• Title/Summary/Keyword: Small fuel cells

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Technical Trends for Fuel Cell Aircraft (연료전지항공기 기술 동향)

  • Kim, Keun-Bae
    • Current Industrial and Technological Trends in Aerospace
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    • v.7 no.2
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    • pp.95-105
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    • 2009
  • Fuel cells are applied to the propulsion system of aircraft based on environmental-friendly characteristics with low noise and zero emission of CO2, currently many kinds of UAV and small manned aircraft equipped with fuel cells are being developed. Fuel cells for aircraft typically classified into PEMFC(Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) type and SOFC(Solid Oxide Fuel Cell) type and the system is developed to adapt missions and operational conditions of aircraft. For UAV, various types of aircraft mostly based on PEM fuel cell technology are investigated for military or commercial uses, and the stability and endurance of system will be improved. For small manned aircraft, many researches are carried out to substitute the propulsion system by fuel cell, also some developments for the higher performance of APU of large commercial aircraft to apply fuel cells are in progress. In the future, a fuel cell aircraft will be expected to improve the reliability and efficiency with higher power density.

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Small Hydrogen Regulator for Mobile Fuel Cells (모바일 연료전지용 초소형 수소 레귤레이터)

  • Kim, Hyung-Jin;Seo, Young-Ho;Kim, Byeong-Hee
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.129-132
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    • 2011
  • This paper presents small hydrogen regulator for the mobile fuel cell. Mobile fuel cell is generally classified into open-end type and dead-end type. In the open-end type, flow rate of hydrogen is constantly controlled, while pressure of hydrogen is constantly maintained in the dead-end type. Considering the efficiency and stability of the fuel usage, dead-end type is more suitable with mobile fuel cell. Mobile fuel cell operated by dead-end mode requires hydrogen regulator which controls the hydrogen pressure from 0.1bar to 0.5bar within 3% error. In this paper, small hydrogen regulator (volume of 2.6cc) was fabricated by stainless steel. Regulation characteristics was experimentally evaluated.

Catalytic Effects of Barium Carbonate on the Anodic Performance of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

  • Yoon, Sung-Eun;Ahn, Jae-Yeong;Park, Jong-Sung
    • Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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    • v.52 no.5
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    • pp.350-355
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    • 2015
  • To develop ceramic composite anodes of solid oxide fuel cells without metal catalysts, a small amount of barium carbonate was added to an $(La_{0.8}Sr_{0.2})(Cr_{0.5}Mn_{0.5})O_3(LSCM)$ - YSZ ceramic composite anode and its catalytic effects on the electrode performance were investigated. A barium precursor solution with citric acid was used to synthesize the barium carbonate during ignition, while a barium precursor solution without citric acid was used to create hydrated barium hydroxide. The addition of barium carbonate to the ceramic composite anode caused stable fuel cell performance at 1073 K; this performance was higher than that of a fuel cell with $CeO_2$ catalyst; however, the addition of hydrated barium hydroxide to the ceramic composite anode caused poor stability of the fuel cell performance.

Development of Electrical Safety Evaluation Method about PEMFC 1kW (가정용연료전지 전기적 안전성 평가 기법 개발)

  • Han, Woonki;Park, Chaneum;Jung, Jinsu;Ko, Woonsik
    • 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2011.05a
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    • pp.99-99
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    • 2011
  • Fuel cell systems are a completely different form of electricity source that has been used so far and is an aggregation of multiple technologies with multidisciplinary features that can be operated safely only when gas and electrical safety are being considered. Since fuel cells generate through electrochemical reactions there are difficulties in ensuring electricity safety, power quality assessment, effective control and reliability standards for system faults using conventional inspection techniques and even though they are necessary as a primary means for reduction of CO2 owing to the Climate Convention, electrical safety assessment and measures are required for the prevention of faults in residential facilities. Although small-scaled distributed power supplies can be utilized as important means of peak control and energy management measures, research is required for observing the effects on the system and the development of inspection technology to ensure stable operation, and the electrical safety of residential fuel cell systems need to be assessed and the problems derived for establishing electrical safety standards. From the year 2002, Japan has established laws on technical safety standards and development and rules on the product specifications and standards for the industrialization of hydrogen fuel cells. Also, a lot of effort have been made for the commercialization of fuel cells by building one-stop certification services. Internationally, the IEC TC 105 has established international standards based on fuel cells. In order to protect the national interest, the country should be able to respond accordingly meet global standards. In fact, in Korea, to comply with the international trend, Korea Energy Management Corporation is establishing a certified agenda for fuel cells and Korean Agency for Technology and Standards is enacting technical standards for fuel cells. The current terms of fuel cells are that research has been focused more on the quality and performance of manufactured products rather than stable power operation and maintenance over time. In this paper, by considering the household fuel cell as a power device, the safety standards of the fuel cell system for a reliable operation with the existing power system is being proposed.

