• New & Renewable Energy
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.40-50
• /
• 2013

This study was performed to investigate the potential of torrefied tulip tree (TT) for the production of pellets. For this purpose, chemical composition and fuel characteristics of torrefied TT were examined. In addition, pellets were fabricated by using sawdust of torrefied TT chip, and durability of the pellet was measured. Lignin content of torrefied TT was higher than that of non-torrefied TT, and increased with the increases of torrefaction temperature and time. Fuel characteristics of torrefied TT were affected by torrefied conditions, and the characteristics were influenced more by torrefaction temperature than by torrefaction time. Higher heating value (HHV) and ash content (AC) of torrefied tulip tree increased with increasing torrefaction temperature, and the values were much higher than HHV and AC values of non-torrefied TT. Durability of pellets fabricated with $230^{\circ}C$- and $250^{\circ}C$-torrefied TT was higher than that of $270^{\circ}C$-torrefied TT, and the value exceeded the minimum requirement (-97.50%) of the 1st-grade pellet standard designated by Korea Forest Research Institute. Based on the results, torrefaction treatment of $250^{\circ}C/50min$ to TT might be a optimal condition for the production of TT pellets considering the mass balance and fuel characteristics of TT as well as the durability of the pellets. Thus, it is confirmed that torrefied TT can be used as a raw material for the production of bio-pellets.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
• /
• 1995.05a
• /
• pp.707-712
• /
• 1995

Grain boundary diffusion plays significant role in the fission gas release, which is one of the crucial processes dominating nuclear fuel performance. Gaseous fission products such as Xe and Kr generated inside fuel pellet have to diffuse in the lattice and in the grain boundary before they reach open space in the fuel rod. In the mean time, the grains in the fuel pellet grow and shrink according to grain growth kinetics, especially at elevated temperature at which nuclear reactors are operating. Thus the boundary movement ascribed to the grain growth greatly influences the fission gas release rate by lengthening or shortening the lattice diffusion distance, which is the rate limiting step. Sweeping fission gases by the moving boundary contributes to the increment of the fission gas release as well. Lattice and grain boundary diffusion processes in the fission gas release can be studied by 'tracer diffusion' technique, by which grain boundary diffusion can be estimated and used directly for low burn-up fission gas release analysis. However, even for tracer diffusion analysis, taking both the intragranular grain growth and the diffusion processes simultaneously into consideration is not easy. Only a few models accounting for the both processes are available and mostly handle them numerically. Numerical solutions are limited in the practical use. Here in this paper, an approximate analytical solution of the lattice and stationary grain boundary diffusion in a polycrystalline solid is developed for the tracer diffusion techniques. This short closed-form solution is compared to available exact and numerical solutions and turns out to be acceptably accurate. It can be applied to the theoretical modeling and the experimental analysis, especially PIE (post irradiation examination), of low burn up fission. gas release.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.191-198
• /
• 2008

The influence of fission products' contents on the DUPIC fuel powder and pellet properties was experimentally evaluated using SIMFUEL as a surrogate for actual spent PWR fuel due to the high radioactivity of spent fuel. Pure $UO_2$ and SIMFUEL pellets with fission products equivalent to a burn-up of 35,000 MWd/tU and 60,000 MWd/tU were used as impurities in this study. The specific surface area of the powder milled after the OREOX treatment increased and resulted in sintered pellets with a theoretical density (TD) higher than 95%, regardless of the impurity contents. However, the grain size of the sintered pellets decreased with the increasing impurity contents. As a result of the dissolved oxides in $UO_2$ from the impurity groups, the specific surface area of the OREOX powder increased with an increase of the impurities. The grain size of the sintered pellets was significantly decreased by the metallic and oxide precipitates.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.52 no.5
• /
• pp.1079-1092
• /
• 2020

A parametric study of several parameters relevant to design safety on the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) rod response under a drop accident is presented. In the view of the complexity of interactions between the independent safety-related parameters, a factorial design of experiment is employed as an efficient method to investigate the main effects and the interactions between them. A detailed single full-length fuel rod is used with consideration of post-irradiated fuel conditions under horizontal and vertical free-drops onto an unyielding surface using finite-element analysis. Critical drop heights and critical g-loads that yield the threshold plastic strain in the cladding are numerically estimated to evaluate the fuel rod structural resistance to impact load. The combinatory effects of four uncertain parameters (pellet-cladding interfacial bonding, material properties, spacer grid stiffness, rod internal pressure) and the interactions between them on the fuel rod response are investigated. The principal finding of this research showed that the effects of above-mentioned parameters on the load-carrying capacity of fuel rod are significantly different. This study could help to prioritize the importance of data in managing and studying the structural integrity of the SNF.

