• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.252-272
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• 2017

Fuel cell systems have to satisfy acceptable operating reliability, sufficient lifetime and price to enter the market in competition with existing products. Fuel cells are made up of complex element technologies and various problems related to the failure of the components can affect the reliability and safety of the system. This problem can be overcome by introducing a monitoring and supervisory control system in addition to automatic control to detect the failure of the fuel cell quickly and properly diagnose the performance degradation. For the fault detection and diagnosis of polymer electrolyte fuel cells, the model based method using the theoretical superposition value and the non-model based method of checking the signal tendency or the converted signal characteristic can be applied. The methods analyzed in this paper can contribute to the development of integrated monitoring and control technology for the whole system as well as the stack.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.675-682
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• 2017

New government, the market for stationary fuel cell systems in domestic is expected to expand in line with the policy for expanding new and renewable energy. In order to promote and expand the domestic market for stationary fuel cell systems, it is required to do research and develop for cost reduction and efficiency improvement technologies through the localization of BOP. In this study, the safety performance including the power consumption, flow rate, noise and air-tightness of the domestic fuel booster blower and the foreign fuel booster blower was evaluated and the performance improvement of the domestic blower was confirmed. As a result of the power consumption measurement and the flow rate according to the back pressure of the A company 2nd prototype and B company, the values were 73 W, 27 LPM, and 55 W, 25 LPM. These results are attributed to the improvement of performance through design changes such as CAM angle and diaphragm material.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.683-690
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• 2017

Wood pellet (WP), empty fruit bunch (EFB) and palm kernel shell (PKS) which are biomass fuels for power generation are selected to study the characteristics of torrefaction process. These biomass fuels are torrefied at $220^{\circ}C$, $250^{\circ}C$, and $280^{\circ}C$. The heating value of biomass fuels is increased depending on the torrefaction temperature. However, due to energy yield decline, it is not always desirable to torrefy biomass at higher temperature. Considering the mass yield and energy yield after torrefaction, the most proper temperature conditions for torrefaction of WP is $250-280^{\circ}C$ and for EFB, PKS are $220-250^{\circ}C$. Additionally, to investigate the phenomenons of chlorine release during torrefaction process, Ion Chromatography (IC) method was used. In the case of EFB and PKS torrefied at $300^{\circ}C$, the chlorine component has been reduced by 97.5% and 95.3% compared to the raw biomass, respectively. In conclusion, torrefied biomass can be used as alternative fuels in replacement of coals for both aspects of heating value and chlorine corrosion problems.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.610-617
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• 2017

This paper presents a study of the effect of thickness of porous Al-Ni electrodes, on the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) in alkaline media. As varying deposition time at 300 W DC sputtering power, the thickness of the Al-Ni electrodes was controlled from 1 to $20{\mu}m$. The heat treatment was carried out in $610^{\circ}C$, followed by selective leaching of the Al-rich phase. XRD studies confirmed the presence of $Al_3Ni_2$ intermetallic compounds after the heat treatment, indicating the diffusion of Ni from the Ni-rich phase to Al-rich phase. The porous structure of the Al-Ni electrodes after the selective leaching of Al was also confirmed in SEM-EDS analysis. The double layer capacitance ($C_{dl}$) and roughness factor ($R_f$) of the electrodes were increased for the thicker Al-Ni electrodes. As opposed to the general results in above, there were no further improvements of the HER activity in the case of the electrode thickness above $10{\mu}m$. This result may indicate that the $R_f$ is not the primary factor for the HER activity in alkaline media.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.649-656
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• 2017

At present, hydrogen is emerging as a future energy source based on environment-friendly aspect, creation of new industry, and enhancement of domestic energy security. In accordance with it, the world's leading automobile companies are focusing on the development and commercialization of hydrogen electric vehicle technology, and each country is strengthening its hydrogen fueling station deployment strategy for its own country. Furthermore, the supply of hydrogen fueling stations is actively promoting under national support. More than 500 hydrogen fueling stations are being constructed, operated and planned around the world. The introduction of hydrogen energy is also progressing in Korea, by announcing road-map to supply hydrogen electric vehicles and hydrogen fueling stations by year. However, there is insufficient discussion on the capacity of hydrogen fueling station in Korea. Therefore, this study suggests the optimum capacity of hydrogen fuelling station for domestic hydrogen economy.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.92-99
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• 2011

