• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.32 no.spc3
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• pp.275-281
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• 2012

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) are the most appropriate for energy source of small robot applications. PEMFC has superior in power density and thermodynamic efficiency as compared with the Direct Methaol Fuel Cell (DMFC). Furthermore, PEMFC has lighter weight and smaller size than DMFC which are very important factors as small robot power system. The most significant factor of mobile robots is weight which relates closely with energy consumption and robot operation. This research tried to find optimum specifications in terms of type, number of cell, active area, cooling method, weight, and size. In order to find optimum 500W PEMFC, six options are designed in this paper and studied to reduce total stack weight by applying new materials and design innovations. However, still remaining problems are thermal management, robot space for energy sources, and soon. For a thermal management, design options need to analysis of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for determining which option has the improved performance and durability.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2012.03a
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• pp.211-216
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• 2012

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) are the most appropriate for energy source of small robot applications. PEMFC has superior in power density and thermodynamic efficiency as compared with the Direct Methaol Fuel Cell (DMFC). Furthermore, PEMFC has lighter weight and smaller size than DMFC which are very important factors as small robot power system. The most significant factor of mobile robots is weight which relates closely with energy consumption and robot operation. This research tried to find optimum specifications in terms of type, number of cell, active area, cooling method, weight, and size. In order to find optimum 500W PEMFC, six options are designed in this paper and studied to reduce total stack weight by applying new materials and design innovations. However, still remaining problems are thermal management, robot space for energy sources, and so on. For a thermal management, design options need to analysis of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for determining which option has the improved performance and durability.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.779-784
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• 2001

For electrical vehicles, switched reluctance drives present a promising alternative-compared to asynchronous and synchronous (permanent magnet) concepts. For these applications, a very wide field weakening range is a key issue. Other requirements include high torque output from a small machine and low current ripple at the DC-side without the use of bulky filters - when powered from fuel cells or advanced Lithium-Ion-batteries. A new converter and control strategy according to these requirements is presented and compared to existing designs. The comparison is done for a drive system with a continuous power rating of 30 to 40 kW.

• Vacuum Magazine
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.4-10
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• 2016

Photovoltaic technology has been intensively developed as one of the most powerful renewable energies, replacing a fossil fuel such as coal and petroleum. Every country in the world has emphasized on development of photovoltaic technology and our government has invested heavily in low cost and high efficiency. Korea institute of industrial technology (KITECH) has lastingly constructed PV R&D infra for development of cost-effective and high efficiency solar cells as well as support of commercialization in PV's small and medium enterprises. In this paper, we introduce the next generation PV R&D and infra in KITECH.

• 한국전기화학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.129-134
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• 2004

문헌 연구를 통해 최적의 수소저장물질의서 수소저장 효율, 물질의 안정성 및 경제성이 우수한 나트륨붕소수소화물($NaBH_4$, sodium borohydride)을 선정하여, 소형연료전지용 수소저장시스템에 대한 다양한 특성을 조사하였다. $NaBH_4$의 기초 물성 조사를 위해 수소 발생 능력, 용해도, 수소 비발생 등의 실험을 수행하였으며 다양한 촉매의 특성비교는 물론 수소저장시스템의 설계시 핵심적으로 고려할 수 있는 Key factor의 특성을 파악하였다.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.243-249
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• 2012

A lightweight 200W direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) stack is designed and fabricated to power a small scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The DMFC stack consists of 33-cells in which membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) having an active area of 88 $cm^2$ are sandwiched with lightweight composite bipolar plates. The total stack weight is around 3.485 kg and stack performance is tested under various methanol feed concentrations. The DMFC stack delivers a maximum power of 248 W at 13.2 V and $71.3^{\circ}C$ under methanol feed concentration of 1.2 M. In addition, the voltage of individual cell in the 33-cell stack is measured at various current levels to ensure the stability of DMFC stack operations. The cell voltage distribution data exhibit the maximum cell voltage deviation of 28 mV at 15 A and hence the uniformity of cell voltages is acceptable. These results clearly demonstrate that DMFC technology becomes a potential candidate for small-scale UAV applications.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2011

