• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.788-818
• /
• 2009

Renewable energy refers to solar energy, biomass energy, hydrogen energy, wind power, fuel cell, coal liquefaction and vaporization, marine energy, waste energy, and liquidity fuel made out of byproduct of geothermal heat, hydrogen and coal; it excludes energy based on coal, oil, nuclear energy and natural gas. Developed countries have recognized the importance of these energies and thus have set the mid to long term plans to develop and commercialize the technology and supported them with drastic political and financial measures. Considering the growing recognition to the field, it is necessary to analysis up-to-now achievement of the government's related projects, in the standards of type of renewable energy, management of sectional goals, and its commercialization. Korean government is chiefly following suit the USA and British policies of developing and distributing renewable energy. However, unlike Japan which is in the lead role in solar rays industry, it still lacks in state-directed support, participation of enterprises and social recognition. The research regarding renewable energy has mainly examinedthe state of supply of each technology and suitability of specific region for applying the technology. The evaluation shows that the research has been focused on supply and demand of renewable as well as general energy and solution for the enhancement of supply capacity in certain area. However, in-depth study for commercialization and the increase of capacity in industry followed by development of the technology is still inadequate. 'Cost-benefit model for each energy source' is used in analysis of technology development of renewable energy and quantitative and macro economical effects of its commercialization in order to foresee following expand in related industries and increase in added value. First, Investment on the renewable energy technology development is in direct proportion both to the product and growth, but product shows slightly higher index under the same amount of R&D investment than growth. It indicates that advance in technology greatly influences the final product, the energy growth. Moreover, while R&D investment on renewable energy product as well as the government funds included in the investment have proportionate influence on the renewable energy growth, private investment in the total amount invested has reciprocal influence. This statistic shows that research and development is mainly driven by government funds rather than private investment. Finally, while R&D investment on renewable energy growth affects proportionately, government funds and private investment shows no direct relations, which indicates that the effects of research and development on renewable energy do not affect government funds or private investment. All of the results signify that although it is important to have government policy in technology development and commercialization, private investment and active participation of enterprises are the key to the success in the industry.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.36 no.11
• /
• pp.791-802
• /
• 2014

Energy shortage is being exacerbated due to the increase of energy consumption and depletion of fossil fuels. In order to release the energy crisis, new types of energy resources such as small hydropower, solar power, wind power and biomass have been already developed or actively researched. Recently, osmotic power, which harvests energy from salinity gradient between seawater and fresh water, is considered as a feasible candidate. Among the osmotic power processes, pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is widely gaining attention because of no emission of carbon dioxide and less sensitivity to the external environmental conditions. However, PRO process is facing difficulties such as the lack of specialized PRO membrane and optimization technologies. Therefore, PRO was reviewed in this paper in terms of theoretical background, membrane development, process development and fouling mechanism to provide insights and suggest the future direction of PRO research.

• New & Renewable Energy
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.21-29
• /
• 2012

The extensible supply of New & Renewable energy resources desperately needs to counter the high dependence on imported energy, recent high oil prices and the Climate Change Conference, and the government has operated the 'Renewable Portfolio Standard' (RPS) as one of the renewable energy policy from 2012. By analyzing the operation case of combined heat and power plant using the woodchip biomass, we drew the price of wood chip fuel, plant capacity factor, electricity selling price, heat selling price and LCOE value. After analyzing the economic feasibility of 3MWe combined heat and power plant based on the operating performance, the minimum of economic feasibility has appeared to be secured according to the internal rate of return (IRR) is 6.34% and the net present value (NPV) is 3.6 billion won as of 20 years life time after installation, and after analyzing the cases of the economic feasibility of the price of wood chip, plant capacity factor, electricity and heat selling price are changed, the economic feasibility is valuable when the price of wood chip is over 64,000 won/ton, NPV is minus, and the capacity factor is above 46.9%, the electricity selling price is 116 won/kWh and the heat selling price is above 75,600 won/Gcal. When going over the new installation hereafter, we need the detailed review of the woodchip storage and woodchip feeding system rather than the steam-turbine and boiler which have been inspected many times, the reason why is it's hard to secure the suitable quality (constant size) of woodchip by the lack of understanding about it as a fuel because of the domestic poor condition and the calorific value of woodchip is seriously volatile compared with other fuels.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.41-50
• /
• 2024