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Optimal Sizing of the Manifolds in a PEM Fuel Cell Stack using Three-Dimensional CFD Simulations (3차원 CFD 시뮬레이션을 활용한 고분자전해질 연료전지 스택의 매니폴드 크기 최적화)

  • Jeong, Jeehoon;Han, In-Su;Shin, Hyun Khil
    • Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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    • v.24 no.5
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    • pp.386-392
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    • 2013
  • Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stacks are constructed by stacking several to hundreds of unit cells depending on their power outputs required. Fuel and oxidant are distributed to each cell of a stack through so-called manifolds during its operation. In designing a stack, if the manifold sizes are too small, the fuel and oxidant would be maldistributed among the cells. On the contrary, the volume of the stack would be too large if the manifolds are oversized. In this study, we present a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model with a geometrically simplified flow-field to optimize the size of the manifolds of a stack. The flow-field of the stack was simplified as a straight channel filled with porous media to reduce the number of computational meshes required for CFD simulations. Using the CFD model, we determined the size of the oxidant manifold of a 30 kW-class PEM fuel cell stack that comprises 99 cells. The stack with the optimal manifold size showed a quite uniform distribution of the cell voltages across the entire cells.

Operating Characteristics of $1Nm^3/hr$ class Natural Gas Fuel Processor for Residential Fuel cells (가정용 연료전지 $1Nm^3/hr$급 천연가스 연료처리장치의 운전 특성)

  • Shin, Jang-Sik;Shin, Seock-Jae;Lee, Seung-Young;Yang, Hye-Kyong;Sung, Bong-Hyun;Kim, Doo-Hoon;Park, Jong-Won
    • 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2007.11a
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    • pp.19-22
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    • 2007
  • In this study, we investigated operating characteristics of natural gas fuel processor for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The fuel processor consists of a natural gas reformer, a water-gas shift reactor, a heat-exchanger and a burner, in which the overall integrated volume is exactly(exceptionally) small, namely, about 10L except outer insulation. The producted hydrogen is $1Nm^3/hr$ and the maximum thermal efficiency is ${\sim}76%$(low heating value) at full operating load. A compact and highly efficient $1Nm^3/hr$ class natural gas fuel processor was developed at UNISON is an advantage for application in residential PEMFCs co-generation systems.

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Solid Oxide Fuel Cells for Power Generation and Hydrogen Production

  • Minh, Nguyen Q.
    • Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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    • v.47 no.1
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    • pp.1-7
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    • 2010
  • Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have been under development for a variety of power generation applications. Power system sizes considered range from small watt-size units (e.g., 50-W portable devices) to very large multi-megawatt systems (e.g., 500-MW base load power plants). Because of the reversibility of its operation, the SOFC has also been developed to operate under reverse or electrolysis mode for hydrogen production from steam (In this case, the cell is referred to as solid oxide electrolysis cell or SOEC.). Potential applications for the SOEC include on-site and large-scale hydrogen production. One critical requirement for practical uses of these systems is long-term performance stability under specified operating conditions. Intrinsic material properties and operating environments can have significant effects on cell performance stability, thus performance degradation rate. This paper discusses potential applications of the SOFC/SOEC, technological status and current research and development (R&D) direction, and certain aspects of long-term performance degradation in the operation of SOFCs/SOECs for power generation/hydrogen production.

A Study on the Optimum Design for LTCC Micro-Reformer: (Performance Evaluation of Various Flow Channel Structures ('LTCC를 소재로 하는 마이크로 리포머의 최적 설계에 관한 연구: (다양한 채널구조에 따른 성능변화 고찰)')

  • Chung Chan-Hwa;Oh Jeong-Hoon
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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    • 2006.05a
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    • pp.551-552
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    • 2006
  • The miniature fuel cells have emerged as a promising power source for applications such as cellular phones, small digital devices, and autonomous sensors to embedded monitors or to micro-electro mechanical system (MEMS) devices. Several chemicals run candidate at a fuel in those systems, such as hydrogen. methanol, ethanol, acetic acid, and di-methyl ether (DME). Among them, hydrogen shows most efficient fuel performance. However, there are some difficulties in practical application for portable power sources. Therefore, more recently, there have been many efforts for development of micro-reformer to operate highly efficient micro fuel cells with liquid fuels such as methanol, ethanol, and DME In our experiments, we have integrated a micro-fuel processor system using low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) materials. Our integrated micro-fuel processor system is containing embedded heaters, cavities, and 3D structures of micro- channels within LTCC layers for embedding catalysts (cf. Figs. 1 and 2). In the micro-channels of LTCC, we have loaded $CuO/ZnO/Al_2O_3$ catalysts using several different coating methods such as powder packing or spraying, dipping, and washing of catalyst slurry.

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A Study on the Suppression of Carbon Deposition in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Through Methane Internal Reforming (메탄 내부개질 반응을 통한 고체산화물 연료전지의 탄소침적 억제에 관한 연구)

  • Kang, Yun-Hyeok;Lim, Sung-Kwang;Yoo, Yung-Sung;Park, Jin-Woo;Bae, Joong-Myeon
    • Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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    • v.31 no.5
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    • pp.473-481
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    • 2007
  • Compared to other types of fuel cells, SOFC has advantages like a wide output range and the direct use of hydrocarbon fuel without the process of external reforming. Particularly because the direct use of fuel without reforming reaction is closely linked to overall system efficiency, it is a very attractive advantage. We tried the operation with methane. However, although methane has a small number of carbons compared to other hydrocarbon fuels, our experiment found the deposition of carbon on the surface of the SOFC electrode. To overcome the problem, we tried the operation through activating internal reforming. The reason that internal reforming was possible was that SOFC runs at high temperature compared to other fuel cells and its electrode is made of Ni, which functions as a catalyst favorable for steam reforming.