• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.72.2-72.2
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• 2010

평판형 고체산화물 연료전지 스택의 고온 밀봉 구조에 대하여 설명하고 스택 운전 후 사후 분석을 통하여 밀봉재와 금속 분리판의 계면반응에 대하여 고찰하였다. 대표적인 고온 밀봉재인 Barium-Silicate 계 결정화 유리와 Fe-Cr 계 금속 분리판은 스택의 작동온도인 $700{\sim}850^{\circ}C$ 에서 고온 반응을 통하여 계면에 반응생성물을 형성하는 것이 확인되었다. 이러한 계면반응은 장기 운전시 SOFC 스택 성능 저하의 원인이 되고, 열 싸이클(작동온도${\leftrightarrow}$상온)을 가하면 계면반응 생성물이 delamination 되어 밀봉구조가 파괴되어 수명을 단축시키게 된다. 계면반응은 Fe-Cr 계 금속 분리판의 산화물인 Cr 산화물, Fe 산화물이 밀봉유리 소재와 반응을 일으키는 것이 주요 원인으로 판명되었다. SOFC 스택에서 열 싸이클시 계면반응에 의하여 기밀도가 감소하는 현상이 확인되었으며, 밀봉 구조의 어느 부분에서 계면반응이 진행되는지 관찰하였다. 이러한 계면반응을 막기 위해서는 금속 분리판과 밀봉유리 사이에 계면반응을 억제하는 보호층을 형성하는 방법이 효과적이다. 본 연구에서는 보호층으로서 밀봉유리 및 Fe-Cr 계 금속 분리판과의 계면반응성이 낮고 열팽창 계수가 비슷한 Yttria Stabilized Zirconia 층을 APS(Atmospheric Plasma Spray) 공정을 이용하여 형성하였다. 밀봉유리/YSZ 보호층/금속분리판은 gas-tight 한 밀봉 구조를 형성하였으며, YSZ 보호층은 밀봉유리와 Fe-Cr 계 금속 분리판 소재와 계면반응을 효과적으로 억제하는 것이 확인되었다.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.159-166
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• 2003

The preparation method for composite membranes of high temperature operation above $100^{\circ}C$ for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs ) was presented, using perfluorosulfonylfluoride Nafion resin and mordenite, in addition to the physical properties, proton conductivity and single cells performance for it. The composite membranes were fabricated via melting of Nafion resin with various mordenite content. As the increase of mordenite content, at high temperature range, proton conductivity of the composite membrane increased due to the late dehydration rate of existent water in the mordenite. Also, from the result of the current-voltage relationship for single cells under $130^{\circ}C$ operation condition, the composite membrane cell with l0 wt% mordenite content showed better performance than that of the others over the entire current density range. This result indicated that the existent water in the composite membrane with l0 wt% mordenite content was higher than that with the others, thereby maintains its conductivity. Based upon the results of experiments, therefore, a Nafion/mordenite composite membrane prepared by this work is thought to be a satisfactory polymer electrolyte membrane for PEMFC operation above $100^{\circ}C$.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.326-329
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• 2005

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) should be sufficiently hydrated with proper water management to maintain a good ionic conductivity and performance of a PEM fuel cell. However. cathode flooding resulting from excess water can impede the transport of reactants and hence deteriorate the fuel cell performance. For the PEM fuel cell to be commercially viable as vehicle or portable applications, the flooding on the cathode side should be minimized during the fuel cell operation. In this study, visualization technique was applied to understand the cathode flooding phenomena on the cathode side of a PEM fuel cell. To this end. a transparent PEM unit fuel cell wi th an act ive area of $25cm^2$ was designed and manufactured to allow for the visualization of cathode channel with performance characteristics. Two-phase flow resulting from the electro-chemical reaction of fuel cell was investigated experimentally. The images photographed by CCD camera with cell operating temperatures $(30\~50^{\circ}C)$ were presented. Results indicated that the flooding on the cathode side first occurs near the exit of cathode channel. As the operating temperature of fuel cell increases. it was found that liquid water droplets tend to evaporate easily and it can have an influence on lowering the flooding level. It is expected that this study can effectively contribute to the detailed researches on modeling water transport of an operating PEM fuel cell including two-phase flow phenomena.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.518-521
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• 2011

A PEMFC single cell with the active area of $25cm^2$ was used to verify the effect of water management in the anode. Water management is one of the most critical operating variables. In this paper the effect of operating condition change, such as anode humidification and temperature, was investigated under constant current density of $200mA/cm^2$ where possible anode flooding operating area. Also experiments to observe the effect of the anode and cathode stoichiometry change and flow field design on the water management were performed. The water management was effected by the stoichimetry change. The temperature and humidification change also affected the fuel cell performance.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.4 no.1 s.9
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• pp.40-48
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• 2000

A fuel cell is an electrochemical device continuously converting the chemical energy in a fuel and an oxidant to electrical energy by going through an essentially invariant electrode-electrolyte system. Phosphoric acid fuel cell employs concentrated phosphoric acid as an electrolyte. The cell stack in the fuel cell, which is the most important part of the fuel cell system, is made up of anode where oxidation of the fuel occurs cathode where reduction of the oxidant occurs; and electrolyte, to separate the anode and cathode and to conduct the ions between them. Fuel cell performance is associated with many parameters such as operating and design parameters associated with the system configuration. In order to understand the design concepts of the phosphoric fuel cell and predict it's performance, we have here introduced the simulation of the fuel-cell stack which is core component and modeled in a 3-dimensional grid space. The concentration of reactants and products, and the temperature distributions according to the flow rates of an oxidant are computed by the help of a computational fluid dynamic code, i.e., FLUENT.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.88-93
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• 2005

