• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.84-90
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• 2013

The hydrogen or oxygen gas producted by electrolysis become many bubbles in the electrolyte, but exact data on the behavior of these bubbles in the separator of an electrolysis stack didn't become known. In this study, the flow visualization experiment on the behavior of bubbles in the flow pattern of the array type separator is performed by using of a visible alkaline electrolysis stack and a stereoscopic microscope. As the results, a fine size bubbles adhered to the surface of the flow pattern grow to large sized bubbles until each bubble's buoyance is lager than the sum of external force and weight. And then the large bubbles flow into the upper area of the separator. Bubbles adhered to the surface of the vertical flow pattern grow quickly than them adhered to the surface of the horizontal flow pattern. Also, he electrolysis efficiency is declined because many multi-size bubbles occupied the wide volume in the flow pattern.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.91-97
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• 2013

Recently a novel cycle named organic flash cycle (OFC) has been proposed which has improved potential for power generation from low-temperature heat sources. This study carries out thermodynamic performance analysis of OFC using various working fluids for recovery of low-grade heat sources in the form of sensible energy. Special attention is focused on the optimum flash temperature at which the exergy efficiency has the maximum value. Under the optimal conditions with respect to the flash temperature, the thermodynamic performances of important system variables including mass flow ratio, separation ratio, heat addition, specific volume flow rate at turbine exit, and exergy efficiency are thoroughly investigated. Results show that the exergy efficiency has a peak value with respect to the flash temperature and the optimum working fluid which shows the best exergy efficiency varies with the operating conditions.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.70-75
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• 2013

It has fabricated membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) for proton exchange membrane fuel cell by hot-pressing method. The hot-pressing was used for the fabrication of MEA which is composed of commercial platinum electrode on carbon paper. The performance of MEA was studied with different fabrication conditions of temperature, pressure and torque. As the temperature increased, the performance of MEA was increased. and started to decrease l after arrived at the maximum performance of MEA. This is related with good contact between electrode and polymer electrolyte membrane at high temperature and microstructural change at much higher temperature. Similarly, as the pressure increased, the performance of the MEA increased up to highest values and start to decrease. According to the our results, the maximal performance of the MEA was at the temperature of $140^{\circ}C$ and the pressure of $1.5{\times}10^3$ kPa. The optimal torque to assemble the single stack was 3.2 N m.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.540-546
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• 2016

Besides high-efficient photovoltaics based on silicon, polymers, dye-sensitization and hybrid perovskite materials, biomimetic solar cells inspired by a leaf in nature has also been actively studied. As one example, a hydrogel based photovoltaics (HGPV) is a low-cost, environmentally friendly device and requires easy fabrication process. In this paper, the effect of hydroquinone additive on the performance of the HGPV is discussed. The photocurrent increases ~14 times upon the addition of hydroquinone into the agarose hydrogel medium. The photocurrent increase is maximum at the optimum dye concentration, while the photovoltage is barely affected by the dye concentration. The effect of the agarose content in the hydrogel and the types of dyes on the photocurrent is also investigated. Finally, it is shown that the photovoltaic performance of HGPV with hydroquinone can be drastically improved when $TiO_2$ film is deposited on the anode electrode.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.485-493
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• 2016

Recently submarine and unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) are equipped with a fuel cell system as an air independent propulsion system. Methanol fuel processor can efficiently supply the hydrogen to the fuel cell system to improve the ability to dive. This study investigated the optimal conditions of the methanol fuel processor that may be used in the closed environment. For this purpose, the numerical model based on Gibbs minimization equation was established for steam reformer and three exhaust gas burners. After simulating the characteristics of steam reformer according to the steam-to-carbon ratio (SCR) and the pressure change, the SCR condition was able to narrow down to 1.1 to 1.5. Considering water consumption and the amount of heat recovered from three burners, the optimum condition of the SCR can be determined to be 1.5. Nevertheless, the additional heat supply is required to satisfy the heat balance of the methanol fuel processor in the SCR=1.5. In other to obtain additional amount of heat, the combustion of methanol is better than the increased of SCR in terms of system design.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.494-502
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• 2016

