• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.323-329
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• 2012

A thermal management system of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell is taken charge of controlling the temperature of fuel cell stack by rejection of electrochemically reacted heat. Two major components of thermal management system are heat exchanger and pump which determines required amount of heat. Since the performance and durability of PEMFC system is sensitive to the operating temperature and temperature distribution inside the stack, it is necessary to control the thermal management system properly under guidance of operating strategy. The control study of the thermal management system is able to be boosted up with hardware in the loop simulation which directly connects the plant simulation with real hardware components. In this study, the plant simulation of fuel cell stack has been developed and the simulation model is connected with virtual data acquisition system. And HIL simulator has been developed to control the coolant supply system for the study of PEMFC thermal management system. The virtual data acquisition system and the HIL simulator are developed under LabVIEWTM Platform and the Simulation interface toolkit integrates the fuel cell plant simulator with the virtual DAQ display and HIL simulator.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.859-867
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• 2011

The cold start problem is one of major obstacles to overcome for the commercialization of fuel cell vehicles. However, the cold start characteristics of fuel cell systems are very complicated since various phenomena, i.e. ice-blocking, electro-chemical reactions, heat transfer, and defrosting of BOP components, are involved in them. This paper presents a framework to approach the problem at a full stack scale using Axiomatic Design (AD). It was characterized in terms of Functional Requirements (FRs) and Design Parameters (DPs) while their relations were established in a design matrix. Considering the design matrix, the endplates should have low thermal conductivity and capacity without increase in weight or decrease in structural stiffness. Consequently, composite sandwich endplates were proposed and examined both through finite element analyses and experiments simulating cold start conditions. From the examinations, it was found that the composite sandwich endplates significantly contributed to improving the cold start characteristics of PEMFC.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.243-249
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• 2012

A lightweight 200W direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) stack is designed and fabricated to power a small scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The DMFC stack consists of 33-cells in which membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) having an active area of 88 $cm^2$ are sandwiched with lightweight composite bipolar plates. The total stack weight is around 3.485 kg and stack performance is tested under various methanol feed concentrations. The DMFC stack delivers a maximum power of 248 W at 13.2 V and $71.3^{\circ}C$ under methanol feed concentration of 1.2 M. In addition, the voltage of individual cell in the 33-cell stack is measured at various current levels to ensure the stability of DMFC stack operations. The cell voltage distribution data exhibit the maximum cell voltage deviation of 28 mV at 15 A and hence the uniformity of cell voltages is acceptable. These results clearly demonstrate that DMFC technology becomes a potential candidate for small-scale UAV applications.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.316-322
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• 2012

A fuel cell vehicle has the hydrogen detection sensors for checking the hydrogen leakage because it use hydrogen for its fuel and can't use a odorant to protect the fuel cell stack. To verify the hydrogen safety of leakage we select the high possible leak points of fittings in hydrogen storage system and test the leaking behavior at them. The hydrogen leakage flow rate is 10, 40, 118 NL/min and the criterion for maximum hydrogen leakage is based on allowing an equivalent release of combustion energy as permitted by gasoline vehicles in FMVSS301. There are total 18EA hydrogen leakage detection sensors installed in test system. we acquire the hydrogen leakage detection time and determine the ranking. Hydrogen leakage detection time decrease when hydrogen leakage flow rate increase. The minimum hydrogen leakage detection time is about 3 seconds when the flow rate is 118NL/min. In this study, we optimize hydrogen sensor position in fuel cell vehicle and verify the hydrogen leakage safety because there is no inflow inside the vehicle.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.236-242
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• 2012

This study has been carried out the experiment for the possibility of biogas reforming using waste heat. The source of this waste heat is the exhaust gas from a small-sized gas engine generator. For recovering the waste heat, Two-stage heat exchanger is manufactured. The two-stage heat exchanger is composed of a heat exchanger for the exhaust gas and a heat exchanger for the water. This two-stage heat exchanger is used for reforming the biogas by means of on-site hydrogen production at the small-sized gas engine generator. The two-stage heat exchanger is coupled with the biogas reformer which is a kind of catalytic reformer. To confirm a heat recovery efficiency of the two-stage heat exchanger, temperature differences of inlet and outlet locations are measured. Also, the variations of syngas concentrations with various biogas flow rates are investigated. As a result using manufactured two-stage heat exchanger, the biogas can be reformed from waste heat recovery. This experiment suggests that the exhaust gas heat exchanger is available for reforming the biogas.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.382-389
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• 2012

Power generation cycle using ammonia-water mixture as working fluid has attracted much attention because of its ability to efficiently convert low-temperature heat source into useful work. If an ammonia-water power cycle is combined with a power cycle using liquefied natural gas (LNG), the conversion efficiency could be further improved owing to the cold energy of LNG at $-162^{\circ}C$. In this work parametric study is carried out on the thermodynamic performance of a power cycle consisted of an ammonia-water Rankine cycle as an upper cycle and a LNG cycle as a bottom cycle. As a driving energy the combined cycle utilizes a low-temperature heat source in the form of sensible heat. The effects on the system performance of the system parameters such as ammonia concentration ($x_b$), turbine 1 inlet pressure ($P_{H_1}$) and temperature ($T_{H_1}$), and condenser outlet temperature ($T_{L_1}$) are extensively investigated. Calculation results show that thermal efficiency increases with the increase of $P_{H_1}$, $T_{H_1}$ and the decrease of $T_{L_1}$, while its dependence on $x_b$ has a downward convex shape. The changes of net work generation with respect to $P_{H_1}$, $T_{H_1}$, $T_{L_1}$, and $x_b$ are roughly linear.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.310-315
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• 2012

