• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제29권1호
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• pp.19-24
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• 2018

Fuel cells are used to generate electricity with a reformer. In particular, methanol has various advantages among the fuels for reformer. Methanol steam reformer devices can efficiently supply hydrogen to PEM fuel cell. This study investigated the optimal operation conditions of a methanol steam reforming process. For this purpose, aspen HYSYS was used for the optimization of reforming process. The optimal operating condition could be designed by setting independent variables such as temperature, pressure and steam to carbon ratio (SCR). The optimal temperature and steam to carbon ratio were $250-270^{\circ}C$ and 1.3-1.5, respectively. It is advantageous to operate at a pressure of 15-20 barg, considering the performance of the hydrogen purifier. In addition, a heat exchange network was designed to supply heat constantly to reformer through the latent heat of steam.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제31권5호
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• pp.411-418
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• 2020

A reformer is a device for producing hydrogen used in fuel cells. Among them, methanol steam reformer uses methanol as fuel, which is present as a liquid at room temperature. It has the advantage of low operating temperature, high energy density, and high hydrogen production. The purpose of this study is to improve the internal flow of the pressure vessel when a bundle of methanol steam reformer in the pressure vessel goes out to a single outlet. An analysis of equilibrium reaction to methanol steam reforming reaction was conducted using Aspen HYSYS^® (Aspen Technology Inc., Bedford, USA), and based on the results, computational analysis was conducted using ANSYS Fluent^® (ANSYS, Inc., Canonsburg, USA). For comparison of the results, the height of the pressure vessel, outlet diameter, and fillet was set as variables, and the optimum geometry was selected by comparing the effects of gravity and the amount of negative pressure.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제27권5호
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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.

• 대한기계학회논문집B
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• 제40권11호
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• pp.745-753
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• 2016

초소형 연료전지용 메탄올-수증기 개질기의 경우 저온상태($250^{\circ}C$ 이하)에서 수증기와 반응하여 개질반응이 일어나기 때문에 수소를 효율적으로 생산할 수 있다. 본 연구는 이러한 개질기에 대하여 수치해석적 연구를 수행하였다. 먼저, 개질기 벽면 온도를 100, 140, 180, $220^{\circ}C$로 설정하였고 메탄올 전환율은 각 0, 0.072, 3.83, 46.51%로 나타났다. 다음으로 촉매의 공극률을 0.1, 0.35, 0.6, 0.85로 설정하였고, 메탄올 전환율에는 큰 차이가 없었으나 압력강하 값이 각 4645.97, 59.50, 5.12, 0.45 kPa로 나타났다. 메탄올-수증기 개질기는 $180^{\circ}C$ 이하의 온도에서는 거의 반응하지 않으며 공극률은 개질기를 흐르는 유체가 개질기와 충분히 접촉하여 활성화 에너지를 낮추어 준다면 메탄올 전환율에 크게 영향을 미치지 않는다는 것을 확인하였다.

• 대한기계학회논문집B
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• 제39권3호
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• pp.261-269
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• 2015

본 연구에서는 전산유체역학 상용 코드를 이용하여 곡유로 채널형 수소 개질기에 대한 수치 해석적 연구를 수행하였다. 상용코드에서 제공하는 연소모델의 사전 검증을 위하여 원통 채널형 개질기 형를 가지는 선행연구모델(23)에 대한 수치해석을 선행하여 수행하였고, 95% 이상 일치하는 결과를 얻을 수 있었다. 선행연구모델의 수치해석을 통해 연소모델에 대한 해석 타당성검증이 완료된 후, 반응기 형태 변화가 메탄올 전환율과 수소생성에 미치는 영향을 파악하여 기존보다 유로의 길이가 증가한 곡유로 채널형 개질기를 설계하고, 유량조건($10/15/20{\mu}l/min$)을 변수로 수치해석을 수행하였다. 그 결과 원통 채널형 개질기와 곡유로 채널형 개질기에서 발생하는 유동 특성 및 물질전달 특성을 파악할 수 있었고, 그리고 유량에 따른 메탄올 전환율 및 수소 생성에 관한 유용한 정보를 얻을 수 있었다.

