필요해 보인다.