• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.3 no.1 s.9
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• pp.46-53
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• 2007

Direct Methanol Fuel Cell, DMFC is a potential power source for portable IT application. DMFC works at low temperature ($<100^{\circ}C$) without fuel processing. Methanol has high energy density, fuel economy, and easiness to handle. This paper focuses high efficient catalyst to increase utilization in the electrode, new membrane reducing methanol crossover, new material parts, and optimization of system integration. Lightweight and small-sized DMFC based on new materials, efficient stack, and improved system control will be applied to the 50W prototype system for the notebook computer.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.87.2-87.2
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• 2011

Many type of fuel cell stacks have been developed to improve the efficiency of reactants usage. The cascade type fuel cell stack using dead end operation is able to attain above 99% usage of hydrogen and oxygen. It is sectionalized to several parts and the residual reactants which are used previous parts would be supplied again to next parts which have less number of cells in dead end operation stack. The oversupply of reactants which is usually 120%~150% of the theoretical amount to generate current for preventing the flooding effect could be provided to each part except the last one. The final section which is called monitoring cells is supposed to be supplied insufficient the fuel or oxidant that would have some accumulated inert gas from former parts. It makes some voltage drop in the part and the fresh reactants must be supplied to the part for recovering it by venting the residual gas. So the usage of fuel and oxidant is depend on the time and frequency of opening valves for venting of residual gas and it is important to optimize the vent logic for achieving higher usage of hydrogen and oxygen. In this research, many experiments are performed to find optimal condition by evaluating the effect of time and frequency under several power conditions using over 100kW class fuel cell module. And the characteristics of the monitoring cells are studied to know the proper cell voltage which decide the condition of opening the vent valve for stable performance of the cascade type fuel cell module.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.39-46
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• 2006

The fuel cell is one of promising environment-friendly energy sources for the next generation. The bipolar plate is a major component of the PEM fuel cell stack, which takes a large portion of stack cost. In this study, as alternative materials for bipolar plate of PEM fuel cells, graphite composites were fabricated by compression molding. Graphite particles mixed with epoxy resin were used as the main substance to provide electric conductivity To achieve desired electrical properties, specimens made with different mixing ratio, processing pressure and temperature were tested. To increase mechanical strength, one or two layers of woven carbon fabric were added to the graphite and resin composite. Thus, the composite material was consisted of three phases: graphite particles, carbon fabric, and epoxy resin. By increasing mixing ratio of graphite, fabricated pressure and process temperature, the electric conductivity of the composite was improved. The results of tensile test showed that the tensile strength of the two-phase graphite composite was about 4MPa, and that of three-phase composite was increased to 57MPa. As surface properties, contact an91e and surface roughness were tested. Graphite composites showed contact angles higher than $90^{\circ}$, which mean low surface energy. The average surface roughness of the composite specimens was $0.96{\mu}m$.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.569-572
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• 2007

In this paper, research about SVM(stack voltage monitoring) module is written, which studied to detect the failure mode of stack and stop stack driving. It is important role for SVM module to monitor the cell voltage and also, transfer those data to Supervisor controller. SVM module needs accurate measurement to detect failure mode, because the cell voltage is very small value under a few [V]. For improving these cost and technical efficiency, the electric characteristic experiment is made with the measurement circuit designed by using precision resistor.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.17-22
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• 2014

The design of a fuel cells stack is important to get optimal output power. This study focuses on the evaluation of fuel cell system for unmaned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Low temperature proton exchange membrane (LTPEM) fuel cells are the most promising energy source for the robot applications because of their unique advantages such as high energy density, cold startup, and quick response during operation. In this paper, a 600 W open cathode LTPEM fuel cell was tested to evaluate the performance and to determine optimal operating conditions. The open cathode design reduces the overall size of the system to meet the requirement for robotic application. The cruise power requirement of 600 W was supported entirely by the fuel cell while the additional power requirements during takeoff was extended using a battery. A peak of power of 900 W is possible for 10 mins with a lithium polymer (LiPo) battery. The system was evaluated under various load cycles as well as start-stop cycles. The system response from no load to full load meets the robot platform requirement. The total weigh of the stack was 2 kg, while the overall system, including the fuel processing system and battery, was 4 kg.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.8
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• pp.1551-1558
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• 2009

This paper proposes a new power conditioning system for the fuel cell power generation, which consists of a LLC resonant DC-DC converter and 3-phase inverter. The LLC resonant converter boosts the fuel cell voltage of 26-48V up to 400V, using the hard-switching boost converter and the high-frequency ZVS half-bridge converter. The operation of proposed power conditioning system was verified through simulations with PSCAD/EMTDC software. The feasibility of hardware implementation was verified through experimental works with a laboratory prototype, which was built with 1.2kW PEM fuel-cell stack, 1kW LLC resonant converter, and 3kW PWM inverter. The proposed system can be utilized to commercialize a real interconnection system for the fuel-cell power generation.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.701-706
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• 2003

Fuel cell is remarkable for one of the clean energy recently. But in the fuel cell case, it has characteristics with low voltage and high current. Therefore, for using domestic power, it should be changed to the power source with commercial voltage and frequency. In this paper fuel cell simulator having electrical characteristics is designed and constructed instead of fuel cell stack. Voltage generated from fuel cell is from 39V to 72V dc and should be boosted to 400v do for home appliances. A stand alone system including the inverter and DC/DC converter for the fuel cell is then proposed. Experimental result is used to support the analysis.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.75-78
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• 2005

Fuel cell is remarkable for one of the clean energy recently. But in the fuel cell case, it has characteristics with low voltage and high current. Therefore, for using domestic power, it should be changed to the power source with commercial voltage and frequency. In this paper fuel cell simulator having electrical characteristics is designed and constructed instead of fuel cell stack. Voltage generated from fuel cell is from 39V to 72V dc and should be boosted to 400V dc for home appliances. A stand alone system including the inverter and DC/DC converter for the fuel cell is then proposed. Simulation result is used to support the analysis.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.9
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• pp.1728-1734
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• 2009

This paper proposes a new power conditioning system for the fuel cell power generation, which consists of a ZVS DC-DC converter and 3-phase inverter. The ZVS DC-DC converter with a digital controller boosts the fuel cell voltage of 26-50V up to 400V, and the grid-tie inverter controls the active power delivered to the grid. The operation of proposed power conditioning system was verified through simulations with PSCAD/EMTDC software. The feasibility of hardware implementation was verified through experimental works with a laboratory prototype, which was built with 1.2kW PEM fuel-cell stack, 1kW DC-DC converter, and 3kW PWM inverter. The proposed system can be utilized to commercialize an interconnection system for the fuel-cell power generation.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.236-242
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• 2015

We present two data-driven modeling methods, partial least square (PLS) and artificial neural network (ANN), to predict the major operating and performance variables of a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack. PLS and ANN models were constructed using the experimental data obtained from the testing of a 30 kW-class PEM fuel cell stack, and then were compared with each other in terms of their prediction and computational performances. To reduce the complexity of the models, we combined a variables importance on PLS projection (VIP) as a variable selection method into the modeling procedure in which the predictor variables are selected from a set of input operation variables. The modeling results showed that the ANN models outperformed the PLS models in predicting the average cell voltage and cathode outlet temperature of the fuel cell stack. However, the PLS models also offered satisfactory prediction performances although they can only capture linear correlations between the predictor and output variables. Depending on the degree of modeling accuracy and speed, both ANN and PLS models can be employed for performance predictions, offline and online optimizations, controls, and fault diagnoses in the field of PEM fuel cell designs and operations.