• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.311-319
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• 2013

A clear understanding on cell voltage-reversal behavior due to local hydrogen starvation in a stack is of paramount importance to operate the fuel cell vehicle (FCV) stably since it affects significantly the cell performance and durability. In the present study, a novel experimental method to simulate the local cell voltage-reversal behavior caused by local hydrogen starvation, which typically occurs only one or several cells out of several hundred cells in a stack of FCV, has been proposed. Contrary to the conventional method of overall fuel starvation, the present method of local hydrogen starvation caused the local cell voltage-reversal behavior in a stack very well. Degradation of both membrane electrode assembly (i.e., pin-hole formation) and gas diffusion layer due to an excessive exothermic heat under voltage-reversal condition was also observed clearly.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.81-87
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• 2017

SOFC(Solid Oxide Fuel Cell) is one of the high-temperature fuel cells, SOFC system and Stack has a high temperature operating Characteristics. These Characteristics cause a lot of trouble in the design of the system and selection materials, securing durability, and securing safety performance. Therefore, For Commercialization and Supply of SOFC, the development of safety performance assessment techniques and evaluation systems should go together. In this study, we analyzed the evaluation items of SOFC Safety performance standards and risk factors of the stack for design of stack safety performance evaluation system. Based on the analyzed data, the evaluation item was deducted for design of stack safety performance evaluation system. Through the results of this study, we expect to facilitate the supply of SOFC and contribute to a safe use environment.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.1986-1991
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• 2007

KEPRI has studied anode-supported planar SOFCs and kW class stacks operated at intermediate temperature for development of a combined heat and power unit. A single cell composed of Ni-YSZ/FL/ScSZ/LSCF showed the maximum power density of 0.55 W/$cm^2$ at $650^{\circ}C$ and 1.8 W/$cm^2$ at $750^{\circ}C$. With 37 cells of 10${\times}10cm^2$ and stainless steel interconnects, a 1kW class SOFC stack was manufactured. When a 1kW class SOFC system was operated at $750^{\circ}C$ with city gas, it showed the power output of 1.3 kWe at 50 A. It also recuperated heat of 0.57-1.2 kWth according to the loaded current through combustion of unreacted anode off-gas. Recently, KEPRI is developing a new kW class SOFC stack and system to increase efficiency and durability at intermediate temperature.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.333-338
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• 2021

The durability of the PEMFC stack for large commercial vehicles should be more than 5 times that for passenger vehicles. If the Chemical Accelerated Stress Test (AST) of PEMFC(Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells) membrane for passenger cars is applied as it is for large commercial vehicles, there is a problem that the AST time becomes more than 2,500 hours. In order to shorten the AST time of DOE (Department of Energy), the chemical durability of the polymer membrane was evaluated using oxygen instead of air as a cathode gas. In this study, Nafion XL was used as a polymer membrane to evaluate accelerated durability under OCV, 90?, RH 30%, H₂/(air or oxygen) conditions. Among the DOE membrane durability target criteria, the decrease rate of short resistance was the fastest. By using oxygen instead of air, the degradation rate of the polymer membrane was accelerated while being less affected by electrode deterioration, reducing the polymer membrane durability evaluation time to less than half.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.491-499
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• 2014

It is important to accurately measure and control the relative humidity of humidified gas entering a PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell stack because the level of humidification strongly affects the performance and durability of the stack. Humidity measurement devices can be used to directly measure the relative humidity, but they cost much to be equipped and occupy spaces in a fuel cell system. We present soft sensors for predicting the relative humidity without actual humidity measuring devices. By combining FIR (finite impulse response) model with PLS (partial least square) and SVM (support vector machine) regression models, DPLS (dynamic PLS) and DSVM (dynamic SVM) soft sensors were developed to correctly estimate the relative humidity of humidified gases exiting a planar-type membrane humidifier. The DSVM soft sensor showed a better prediction performance than the DPLS one because it is able to capture nonlinear correlations between the relative humidity and the input data of the soft sensors. Without actual humidity sensors, the soft sensors presented in this work can be used to monitor and control the humidity in operation of PEM fuel cell systems.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.41 no.11
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• pp.735-742
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• 2017

