• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.406-414
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• 2021

Electrochemical devices are constructed for continuous syngas (CO + H₂) production with controlled selectivity between CO₂ and proton reduction reactions. The ratio of CO to H₂, or the faradaic efficiency toward CO generation, was mechanically manipulated by adjusting the space volume between the cathode and the polymer gas separator in the device. In particular, the area added between the cathode and the ion-conducting polymer using 0.5 M KHCO₃ catholyte regulated the solution acidity and proton reduction kinetics in the flow cell. The faradaic efficiency of CO production was controlled as a function of the distance between the polymer separator and cathode in addition to that manipulated by the electrode potential. Further, the electrochemical CO₂ reduction device using Au NPs presented a stable operation for more than 23 h at different H₂:CO production levels, demonstrating the functional stability of the flow cell utilizing the mechanical variable as an important operational factor.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.45 no.12
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• pp.772-776
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• 2008

The Korea Electric Power Research Institute (KEPRI) has been developing planar solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and power systems for combined heat and power (CHP) units. The R&D work includes solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) materials investigation, design and fabrication of single cells and stacks, and kW class SOFC CHP system development. Anode supported cells composed of Ni-YSZ/FL/YSZ/LSCF were enlarged up to $15{\times}15\;cm^2$ and stacks were manufactured using $10{\times}10\;cm^2$ cells and metallic interconnects such as ferritic stainless steel. The first-generation system had a 37-cell stack and an autothermal reformer for use with city gas. The system showed maximum stack power of about $1.3\;kW_{e,DC}$ and was able to recover heat of $0.57{\sim}1.2\;kW_{th}$ depending on loaded current by making hot water. The second-generation system was composed of an improved 48-cell stack and a prereformer (or steam reformer). The thermal management subsystem design including heat exchangers and insulators was also improved. The second-generation system was successfully operated without any external heat source. Under self-sustainable operation conditions, the stack power was about $1.3\;kW_{e,DC}$ with hydrogen and $1.2\;kW_{e,DC}$ with city. The system also recuperated heat of about $1.1\;kW_{th}$ by making hot water. Recently KEPRI manufactured a 2kW class SOFC stack and a system by scaling up the second-generation 1kW system and will develop a 5kW class CHP system by 2010.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.1361-1369
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• 2003

Design performance of hybrid power generation systems, comprised of a gas turbine and an atmospheric pressure molten carbonate fuel cell, has been analyzed. Two different configurations were analyzed and performances were compared. A reference calculation was performed for the design condition of a system under development and simulated results agreed well with the published data. Performances were analyzed in terms of main design parameters including turbine inlet temperature, operating temperature of the fuel cell and pressure ratio. Also examined were the effects of fuel utilization factor and heat exchanger effectiveness. It was found that the relationship between the turbine inlet temperature and the fuel cell temperature should be critically examined to evaluate achievable design performance. Considering current state of the art technologies, a system with the combustor located before the turbine could achieve higher efficiency and specific power than the other system with the combustor located after the turbine.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.499-505
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• 2012

The fuel cell is a very promising power generation system combining the benefits of extremely low emissions, high efficiency, ease of maintenance and durability. In order to promote the commercialization of fuel cells, a flexible forming process, in which a hyper-elastic rubber is adopted as a medium to transmit forming pressure, is suggested as an efficient and cost effective manufacturing method for fuel cell bipolar plates. In this study, the ability of this flexible forming process to produce the micro channel arrays on metallic bipolar plates was first demonstrated experimentally. Then, a finite element (FE) model was built and validated through comparisons between simulated and experimental results. The effects of key process parameters on the forming performance such as applied load and punch velocity were investigated. As a result, appropriate process parameter values allowing high dimensional accuracy without failure were suggested.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.277-279
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• 2005

