• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.125-131
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• 2006

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, biomass and spent plastic. In addition to its environmentally friendly properties, DME has similar characteristics to those of LPG. Therefore, it is considered as an excellent substitute fuel for LPG, fuel cells, power plant, and especially diesel and is expected to be the alternative fuel by 2010. The experimental study of the direct synthesis of DME was investigated under various conditions over a temperature range of $220{\sim}280^{\circ}C$, syngas ratio 1.2~3.0. All experiments were carried out with a hybrid catalyst, composed of a methanol synthesis catalyst ($Cu/ZnO/Al_2O_3$) and a dehydration catalyst (${\gamma}-Al_2O_3$). The observed reaction rate follows qualitatively a Langmiur-Hinshellwood model as the reaction mechanism. Such a mechanism is considered with three reactions; methanol synthesis, methanol dehydration and water gas shift reaction. From a surface reaction with dissociative adsorption of hydrogen, methanol, and water, individual reaction rate was determined.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.762-767
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• 2009

In this study, the feasibility of using vegetable oil extracted from tropical crop seed as a biodiesel feedstock was investigated by producing biodiesel and analysing the quality parameters as a transport fuel. In order to produce biodiesel efficiently, two step reaction process(pre-treatment and transesterificaion) was required because the tropical crop oil have a high content of free fatty acids. To determine the suitable acid catalyst for the pre-esterification, three kinds of acid catalysts were tested and sulfuric acid was identified as the best catalyst. After constructing the experimental matrix based on RSM and analysing the statistical data, the optimal pre-treatment conditions were determined to be 26.7% of methanol and 0.982% of sulfuric acid. Trans-esterification experiments of the pre-esterified oil based on RSM were carried out, then discovered 1.24% of KOH catalyst and 22.76% of methanol as the optimal trans-esterification conditions. However, the quantity of KOH was higher than the previously established KOH concentration of our team. So, we carried out supplemental experiment to determine the quantity of catalyst and methanol. As a result, the optimal transesterification conditions were determined to be 0.8% of KOH and 16.13% of methanol. After trans-esterification of tropical crop oil, the produced biodiesel could meet the major quality standard specifications; 100.8% of FAME, 0.45 mgKOH/g of acid value, 0.00% of water, 0.04% of total glycerol, $4.041mm^2/s$ of kinematic viscosity(at $40^{\circ}C$).

• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.69-78
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• 2021

Vegetable oils, such as palm oil and cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL), are used as major raw materials for bio-diesel in transportation and bio-heavy oil in power generation in South Korea. However, due to the high unsaturation degree caused by hydrocarbon double bonds and a high content of oxygen originating from the presence of carboxylic acid, the range of applications as fuel oil is limited. In this study, hydrotreating to saturate unsaturated hydrocarbons and remove oxygen in mixed bio-oil containing 1/1 v/v% palm oil and CNSL on monometallic catalysts (Ni and Cu) and bimetallic catalysts (Ni-Zn, Ni-Fe, Ni-Cu Ni-Co, Ni-Pd, and Ni-Pt) was perform under mild conditions (T = 250 ~ 400 ℃, P = 5 ~ 80 bar and LHSV = 1 h-1). The addition of noble metals and transition metals to Ni showed synergistic effects to improve both hydrogenation (HYD) and hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) activities. The most promising catalyst was Ni-Cu/��-Al2O3, and in the wide range of the Ni/Cu atomic ratio of 9/1~1/4, the conversion for HYD and HDO reactions of the catalysts were 90-93% and 95-99%, respectively. The tendency to exhibit almost constant reaction activity in these catalysts of different Ni/Cu atomic ratios implies a typical structure-insensitive reaction. The refined bio-oil produced by hydrotreating (HDY and HDO) had significantly lower iodine value, acid value, and kinetic viscosity than the raw bio-oil and the higher heating value (HHV) was increased by about 10%.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.380-388
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• 2017

Wood pyrolysis oil(WPO) has been regarded as an alternative fuel for diesel engines. However, WPO is not feasible for use directly in diesel engines due to its poor fuel quality such as low energy density, high acidity, high viscosity and low cetane number. The most widely used approach to improve WPO fuel quality is to blend WPO with other hydrocarbon fuels that have a higher cetane number. However, WPO and fossil fuels are not usually blended because of their different polarity. Also, clogging and polymerization problems in the fuel supply system can occur when the engine is operated with WPO. Polymerization can be prevented by diluting WPO with other alcohol fuels. However, WPO-alcohol blended fuel does not produce self-ignition. Therefore, additional cetane enhancement to the blended fuel is required to enhance auto-ignitability. In this study, WPO was blended with n-butanol and two cetane enhancements(PEG 400 and 2-EHN) for application to a diesel generator. Experimental results showed that the WPO-butanol blended fuel achieved a very stable engine operation under maximum WPO content of 20 wt%.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.567-577
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• 2019

Due to the depletion of fossil fuels and environmental pollution, demand for alternative energy is gradually increasing. Among the various methods, a method to convert biomass into alternative fuel has been proposed. The bio-fuel obtained from biomass through pyrolysis process is called pyrolysis oil (PO) or bio-oil. Because PO is difficult to use directly in conventional engines due to its poor fuel properties, various methods have been proposed to upgrade pyrolysis-oil. The simplest approach is to mix it with conventional fossil fuels. However, due to their different polarity of PO and fossil fuel, direct mixing is impossible. To resolve this problem, emulsification of two fuels with a proper surfactant was proposed, but it costs additional time and cost. Alternatively, the use of alcohol fuels as an organic solvent significantly improve the fuel properties such as fuel stability, calorific value and viscosity. In this study, blends of diesel, n-butanol, and coffee ground pyrolysis oil (CGPO) which is one of the promising PO, was applied to diesel generator. Combustion and emissions characteristics of blended fuels were investigated under the entire load range. Experimental results show that ignition delay is similar to that of diesel at high load. Although, hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions are comparable to diesel, significant reduction of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter emissions were observed.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.124-129
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• 2008