• 대한기계학회논문집B
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• 제30권12호
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• pp.1196-1202
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• 2006

A MEMS methanol reformer was fabricated and its performance was evaluated in the present study. Catalytic steam reforming of methanol was selected because the process had been widely applied in macro scale reformers. Conventional Cu/ZnO catalyst that was prepared by co-precipitation method to give the highest coating quality was used. The reactor structure was made by bonding three layers of glass wafers. The internal structure of the wafer was fabricated by the wet-etching process that resulted in a high aspect ratio. The internal surface of the reactor was coated by catalyst and individual wafers were fusion-bonded to form the reactor structure. The internal volume of the microfabricated reactor was $0.3cm^3$ and the reactor produced exhaust gas with hydrogen concentration at 73%. The production rate of hydrogen was 4.16 ml/hr that could generate power of 350 mW in a typical PEM fuel cell.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2006년도 추계학술대회
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• pp.467-470
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• 2006

For a mobile application such as cellular phone, micro fuel cells should be extremely compact and thin. RHFC can be an alternative solution because RHFC gives higher power density than DMFC and does not need ahydrogen storage vessel In this paper, RHFC using methanol fuel is made as a novel planar design without a PROX. Both reformer and cell are made closely in a same plate to share the heater of reformer with the cell. The PBI membrane is used in the cell. The reason is that high temperature of reformer can cause a performance drop when perfluorosulfonic acid membrane such as Nafion is used such a high temperature operation also guarantees the higher CO tolerance to MEA catalyst. The cell is designed as an air-breathing type which the cathode of the cell is opened to the air. The commercial Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 steam reformer catalyst is packed in reformer channel. The active area of MEA is $11.9cm^2$ and the peak power density was $27.5mW/cm^2$.

• Carbon letters
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• 제9권4호
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• pp.303-307
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• 2008

The studies on integrated operation of fuel cell with fuel processor are very essential prior to its commercialization. In this study, Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) was operated with a fuel processor, which is mainly composed of two parts, methanol steam reforming reaction and preferential oxidation (PROX). In fuel processor, ICI 33-5 (CuO 50%, ZnO 33%, $Al_2O_3$ 8%, BET surface area: $66\;m^2g^{-1}$) catalyst and CuO-$CeO_2$ catalyst were used for methanol steam reforming, preferential oxidation (PROX) respectively. PEMFC was operated by hydrogen fuel generated from fuel processor. The resulting gas from PROX reactor is used to operate PEMFC equipped with our prepared anode and cathode catalyst. PtRu/C catalyst gives more tolerance to CO.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제33권6호
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• pp.733-742
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• 2022

Hydrogen fuel cell propulsion ships are emerging to respond to the recently strengthened carbon emission regulations in the international shipping sector. Methanol can be stored in a liquid state at normal pressure and temperature, and has the advantage of lower reforming temperature compared to other fuels. In this study, the optimal operating point of the methanol steam reforming system was derived by changing the Steam Carbon Ratio (SCR) from 0.10 to 3.00. Results showed that In terms of methanol conversion rate and hydrogen yield, the larger the SCR is the better, but in terms of system efficiency, it is most advantageous to operate at SCR 0.70 in Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) mode and SCR 0.80 in Pd membrane mode. Through this study, it was found that the optimal SCR in the reformer and the entire system including the reformer may be different, which indicates that the optimum operating point may be different depending on the change of the system configuration.

• 한국정밀공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정밀공학회 2005년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.225-229
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• 2005

We have designed micro-fuel processor system, which consists of a steam reforming area and a PROX(preferential oxidation) area. Micro-fuel processor system generates $H_2$ rich gas from a methanol. In our experiment, we have integrated micro-fuel processor system using low temperature cofired ceramics (LTCC) process because LTCC is superior to other materials principally due to their high thermal and chemical stability, simpler fabrication processes, and lower materials cost. Therefore, we have studied and integrated micro-fuel processor system containing embedded heaters, cavities, and 3D structures of micro-channel with LTCC. Also we have optimized the LTCC process.