• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.1018-1026
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• 2005

The proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system consisting of stack and balance of plant (BOP) was modeled in a MATLAB/Simulink environment. High-pressure operating (compressor type) and low-pressure operating (air blower type) fuel cell systems were con­sidered. The effects of two main operating parameters (humidity and the pressure of the supplied gas) on the power distribution characteristics of BOP and the net system efficiency of the two systems mentioned above were compared and discussed. The simulation determines an optimum condition regarding parameters such as the cathode air pressure and the relative humidity for maximum net system efficiency for the operating fuel cell systems. This study contributes to get a basic insight into the fuel cell stack and BOP component sizing. Further research using muli­object variable optimization packages and the approach developed by this study can effectively contribute to an operating strategy for the practical use of fuel cell systems for vehicles.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.67-72
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• 2006

Blower as an air supply system is one of the most important BOP (Balance of Plant) system fur FCV(Fuel Cell Vehicle). For generating and blowing compressed air, the motor of air blower consumes maximum 25% of net power and fuel cell demands a clean air. Considering the efficiency of whole FCV, low friction lubrication of high speed rotor is needed. For the purpose of reducing electrical power and supplying clean air to Fuel cell, oil-free air foil bearings are applied at the each side of brushless motor (BLDC) as journal bearings which diameter is 50mm. The normal power of driving motor has 1.7kW with the 30,000rpm operating range and the flow rate of air has maximum 160 SCFM. The impeller of blower was adopted a mixed type of centrifugal and axial which has several advantages for variable operating condition. The performance of turbo-blower and parameters of air foil bearings was investigated analytically and experimentally. From this study, the performance of the blower was confirmed to be suitable far 80kw PEM FC.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.56-63
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• 2023

The development of renewable energy technologies, such as solar, wave, and wind power, has led to the diversification of water electrolysis technologies, which can be easily coupled with renewable energy sources in terms of economics and scale. Water electrolysis technologies can be classified into three types based on operating temperature: low-temperature (<100 ℃), medium-temperature (300-700 ℃), and high-temperature (>700 ℃). It can also be classified by the type of electrolyte membrane used in the system. However, the concepts of thermodynamic and thermo-neutral voltages calculations and are very important factors in the evaluation of energy consumption and efficiency of water electrolysis technologies, are often confused. This review aims to contribute to a better understanding of the calculation of operating voltage and efficiency of PEM water electrolysis technologies and to clarify the differences between thermodynamic voltage and thermo-neutral voltage.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.572-575
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• 2008

Flow-field design has much influence over the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) because it affects the pressure magnitude and distribution of the reactant gases. To obtain the pressure magnitude and distribution of reactant gases in four kinds of flow-field designs without additional measurement equipment, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed. After the CFD analysis, the performance values of PEMFC according to the flow-field configurations were measured via a single cell test. As expected, the pressure differences due to different flow-field configurations were related to the PEMFC performance because the actual performance results showed the same tendency as the results of the CFD analysis. A large pressure drop resulted in high PEMFC performance. So, the single serpentine configuration gave the highest performance. On the other hand, the parallel flow-field configuration gave the lowest performance because the pressure difference between inlet and outlet was the lowest.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.105-108
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• 2013

To resolve global environmental problems, many automobile companies are making a great deal of effort to develop so-called green-cars. One of the solutions is an electric vehicle equipped with the PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) stack. However, the cost of the stack, at the moment, is still too high. This obstacle must be resolved for commercialized fuel cell cars. One of the reasons for high cost is a relatively large amount of Pt (platinum) in the membrane. In this paper, a method for reducing the Pt-loading is introduced. Furthermore, the durability of the stack will be important for a company to stay competitive in world markets (in the future). For this, the diagnosis of the stack must be conducted on-line. Some diagnosis methods as key technology are also introduced in this paper.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.149-157
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• 2006

