• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.169-175
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• 2009

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a device to produce a electricity from the oxidation of organic materials using microorganism. Recently many researchers have been studying MFC which is focused as regeneration energy source. Previews studies have focused every each factor that influence the production of electric power. However they didn't study a lot about the correlation among the factors. In order to improve the MFC, we analysed the factors which influencing the generation of electric power of MFC. Also, we made a new compartment to verify the correlations among the factors efficiently. Based on the result obtained from the experiments in the laboratory, we analysed the factors and we suggested a new concept of waste water treatment system to produce electrical energy during the treatment of waste water.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2010

A PEMFC(proton exchange membrane fuel cell) is a good candidate for residential power generation to be coped with the shortage of fossil fuel and green house gas emission. The attractive benefit of the PEMFC is to produce electric power as well as hot water for home usage. The thermal management of PEMFC for RPG is to utilize the heat of PEMFC so that the PEMFC can be operated at its optimal efficiency. In this study, thermal management system of PEMFC stack is modeled to understand the dynamic response during load change. The thermal management system of PEMFC for RPGFC is composed of two cooling circuits, one for controling the fuel cell temperature and the other for heating up the water for home usage. The different operating strategy is applied for each cooling circuit considering the duty of those two circuits. Even though the capacity of PEMFC system (1kW) is enough to supply hot domestic water for residence, heat-up of reservior takes some hours. Therefore, in this study, time schedule of the simulation reflects the heat-up process. Dynamic responses and operating strategies of the PEMFC system are investigated during load changes.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.238-242
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• 2020

Sediment microbial fuel cells (SMFCs) illustrated great potential for powering environmental sensors and bioremediation of sediments. In the present study, array anodes for SMFCs were fabricated with graphite rods as anode material and stainless steel plate as electric current collector to make it inconvenient to in situ settle down and not feasible for large-scale application. The results demonstrated that maximum power of 89.4 ㎼ was obtained from three graphite rods, twice of 43.3 ㎼ for two graphite rods. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy revealed that three graphite rods resulted in anodic resistance of 61.2 Ω, relative to 76.0 Ω of two graphite rods. It was probably caused by the parallel connection of the graphite rods, as well as more biomass which could reduce the charge transfer resistance of the biofilm anode. The presently designed array configuration possesses the advantages of easy to enlarge the surface area, decrease in anodic resistance because of the parallel connection of each graphite rod, and convenience to berry into sediment by gravity. Therefore, the as prepared array node would be an effective method to fabricate large-scale SMFC and make it easy to in situ applicate in natural sediments.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.303-310
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• 2023

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a bioelectrochemical system where electrochemically active bacteria convert organic waste into electricity. Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and chitosan (CS) are polymers that have been studied as potential alternative ion exchange membranes to Nafion for many electrochemical systems. This study examined the optimal mixing ratio of PVA and chitosan CS in a PVA:CS composite membrane for MFC applications. PVA:CS composite membranes with 1:1, 2:1, and 3:1 ratios were synthesized and tested. The water uptake and ion exchange capacity, Fourier transform infrared spectra, and scanning electron microscopy images were analyzed to determine the physicochemical properties of PVA:CS membranes. The prepared membranes were applied to the ion exchange membrane of the MFC system, and their effects on the electrochemical performance were evaluated. These results showed that the composite membrane with a 3:1 (PVA:CS) ratio showed comparable performance to the commercialized Nafion membrane and produced more electricity than the other synthesized membranes. The PVA:CS membrane implemented MFCs produced a maximum power density of 0.026 mW cm^-2 from organic waste with stable performance. Therefore, it can be applied to a cost-effective MFC system.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.33-36
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• 2008

The transient behavior of a passive air breathing direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) operated on vapor-feeding mode is studied in this paper. It generally takes 30 minutes after starting for the cell response to come to its steady-state and the response is sometimes unstable. A mathematical dynamic one-dimensional model for simulating transient response of the DMFC is presented. In this model a DMFC is decomposed into its subsystems using lumped model and divided into five layers, namely the anodic diffusion layer, the anodic catalyst layer, the proton exchange membrane (PEM), the cathodic catalyst layer and the cathodic diffusion layer. All layers are considered to have finite thickness, and within every one of them a set of differential-algebraic governing equations are given to represent multi-components mass balance, such as methanol, water, oxygen and carbon dioxide, charge balance, the electrochemical reaction and mass transport phenomena. A one-dimensional, isothermal and mass transport model is developed that captures the coupling between water generation and transport, oxygen consumption and natural convection. The single cell is supplied by pure methanol vapor from a methanol reservoir at the anode, and the oxygen is supplied via natural air-breathing at the cathode. The water is not supplied from external source because the cell uses the water created at the cathode using water back diffusion through nafion membrane. As a result of simulation strong effects of water transport were found out. The model analysis provides several conclusions. The performance drop after peak point is caused by insufficiency of water at the anode. The excess water at the cathode makes performance recovery impossible. The undesired crossover of the reactant methanol through the PEM causes overpotential at the cathode and limits the feeding methanol concentration.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.79-86
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• 2010