• KIEAE Journal
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.103-109
• /
• 2015

Recently, the usage of renewable energy system has been recommended because of the energy saving and depletion of fossil fuel. Especially, ground source heat pump system(GSHP) has a high efficiency by using annual stable ground temperature. Also, wood pellet is low cost and a high calorific value compared to fossil fuel. However, only small number of farms have applied renewable energy system to horticultural facility because of a high initial costs and uncertainty of its cost efficiency. In this study, in order to analyze the feasibility for the horticulture, TRNSYS simulation based on the standard horticultural facility was conducted in different weather and covering material conditions. Then, comparative feasibility analysis of each energy supplying system was conducted. As a result, we have found out that a high initial cost of renewable energy system was recovered by the economics of the energy cost. Due to the energy cost reduction, the payback periods were 10-11 years in the case of GSHP and 4-6 years in the case of wood pellet boiler.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.97-104
• /
• 2012

A porous $TiO_2$ pellet was electrochemically converted to the metallic titanium by using a $CaCl_2$ molten salt system at $850^{\circ}C$. Ni-$TiO_2$ and graphite electrodes were used as cathode and anode, respectively. The electrochemical behaviour of $TiO_2$ pellet was determined by a constant voltage control electrolysis. Various reaction intermediates such as $CaTiO_3$, $Ti_2O$ and $Ti_6O$ were observed by XRD analysis during electrolysis of the pellet. Once $TiO_2$ pellet was converted to a porous metallic structure, the porous structure disappeared by sintering and shrinking with increasing the reaction time at high temperature.

• Plant Journal
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.35-41
• /
• 2019

In this study, we investigated the effect of the generation of NOx and CO by adjusting the overfire air supply position and ratio using the boiler that was converted from coal burning to wood pellet boiler. When the amount of the overfire air is relatively increased, the amount of NOx is slightly decreased but CO is sharply decreased when burning at low excess air ratio (1.10) that is due to a small fuel particle size. However, NOx slightly increased when burning at high excess air ratio (1.33) due to the large fuel size, but CO was hardly affected. Also, When the amount of overfire air was same, The more supply position was concentrated to upper portion of the main combustor, the more NOx and CO was lowered. And in case of the excess air ratio was high, the generation of NOx and CO I can see that it keeps the level irrelevant to the amount of air for the second stage combustion.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.53 no.2
• /
• pp.61-65
• /
• 2011

Biomass is considered to be a major potential fuel and renewable resource for the future. In fact, there is high potential to produce the large amount of energy from biomass around the world. In this study, to obtain basic data for practical application of agricultural and forest by-products as fuel of heating system in agriculture, agricultural and forest biomass resources were surveyed, the pelletizer with capacity of $50\;kg{\cdot}h^{-1}$ was designed and manufactured and pellets were made by the pelletizer. High heating value, ash content, etc. of pellets made of agricultural and forest by-products were estimated. Straw of rice was the largest agricultural biomass in 2009 and the total amount of rice straw converted into energy of $299{\times}10^3$ TOE. And in 2009, amount of forest by-product converted into energy of $9,579{\times}10^3$ TOE. High heating values of pellets made of stem and seed of rape, stem of oat, rice straw and rice husk were 16,034, 16,026, 16,089, 15,650, $15,044\;kJ{\cdot}kg^{-1}$ respectively. High heating values of pellets made of agricultural by-products were average 83.6% compared to that of wood pellet. Average bulk density of pellets made of stem and seed of rape, stem of oat, rice straw and rice husk was $1,400\;kg{\cdot}m^{-3}$ ($1.4\;g{\cdot}cm^{-3}$). Ash contents of the pellets were 6.6, 7, 6.2, 5.5, 33% respectively. Rice husk pellet produced the largest ash content compared to other kinds of pellets.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.631-636
• /
• 1996

The powder characteristics of UO2 via AUC prepared by precipitation from a UN with AC soiution produced from nuclear fuel powder conversion plant and that of the existing facility were compared. Mean particle size of AUC powder was decreased and agglomerates were much occured in case of using the AC solution that that of the gases but other properties such as particle size distribution and shape of particle are thought to be similarly. In compaction of UO2 powder the breaking pressur of agglomerated UO2 powder and the sintered density of final UO2 pellet from AC solution were measured 1.45$\times$108 N/m2 and 10.52 g/cc, These values could be used in nuclear fuel powder fabrication process.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.50 no.1
• /
• pp.80-87
• /
• 2018

Consideration is given to the possibility to use changes in buoyancy as a negative reactivity feedback mechanism during temperature transients in heavy liquid metal fast reactors. It is shown that by the proper use of heavy pellets in the fuel elements, fuel rods could be endowed with a passive self-ejection mechanism and then with a negative feedback. A first estimate of the feasibility of the mechanism is calculated by using a simplified geometry and model. If in addition, a neutron poison pellet is introduced at the bottom of the fuel, then when the fuel element is displaced upward by buoyancy force, the reactivity will be reduced not only by disassembly of the core but also by introducing the neutron poison from the bottom. The use of induced buoyancy opens up the possibility of introducing greater amounts of actinides into the core, as well as providing a palliative solution to the problem of positive coolant temperature reactivity coefficients that could be featured by the heavy liquid metal fast reactors.