• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.184-184
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• 2006

We have succeeded in the preparation of high molecular weight polybenzimidazoles by solution polycondensation of 3,3'-diaminobenzidine tetrahydrochloride with isophthalic acid, terephthalic acid, or with their derivatives using polyphosphoric acid both as solvent and as condensing agent. Also, we modified phosphoric acid into fluoroalkyl-phosphonic acids[F-PA]. The main reasons are as follows, first of all F-PAs are stronger acids than PA and alkylphosphonic acids which should promote proton hopping and transport. In addition, F-PA has weaker adsorption onto Pt which help to prevent electrocatalyst poisoning and promote higher oxygen reduction activity. The ionic conductivity of 85%-H3PO4 doped membranes show $10^{-2}\;Scm^{-1}\;to\;3{\times}10^{-2}\;Scm^{-1}\;at\;150^{\circ}C$ MEA with 2 %-added electrolyte shows slightly higher cell voltage than the others.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.442-455
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• 2022

High-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) has been studied as an alternative to low-temperature PEMFC due to its fast activation of electrodes and high resistance to electrode poisoning by carbon monoxide. It is highly required to develop stable PEMs operating at high temperatures even doped by ion-conducting materials for the development of high-performance and durable HT-PEMFC systems. A number of studies have been conducted to develop polybenzimidazole (PBI)-based PEMs for applications in HT-PEMFC due to their high interaction with doped ion-conducting materials and outstanding thermomechanical stability under high-temperature operation. This review focused on the development of PBI-based PEMs showing high performance and durability. Firstly, the characteristic behavior of PBI-based PEMs doped with various ion-conducting materials including phosphoric acid was systematically investigated. And then, a comparison of the physicochemical properties of the PEMs according to the different membrane manufacturing processes was conducted. Secondly, the incorporation of porous polytetrafluoroethylene substrate and/or inorganic composites to PBI matrix to improve the membrane performances was studied. Finally, the construction of cross-linked structures into PBI-based PEM systems by polymer blending method was introduced to improve the PEM properties.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.403-409
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• 2008

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is very interesting power source due to high power density, simple construction and operation at low temperature. But it has problems such as high cost, improvement of performance, effect of temperature and initial start at low temperature. These problems can be approached to be solved by using experiment and mathematical method which are general principles for analysis and optimization of control system for heat and hydrogen detecting management. In this paper, insulation vessel and control system for stable operation of fuel cell at low temperature were developed for experiment. The constant temperature capability and the heating time at sub-zero temperatures with insulation control system were studied by using a heating bar of 60W class. PEMFC stack which was made by 4 cells with $50\;mc^2$ active area in each cell is a thermal source. Times which take to reach constant temperature by the state of insulation vacuum were measured at variable environment temperatures. The test was performed at two conditions: heating mode and cooling mode. Constant temperature capability was better at lower environment temperature and vacuum pressure. The results of this experiment could be used as basis data about stable operation of fuel cell stack in low temperature zone.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.140-140
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• 2009

The polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell(PEMFC) with the advantages of low-operating temperature, high current density, low cost and volume, fast start-up ability, and suitability for discontinuous operation becomes the most reasonable and attractive power system for transportation vehicle and micro-grid power plant in a household. 200W PEM-type FCs system was integrated by this study, then the electrical characteristics and diagnosis of the fuel cell were analyzed with variations on mass flow rate and stack temperature. The ranges of the variations are $20{\sim}70^{\circ}C$ on stack temperature and 1~8L/min on $H_2$ volume.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.105-108
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• 2007

Fuel cell with high electric efficiency has many probabilities of commercial use. Especially, proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) which is a low temperature fuel cell and has less influence on $CO_2$ concentration is considered the power generation system of small building and household. We calculated the optimal operational plans of 1 kW household PEMFC power system based on the daily electricity and heat demand patterns of Japan and Korea. Calculated results show that the economic feasibility of PEMFC power system is very sensitive to the cost policy of electricity and natural gas.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.31-34
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• 2007

