• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.3191-3196
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• 2007

The present study addresses a method to operate a fuel-cell system effectively using a recirculation ejector which recycles wasted hydrogen gas. Configuration of a recirculation ejector is changed to investigate the flow behavior through it under varying operating conditions, and how such conditions affect the fuel-cell hydrogen cycle. The numerical simulations are based on a fully implicit finite volume scheme of the axisymmetric, compressible, Reynolds-Averaged, Navier-Stokes equations for hydrogen gas, and are compared with available experimental data for validation. The results show that a hydrogen recirculation ratio is effectively controlled by a configurational alteration within the operational region in which the recirculation passage doesn't plugged by a sonic line.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.193-197
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• 2010

In terms of the system efficiency, it is very useful to apply the ejector into the fuel recirculation system of a fuel cell system since the ejector needs no parasitic power to operate. Since the conventional automotive fuel cell use hydrogen and air as their fuel, the only hydrogen is needed to be recirculated for the better fuel efficiency. On the other hand, the submarine fuel cell needs both hydrogen and oxygen recirculation systems because the submarine drives under the sea. In particular, the cathodic recirculation has to meet the tougher target since the oxygen based pressurized stack generally used in the submarine applications generates the significant amount of the water in the stack during the operation. Namely, the oxygen utilization has designed less than 50% in the whole operating range for the better exhausting of the generated waters. And thereby in terms of the oxygen utilization, the entrainment ratio of the ejector should be more than 1 within the whole operating range. However, the conventional ejector using a constant nozzle can not afford to satisfy the mentioned critical requirement. To overcome the problem, the dual-ejector and its control strategy are designed. The performance of the proposed dual-ejector is verified by the experiments based on the real operating conditions of the target submarine system. Furthermore, the proposed design method can be used for the other fuel recirculation system of a large-scale fuel cell system with the critical requirement of the fuel utilization.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.156-160
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• 2007

Ejector system is a device to transport a low-pressure secondary flow by using a high-pressure primary flow. Ejector system is, in general, composed of a primary nozzle, a mixing section, a casing part for suction of secondary flow and a diffuser. It can induce the secondary flow or affect the secondary chamber pressure by both shear stress and pressure drop which are generated in the primary jet boundary. Ejector system is simple in construction and has no moving parts, so it can not only compress and transport a massive capacity of fluid without trouble, but also has little need for maintenance. Ejectors are widely used in a range of applications such as a turbine-based combined-cycle propulsion system and a high altitude test facility for rocket engine, pressure recovery system, desalination plant and ejector ramjet etc. The primary interest of this study is to set up an applicable model and operating conditions for an ejector in the condition of sonic and subsonic, which can be extended to the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. Experimental and theoretical investigation on the sonic and subsonic ejectors with a converging-diverging diffuser was carried out. Optimization technique and numerical simulation was adopted for an optimal geometry design and satisfying the required performance at design point of ejector for hydrogen recirculation. Also, some sonic and subsonic ejectors with the function of changing nozzle position were manufactured precisely and tested for the comparison with the calculation results.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.03b
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• pp.256-259
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• 2008

Ejector system is a device to transport a low-pressure secondary flow by using a high-pressure primary flow. Ejector system is, in general, composed of a primary nozzle, a mixing section, a casing part for suction of secondary flow and a diffuser. It can induce the secondary flow or affect the secondary chamber pressure by both shear stress and pressure drop which are generated in the primary jet boundary. Ejector system is simple in construction and has no moving parts, so it can not only compress and transport a massive capacity of fluid without trouble, but also has little need for maintenance. Ejectors are widely used in a range of applications such as a turbine-based combined-cycle propulsion system and a high altitude test facility for rocket engine, pressure recovery system, desalination plant and ejector ramjet etc. The primary interest of this study is to set up an applicable model and operating conditions for an ejector in the condition of sonic and subsonic, which can be extended to the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. Experimental and theoretical investigation on the sonic and subsonic ejectors with a converging-diverging diffuser was carried out. Optimization technique and numerical simulation was adopted for an optimal geometry design and satisfying the required performance at design point of ejector for hydrogen recirculation. Also, some ejectors with a various of nozzle throat and mixing chamber diameter were manufactured precisely and tested for the comparison with the calculation results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.29 no.5 s.236
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• pp.554-560
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• 2005