Hydrogen as new energy sources is highly efficient and have very low environmental emissions. The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is an emerging technology that can meet these demands. Therefore, the preparation of stable polymeric membranes with good proton conductivity and durability are very important for hydrogen production via water electrolysis with PEM at medium temperature above $80^{\circ}C$. Currently Nafion of Dupont and Aciflex of Asahi, etc., solid polymer electrolytes of perfluorosulfonic acid membrane, are the best performing commercially available polymer electrolytes. However, these membrane have several flaws including its high cost, and its limited operational temperature above $80^{\circ}C$. Because of this, significant research efforts have been devoted to the development of newer and cheaper membranes. In order to make up for the weak points and to improve the mechanical characteristics with cross -linking, acid-base complexes were prepared by the combination PSf-co-PPSS-$NH_2$ with PEEK-$SO_3H$. The results showed that the proton conductivity decreased in 17.6% and 40% but tensile strength increased in 78% and 98%, about $20.65\;{\times}\;10^6N/m^2$, in comparison with SBPSf/HPA and SPEEK/HPA complex membrane.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.69-80
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• 2022

The anion exchange membrane (AEM) water electrolysis for high purity hydrogen production is attracting attention as a next-generation green hydrogen production technology by using inexpensive non-noble metal-based catalysts instead of conventional precious metal catalysts used in proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis systems. However, since AEM water electrolysis technology is in the early stages of development, it is necessary to develop research on AEM, ionomers, electrode supports and catalysts, which are key elements of AEM water electrolysis. Among them, current research in the field of catalysts is being studied to apply a previously developed half-cell catalyst for alkali to the AEM system, and the applied catalyst has disadvantages of low activity and durability. Therefore, this review presented a catalyst synthesis technique that promoted oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) using a non-noble metal-based catalyst in an alkaline medium.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.128-135
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• 2011

일반적으로 PEM 연료전지에서는 수분 균형이 시스템의 효율에 결정적으로 영향을 미치기 때문에, 이에 대한 균형(balance)을 잡는 것이 매우 중요하다. 특히, 촉매 층에서 물이 넘치는 익수현상(flooding)이나 건조현상(drying)이 발생하게 되면 연료전지의 효율이 급격하게 저하하므로, 항상 수분의 균형이 잡히도록 시스템을 제어하는 것이 일반적이다. 이 때,수분의 익수현상이나 건조현상은 PEM 연료전지의 용량과 주위의 환경, 즉 온도와 습도에 많은 영향을 받게 된다. 금번 논문에서는 가정용 규모인 3kW급에서 10kW급까지의 PEM 연료전지를 설치하였을 때, 주위의 환경(온도와 습도)이 수분 이동에 어떠한 영향을 미치는 지를 시간에 따라서 시뮬레이션(simulation)한 결과를 보여주고 있다. 결과에서 유입공기의 온도가 $50^{\circ}C$ 이하일 경우, 고정부하가 5kW급 이하이면 대부분이 건조현상이 발생하였으나, 고정부하가 6kW급 이상이 되면 익수현상이 운전시간이 20분 이내에서 발생하였다. 또한 고정부하를 최고 10kW급까지 올린 경우, 유입공기의 온도가 $50^{\circ}C$까지는 익수현상이 발생하였으나 $60^{\circ}C$ 이상인 경우에는 거의 건조현상이 발생함을 알 수 있었다.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.625-632
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• 2012

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the cathode channel flooding effects at different stoichiometries in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells by using visualization techniques. The phenomena of liquid water formation and removal caused by current variations were also examined experimentally. Tests were conducted at cathode stoichiometries of 1.5 and 2.0, and the anode stoichiometry was fixed at 1.5. It is found that at an air-side stoichiometry of 2.0, liquid water begins to form and the flooding occurs faster than at an air-side stoichiometry of 1.5. Also, when the air-side stoichiometry of 1.5 is maintained, the dry-out phenomena is observed in the dry-out area 7.8 A following the field of flooding. Thus, a stoichiometry of 1.5 produced better performance in terms of membrane electrode assembly (MEA) durability and hydrogen ion conductivity than did a stoichiometry of 2.0, in which dry-out occurs beyond 8A.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.136-147
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• 2015

Dead-ended operation of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell(PEMFC) provides the simplification of fuel cell systems to reduce fuel consumption and weight of fuel cell. However, the water accumulation within the channel prohibits a uniform supply of fuel. Optimization of the purge strategy is required to increase the fuel cell efficiency since fuel and water are removed during the purge process. In this study, we investigated the average voltage output which depends on two interrelated conditions, namely, the supply gas pressure, purging valve open time. In addition, flow visualization was performed to better understand the water build-up on the anode side and cathode side of PEMFC in terms of a variety of the current density. We analyzed the correlation between the purge condition and water flooding.