The composite membranes comprising of sulfonated polymers as matrix and ionic liquids as ion-conducting medium in replacement of water are studied to investigate the effect of annealing of the sulfonated polymers. The polymeric membranes are prepared on recast Nafion containing the ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ($EMIBF_4$). The composite membranes are characterized by thermogravitational analyses, ion conductivity and small-angle X-ray scattering. The composite membranes annealed at $190^{\circ}C$ for 2 h after the fixed drying step showed better ionic conductivity, but no significant increase in thermal stability. The mean Bragg distance between the ionic clusters, which is reflected in the position of the ionomer peak (small-angle scattering maximum), is larger in the annealed composite membranes containing $EMIBF_4$ than the non-annealed ones. It might have been explained to be due to the different level of ion-clustering ability of the hydrophilic parts (i.e., sulfonic acid groups) in the non- and annealed polymer matrix. In addition, the ionic conductivity of the membranes shows higher for the annealed composite membranes containing $EMIBF_4$. It can be concluded that the annealing of the composite membranes containing ionic liquids due to an increase in ion-clustering ability is able to bring about the enhancement of ionic conductivity suitable for potential use in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) at medium temperatures ($150-200^{\circ}C$) in the absence of external humidification.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.2256-2261
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• 2015

In the power plant using high temperature fuel cells such as Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell(MCFC), and Solid Oxide Fuel Cell(SOFC), the generated electric power per area of power generation facilities is much higher than any other renewable energy sources. - High temperature fuel cell systems are capable of operating at MW rated power output. - It also has a feature that is short for length of the line for connecting the interior of the generation facilities. In normal condition, these points are advantages for voltage drops or power losses. However, in abnormal condition such as fault occurrence in electrical system, the fault currents are increased, because of the small impedance of the short length of power cable. Commonly, to minimize the thermal-mechanical stresses on the stack and increase the systems reliability, we divided the power plant configuration to several banks for parallel operation. However, when a fault occurs in the parallel operation system of power main transformer, the fault currents might exceed the interruption capacity of protective devices. In fact, although the internal voltage level of the fuel cell power plant is the voltage level of distribution systems, we should install the circuit breakers for transmission systems due to fault current. To resolve these problems, the SFCL has been studied as one of the noticeable devices. Therefore, we analyzed the effect of application of the SFCL on bus tie in a fuel cell power plants system using PSCAD/EMTDC.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.378-378
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• 2009

The ionic liquid-based sulfonated hydrocarbon composite membranes was prepared for use in anhydrous high temperature-polymer electrolyte fuel cells (HT-PEFCs). Ionic liquid behaves like water in the composite membranes under anhydrous condition. However the composite membranes show a low conductivity and high gas permeability as the content of ionic liquid increases due to its high viscosity and content of ionic liquid, respectively. Hence, in order to enhance the proton conductivity and to reduce the gas permeability of the composite membranes with low content of ionic liquids, the acid containing a common ion of ionic liquid was added to the composite membranes. The characterization of composite membranes was carried out using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) and impedance spectroscopy. As a result, the composite membranes containing acid showed higher proton conductivity than those with no acid under the un-humidified condition due to a decrease in viscosity. In addition, the proton conductivity of composite membranes increased with increasing mole concentration of acid.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.93.2-93.2
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• 2011

In this work, graphite nanofibers (GNFs) were prepared for using catalyst supports in fuel cells. The GNFs were chemically activated to obtain high surface area and small pore diameter with different potassium hydroxide (KOH) amounts, i.e., 0, 1, 3, 4, and 5 g as an activating agent. And then Pt-Ru was deposited onto activated GNFs (A-GNFs) by chemical reduction method. The characteristics of Pt-Ru catalysts deposited onto A-GNFs were determined by specific surface area and pore size analyzer, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and inductive coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). The electrochemical properties of Pt-Ru/A-GNFs catalysts were also analyzed by cyclic voltammetry (CV) experiments. From the results, the A-GNFs carbon supports activated with 4 g of KOH (A4g-GNFs) showed that the highest specific surface areas. In addition, the A4g-GNFs led to uniform dispersion of Pt-Ru onto A4g-GNFs, resulting in the enhancement of electrochemical activity of Pt-Ru catalysts.