Barium cerate ($BaCeO_3$) related perovskite ceramics currently dominate the high-temperature proton conductor field. Unfortunately, these materials have very stringent environmental limitations necessitating the costly and complex conditioning or cleaning of the application feed-gas. Commercial realization has been hampered, in part, because of the reactivity of $BaCeO_3$ with $CO_2$, and to some extent $H_2O$. And sintered $BaCeO_3$ decomposed at a rate comparable to the powder samples. In this article, the chemical stability and the structural changes of $BaCe_{0.9-X}Y0.1La_XO_{3-\delta}$ (X=0, 0.1, 0.2) have been systematically investigated in the atmosphere containing carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) and water vapor ($H_2O$). The sintering characteristics were studied in $1600^{\circ}C$, sintered pellets disintegrate and decompose upon contacting boiling water on the surface only.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.83-91
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• 2011

We investigated the effect of composition of a sulfur electrode with MWNT on the discharge behavior and cycling property of a Li/S cell. The MWNT content of a 60wt.% sulfur electrode varied from 10 wt.% to 30 wt.%. The optimum content of MWNT is 20wt.%, which shows the best cycling property. The first discharge capacity is 1166 mAh/g and decrease to the 542 mAh/g after 30th cycle. The homogeneous distribution of MWNT is an important factor for cycling properties.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.60-68
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• 2011

[ $ZrO_2-TiO_2$ ]binary oxides with various Zr:Ti molar ratios were prepared by sol-gel method and Nafion$^{(R)}$/$ZrO_2-TiO_2$ composite membranes were fabricated for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) at high temperature and low humidity. Water uptake, Ion exchange capacity (IEC), and proton conductivity of Nafion$^{(R)}$/$ZrO_2-TiO_2$ composite membranes were characterized and these composite membranes were tested in a single cell at $120^{\circ}C$ with various relative humidity (R.H.) conditions. The obtained results were compared with the unmodified membranes (Nafion$^{(R)}$ 112 and Recast Nafion$^{(R)}$). A Nafion$^{(R)}$/$ZrO_2-TiO_2$ composite membrane with 1:3 of Zr:Ti molar ratio showed the highest performance. The performance showed 500 mW/$cm^2$ (0.499V) at $120^{\circ}C$, 50% R. H., and 2 atm.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.51-59
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• 2011

Sulfur-Iodine (SI) cycle, which thermochemically splits water to hydrogen and oxygen through three stages of Bunsen reaction, HI decomposition, and $H_2SO_4$ decomposition, seems a promising process to produce hydrogen massively. Among them, the decomposition of $H_2SO_4$ ($H_2SO_4=H_2O+SO_2+1/2O_2$) requires high temperature heat over $800^{\circ}C$ such as the heat from concentrated solar energy or a very high temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor. Because of harsh reaction conditions of high temperature and pressure with extremely corrosive reactants and products, there have been scarce and limited number of data reported on the pressurized $H_2SO_4$ decomposition. This work focuses whether the $H_2SO_4$ decomposition can occur at high pressure in a noble-metal reactor, which possibly resists corrosive acidic chemicals and possesses catalytic activity for the reaction. Decomposition reactions were conducted in a Pt-lined tubular reactor without any other catalytic species at conditions of $800^{\circ}C$ to $900^{\circ}C$ and 0 bar (ambient pressure) to 10 bar with 95 wt% $H_2SO_4$. The Pt-lined reactor was found to endure the corrosive pressurized condition, and its inner surface successfully carried out a catalytic role in decomposing $H_2SO_4$ to $SO_2$ and $O_2$. This preliminary result has proposed the availability of noble metal-lined reactors for the high temperature, high pressure sulfuric acid decomposition.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.42-50
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• 2011

The Montmorillonite (MMT) in the polymer matrix is expected to reduce methanol permeability due to the tortous path formed by dispersed silicate layers. However, the polymer composite membranes containing non-proton conducting inorganic particle tend to show low proton conductivity. To solve this problem, we used an ion exchange method to prepare functionalized MMT with various silane coupling agents. The modified MMT was randomly dispersed in sulfonated poly (arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES) matrix to prepare SPAES/modified MMT composite membranes. The performances of hybrid membranes for DMFCs application were investigated. The SPAES/modified composite membrane showed increased proton conductivity compared with the non-modified MMT composite membrane. However, the methanol permeability of the SPAES/modified membrane was higher than that of the non-modified MMT.