A 1-dimensional heterogeneous reactor model with the gas-solid interfacial phase gradients was developed for the simulation of the packed bed reactor where the exothermic reversible water gas shift reaction for the natural gas steam reformed gas was proceeding in adiabatic mode. Experimental results obtained over the WGS catalyst, C18-HA, were best simulated when the frequency factor of the reaction rate constant was adjusted to a half the value reported over another WGS catalyst, EX-2248, having the same kinds of active components as the C18-HA. For the reactor of the inside diameter 158.4 mm and the bed length 650 mm, the optimum feeding temperature of the reformed gas was simulated to be $194^{\circ}C$, giving the lowest CO content in the product gas by 1.68 mol% on the basis of dried gas. For reactors more extended in the bed length, the possible lowest CO content in the product gas with the optimum feeding temperature of the reformed gas were suggested.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.562-570
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• 2016

At the carbon dioxide capture process using the aqueous amine solution, degradation of absorbents is main factor to reducing the process performance. Also, degradation mechanism of absorbent is important for understanding the environmental risk, route of degradation products, health risk etc. In this study, the degradation products of MEA were studied to clarify mechanism in thermal degradation process. The degradation products were analyzed using a $^1H$ NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) and $^{13}C$ NMR. The analysis methods used in this study provide guidelines that could be used to develop a degradation inhibitor of absorbent and a corrosion inhibitor.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.571-580
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• 2016

In this paper, performance of the gas turbine combined cycle(GTCC) using pre-combustion carbon capture technology was comparatively analysed. Steam reforming and autothermal reforming were used. In the latter, two different methods were adopted to supply oxygen for the reforming process. One is to extract air form gas turbine compressor (air blowing) and the other is to supply oxygen directly from air separation unit ($O_2$ blowing). To separate $CO_2$ from the reformed gas, the chemical absorption system using MEA solution was used. The net cycle efficiency of the system adopting $O_2$ blown autothermal reforming was higher than the other two systems. The system using air blown autothermal reforming exhibited the largest net cycle power output. In addition to the performance analysis, the influence of fuel reforming and carbon capture on the operating condition of the gas turbine and the necessity of turbine re-design were investigated.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.581-588
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• 2016

To compare reduction reactivity of oxygen carrier particles, $CH_4$ combustion characteristics were measured and investigated in a bubbling fluidized bed reactor with increasing $CH_4$ concentration from 10 to 100 %. Among five oxygen carriers (OC-1, OC-2, SDN70, C14, C28), OC-1, OC-2, SDN70 particles were selected as better oxygen carriers from the viewpoints of fuel conversion and $CO_2$ selectivity. However, some oxygen carriers showed lower fuel conversion and $CO_2$ selectivity even though they have high oxygen transfer capacity. Therefore, we could conclude that not only TGA tests to measure the oxygen transfer capacity but also fluidized bed tests to analyze exhaust gas concentration should be performed to select better oxygen carrier without misunderstanding of carriers reactivity.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.589-596
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• 2016

Effects of pressure, temperature, gas velocity, and fuel flow rate on reduction of three oxygen carriers, SDN70, OC-1, OC-2, were measured and investigated in a pressurized bubbling fluidized bed reactor. Among three oxygen carriers OC-2 was selected as the best oxygen carrier in view of fuel conversion and $CO_2$ selectivity. However, all oxygen carriers showed good reactivity even at high pressure conditions. SDN70 particle showed maximum reactivity at $900^{\circ}C$ and low reactivity at $950^{\circ}C$. However, reactivity decay of OC-1 and OC-2 particles at high temperature condition was negligible. The fuel conversion and the $CO_2$ selectivity slightly decreased as the gas velocity increased, whereas they are slightly increased as the fuel concentration increased.