• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.925-933
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• 2011

The traditional feedstock for dimethyl ether (DME) has been natural gas obtained by pipeline from a nearby natural gas or oil field. This report focuses on other feedstock: Coal bed methane (CBM). The resource availability and suitability of CBM for DME manufacturing have been investigated. CBM in a short time has become an important industry, providing an abundant clean-burning fuel and also suggesting as a feedstock for gas industry. The use of CBM will have very little impact on the KOGAS' DME process design and economics up to 50 vol% of $CO_2$ in the CBM source. Many of the CBM sources in Asia are high in $CO_2$, but pose no difficulties for the KOGAS' DME plant. Since tri-reformer requires substantial $CO_2$ in its feed, no $CO_2$ removal from the CBM feed is needed. The $CO_2$ in the CBM means that less $CO_2$ needs to be recycled from the downstream in the process.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.1043-1050
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• 2010

Fuel stratification and thermal stratification occur in the HCCI combustion chamber on a microscopic scale. They affect the ignition and combustion processes. In this study, the effect of the inhomogeneity in the mixture gas on the HCCI combustion process was investigated. Two-dimensional chemiluminescence images were captured using a framing camera to evaluate the flame structure. DME was used as the test fuel. First, the effect of inhomogeneity in the fuel distribution in the premixture was investigated for the four-stroke optically accessible engine. Then, by comparing the combustion of the homogeneous mixture in the rapid compression machine, which does not contain any residual gas, with the combustion in the four-stroke engine, the effect of inhomogeneity in temperature due to the residual gas was analyzed. The results showed that a time lag appears spatially in combustion under inhomogeneous conditions in the four-stroke engine. The spatial variation in the combustion without the residual gas in the rapid compression machine is less than that in the combustion in the four-stroke engine.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.40-43
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• 2010

In this study, polyimide(PI) nanofibers mats were prepared by electrospinning and three different fiber morphologies of random, uniaxial, and biaxial orientation were prepared by controlling the speed of drum-shaped collector and other parameters. The SEM studies reveal that the aforesaid morphologies were obtained on the nano-fibrous mats prepared. The ionic conductivity was measured using an in-plane type conductivity tester for the PI mats soaked in the mixture of 1M lithium trifluoro-methane-sulfonate and tetra-ethylene glycol dimethyl ether. The ionic conductivity was surprisingly higher for the biaxial PI mats. For the uniaxially-oriented mats, the ionic conductivity was found to be higher in the parallel direction compared to the perpendicular direction of the fiber orientation. A curious cyclic fluctuation was found in the ionic conductivity with time. The observed behavior was explained by considering the distance between fibers and transport speed of ions used in this study.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.559-571
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• 2012

Dimethyl ether (DME) is a new clean fuel as an environmentally-benign energy resource. DME can be manufactured from various energy sources including natural gas, coal, and biomass. In addition to its environmentally friendly properties, DME has similar characteristics to those of LPG. The aim of this article is to represent the development of new DME process with KOGAS's own technologies. KOGAS has investigated and developed new innovative DME synthesis process from synthesis gas in gaseous phase fixed bed reactor. DME has been traditionally produced by the dehydration of methanol which is produced from syngas, a product of natural gas reforming. This traditional process is thus called the two-step method of preparing DME. However, DME can also be manufactured directly from syngas (single-step). The single-step method needs only one reactor for the synthesis of DME, instead of two for the two-step process. It can also alleviate the thermodynamic limitations associated with the synthesis of methanol, by converting the produced methanol into DME, thereby potentially enhancing the overall conversion of syngas into DME. KOGAS had launched the 10 ton/day DME demonstration plant project in 2004 at Incheon KOGAS LNG terminal. In the mid of 2008, KOGAS had finished the construction of this plant and has successively finished the demonstration plant operation. And since 2008, we have established the basic design of commercial plant which can produce 3,000 ton/day DME.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.530-537
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• 2012

This work experimentally investigates that Diesel-DME blended fuel influences combustion characteristics and emissions (NOx, CO, HC, smoke) in a single-cylinder DI diesel engine. Diesel is used as a main fuel and DME is blended for the use of its quick evaporating characteristics. Diesel and DME are blended by the method of weight ratio. Weight ratios for Diesel and DME are 95:5 and 90:10 respectively and the both ratios have been used altogether in blended fuel. The experiments are conducted in this study single cylinder engine is equipped with common rail and injection pressure is 700 bar at 1200 rpm. The amount of injected fuels is adjusted to obtain the fixed input calorie value as 972.2 J/cycle in order to compare with the fuel conditions. DME is compressed to 15 bar by using nitrogen gas thus it can be maintained the liquid phase. In this study, different system compared others paper is common rail system, also there is combustion and emission about compared DME and diesel fuel. It is expected to be utilized about blended fuel.

