• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.339-356
• /
• 2018

Although fuel cell systems have advantages in terms of electric efficiency and environmental impact compared with conventional power systems, fuel cell systems have not been deployed widely due to their low reliability and high price. In order to guarantee the lifetime of 10 years, which is the commercialization goal of Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs), it is necessary to improve durability and reliability through optimized operation and maintenance technologies. Due to the complexity of components and their degradation phenomena, it's not easy to develop and apply the diagnose and prognostic methodologies for PEFCs. The purpose of the paper is to show the current state on PEFC prognostic technology for condition based maintenance. For the prognostic of PEFCs, the model driven method, the data-driven, and the hybrid method can be applied. The methods reviewed in this paper can contribute to the development of technologies to reduce the life cycle cost of fuel cells and increase the reliability through prognostics-based health management system.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2009.06a
• /
• pp.652-655
• /
• 2009

The bimodal porous carbons were synthesized by using imprinting method with templates of SBA-15 particle and silica sphere and applied as supporting materials for the electro-catalyst of polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC). The silica spheres with diameter size of 100 nm and SBA-15 particle having 200 nm -250 nm diameter and 700 nm -900 nm length were synthesized in this work. The bimodal porous carbons (S100) were prepared by using the silica spheres and SBA-15 as templates and mesophase pitch as a carbon source. The PtRu nanoparticle of ca. 1.9 nm were supported on the bimodal porous carbon support and the resulting PtRu/S100 catalysts was tested by the cyclic voltammetry. The use of bimodal porous carbon showed in comparable electro-catalytic activities with commercial catalyst. Though unclear effects of bimodal porosity of supports could be obtained in the scope of this study, morphological advantage in electrical conductivity can be considered on the electro-catalytic activity.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.252-272
• /
• 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 Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.33 no.9
• /
• pp.688-698
• /
• 2009

Using the multi-dimensional, multi-phase, nonisothermal Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell (PEFC) model presented in Part I, the effects of land/channel flow-field on temperature and liquid saturation distributions inside PEFCs are investigated in Part II. The focus is placed on exploring the coupled water transport and heat transfer phenomena within the nonisothermal and two-phase zone existing in the diffusion media (DM) of PEFCs. Numerical simulations are performed varying the land and channel widths and simulation results reveal that the water profile and temperature rise inside PEFCs are considerably altered by changing the land and channel widths, which indicates that oxygen supply and heat removal from the channel to the land regions and liquid water removal from the land toward the gas channels are key factors in determining the water and temperature distributions inside PEFCs. In addition, the adverse liquid saturation gradient along the thru-plane direction is predicted near the land regions by the numerical model, which is due to the vapor-phase diffusion driven by the temperature gradient in the nonisothermal two-phase DM where water evaporates at the hotter catalyst layer, diffuses as a vapor form and then condenses on the cooler land region. Therefore, the vapor phase diffusion exacerbates DM flooding near the land region, while it alleviates DM flooding near the gas channel.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.20 no.7
• /
• pp.1092-1100
• /
• 2010

Bacteria, fungi, and protozoa inhabiting the rumen, the largest chamber of the ruminants' stomach, release large quantities of hydrogen during the fermentation of carbohydrates. The hydrogen is used by coexisting methanogens to produce methane in energy-yielding processes. This work shows, for the first time, a fundamental possibility of using a hydrogen-rich fermentation gas produced by selected rumen ciliates to feed a low-temperature hydrogen fuel cell. A biohydrogen fuel cell (BHFC) was constructed consisting of (i) a bioreactor, in which a hydrogen-rich gas was produced from glucose by rumen ciliates, mainly of the Isotrichidae family, deprived of intra- and extracellular bacteria, methanogens, and fungi; and (ii) a chemical fuel cell of the polymer-electrolyte type (PEFC). The fuel cell was used as a tester of the technical applicability of the fermentation gas produced by the rumen ciliates for power generation. The average estimated hydrogen yield was ca. 1.15 mol $H_2$ per mole of fermented glucose. The BHFC performance was equal to the performance of the PEFC running on pure hydrogen. No fuel cell poisoning effects were detected. A maximum power density of $1.66\;kW/m^2$ (PEFC geometric area) was obtained at room temperature. The maximum volumetric power density was $128\;W/m^3$ but the coulombic efficiency was only ca. 3.8%. The configuration of the bioreactor limited the continuous operation time of this BHFC to ca. 14 h.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.10 no.12
• /
• pp.831-837
• /
• 2000