Plant Microbial Fuel Cells (P-MFCs) are biomass-based energy technologies that generate electricity from plant and root microbial communities and are suitable for natural fundamental solutions considering sustainable environments. In order to develop P-MFC technology suitable for domestic waterfront space, it is necessary to analyze international research trends first. Therefore, in this study, 700 P-MFC-related research papers were investigated in Web of Science, and the core keywords were derived using VOSviewer, a word analysis program, and the research trends were analyzed. First, P-MFC-related research has been on the rise since 1998, especially since the mid to late 2010s. The number of papers submitted by each country was "China," "U.S." and "India." Since the 2010s, interest in P-MFCs has increased, and the number of publications in the Philippines, Ukraine, and Mexico, which have abundant waterfront space and wetland environments, is increasing. Secondly, from the perspective of research trends in different periods, 1998-2015 mainly carried out microbial fuel cell performance verification research in different environments. The 2016-2020 period focuses on the specific conditions of microbial fuel cell use, the structure of P-MFC and how it develops. From 2021 to 2023, specific research on constraints and efficiency improvement in the development of P-MFC was carried out. The P-MFC-related international research trends identified through this study can be used as useful data for developing technologies suitable for domestic waterfront space in the future. In addition to this study, further research is needed on research trends and levels in subsectors, and in order to develop and revitalize P-MFC technologies in Korea, research on field applicability should be expanded and policies and systems improved.

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

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.35 no.7
• /
• pp.693-699
• /
• 2011

Internal combustion engines running on syngas, which can be obtained from biomass or organic wastes, are expected to be one of the suitable alternatives for power generation, because they are environment-friendly and do not contribute to the depletion of fossil fuels. However, syngas has variable compositions and a lower heating value than pure natural gas, owing to which the combustion conditions need to be adjusted in order to achieve stable combustion. In this study, a gas that has the same characteristics as syngas, such as low heating value (LHV), was produced by mixing $N_2$ with compressed natural gas (CNG). In addition, this study investigates the combustion characteristics of syngas when it is mixed with hydrogen in a ratio ranging from 10% to 30% with a constant LHV of total gas.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.52 no.4
• /
• pp.430-435
• /
• 2014

Physical and chemical barriers, caused by the close association of the main components of cellulosic biomass, hinder the hydrolysis of cellulose to fermentable sugars. Since the main goal of pretreatment is to increase the enzyme accessibility improving digestibility of cellulose, development of an effective pretreatment process has been considered to be important. In this study, SAA (Soaking in Aqueous Ammonia) was chosen as pretreatment because this is the simple and low-cost method. Rice straw of which the production is outstandingly high in domestic agriculture residues in Korea was chosen as raw material. SSA pretreatment with various reaction time of 3 h to 72 h was tested. The enzymatic hydrolysis and SSF (Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation) were performed at three different temperature (30, 40 and $50^{\circ}C$) to investigate performance of SSF upon various pretreatment conditions. As a result, this SAA treated-rice straw was found to have great potential for effective enzymatic hydrolysis and SSF with lower enzyme dosage at lower temperature ($30^{\circ}C$) than its conventional SSF. In SAA addition, SAA reduced fermentation time to 24 h owing to increase the initial hydrolysis rate substantially.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
• /
• 2018.06a
• /
• pp.111-111
• /
• 2018