In this study, an effective model-based sensor fault detection methodology that can detect and isolate PEM temperature sensors fault is introduced. In fuel cell vehicle operation process, the stack temperature affects durability of a fuel cell. Thus, it is important for fault algorithm to detect the fault signals. The major objective of sensor fault detection is to guarantee the healthy operations of the fuel cell system and to prevent the stack from high temperature and low temperature. For the residual implementation, parity equation based on the state space is used to detect the sensors fault as stack temperature and coolant inlet temperature, and residual is compared with the healthy temperature signals. Then the residuals are evaluated by various fault scenarios that detect the presence of the sensor fault. In the result, the designed in this study fault algorithm can detect the fault signal.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.323-329
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• 2012

A thermal management system of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell is taken charge of controlling the temperature of fuel cell stack by rejection of electrochemically reacted heat. Two major components of thermal management system are heat exchanger and pump which determines required amount of heat. Since the performance and durability of PEMFC system is sensitive to the operating temperature and temperature distribution inside the stack, it is necessary to control the thermal management system properly under guidance of operating strategy. The control study of the thermal management system is able to be boosted up with hardware in the loop simulation which directly connects the plant simulation with real hardware components. In this study, the plant simulation of fuel cell stack has been developed and the simulation model is connected with virtual data acquisition system. And HIL simulator has been developed to control the coolant supply system for the study of PEMFC thermal management system. The virtual data acquisition system and the HIL simulator are developed under LabVIEWTM Platform and the Simulation interface toolkit integrates the fuel cell plant simulator with the virtual DAQ display and HIL simulator.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2012

The characteristic features of solid oxide fuel cells are reviewed from the viewpoint of the thermodynamic variables to be developed inside cells/stacks particularly in terms of gradients of chemical potential, electrical potential and temperature and corresponding flows of air, fuel, electricity and heat. Examples of abrupt destruction of SOFC systems were collected from failures in controlling their steady flows, while continuous degradation was caused by materials behaviors under gradients of chemical potentials during a long operation. The local equilibrium approximation has been adopted in NEDO project on the durability/reliability of SOFC stacks/systems; this makes it possible to examine the thermodynamic stability/reactivity as well as mass transfer under the thermodynamic variable gradients. Major results of the NEDO project are described with a focus on degradation/deterioration of electrolyte and electrode materials.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.484-492
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• 2012

The TMS(Thermal Management System) heater in a fuel cell vehicle has been developed to prevent a decline of fuel cell durability and cold start durability. Main functions of the COD(Cathode Oxygen Depletion) heater are depletion of oxygen in a cathode as heat energy and consumption of electric power for rapid warming up of a fuel cell stack. This paper covers subjects including the design specification of a heater, heater controller for detection of overheat and reliability assessment including coolant pressure cycle test of a heater. To verify the design concept, burst pressure and deformation analysis of plastic housing were carried out. Also, temperature distribution analysis of heater surface and coolant inside of housing were carried out to verify the design concept. By designing the plastic housing instead of a steel housing, the 30% weight lightening and 50% cost reduction were attained. A module-based design of a TMS system including a heater or reducing the watt density of a heater is a problem to be solved in the near future work.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.59 no.1
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• pp.6-10
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• 2021

The shorting resistance (SR) of the PEMFC(Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) polymer membrane is an important indicator of the durability of the membrane. When SR decreases, shorting current (SC) increases, reducing durability and performance. When SR becomes less than about 0.1 kΩ·㎠, shorting occurs, the temperature rises rapidly, and MEA(Membrane Electrode Assembly) is burned to end stack operation. In order to prevent shorting, we need to control the SR, so the conditions affecting the SR were studied. There were differences in the SR measurement methods, and the SR measurement method, which improved the DOE(Department of Energy) and NEDO(New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) method, was presented. It was confirmed that the SR decreases as the relative humidity, temperature and cell compression pressure increase. In the final stage of the accelerated durability evaluation process of the polymer membrane, SR rapidly decreased to less than 0.1 kΩ·㎠, and the hydrogen permeability became higher than 15 mA/㎠. After dismantling the MEA, SEM(Scanning Electron Microscope) analysis showed that a lot of platinum was distributed inside the membrane.