• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.523-530
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• 2019

For the low-Pt electrodes for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEMFCs), the optimization of ionomer content for anode catalyst layers was carried out. A commercial catalyst of 20 wt.% Pt/C was used instead of 50 wt.% Pt/C which is commonly used for PEMFCs. The ionomer content varies from 0.6 to 1.2 based on ionomer to carbon ratio (I/C) and the catalyst layer is formed over the electrolyte by the ultrasonic spray process. Evaluation of the prepared MEA in the unit cell showed that the optimal ionomer content of the air electrode was 0.8 on the I/C basis, while the hydrogen electrode was optimal at the relatively high ionomer content of 1.0. In addition, a large difference in cell performance was observed when the ionomer content of the hydrogen electrode was changed. Increasing the ionomer content from 0.6 to 1.0 by I/C in a hydrogen electrode with 0.05 mg/㎠ platinum loading resulted in more than double cell performance improvements on a 0.6 V. Through the analysis of various electrochemical properties in the single cell, it was assumed that the change in ionomer content of the hydrogen electrode affects the water flow between the hydrogen and air electrodes bounded by the membrane in the cell, which affects the overall performance of the cell. A more specific study will be carried out to understand the water flow mechanism in the future, and this study will show that the optimization process of hydrogen electrode can also be a very important cell design variable for the low-Pt and high-performance MEA.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.627-631
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• 2012

Sodium borohydride, $NaBH_4$, shows a number of advantages as hydrogen source for portable proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The durability of Co-P-B/Cu catalyst for sodium borohydride hydrolysis reaction was studied. The effect of reaction temperature, $NaBH_4$ concentration, NaOH concentration and calcination temperature of catalyst on the durability of Co-P-B/Cu catalyst were measured. The gel formed during hydrolysis reaction affected the durability of catalyst (loss of catalyst). Formation of gel increased the loss of the catalyst. When $NaBH_4$ concentration was high and reaction temperature was higher than $60^{\circ}C$, loss of catalyst was low because gel was not formed. But under the temperature of $40^{\circ}C$, loss of catalyst increased due to gel formation When $NaBH_4$ concentration was 40 weight % and the reaction temperature was $40^{\circ}C$, the loss of catalyst increased as the NaOH concentration increased. As the calcination temperature of catalyst decreased, the loss of catalyst decreased and the activity of catalyst decreased. Calcination of the catalyst at high temperature enhanced the durability of catalyst but diminished the activity of catalyst.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.119-128
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• 2004

DME(Dimethyl Ether) was directly produced from the synthesis gas using the slurry phase reactor. The catalyst for DME production prepared two types (A type; Cu:Zn:Al=57:33:10, B type; Cu:Zn:Al=40:45:15, molar ratio). It was evaluated for the effect of the reaction medium oil using the small size slurry phase reactor. DME production yield and the methanol selectivity decreased in the order: n-hexadecane oil> mineral oil> therminol oil. The long-term test of DME production was carried out using A and B type catalyst, and n-hexadecane oil and mineral oil, respectively. It was confirmed that the use of A type for the catalyst and n-hexadecane for the reaction medium oil was very useful for the viewpoint of the DME production form the synthesis gas.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.8-18
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• 2012

This paper presents a three-dimensional, transient cold-start polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) model to numerically evaluate the effects of membrane electrode assembly (MEA) design and cell location in a PEFC stack on PEFC cold start behaviors. The cold-start simulations show that the end cell experiences significant heat loss to the sub-freezing ambient and thus finally cold-start failure due to considerable ice filling in the cathode catalyst layer. On the other hand, the middle cells in the stack successfully start from $-30^{\circ}C$ sub-freezing temperature due to rapid cell temperature rise owing to the efficient use of waste heat generated during the cold-start. In addition, the simulation results clearly indicate that the cathode catalyst layer (CL) composition and thickness have an substantial influence on PEFC cold-start behaviors while membrane thickness has limited effect mainly due to inefficient water absorption and transport capability at subzero temperatures.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1997.07d
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• pp.1255-1257
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• 1997

In order to obtain key technologies for a kW class internal humidifying proton-exchange-membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) a single cell with a large electrode area has been designed and manufactured and the performance of large area membrane/electrode assemblies (MEAs) has been evaluated by using the single cell. A small area MEA made of commercial E-TEK electrode and Nafion 117 membrane showed a performance of 0.7V, $300mA/cm^2$ whereas large area MEA made of catalyst layer on carbon support and Nafion 117 showed a lower performance. To improve the performance of large MEA direct coating of catalyst was carried out on the membrane using a screen printer.