A simple drying process was developed for the preparation of a Pt/Nafion self-humidifying membrane to be used for a proton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Platinum (II) bis (acetylacetonate), $Pt(acac)_2$ was sublimed, penetrated into the surface of a Nafion film and then reduced to Pt nanoparticles simultaneously without any support of a reducing agent in a glass reactor at $180^{\circ}C$ for 15 min. The process was carried out in $N_2$ atmosphere to prevent the oxidation of Pt nanoparticles at high temperature. The morphology and distribution of the Pt nanoparticles were observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and we found that the average Pt particle size was ca. 3.7 nm, the penetration depth was ca. $17{\mu}m$. Almost all Pt nanoparticles were formed just beneath the surface and the number density decreased rapidly as the penetration depth increased. To estimate water absorption characteristics of the Nafion membranes, water uptake at an isothermal condition was measured by dynamic vapor sorption (DVS), and it was found that water uptake of the Pt/Nafion membrane was higher than that of the neat Nafion membrane.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.616-624
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• 2011

Hydrogen storage and release of Fe/Zr/Mo mixed oxide mediums were investigated by hydrogen reduction and water splitting oxidation($Fe_3O_4+4H_2{\rightleftharpoons}3Fe+4H_2O$). As the results of TPR/O, Mo was an additive to enhance the reactivity of water splitting oxidation as well as the stability of the medium. On the other hand, it seemed that $ZrO_2$ additive provided the passway for the diffusion of gaseous chemicals on the medium in repeated redox cycles. Among the Fe/Zr/Mo mediums, a FeZrMo-7 medium (Fe/Zr/Mo=80/13/7mol%) exhibited the best performance with good durability during five repeated redox cycles. The amount of hydrogen evolved on the medium was maintained at ca. 10.7mmol-$H_2$/g-medium corresponding to the hydrogen storage amount of ca. 2.2wt%.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.227-235
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• 2012

Finding an alternative fuel and reducing environmental pollution are the main goals for future internal combustion engines. The purpose of this study is to obtain low-emission and high-efficiency by hydrogen enriched LPG fuel in constant volume chamber. An experimental study was carried out to obtain fundamental data for the combustion and emission characteristics of pre-mixed hydrogen and LPG in a constant volume chamber (CVC) with various fractions of hydrogen-LPG blends. To maintain equal heating value of fuel blend, the amount of LPG was decreased as hydrogen was gradually added. Exhaust emissions were measured using a HORIBA exhaust gas analyzer for various fractions of hydrogen-LPG blends. The results showed that the rapid combustion duration was shortened, and the rate of heat release elevated as the hydrogen fraction in the fuel blend was increased. Moreover, the maximum rate of pressure rise also increased. These phenomena were attributed to the burning velocity which increased exponentially with the increased hydrogen fraction in the $H_2$-LPG fuel blend. Exhaust HC and $CO_2$ concentrations decreased, while NOX emission increased with an increase in the hydrogen fraction in the fuel blend. Our results could facilitate the application of hydrogen and LPG as a fuel in the current fossil hydrocarbon-based economy and the strict emission regulations in internal combustion engines.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.373-381
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• 2012

To determine the performance characteristics of motorcycle engine using biogas for practical use, the intake system of a 110 cc motorcycle engine is properly modified to operate with biogas as a fuel. Biogas is a potentially renewable fuel for replacing gasoline in future, but it has high percentage of $CO_2$ that could lead to slow the burning rate of biogas-air mixture and cause instability in combustion. Thus, the performance characteristics of biogas-fueled motorcycle engines could be different from those of gasoline motorcycle engines. In this paper, the important parameters of performance characteristics (such as: power output, thermal efficiency, fuel consumption, exhaust emission,${\cdots}$) of biogas-fueled motorcycle engine are studied and estimated with change of engine speed and load. The obtained results when operating with biogas are used to compare with that of gasoline fuel under the same operating conditions. Engine speed in the experimental is changed from 1500 rpm (idle-mode) up to 3500 rpm by a step of 500 rpm. Engine load is changed from zero to maximum load with the help of an exciting voltage device from generator-type dynamometer. The experimental results show that the tested engine operated with richer biogas-air mixture than that of gasoline-air mixture under the same test conditions. Biogas-fueled engine gives a higher fuel consumption and lower thermal efficiency under the same power output. Brake thermal efficiency of biogas engine is found to be about 3% lower than gasoline-fueled motorcycle engine for whole range of speed. Exhaust emission of biogas-fueled motorcycle engine (such as: CO, HC) is found to be lower than the limitation level of the emission standards of Vietnam for motorcycle engines (CO <4.5% HC <1200 ppm).