• Journal of Institute of Convergence Technology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.24-30
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• 2012

In this study, the trucks(2.9-liter) have been developed to use DME as fuel, and performance test of the vehicle's DME engine, power, emissions, fuel economy and vehicle aspects was conducted. For experiments, the fuel system(common-rail injectors and high-pressure pump included) and the engine control logic was developed, and ECU mapping was performed. As a result, the rail pressure from 40MPa to approximately 65% increase compared to the base injector has been confirmed that. Also, the pump discharge flow is 15.5 kg/h when the fuel rail pressure is 400rpm(40 MPa), and the pump discharge flow is 92.1 kg/h when the fuel rail pressure is 2,000rpm(40MPa). The maximum value of full-load torque capability is 25.5kgfm(based on 2,000rpm), and more than 90% compared to the level of the diesel engine were obtained. The DME vehicle was developed in this study, 120 km/h can drive to the stable, and calculated in accordance with the carbon-balance method of fuel consumptions is 5.7 km/L.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.393-403
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• 2021

Enzymes are important class of catalyst for biotransformation. Stability and reusability of enzymes during the catalysis process is a key issue. Activity of enzyme can be enhanced by its immobilization on a suitable substrate by creation of specific microenvironment. A variety of membranes has been used as substrate due to the biocompatibility and simpler method to tune hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity property of the membrane surface. In this review, polymer membranes including cellulose, polyacrylonitrile (PAN), polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), polyethersulfone (PES) are introduced and discussed in detail. Biodegradation of organic contaminants by immobilized enzyme is an environmental friendly process to reduce the contamination of environment in pharmaceutical company and textile industries. The controlled hydrolysis of oil can be performed in enzyme immobilized membrane bioreactor (EMBR), resulting in reducing carbon emission and reduced environmental pollution. Bioethanol and biodiesel are considered alternative fossil fuels that can be prepared in EMBR.

• Clean Technology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.287-294
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• 2009

In order to separate the fuel-grade DME from the product of a direct DME synthesise reaction, containing 19~20% of DME, an absorption column and a purification column were employed. In the DME absorption column, the flow rate of the methanol required to recover more than 99% of DME at 50 bar was estimated by the correlation obtained from the lab-scale experiments. In the DME purification column, the maximum DME recovery of 98.2% could be obtained even from the side stream at the 3rd stage above the feed stage, since the feed stream originated from the product of the absorption column had already contained a large amount of DME (20~30 mol%) and only a small amount of light products such as $CO_2$ and $N_2$ (5~10 mol%).

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.581-586
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• 2023

As the development of alternative energy is required due to the depletion of fossil fuels, interest in the use of hydrogen energy is increasing. Hydrogen is a promising clean energy source with high energy density and can lead to the application of environmentally friendly technologies. However, due to difficulties in production, storage, and transportation that prevent the application of hydrogen-based eco-friendly technology, research on reforming reactions using dimethyl ether (DME) is being conducted. Unlike other hydrocarbons, DME is attracting attention as a hydrogen carrier because it has excellent storage stability and transportability, and there is no C-C bond in the molecule. The reaction between DME and steam is one of the reforming processes with the highest hydrogen yield in theory at a temperature lower than that of other hydrocarbons. In this study, a hydrogen reforming device using DME was developed and a catalyst prepared by supporting Cu in alumina was put into a reactor to find optimal hydrogen production conditions for supplying hydrogen to fuel cells while changing reaction temperature (300-500℃), pressure (5-10 bar), and steam/carbon ratio (3:1 to 5:1).

• Clean Technology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.237-247
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• 2017

In the dimethyl ether (DME) synthesis and separation process, over 8% by mole of $CO_2$ is fed to the DME synthesis reactor which lowers DME productivity. Therefore, this work focused on the removal of $CO_2$ using three kinds of processes with physical absorbents by comparing the utility consumption through computer simulation of each process. Among the processes selected for comparison are Rectisol$^{(R)}$ process using methanol, Purisol$^{(R)}$ process using n-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP), and SelexolTM process using dimethyl ethers of polyethylene glycol (DEPG) as a solvent. As a result of this study, it was concluded that Purisol$^{(R)}$ process consumes the least energy followed by SelexolTM process. Therefore, it is considered that Purisol$^{(R)}$ process is the most suitable method to absorb $CO_2$ contained in the feed of DME synthesis reactor.