• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.535-546
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• 1992

The molten carbonate fuel cell(MCFC) has been under Intensive development for the last decade as a second generation fuel cell. The advantages of the MCFC over the phophoric acid fuel cell are higher efficiency, its ability to accept CO and $H_2$ as a fuel, lower material costs, and high operating temperature making internal reforming possible. These features, along with low atmospheric emissions, will open up a significant market as an attractive means of developing highly efficient power plant. This article reviews a status of the MCFC research and development, a principle of the MCFC, and cell and stack technology including the status of electrodes, matrices and electrolytes. Several technical difficulties which must be resolved to be commercialized art mainly focused.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1999.07g
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• pp.3141-3143
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• 1999

Fuel cell systems offer high energy efficiencies for transportation application. In addition, they can use alcohols and alternative fuels as the fuel, while producing little or no noxious emissions. Fuel cell-powered energy source should be competitive in performance characteristics and in capital and maintenance costs with internal combustion engine systems. From computer simulation program, battery and fuel cell energy output and total power profile, motor power, battery energy output, fuel cell energy output. It simulates the performance of fuelcell/battery powered energy source operation over any user inputted transit route cycle, and provides performance criteria through user specifications for preliminary design consideration.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.219-229
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• 1976

A statistical approach is employed to investigate the relative advantages of several alternative fuel cycles suitable for a hypothetical 1125 MWe plant in Korea. All the fuel cost parameters are treated as statistical variables, each being associated with an appropriate probability distribution function. Through a random sampling procedure, the probability histograms on both capital requirements and break-even costs of various fuel cycle components are obtained. The histograms are then utilized to quantify the cost-benefit of the fuel cycle with reprocessing or the plutonium recycle over the throwaway cycle.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2008

One of the major current challenges to nuclear energy lies in its competitiveness. To stay competitive the industry needs to reduce maintenance and fuel cycle costs, while enhancing safety features. Extended burnup is one of the methods applied to meet these objectives However, there are a number of potential fuel failure causes related to increased burnup, as follows: l) Corrosion of zirconium alloy cladding and the water chemistry parameters that enhance corrosion; 2) Dimensional changes of zirconium alloy components, 3) Stresses that challenge zirconium alloy ductility and the effect of hydrogen (H) pickup and redistribution as it affects ductility, 4) Fuel rod internal pressure, 5) Pellet-cladding interactions (PCI) and 6) pellet-cladding mechanical interactions (PCMI). This paper discusses current and potential failure mechanisms of these failure mechanisms.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.765-776
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• 2011

For container shipping company, fuel oil prise is a considerable expense. Since 2008, fuel oil prises have risen dramatically. An increasing fuel oil price in container shipping, in the short term, is only partially compensated through surcharges and may affect earnings negatively. This study discusses the impact of an increasing fuel oil price and capital costs for vessels on the Asia-Europe trade of 'H' Shipping Company. According to the result of 'H' carrier's operation in 2008, there were no cost differences between 8 and 9 vessels operations in case of fuel oil price with USD 169/tons while adopting USD 31,818 as a fixed cost. We can expect that the fuel oil price will not go lower than USD 200/Ton on the basis of current high oil price phenomenon. When the fuel oil price is over USD 200/ton, 9 vessel operation is more economic than 8 vessel operation even if the fixed cost is over USD 35,000.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.19-27
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• 2016

Maritime transport is now regarded as one of the main contributors to global climate change by virtue of its $CO_2$ emissions. Meanwhile, slow steaming, i.e., slower ship speed, has become a common practice in the maritime industry so as to lower $CO_2$ emissions and reduce bunker fuel consumption. The practice raised various operational decision issues in terms of shipping companies: how much ship speed is, how much to bunker the fuel, and at which port to bunker. In this context, this study addresses an operation problem in a shipping companies, which is the problem of determining the ship speed, bunkering ports, and bunkering amount at the ports over a given ship route to minimize the bunker fuel and ship time costs as well as the carbon tax which is a regulatory measure aiming at reducing $CO_2$ emissions. The ship time cost is included in the problem because slow steaming increases transit times, which implies increased in-transit inventory costs in terms of shippers. We formulate the problem as a nonlinear lot-sizing model and suggest a Lagrangian heuristic to solve the problem. The performance of the heuristic algorithm is evaluated using the data obtained from reliable sources. Although the problem is an operational problem, the heuristic algorithm is used to address various strategic issues facing shipping companies, including the effects of bunker prices, carbon taxes, and ship time costs on the ship speed, bunkering amount and number of bunkering ports. For this, we conduct sensitivity analyses of these factors and finally discuss study findings.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.67 no.2
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• pp.179-185
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• 2018

A considerable cost gap between three major power generation technologies, namely nuclear, coal, and combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT), has been a well-established fact in the Korean electricity market. Alternatively, this paper analyzes the levelized costs of electricity (LCOE) of the three technologies reflecting overall social costs of electricity generation including accident risk, $CO_2$ emission, and air pollution damage. The paper unveils to what extent current discriminative subsidies on fuels regarding the social costs, mostly through tax exemptions, affect economic competitiveness of the technologies. In particular, it finds relative positions of coal and CCGT could be altered depending on appreciation level of the social costs. It has limits in analyzing fixed costs of the technologies, however, due to limited data availability of nuclear power, and suggests further studies on the issue.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.251-258
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• 2016

This article reports current status of micro fuel cell-combined heat and power (${\mu}FC$-CHP) systems which utilize both power and heat generated by fuel cells. There are several options for constructing CHP systems and among them, fuel cells are the most useful and their total energy efficiency combining heat and power can reach up to about 90%. Fuel cells are classified as five types based on the electrolyte, but the most suitable fuel cell types for the ${\mu}FC$-CHP system are proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). ${\mu}FC$-CHP systems have several advantages such as decrease of the transmission-distribution loss, reduced costs of electricity due to distributed power generation, and environmental-friendliness owing to zero emission. The main drawback of the ${\mu}FC$-CHP systems is the high initial investment, however, it keeps decreasing as the technology development reduces production costs. Currently, Japan is the most leading country of the ${\mu}FC$-CHP market, however, Korea tries to expand the market by planning the deployment of 1 million units of ${\mu}FC$-CHP systems and governmental subsidiary supporting of half of the install price. In this report, integration technologies for connecting FC and CHP, and technology trends of leading countries are presented as well.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.98-103
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• 2017

In this study, contributes to improving the state of this problem using cavitation by ultrasonic energy to reduce fuel costs, which take up a considerable part of ship operation costs, by making the use of on-board blended fuel oil more stable. An experiment simulating on-board blending methods was completed. Fuel (M.G.O & MF-180) was mixed at a volume ratio of 0.25:0.75 and, 0.75:0.25, and the effect of ultrasonic energy on blended fuel oil was examined after applying ultrasonic energy to blended fuel oil using an ultrasonic treatment unit. With the results, we confirmed the blending problem reported by vessels and residual carbon was reduced by up to 28.4%. In addition, based on the results for reduction of residual carbon content and dispersion stability, it was confirmed that the collapse pressure of the cavity due to the ultrasonic energy was effective to atomization of fuel particle and the temporary availability of mixed fuel containing a heavy fuel increased.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.05c
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• pp.441-446
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• 1996

A preliminary conceptual design of the DUPIC fuel fabrication plant with production capacity of 400 MTHE/yr is presented. Capital and operating costs are also included. The levelized unit fabrication cost (LUC) for a reference mode was estimated at $509/kgHE, and sensitivity of some variable parameters to this reference was analysed.