• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2018

A high efficiency integrated reforming system for improving the efficiency of the 5 kW PEMFC system used as the back up power of building was studied. The separated reforming system consisted of three parts - A steam reformer with two stage concentric circular shape, a heat exchanger type steam generator and a CO shift reactor. Temperature and steam carbon ratio (SCR) were control variables during operation. The operating conditions were optimized based on the thermal efficiency of the steam reformer as reformate gas composition changes at different temperature. In experiments, water was fully vaporized in the steam generator up to SCR 3.5 and the maximum thermal efficiency was achieved at the operating temperature around $700^{\circ}C$ in the steam reforming reactor. With the results of the separated reforming system research, we improved the shape of high efficiency integrated reformer. The performance evaluation of the integrated reformer was based on optimized operating conditions in SCR 3.5. As a result, the developed integrated reforming system maintained an efficiency of 76% and constant performance over 3,000 hours.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.72-78
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• 2015

In the present study, a recuperator to improve the thermal efficiency of a micro gas turbine is considered. The counter flow plate-fin heat exchanger with offset strip fins is chosen as the type of the recuperator. From the optimization study as varying design parameters of the recuperator determined from the ideal cycle analysis, the internal structure of the recuperator is determined. The recuperator is made from stainless steel 304. In order to evaluate performance of the recuperator, experimental investigation is performed. The effects of inlet temperature of hot-side of the recuperator on the thermal performance of the recuperator are investigated. As a result, effectiveness of the recuperator obtained from the experiments is well consistent with that obtained from the correlations.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.141-144
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• 2015

The superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) is an electric power device that limits the fault current immediately in a power grid. Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) has been developing a 154 kV, 2 kA SFCL since 2011 to protect power grids from increasing fault current and improve the stability and quality of electric power. This SFCL adopts 2G YBCO wires and operates at 71 K and 5 bars. In this paper, a cooling system for the 154 kV SFCL and its cooling test results are reported. This cooling system uses a Stirling-type cooler to make sub-cooled liquid nitrogen ($LN_2$), which cools the superconductor modules of the SFCL. The $LN_2$ is circulated between the cooler and the cryostat that contains superconductor modules. The $LN_2$ also plays the role of a high voltage insulator between the modules and the cryostat, so the pressure was maintained at 5 bars for high insulation performance. After installation in a test site, the cooling characteristics of the system were tested. In this operation test, some important data were measured such as temperature distribution in $LN_2$, pressure change, performance of the heat exchanger, and cooling capacity of the total system. Consequently, the results indicate that the cooling system operates well as designed.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.63-74
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• 2018

The heating performance of a solar thermal seasonal storage system applied to a 1,320 m2 glass greenhouse was analyzed numerically, and the economic feasibility depending upon the number of boreholes was evaluated. For this study, the gardening 16th and 19th zucchini greenhouse of Jeollanam-do agricultural research & extension services was selected. And the heating load of the glass greenhouse selected was 1,147 GJ. BTES(Borehole Thermal Energy Storage) was considered as a seasonal storage, which is relatively economical. The number of boreholes was selected from 25 to 150. The TRNSYS was used to predict and analyze the dynamic performance of the solar thermal system. Numerical simulation was performed by modelling the solar thermal seasonal storage system consisting of flat plate solar collector, BTES system, short-term storage tank, boiler, heat exchanger, pump and controller. As a result of the analysis, when the number of boreholes was from 25 to 50, the thermal efficiency of BTES system and the solar fraction was the highest. When the number of boreholes was from 25 to 50, it was analyzed that the payback period was from 5.2 years to 6.2 years. Therefore it was judged to be the number of boreholes of the proposed system was from 25 to 50, which is the most efficient and economical.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.5-15
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• 2012

In this study, a series of CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) numerical analyses were performed in order to evaluate the thermal performance of six full-scale closed-loop vertical ground heat exchangers constructed in a test bed located in Wonju. The circulation HDPE pipe, borehole and surrounding ground formation were modeled using FLUENT, a finite-volume method (FVM) program, for analyzing the heat transfer process of the system. Two user-defined functions (UDFs) accounting for the difference in the temperatures of the circulating inflow and outflow fluid and the variation of the surrounding ground temperature with depth were adopted in the FLUENT model. The relevant thermal properties of materials measured in laboratory were used in the numerical analyses to compare the thermal efficiency of various types of the heat exchangers installed in the test bed. The simulation results provide a verification for the in-situ thermal response test (TRT) data. The CFD numerical back-analysis with the ground thermal conductivity of 4 W/mK yielded better agreement with the in-situ thermal response tests than with the ground thermal conductivity of 3 W/mK.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.343-350
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• 2012