In this study, fuel qualities including kinematic viscosity and pour point in the various temperature, calorific value and combustion characteristics of two biodiesels based on the soybean and waste oil blended with light oil were investigated and discussed in order to figure out to confirm fuel compatibility taking the place of light oil in the hot air heater or boiler. As biodiesel content ratio increased calorific value of biodiesel decreased, and the difference was 13% between 100%-biodiesel and light oil. In general, pour points of the biodiesels were higher than light oil, and as biodiesel content ratio increased pour point increased. About 15 cSt was the pour point of biodiesels and light oil, which occurred at 3 to $4^{\circ}C$ in the biodiesels and $-25^{\circ}C$ in the light oil. Flame dimensions of biodiesels and light oil were almost same at the same combustion condition in the burner of the hot air heater. CO concentrations in the exhaustion gas were far lower than those of the light oil. Though pour point of biodiesel is a little inferior to light oil, still biodiesel can be an alternative fuel substituting for light oil in combustion system without much modifying the current oil combustion mechanism.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.61-66
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• 2009

An experimental investigation was conducted to analyze the effects of biodiesel-ethanol and biodiesel-diesel blended fuels on the characteristics of combustion and exhaust emissions, and size distributions of particulate matter in a single cylinder diesel engine. The three types of test fuel were biodiesel and two blended fuels which were added ethanol and diesel by 20 % volume based fraction into biodiesel, respectively. In this study, the injection rate, combustion pressure, exhaust emissions and size distributions of particulate matter were measured under various injection timings and injection pressures. The experimental results show that biodiesel-ethanol blended fuel has lengthened ignition delay and low combustion pressure in comparison with those of biodiesel and biodiesel-diesel blended fuel even if all fuels indicated similar trends of injection rate under equal injection pressures. In addition, the ethanol blended fuel significantly reduced nitrogen oxidies (NOx) and soot emissions. And then the size distribution of particulate matters shows that blended fuels restrain the formation of particles which were beyond the range of 150nm comparison with biodiesel fuel.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.276-285
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• 2005

본 과제에서는 참여기업인 두산인프라코어(구 대우종합기계)에서 양산중인 국산디젤엔진을 개조해 가스엔진을 제작하였으며, 두산인프라코어에서 500시간 내구시험을 2차례 실시하였고, 주관기관인 한국기계연구원에서 국산 ECU를 활용하여 도시가스를 연료로 실험을 수행한 후 김포매립지에서 현장 적용실험을 수행하였다. 메탄농도가 46$\sim$56%로 변하는 조건에서 350kW의 출력을 달성하였으며, 삼원촉매를 적용한 결과 2005년 배기규제를 만족하는 결과를 도출하였다. 위탁기관인 전남대에서는 촉매 특성에 관한 실험을 1차년도와 2차년도에 수행하였다. 본 과제에서 개발한 LFG(=매립지가스) 엔진은 국내에서 개발된 최초의 LFG 엔진으로서 쓰레기 매립지 뿐만 아니라 음식물 쓰레기 혐기소화 처리과정, 분뇨나 축분 등의 혐기소화 처리과정, 하수종말 처리장 등에서 발생하는 바이오가스를 이용한 발전 동력원으로 사용될 수 있을 것으로 기대된다.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.52-58
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• 2011

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of equivalence ratio on the combustion and emission characteristics of a compression ignition engine fueled with biodiesel. In this research, a single-cylinder direct injection engine with 373.3 cc of displacement volume was tested on DC dynamometer. In order to investigate the effect of biodiesel equivalence ratio on combustion characteristics, the experiments were conducted at various equivalence ratios and injection pressures of 40~120 MPa. For investigating engine performance, lambda meter was connected and equivalence ratios was varied from 0.6 to 1.0. In addition, the exhaust emissions such as oxides of nitrogen($NO_X$), hydrocarbon(HC) and carbon monoxide(CO) were measured by exhaust gas analyzer under the various air/fuel ratios. The experimental results show that maximum IMEP was measured at the 0.8 of equivalence ratio. Furthermore, $NO_X$ emission was rapidly decreased as the increase of equivalence ratio. However soot emission was significantly increased according to the increase of equivalence ratio.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.156-163
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• 2014

Diesel engine is most suitable one for biodiesel fuel because the compression-ignition diesel engine has desirable fuel consumption due to higher thermal efficiency and in addition, the improvement of the fuel consumption also leads to a reduction of $CO_2$ emission and then it does not need to have spark-ignition system, which means that there is less charge on the technic and complexity. In this study, the spray behavior characteristics of the vegetable palm oil were analyzed by using a common-rail injection system of commercial diesel engine and the results were compared with those obtained for the diesel fuel. The injection pressures and blend ratios of palm oil and diesel(BD3, BD5, BD20, BD30, BD50, and BD100) were the main parameters. The experiments were conducted for different injection pressures: 500bar, 1000bar, 1500bar, and 1600bar by setting injection duration to $500{\mu}s$. Consequently, it was found that there is no significant difference in the macro characteristics of the spray behavior(spray penetration and spray angle) in response to change in the blend ratio of palm oil and diesel at a fixed injection pressure. In particular, all experiments showed the spray angle about $12^{\circ}{\sim}13^{\circ}$.