The imbalance of energy demand and supply caused by rapid industrialization around the world and the associated environmental issues require and alternative energy source with possible renewable fuels. Political instability and depletion of cruel oils are other factors that cause fluctuation of oil price. Securing a new alternative energy source for the next century became an urgent issue that our nation is confronting with. As a matter of fact, the fuel cell technology can be widely used as next generation energy regardless of regions and climate. Specially, the ability of expansion and quick installation enable one to apply it for distributed power, where the technology is already gaining remarkable attentions for the application. Particularly, leading industrialized nations are focusing on the PEM fuel dell with anticipation that this technology will find their place of applications in the vehicles and homes. In this study, demonstrate the multi physics modeling of a proton exchange membrane(PEM) fuel cell with interdigitated flow field design. The model uses current balances, mass balance(Maxwell-Stefan diffusion for reactant, water and nitrogen gas) and momentum balance(gas flow) to simulate the PEM fuel cell behavior.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.236-244
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• 2021

Fuel cell systems for medium duty truck require high power demands under driving. Since high power demands results in significant heat generation, thermal management is crucial for the performance and durability of medium duty truck. Therefore, various configurations of dual stacks with cooling systems are investigated to understand appropriate thermal management conditions. The simulation model consists of a dynamic fuel cell stack model, a cooling system model equipped with a controller, and the mounted controller applies a feedback controller to control the operating temperature. Also, In order to minimize parasitic power, the comparison of the cooling systems involved in the arrangement was divided into three case. As a result, this study compares the reaction of fuel cells to the placement of the cooling system under a variety of load conditions to find the best placement method.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.130-141
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• 2022

Due to continuous climate change, greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are gradually accumulating, and various extreme weather events occurring all over the world are a serious threat to human sustainability. Countries around the world are making efforts to convert energy sources from traditional fossil fuels to renewable energy. Hydrogen energy is a clean energy source that exists infinitely on Earth, and can be used in most areas that require energy, such as power generation, transportation, commerce, and household sectors. A fuel cell, a device that produces electric and thermal energy by using hydrogen energy, is a key field to respond to climate change, and major countries around the world are spurring the development of core fuel cell technology. In this paper, research trends in China, the United States, Germany, Japan, and Korea, which have the highest number of papers related to fuel cells, are analyzed through keyword network analysis.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.382-388
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• 2009

Recently, hydrogen energy has been anticipated to change the paradigm of conventional power systems because it can expand sustainable energy utilization and conceptually provide remarkable flexibility to power system operation. Since hydrogen energy can be converted to electric energy through fuel cells, fuel cells are expected to play an important role in the future hydrogen economy. In this paper, a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is modeled as an equivalent circuit and its steady-state characteristics investigated using the model. PEMFCs can be connected to power systems through power conditioning systems, which consist of power electronic circuits, and which are operated as distributed generators. This paper analyzes the effects of the characteristics of the PEMFC internal voltages and investigated the dynamic responses of the PEMFC under fault conditions. The results show that the fault current contribution of the PEMFC is different from those of conventional generators and is closely related to its operating point.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.10
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• pp.907-916
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• 2010

Integration of various bottoming cycles such as the gas turbine (GT) cycle, organic Rankine cycle, and oxy-fuel combustion cycle with an molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) power-generation system was analyzed, and the performance of the power-generation system in the three cases were compared. Parametric analysis of the three different integrated systems was carried out under conditions corresponding to the practical use and operation of MCFC, and the optimal design condition for each system was derived. The MCFC/oxy-combustion system exhibited the greatest power upgrade from the MCFC-only system, while the MCFC/GT system showed the greatest efficiency enhancement.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.467-477
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• 2009

Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is a regulatory policy that requires the generation companies to increase the proportion of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, LFG, fuel cell, and small hydro. Recently, Korean government decided to increase the portion of renewable energy to 3% to total electricity generation by 2012 from the current level of 0.13%. To achieve this goal, an innovative plan for market competitiveness would be required in addition to the present Feed-In-Tariff (FIT). That is Korean government has taken it into consideration to introduce a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) as an alternative to FIT. This paper reviews the impact of RPS on the long-term fuel mix in 2020. The studies have been carried out with the GATE-PRO (Generation And Transmission Expansion PROgram) program, a mixed-integer non-linear program developed by Hongik university and Korea Energy Economics Institute. Detailed studies on long-term fuel mix in Korea have been carried out with four RPS scenarios of 3%, 5%, 10% and 20%. The important findings and comments on the results are given to provide an insight on future regulatory policies.