To improve the catalytic activity of platinum on polymer electrolyte fuel cell(PEFC), platinum was alloyed with cobalt and nickel at various temperature. By XRD, it was observed the crystal structure of alloy catalysts were the ordered face centered cubic(f.c.c) due to the superlattice line at $33^{\circ}$. As heat-treatment temperature was increased, the particle size of alloys also were increased and the crystalline lattice parameters were decreased. According to the results from mass activity, specific activity and Tafel slope measured by cell performance test and cyclic voltammogram, the catalyst activities of alloys are higher than that pure platinum.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.182-188
• /
• 2017

Sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES)-3-mercaptopropyl silica gel (3MPTSG) composite membranes with improved oxidative stability were prepared for polymer electrolyte fuel cell application. It has been reported that ether part of main chain of aromatic hydrocarbon based membranes were weak to radical attack to decrease membrane durability. In this study, the hydrophilic inorganic particles were introduced by minimizing a decrease in ion conductivity and increasing an oxidative stability. The composite membranes were investigated in terms of ionic conductivity, ion exchange capacity (IEC), FT-IR, TGA and contact angle, etc. As a result, increasing amount of the 3MPTSG resulted in decrease in proton conductivities and water uptakes at 100% R.H. but enhanced thermal and oxidative stabilities.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.196-202
• /
• 2007

The performance characteristics of the polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCS) were investigated under various humidification conditions at steady-state and transient conditions. The PEFC studied in this study was characterized by I-V curves in the potentiostatic mode and EIS (electrochemical impedance spectroscopy). The I-V curves representing steady-state performance were obtained from OCV to 0.25 V, and the dynamic performance responses were obtained at some voltages. The effects of anodic external humidification were measured by varying relative humidity of hydrogen from 20% to 100% while dry air was supplied in the cathode. At the high voltage region, the performance became higher with the increase of the temperature, while at the low voltage region, the performance decreased with the increase of temperature. The EIS showed that ohmic losses were larger at the dry condition of membrane and the effects of mass transport losses increased remarkably when the external and self-humidification were high. The dynamic responses were also monitored by changing the voltage of the PEFC instantly. As the temperature increased, the current reached steady-state earlier. The self-humidification with the generated water delayed the stabilization of the current except for low voltage conditions.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2008.10a
• /
• pp.40-43
• /
• 2008

High temperature polymer electrolyte membranes incorporating ionic liquids (ILs) in different polymers such as commercial fluorinated polymers, sulfonated polymers and recasted nafion have been developed. ILs based on imidazolium cation and different anions possess high ionic conductivity and good thermal stability and have been used in the present study. The membranes containing IL show conductivity ${\sim}10^{-2}S\;cm^{-1}$ above $100^{\circ}C$ under anhydrous conditions and are thermally stable up to $250-300^{\circ}C$. IL acts as a conducting medium in these electrolytes and plays the same role as played by water in fully hydrated nafion membranes. Due to high conductivity and good thermal stability, these membranes are promising materials for PEFCs at higher temperatures under anhydrous conditions.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.531-539
• /
• 2019

The development of cost-effective electrocatalysts with high durability is one of the most important challenges for the commercialization of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs). The durability of the electrocatalyst has been studied in terms of structural change in the active metal and the support. In particular, in fuel cell vehicles, degradation of the carbon-based support is known to have a significant effect on the electrocatalyst deterioration since the start-up/shut-down cycle is frequently repeated. The requirements for the support of the electrocatalyst include high surface area, electrical conductivity, chemical stability, and so on. In this study, we propose the evaluation methods for choosing better support materials and present the physicochemical properties that promising carbon supports should have. Three kinds of carbon materials with different crystallinity are compared. From in-depth study using X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and accelerated stress test, it is clearly confirmed that the durability of carbon-supported electrocatalysts is closely related to the physicochemical properties of the carbon supports.