The characteristics and classification of UAV power plants were studied. The energy source for electric generation and power source for internal combustion engine for UAVs were compared. The advantage and drawbacks of power plants were analyzed respectively and the performance demand condition was suggested for next generation UAV power plant finally.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.446_447
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• 2009

This paper describes operational analysis results of the DC micro-grid using detailed model of distributed generation. Detailed model of wind power generation, photo-voltaic generation, fuel-cell generation was implemented with the user-defined model of PSCAD/EMTDC software that is coded with C-language. Various simulation results confirm that the DC micro-grid can operate without any problem in both the interconnected mode and the islanded mode. The operation analysis result confirms that the DC micro-grid make it feasible to provide power to the load stably.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.363-367
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• 2014

One chambered sediment microbial fuel cell (SMFC) was equipped with Fe, brass (Cu/Zn), Fe/Zn, Cu, Cu/carbon cloth and graphite felt anode. Graphite felt was used as common cathode. The SMFC was membrane-less and mediator-less as well. Order of anodic performance on the basis of power density was Fe/Zn ($6.90Wm^{-2}$) > Fe ($6.03Wm^{-2}$) > Cu/carbon cloth ($2.13Wm^{-2}$) > Cu ($1.13Wm^{-2}$) > brass ($Cu/Zn=0.24Wm^{-2}$) > graphite felt ($0.10Wm^{-2}$). Fe/Zn composite anode have twisted 6.73% more power than Fe alone, Cu/carbon cloth boosted power production by 65%, and brass (Cu/Zn) produced 65% less power than Cu alone. Graphite felt have shown the lowest electricity generation because of its poor galvanic potential. The estuarine sediment served as supplier of oxidants or electron producing microbial flora, which evoked electrons via a complicated direct microbial electron transfer mechanism or making biofilm, respectively. Oxidation reduction was kept to be stationary over time except at the very initial period (mostly for sediment positioning) at anodes. Based on these findings, cost effective and efficient anodic material can be suggested for better SMFC configurations and stimulate towards practical value and application.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.50-64
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• 2011

In this paper, a DC-coupled photovoltaic (PV), fuel cell (FC) and ultracapacitor hybrid power system is studied for building microgrid. In this proposed system, the PV system provides electric energy to the electrolyzer to produce hydrogen for future use and transfer to the load side, if possible. Whenever the PV system cannot completely meet load demands, the FC system provides power to meet the remaining load. The main weak point of the FC system is slow dynamics, because the power slope is limited to prevent fuel starvation problems, improve performance and increase lifetime. A power management and control algorithm is proposed for the hybrid power system by taking into account the characteristics of each power source. The main works of this paper are hybridization of alternate energy sources with FC systems using long and short storage strategies to build an autonomous system with pragmatic design, and a dynamic model proposed for a PV/FC/UC bank hybrid power generation system. A simulation model for the hybrid power system has been developed using Matlab/Simulink, SimPowerSystems and Matlab/Stateflow. The system performance under the different scenarios has been verified by carrying out simulation studies using a practical load demand profile, hybrid power management and control, and real weather data.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.567-578
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• 2013

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a bio-electrochemical device that converts chemical energy in the chemical bonds in organic compounds to electrical energy through catalytic reactions of microorganisms under anaerobic conditions. Power density and Coulombic efficiency are significantly affected by the types of microbe in the anodic chamber of an MFC, configurations of the system and operating conditions. The achievable power output from MFC increased remarkably by modifying their designs such as the optimization of MFC configurations, the physical and chemical operating conditions, and the choice of biocatalysts. This article presents a critical review on the recent advances made in MFC research with the emphasis on MFC configurations, optimization of important operating parameters, performances and future applications of MFC.