ASTM A387-Gr.91 강은 우수한 고온 강도, 크리이프 저항성 그리고 내산화성 등으로 인해 화력 및 바이오매스 발전 시설과 같은 고온 설비의 구조재료로 널리 사용되고 있다. 고온 환경에서 높은 강도는 탄화물과 탄질화물에 의한 석출강화가 주 요인으로 작용한다. 열처리 과정에서 Mo, Cr, Mn, 그리고 Fe는 구-오스테나이트 및 마르텐사이트 라스 입계에 $M_{23}C_6$ 탄화물로 석출되며, V, Nb, 및 N은 조직 내부에 미세한 MX 탄질화물로 석출된다. 따라서 합금의 고온 강도는 조직 내 석출물의 개수밀도와 크기에 크게 의존한다. 그러나 적용 환경의 특성 상 고온 노출에 따른 2차상 석출 및 조대화의 조직열화 현상이 발생하며, 이는 재료의 강도를 저하시킨다. 본 연구에서는 ASTM A387-Gr.91 강의 미세조직 열화에 따른 강도저하 및 파괴 양상을 고찰하는데 그 목적을 두었다. 본 연구에서 사용된 ASTM A387-Gr.91 강의 화학성분(wt, %)은 0.1 C, 0.38 Si, 0.46 Mn, 0.25 Ni, 8.38 Cr, 0.93 Mo, 0.18 V, 0.09 Nb, 그리고 나머지는 Fe 이다. 조직열화 및 기계적 강도저하 특성을 평가하기 위한 등온열화는 $650^{\circ}C$의 대기 환경에서 최대 1000시간동안 실시하였다. 열화된 시험편의 미세조직 및 탄화물에 대한 분석은 SEM과 EDS를 이용하여 실시하였다. 그리고 기계적 강도 평가는 인장실험과 비커스 경도시험을 통해 실시하였다. 또한 열화 시간에 따른 파단양상의 변화를 관찰하기 위해 인장시험편의 파단면을 SEM과 EDS를 이용하여 분석하였다. 그 결과, 열화에 따른 마르텐사이트 라스의 소실, 탄화물의 조대화, 그리고 2차상 석출의 조직 열화현상이 나타났다. 또한 기계적 강도는 조직 열화에 따라 저하되는 경향을 나타냈다.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.8-17
• /
• 2014

The aims of this research were to evaluate effects of biomass co-firing to pulverized coal power plants and the variation of co-firing ratios on the plant efficiency related to power consumption of auxiliary system and flue gas characteristics such as production and component by process simulation based on the existing pulverized coal power plant. In this study, four kinds of biomass are selected as renewable fuel candidates for co-firing: wood pellet(WP), palm kernel shell(PKS), empty fruit bunch(EFB) and walnut shell(WS). Process simulation for various biomass fuels and co-firing ratios was performed using a commercial software. Gas side including combustion system and flue gas treatment system was considering with combination of water and steam side which contains turbines, condenser, feed water heaters and pumps. As a result, walnut shell might be the most suitable as co-firing fuel among four biomass since when 10% of walnut shell was co-fired with 90% of coal on thermal basis, flue gas production and power consumption of auxiliary systems were the smallest than those of other biomass co-firing while net plant efficiency was relatively higher than those of other biomass co-firing. However, with increasing walnut shell co-firing ratios, boiler efficiency and net plant efficiency were expected to decrease rather than coal combustion without biomass co-firing.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.58 no.3
• /
• pp.381-389
• /
• 2020

This study analyzed the optimal electricity cost of a 100% renewable energy source (RES) based system. Especially energy storage system (EES) and supplementary biopower system as well as photovoltaic (PV) and wind power component were included in the proposed RES-based system to overcome the intermittence of RESs and to efficiently balance energy supply and demand. To comparatively analyze the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of different RES-based systems, six scenarios were developed according to the involved RESs: PV, wind, PV/wind, PV/biopower, wind/biopower, and PV/wind/biopower systems. We then applied the proposed systems to build a 100% RES-based system in Jeju Island, Korea. As a result, the single component based system, PV and wind power system of 0.18 and 0.28 $/kWh, respectively, cannot compete with the economics of existing electricity grid. However, the optimal LCOE of the hybrid system where PV and wind power are used as main supply options and biopower as supplementary option was identified to be 0.08 $/kWh, which can compete with the economics of an existing electricity grid.