A new method to improve the efficiency of a hydrogen fuel cell system was introduced by using variable sonic/supersonic ejectors. To obtain the variable area ratio of the nozzle throat to ejector throat which controls the mass flow rate of the suction flow, the ejectors used a movable cylinder inserted into a conventional ejector-diffuser system. Experiments were carried out to understand the flow characteristics inside the variable ejector system. The secondary mass flow rates of subsonic and supersonic ejectors were examined by varying the operating pressure ratio and area ratio. The results showed that the variable sonic/supersonic ejectors could control the recirculation ratio by changing the throat area ratio, and also showed that the recirculation ratio increased fur the variable sonic ejector and decreased for the variable supersonic ejector, as the throat area ratio increases.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.118-123
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• 2008

For the hydrogen recirculation system of the PEMFC (polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell), the ejector is useful to improve the efficiency of the fuel cell system. However, conventional ejector does not keep its entrainment ratio good when the various power duties is required by the fuel cell system. In this study, the variable multi-ejector acceptable in the whole duty range required from the fuel cell hybrid mini-bus is developed. Consequently, the performance of the developed ejector is verified by the experiments based on the real operating conditions.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.139-148
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• 2013

In this study, an ejector was designed to recirculate the anodic off-gas of SOFC, and a parametric study of the system performance was conducted at various ejector entrainment ratios. Aspen Plus, a chemical engineering program, was used to calculate the operational conditions of the ejector. To minimize the calculation load of the CFD and to ensure the global optimum, a genetic algorithm and Kriging model were used for the optimization. The optimization results showed that the dominant design variables of the sonic ejector are the throat diameter and the first flow nozzle position. The designed ejector has enough flexibility for different operating conditions of a 1-kW SOFC system. When the ejector was applied to the SOFC, it reduced 56% of the steam and 8.4% of the fuel compared to the reference case.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.481-487
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• 2011

A fuel cell vehicle using a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEM FC) as power source produces electric power by consuming the fuel, hydrogen. The unconsumed hydrogen is recirculated and reused to gain higer stack efficiency and to maintain the humidity in the anode side of the stack. So it is needed considering fuel efficiency to recirculated hydrogen. In this study, the indirect hydrogen recirculation flow rate measurement method for fuel cell vehicle is presented. By modeling of a convergent nozzle ejector and a hydrogen recirculation blower for the hydrogen recirculation of a PEM FC, the hydrogen recirculation flow rate was calculated by means of the mass balance and heat balance at Anode In/Outlet.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.53-56
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• 2008

An ejector is a fluid machinery to be utilized for mixing fluids, maintaining vacuum, and transporting them. The Ejector is applied for a variety of industrial fields such as refrigerators and power plants. It is adopted to recycle anode off gas safely in 5kW Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell system of KEPRI(Korea Electric Power Research Institute). The ejector is placed at mixing point between the anode off gas and the cathode off gas or the fresh air. In this study, the entrainment ratio is measured according to the diametrical ratio of nozzle to throat. In addition, the performance curve of the ejector and the differential pressure in diffuser is observed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.9
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• pp.847-854
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• 2013

The objective of this study is to experimentally investigate the mixed flow and oxygen transfer characteristics of a horizontally injected aeration process using an annular nozzle ejector. The flow rate ratio, pressure ratio and ejector efficiency are calculated using the measured flow rate and pressure with the experimental parameters of the ejector pitch and primary flow rate. The visualization images of mixed flow issuing from the ejector are analyzed qualitatively, and the volumetric oxygen transfer coefficients are calculated using the measured dissolved oxygen concentration. The mixed flow behaves like a buoyancy jet or horizontal jet owing to the momentum of primary flow and air bubble size. The buoyancy force of the air bubble and the penetration of mixed flow are found to be important parameters for the oxygen transfer rate owing to the contact area and time of two phases.