Anode-supported solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) was investigated to increase the cell power density at intermediate temperature through control of the cathode structure. The anode-supported SOFC cell were fabricated by wet process, in which the electrolyte of $8mol\%\;Y_2O_3-stabilized\;ZrO_2 (YSZ)$ was coated on the surface of anode support of Ni/YSA and then the cathode was coated. The cathode has two- or three- layered structure composed of $(La_{0.85}Sr_{0.15})_{0.9}MnO_{3-x}(LSM),\;LSM/YS$ composite (LY), and $La_{0.6}Sr_{0.4}Co_{0.2}Fe_{0.8}O_3{LSCF)$ with different thickness. Their single cells with different cathode structures were characterized by measuring the cell performance and ac impedance in the temperature range of 600 to $800^{\circ}C$ in humidified hydrogen with $3\%$ water and air. The cell with $LY\;9{\mu}m/LSM\;9{\mu}m/LSCF\;17{\mu}m$ showed best performance of $590mW/cm^2$, which was attributed to low polarization resistance due to LY and to low interfacial resistance due to LSCF.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.71.2-71.2
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• 2010

고체산화물연료전지는 청정에너지원으로써 기존의 발전방식을 대신할 차세대 에너지원으로 각광 받고 있다. 고체산화물 연료전지는 고온에서 작동하는 특성상 실험을 통하여 전극미세구조 및 구동조건을 최적화하는 것은 매우 어렵다. 본 연구는 전기화학식을 이용한 전산모사를 통해서 고체산화물 연료전지의 구동조건에 따른 성능 평가 및 전극의 미세구조 최적화 과정을 수행하였다. 전극 내 전달현상을 무시하고 오직 전기화학반응만을 고려한 전산모사는 단전지의 전극미세구조 및 구동조건에 따른 전지성능을 빠르게 예측할 수 있으며, 이를 기반으로 다양한 조건에서 얻은 전지 성능 데이터를 통해 전극미세구조를 최적화하였다. 개회로전압, 활성화분극, 저항분극, 물질수송손실을 표현하기 위하여 Nernst 식, Butler-Voler 식, 옴의 법칙, dusty-gas 모델을 각각 사용하였으며, 전극미세구조 및 구동조건의 변화는 물질확산계수 및 교환전류밀도를 통하여 그 영향이 전지성능에 반영된다. 온도, 압력, 주입 연료의 조성에 대한 성능평가가 수행되었으며, 1023K, 1 bar의 조건하에서 최적의 단전지 성능을 위한 기공도와 기공크기를 조사하였다. 더 향상된 단전지 성능 확보를 위해서 실험에서 쓰이는 기능층(functional layer)과 유사하게 넓은 반응 면적과 원활한 반응물 및 생성물의 이동을 보장하도록 기공도 및 기공크기를 그레이딩한 전극구조(graded-electrode)를 디자인하고 성능을 평가하였다. 그 결과 기존의 전지구조 대신에 그레이딩된 전극을 사용할 경우 50%이상 향상된 전지성능을 예측할 수 있었다.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.9
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• pp.815-821
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• 2013

The efficiency and lifetime of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system is critically affected by the humidity of the incoming gas, which should be maintained properly under normal operating conditions. Typically, the incoming gas of a fuel cell is humidified by an external humidifier, but few studies have reported on the device characteristics. In this study, a laboratory-scale planar membrane humidifier is designed to investigate the characteristics of water transport through a hydrophilic membrane. The planar membrane humidifier is immersed in a constant temperature bath to isolate the humidifier from the effect of temperature variations. The mass transfer capability of the hydrophilic membrane is first examined under isothermal conditions. Then, the mass transfer capability is investigated under various conditions. The results show that water transport in the hydrophilic membrane is significantly affected by the flow rate, operating temperature, operating pressure, and flow arrangement.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.1033-1041
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• 2012

Performance evaluation of a direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC) was conducted according to coals and a graphite particle. Several fuel properties such as thermal reactivity, textural structure, gas adsorption characteristic, and functional groups on the surface of fuels were investigated and their effects on electrochemistry were discussed. The strong carbon structure inside of fuels led the rapid potential decreasing in high current density region, because it caused small surface area and low pore volume. The functional groups on the surface were related to the low current density region. The maximum current density and power density of fuels were affected by the total carbon content in fuels. The effect of operating conditions such as stirring rate and operating temperature was investigated in this study.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06d
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• pp.995-1000
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• 2001

Distributions of the parameters in proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has been analyzed numerically under steady-state and isothermal conditions. The distributions of the crucial parameters (e.g., temperature and pressure) in a PEMFC have a major impact on its safe and efficient operation. This paper predicts the performance of the model electrode plates by calculating the pressure and temperature distributions of working fluid. The calculated results of pressure and temperature at exit condition shows good agreement to experiments and gives details of flow pattern inside of electrode plates.