Fuel cell with high electric efficiency has many probabilities of commercial use. Especially, polymer electrolyte or proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) which is a low operating temperature and has less influence on $CO_2$ concentration is considered the power generation system of small building and household. We calculated the optimal operational plans of 1 kW household PEMFC power system based on daily electric and heat demand patterns of various size of apartments. Calculated results show that the economic feasibility of PEMFC power system is very sensitive to the cost policy of electricity and natural gas.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.393-400
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• 2013

The air supply system has a significant effect on the efficiency of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) systems. The performance and efficiency of automotive PEMFC systems are greatly influenced by their air supply system configurations. This study deals with the system simulation of automotive PEMFC systems using MATLAB/Simulink framework. In this study, a low-pressure operating PEMFC system adopting blower sub-module (turbo-blower) is modeled to investigate the effects of stack operating temperature and air stoichiometry on the parasitic power and efficiency of automotive PEMFC systems. In addition, the PEMFC net system efficiency and parasitic power of air supply system are mainly compared for the two types (low-pressure operating and high-pressure operating) of automotive PEMFC systems under the same net power conditions. It is suggested that the obtained results from this system approach can be applied for establishing the novel operating strategies for FC vehicles.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.41-55
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• 2018

General polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEMFC) operates at less than $80^{\circ}C$. Therefore liquid phase water resulting from electrochemical reaction accumulates and floods the cell which in turn increases the mass transfer loss. To prevent the flooding, it is common to employ serpentine flow channel, which can efficiently export liquid phase water to the outlet. The major drawback of utilizing serpentine flow channel is the large pressure drop that happens between the inlet and outlet. On the other hand, in the high temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cell (HT-PEMFC), since the operating temperature is 130 to $180^{\circ}C$, the generated water is in the state of gas, so the flooding phenomenon is not taken into consideration. In HT-PEMFCs parallel flow channel with lower pressure drop between the inlet and outlet is employed therefore, in order to circulate hydrogen and air in the cell less pumping power is required. In this study we analyzed HT-PEMFC's different flow channels by parallel computation using previously developed 3-D isothermal model. All the flow channels had an active area of $25cm^2$. Also, we numerically compared the performance of HT-PEMFC parallel flow channel with different manifold area and Rib interval against the original serpentine flow channel. Results of the analysis are shown in the form of three-dimensional contour polarization curves, flow characteristics in the channel, current density distribution in the Membrane, overpotential distribution in the catalyst layer, and hydrogen and oxygen concentration distribution. As a result, the performance of a real area fuel cell was predicted.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.339-344
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• 2005

A PEMFC system model for FCEV was constructed and simulated numerically to examine the heat/water flow of the system and air/fuel humidification process for various operation conditions (ambient pressure /temperature/humidity, operating temperature, power load). We modeled PEMFC stack which can generate maximum electricity of about 80 kW. This stack consists of 400 unit cells and each unit cell has $250cm^2$ reacting area. Uniform current density and uniform operating voltage per each cell was assumed. The results show the flow characteristics of heat and water at each component of PEMFC system in macro-scale. The capacity shortage of the radiator occurred when the ambient was hot $(over\;40^{\circ}C)$ and power level was high (over 50 kW). In spite of some heat release by evaporation of water in stack, heat unbalance reached to 20kW approximately in such a severe operating condition. This heat unbalance could be recovered by auxiliary radiators or high speed cooling fan with additional cost. In cold environment, the capacity of radiator exceeded the net heat generation to be released, which may cause a problem to drop the operating temperature of stack. We dealt with this problem by regulating mass flow rate of coolant and radiator fan speed. Finally, water balance was not easily broken when we retrieved condensed and/or unused water.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.18-25
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• 2009

PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) is a low temperature fuel cells which are high efficient and clean energy. But it has many problems like economical efficiency or durability. Because of this reason, many researchers challenge various view points. One of challenge is the flow channel design and many researchers develop new flow channel design. In addition to most of them have the anode and cathode's flow channel overlapped almost perfectly. In this case, the electrochemical reaction is almost done by the inertial force of flow. So we study on the effect of the anode and cathode's flow channel which aren't overlapped perfectly, have more diffusion effect, to PEMFC performance using CFD.