A planar solid oxide fuel cell (PSOFC) is studied in its application in a high-temperature stationary power plant. Even though PSOFCs with external reformers are designed for application from the distributed power source to the central power plant, such PSOFCs may sacrifice more system efficiency than internally reformed SOFCs. In this study, modeling of the PSOFC with an external reformer was developed to analyze the feasibility of thermal energy utilization for the external reformer. The PSOFC system model includes the stack, reformer, burner, heat exchanger, blower, pump, PID controller, 3-way valve, reactor, mixer, and steam separator. The model was developed under the Matlab/Simulink environment with Thermolib$^{(R)}$ modules. The model was used to study the system performance according to its configuration. Three configurations of the SOFC system were selected for the comparison of the system performance. The system configuration considered the cathode recirculation, thermal sources for the external reformer, heat-up of operating gases, and condensate anode off-gas for the enhancement of the fuel concentration. The simulation results show that the magnitude of the electric efficiency of the PSOFC system for Case 2 is 12.13% higher than that for Case 1 (reference case), and the thermal efficiency of the PSOFC system for Case 3 is 76.12%, which is the highest of all the cases investigated.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.459-467
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• 2016

Due to the limited areal space for installation, borehole heat exchangers (BHEs) at depths deeper than 300 m are considered for geothermal heating and cooling in the urban area. The deep vertical closed-loop BHEs are unconventional due to the depth and the range of the typical installation depth is between 100 and 200 m in Korea. The BHE in the study consists of 50A (outer diameter 50 mm, SDR 11) PE U-tube pipe in a 150 mm diameter borehole with the depth of 300 m. In order to compensate the buoyancy caused by the low density of PE pipe ($0.94{\sim}0.96g/cm^3$) in the borehole filled with ground water, 10 weight band sets (4.6 kg/set) were attached to the bottom of U-tube. A thermal response test (TRT) and fundamental basic surveys on the thermophysical characteristics of the ground were conducted. Ground temperature measures around $15^{\circ}C$ from the surface to 100 m, and the geothermal gradient represents $1.9^{\circ}C/100m$ below 100 m. The TRT was conducted for 48 hours with 17.5 kW heat injection, 28.65 l/min at a circulation fluid flow rate indicates an average temperature difference $8.9^{\circ}C$ between inlet and outlet circulation fluid. The estimated thermophysical parameters are 3.0 W/mk of ground thermal conductivity and 0.104 mk/W of borehole thermal resistance. In the stepwise evaluation of TRT, the ground thermal conductivity was calculated at the standard deviation of 0.16 after the initial 13 hours. The sensitivity analysis on the borehole thermal resistance was also conducted with respect to the PE pipe diameter and the thermal conductivity of backfill material. The borehole thermal resistivity slightly decreased with the increase of the two parameters.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.282-287
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• 2016

Recently in order to protect the ocean environment and to reduce energy consumption, shipbuilders have been developing highly economized ships. This research analyzed the possibility of adopting the onshore absorption refrigerator to offshore ships having a cooling system with refrigerant by using the waiste heat of the engine jacket cooling water instead of compression refrigerators. The results showed that R236fa could be a suitable medium for absorbing the heat of the absorber and condenser in an absorption refrigerator. The cooling system using R236fa achieved a high COP of 0.798, which is 15% and 5% higher than an air cooling system with a cooling tower and a water cooling system with a heat exchanger, respectively. The cooling system with R236fa achieved high efficiency with a 25% reduction in flow rate of LiBr solution and only 15.7% flow rate of cooling medium as compared to the water cooling system. The heating of sea water by the engine jacket water flowing out from the generator can prevent the crystallization of LiBr solution due to the low temperature of sea water.

• Transactions of the KSME C: Technology and Education
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.47-55
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• 2014

A new concept of an Eco-friendly desalination method is introduced in this study. The main idea of the desalination method of seawater is the condensation of the vaporized seawater by solar heat energy on the surface of seashore. The wind turbine blade plays a role of heat exchanger condensing the vaporized water in the air. In this analytical study, the availability of the proposed desalination system was studied. First, an analytical condensation theory of the vaporized water in air was arranged and the parametric study was conducted to estimate the amount of freshwater produced from the system with the change of the temperature difference between the humid air and turbine blade, and the relative humidity in air, and wind speed. From the analytical calculation, 2,927(ton/year) of freshwater was produced at the vertical-type wind turbine (Diameter=4m, Height=3m) as the relative humidity is 100%, the temperature difference between the impeller blade and the humid air is $40^{\circ}C$ and the wind speed is 10m/s.

• 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.