• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.423-430
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• 2015

$Cu/ZnO/Al_2O_3$ catalysts for water gas shift (WGS) reaction were synthesized by co-precipitation method with the fixed molar ratio of Cu/Zn/Al precursors as 45/45/10. Copper and zinc precursor were added into sodium carbonate solution for precipitation and aged for 24h. During the aging period, aluminum precursor was added into the aging solution with different time gap from the precipitation starting point: 6h, 12h, and 18h. The resulting catalysts were characterized with SEM, XRD, BET surface measurement, $N_2O$ chemisorption, TPR, and $NH_3$-TPD analysis. The catalytic activity tests were carried out at a GHSV of $27,986h^{-1}$ and a temperature range of 200 to $400^{\circ}C$. The catalyst morphology and crystalline structures were not affected by aluminum precursor addition time. The Cu dispersion degree, surface area, and pore diameter depended on the aging time of Cu-Zn precipitate without the presence of $Al_2O_3$ precursor. Also, the interaction between the active substance and $Al_2O_3$ became more stronger as aging duration, with Al precursor presented in the solution, increased. Therefore, it was confirmed that aluminum precursor addition time affected the catalytic characteristics and their catalytic activities.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.421-428
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• 2012

The Sulfur-Iodine (SI) thermochemical hydrogen production process is one of the most promising thermochemical water splitting technologies. In the integrated operation of the SI process, the $O_2$ produced from a $H_2SO_4$ decomposition section could be supplied directly to the Bunsen reaction section without preliminary separation. A $HI_x$ ($I_2+HI+H_2O$) solution could be also provided as the reactants in a Bunsen reaction section, since the sole separation of $I_2$ in a $HI_x$ solution recycled from a HI decomposition section was very difficult. Therefore, the Bunsen reaction using $SO_2-O_2$ mixture gases in the presence of the $HI_x$ solution was carried out to identify the effect of $O_2$. The amount of $I_2$ unreacted under the feed of $SO_2-O_2$ mixture gases was little higher than that under the feed of $SO_2$ gas only, and the amount of HI produced was relatively decreased. The $O_2$ in $SO_2-O_2$ mixture gases also played a role to decrease the amount of a impurity in $HI_x$ phase by only striping effect, while that in $H_2SO_4$ phase was hardly affected.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.44-49
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• 2013

Hydrogen penetration into a metal leads to damages and mechanical degradations and its content measurement is of importance. For a precise measurement, a sample preparation procedure must be optimized through a series of studies on sample washing and drying. In this study, two-step washing with organic solvents and thermal soaking in inert gas were tried with a rod-shaped, API X65 steel sample. The samples were machined from a steel plate and then washed in acetone and etyl-alcohol for 5 minute each and dried with compressed air. After then, the samples were thermally soaked in a home-made nitrogen gas chamber during 10 minute at different heat gun temperatures from 100 to $400^{\circ}C$ and corresponding temperature range in the soaking chamber was from 77 to $266^{\circ}C$ according to the temperature calibration. Hydrogen residue in the samples was measured with a hot extraction system after each soaking step; hydrogen residue of $0.70{\pm}0.12$ wppm after the thermal soaking at $77^{\circ}C$ decayed with increase of the soaking temperature. By adopting the heat transfer model, decay behavior of the hydrogen residue was fitted into an exponential decay function of the soaking temperature. Saturated value or lower bound of the hydrogen residue was 0.36 wppm and chamber temperature required to lower the hydrogen residue about 95% of the lower bound was $360^{\circ}C$. Furthermore, a thermal desorption spectroscopy was done for the fully soaked samples at $360^{\circ}C$. Weak hydrogen peak was observed for whole temperature range and it means that hydrogen-related contaminants of the sample surface are steadily removed by heating. In addition, a broad peak found around $400^{\circ}C$ means that parts of the hydrogen residue are irreversibly trapped in the steel microstructure.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.517-525
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• 2016

The present work investigates the effect of $K_2CO_3$ catalyst on steam gasification of Kideco coal and the deactivation of the catalyst due to thermal exposure and interaction with coal ash. The gasification reactivity at $700^{\circ}C$ is highly enhanced by $K_2CO_3$, which is not deactivated by the heat treatment at $T{\leq}800^{\circ}C$. TGA and XRD results prove minor decomposition of $K_2CO_3$ after the calcination at $800^{\circ}C$. $K_2CO_3$ is, however, evaporated at the higher temperature. Assuming the conversion of $K_2CO_3$ into $K_2O$ by the decomposition and into $K_2O{\cdot}2.5SiO_2$ and $KAlO_2$ by the interaction with coal ash, the reactivity of the gasification is evaluated in the presence of $K_2O$, $K_2O{\cdot}2.5SiO_2$ and $KAlO_2$. Among them, $K_2O$ is the most active, but much lower in the activity than $K_2CO_3$. XRD results show that $K_2CO_3$ could react readily with the ash above $700^{\circ}C$.

• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2019

Reversible solid oxide fuel cell (ReSOC) system was integrated with waste steam for electrical energy storage in distributed energy storage application. Waste steam was utilized as external heat in SOEC mode for higher hydrogen production efficiency. Three system configurations were analyzed to evaluate techno-economic performance. The first system is a simple configuration to minimize the cost of balance of plant. The second system is the more complicated configuration with heat recovery steam generator (HRSG). The third system is featured with HRSG and fuel recirculation by blower. Lumped models were used for system performance analyses. The ReSOC stack was characterized by applying area specific resistance value at fixed operating pressure and temperature. In economical assessment, the levelized costs of energy storage (LCOS) were calculated for three system configurations based on capital investment. The system lifetime was assumed 20 years with ReSOC stack replaced every 5 years, inflation rate of 2%, and capacity factor of 80%. The results showed that the exergy round-trip efficiency of system 1, 2, 3 were 47.9%, 48.8%, and 52.8% respectively. The high round-trip efficiency of third system compared to others is attributed to the remarkable reduction in steam requirement and hydrogen compression power owning to fuel recirculation. The result from economic calculation showed that the LCOS values of system 1, 2, 3 were 3.46 ¢/kWh, 3.43 ¢/kWh, and 3.14 ¢/kWh, respectively. Even though the systems 2 and 3 have expensive HRSG, they showed higher round-trip efficiencies and significant reduction in boiler and hydrogen compressor cost.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.76-82
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• 2019

This study was investigate the characteristics of GHGs ($CO_2$, $CH_4$, and $N_2O$) emissions of diesel medium duty trucks according to their various driving modes. GHGs emissions decreased as vehicle speed increased, and emissions increased after 64.7 km/h. The 4.5 ton trucks show higher values of $CO_2$, $CH_4$, $N_2O$, 35%, 25%, and 57%, respectively, comparing of the 2.5 ton trucks. Also, $CO_2$ emissions under WHVC mode were 20% lower than those under the NEDC mode. In the case of cold start condition, $CO_2$ emissions were 12-13% higher than those for hot start condition. In the future, the result of present study will provide basic data to set up GHGs emission standards for medium and heavy duty vehicles.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.559-569
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• 2018

Catalytic supports made of carbon have many advantages, such as high coking resistance, tailorable pore and surface structures, and ease of recycling of waste catalysts. Moreover, they do not require pre-reduction. In this study, ash-free coal (AFC) was obtained by the thermal extraction of carbonaceous components from raw coal and its performance as a carbon catalytic support was compared with that of well-known activated carbon (AC). Nickel was dispersed on the carbon supports and the resulting catalysts were applied to the steam reforming of toluene (SRT), a model compound of biomass tar. Interestingly, nickel catalysts dispersed on AFC, which has a very small surface area (${\sim}0.13m^2/g$), showed higher activity than those dispersed on AC, which has a large surface area ($1,173A/cm^2$). X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the particle size of nickel deposited on AFC was smaller than that deposited on AC, with the average values on AFC ${\approx}11nm$ and on AC ${\approx}23nm$. This proved that heteroatomic functional groups in AFC, such as carboxyls, can provide ion-exchange or adsorption sites for the nano-scale dispersion of nickel. In addition, the pore structure, surface morphology, chemical composition, and chemical state of the prepared catalysts were analyzed using Brunauer-Emmett-Taylor (BET) analysis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and temperature-programmed reduction (TPR).

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.442-454
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• 2021

The porous transport layer (PTL) is essential to effectively remove oxygen and hydrogen gas from the electrode surface at high current density operation conditions. In this study, the effect of PTL with different characteristics such as pore size, pore gradient, interfacial coating was investigated by multi-layered sintered mesh. A water electrolysis single cell of active area of the 34.56 cm² was constructed, and IV performance and impedance analysis were conducted in the range of 0 to 2.0 A/cm². It was confirmed that the multi-layered sintered mesh PTL, which have an average pore size of 25 to 57 ㎛ and a larger pore gradient, removed bubbles effectively and thus seemed to improve IV performance. Also, it was confirmed that the catalytic metals such as Ni, NiMo coating on the PTL reduced activation overpotential, but increased mass transport overpotential.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.786-794
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• 2022

Green ammonia is a promising renewable energy carrier. Green ammonia can be used in various energy conversion devices (e.g., engine, fuel cell, etc.). Ammonia has to be fed with hydrogen for start-up and failure protection of some energy conversion devices. Ammonia can be converted into hydrogen by decomposition and partial oxidation. Especially, partial oxidation has the advantages of fast start-up, thermally self-sustaining operation and compact size. In this paper, thermodynamics, start-up and operation characteristics of ammonia partial oxidation were investigated. O₂/NH₃ ratio, ammonia flow rate and catalyst volume were varied as operation parameters. In thermodynamic analysis, ammonia conversion was maximized in the O₂/NH₃ range from 0.10 to 0.15. Ammonia partial oxidation reactor was successfully started using 12 V glow plug. At 0.13 of O₂/HN₃ ratio and 10 LPM of ammonia flow rate, ammonia partial oxidation reactor showed 90% of ammonia conversion over commercial Ru catalyst. In addition, Increasing O₂/NH₃ ratio from 0.10 to 0.13 was more effective for high ammonia conversion than increasing catalyst volume at 0.10 of O₂/NH₃.