• Carbon letters
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2005

Plasma carbon blacks of 20~30 nm diameter were synthesized by direct decomposition of natural gas using a hybrid plasma torch system with 50 kW direct current and 4 MHz of radio frequency. The insulating rector which inside diameter of 400 mm and length of 1500 mm, respectively was kept at 300~$400^{\circ}C$ during the preparation. The ultimate analysis of plasma carbon blacks reveals that the raw plasma carbon blacks contains a large quantity of volatile which is mainly consist of hydrogen. Therefore devolatilization of raw plasma carbon blacks were carried out at $900^{\circ}C$ for one hour under nitrogen atmosphere. The devolatilization leads to the decrease in electrical resistivity and surface oxygen functional groups of plasma carbon black significantly. In order to investigate the plasma carbon as a catalyst support, devolatilized plasma black at $900^{\circ}C$ (DPB) supported PtAu catalyst was synthesized by sodium boronhydride reduction method. Electrochemical measurements and direct formic acid fuel cell test indicated that catalytic activity of DPB supported PtAu catalyst for formic acid oxidation was similar to that of Vulcan XC-72 of commercial carbon black supported one.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.413-416
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• 2006

PtRu catalyst is most widely used as anode catalyst for a direct methanol fuel cell(DMFC). To promote the efficiency of the catalysts, it Is important to increase the triple phase boundary. In this study, we have tried to increase the triple phase boundaries in preparing electrocatalysts of the fuel cells, based on the process of grafting a proton-conducting agent onto the catalyst This grafted proton-conducting agent can act as an ionomer like Nafion, currently widely used ionomer. First, we have prepared the 80wt% PtRu/Ketjen Black electrocatalyst by an improved colloidal method. And, we have grafted methylsulfonate groups $(-CH_2SO_3H)$ into the catalyst as proton-conducting agents. As results of cyclic voltammety and single cell test of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA), we can conclude that the activity of the grafted electrocatalysts is superior to that of conventional ones, in performance of DMFCs. For our further study, we will investigate the optimum ratio of catalyst/grafted proton conduct Ing agent with maximum performance of a DMFC.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.283-289
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• 2016

In this study, electrochemical characterizations of PdCu/C catalysts that are synthesized by modified polyol method are investigated. Most of all, amount of ethylene glycol (EG) that is used as main component for catalyst synthesis is mainly modulated to optimize synthetic condition of the PdCu/C catalyst, For evaluations about catalytic activity and performance of direct formic acid fuel cell (DFAFC), half cell and full cell tests are implemented. As a result, when amount of EG is 4M, catalytic activities of the PdCu/C catalyst such as peak current of formic acid oxidation and active surface area are best, while maximum power density of DFAFC using the optimized PdCu/C catalyst is better than that using commercial Pd/C (30 wt%) by 6%. Based on that, PdCu/C catalyst synthesized by modified polyol method plays a critical role in improving (i) catalytic activity for formic acid oxidation and (ii) DFAFC performance by employing as anodic catalyst.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.29-32
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• 2008

The cell performance of direct formic acid fuel cell (DFAFC) having catalysts coated by electrospray was analyzed. Pd catalyst was used for the anode electrode and Pd catalyst loading amount and formic acid feed rate dependances of fuel cell performance were evaluated. When loading amount of Pd is in between 3mg/$cm^2$ and 7mg/$cm^2$ and formic acid feed rate is 5ml/min., 3mg/$cm^2$ sample showed better potential at 129 mA/$cm^2$ and power density due to difference in mass transfer limitation. However, when the feed rate is greater than 10ml/min., the opposite tendency was observed between 3mg/$cm^2$ and 7mg/$cm^2$ samples. The result was attributed to improvement in electrochemical reaction of the Pd. Based on the above results, In DFAFC including Pd catalyst that was coated by electrospray, 0.537V as the maximum potential at 129 mA/$cm^2$ was attained.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.323-327
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• 2009

To extract hydrogen for stack, fuels such as LPG and LNG were reformed in the fuel processor, which is comprised of desulfurizer, reformer, shift converter, CO remover and steam generator. All elements of fuel processor are integrated in a single package. Highly active catalysts (desulfurizing adsorbent, reforming catalyst, CO shift catalyst, CO removal catalyst) and the various burners were developed and evaluated in this study. The performance of the developed catalysts and the commercial ones was similar. 1 kW, 5 kW class fuel processor systems using the developed catalyst and burner showed efficiency of 75 %(LHV, for LNG). The start-up time of the 1 kW class fuel processor was less than 50 minutes and its volume including insulation was about 30 l. The start-up time of 3 kW and 5 kW class fuel processors with the volume of 90 l and 150 l, respectively, was about 60 minutes. In the case of LPG fuel, efficiency, volume and start-up time of 1kW class fuel processor showed 73 %(LHV), < 60 l and < 60 min, respectively. Advanced fuel processor showed more highly efficiency and shorter start-up time due to the improvement of heat exchanger and operating method. 1 kW and 3 kW class fuel processors have been evaluated for reliability and durability including with on/off test of developed catalysts and burner.