• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.3191-3196
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• 2007

The present study addresses a method to operate a fuel-cell system effectively using a recirculation ejector which recycles wasted hydrogen gas. Configuration of a recirculation ejector is changed to investigate the flow behavior through it under varying operating conditions, and how such conditions affect the fuel-cell hydrogen cycle. The numerical simulations are based on a fully implicit finite volume scheme of the axisymmetric, compressible, Reynolds-Averaged, Navier-Stokes equations for hydrogen gas, and are compared with available experimental data for validation. The results show that a hydrogen recirculation ratio is effectively controlled by a configurational alteration within the operational region in which the recirculation passage doesn't plugged by a sonic line.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.139-148
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• 2013

In this study, an ejector was designed to recirculate the anodic off-gas of SOFC, and a parametric study of the system performance was conducted at various ejector entrainment ratios. Aspen Plus, a chemical engineering program, was used to calculate the operational conditions of the ejector. To minimize the calculation load of the CFD and to ensure the global optimum, a genetic algorithm and Kriging model were used for the optimization. The optimization results showed that the dominant design variables of the sonic ejector are the throat diameter and the first flow nozzle position. The designed ejector has enough flexibility for different operating conditions of a 1-kW SOFC system. When the ejector was applied to the SOFC, it reduced 56% of the steam and 8.4% of the fuel compared to the reference case.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 1998

Industrial ejector system is a facility to transport, to compress or to pump out a low pressure secondary flow by using a high pressure primary flow. An advantage of the ejector system is in its geometrical simplicity, not having any moving part, compared with other fluid machinery. Most of the previous works have been performed experimentally and analytically. The obtained data. are too insufficient to improve our current understanding on the detailed flow field inside the ejector. In order to provide more comprehensive data on this ejector flow field, two-dimensional computations using Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations were performed for a very wide range of operating pressure ratio of the supersonic ejector with a secondary throat. The current results showed that the supersonic ejector system has an optimum pressure ratio for the secondary flow total pressure to be minimized. The numerical results clearly revealed the shock system, shock/boundary layer interaction, and secondary flow entrainment inside the supersonic ejector.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.156-160
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• 2007

Ejector system is a device to transport a low-pressure secondary flow by using a high-pressure primary flow. Ejector system is, in general, composed of a primary nozzle, a mixing section, a casing part for suction of secondary flow and a diffuser. It can induce the secondary flow or affect the secondary chamber pressure by both shear stress and pressure drop which are generated in the primary jet boundary. Ejector system is simple in construction and has no moving parts, so it can not only compress and transport a massive capacity of fluid without trouble, but also has little need for maintenance. Ejectors are widely used in a range of applications such as a turbine-based combined-cycle propulsion system and a high altitude test facility for rocket engine, pressure recovery system, desalination plant and ejector ramjet etc. The primary interest of this study is to set up an applicable model and operating conditions for an ejector in the condition of sonic and subsonic, which can be extended to the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. Experimental and theoretical investigation on the sonic and subsonic ejectors with a converging-diverging diffuser was carried out. Optimization technique and numerical simulation was adopted for an optimal geometry design and satisfying the required performance at design point of ejector for hydrogen recirculation. Also, some sonic and subsonic ejectors with the function of changing nozzle position were manufactured precisely and tested for the comparison with the calculation results.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.03b
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• pp.256-259
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• 2008

Ejector system is a device to transport a low-pressure secondary flow by using a high-pressure primary flow. Ejector system is, in general, composed of a primary nozzle, a mixing section, a casing part for suction of secondary flow and a diffuser. It can induce the secondary flow or affect the secondary chamber pressure by both shear stress and pressure drop which are generated in the primary jet boundary. Ejector system is simple in construction and has no moving parts, so it can not only compress and transport a massive capacity of fluid without trouble, but also has little need for maintenance. Ejectors are widely used in a range of applications such as a turbine-based combined-cycle propulsion system and a high altitude test facility for rocket engine, pressure recovery system, desalination plant and ejector ramjet etc. The primary interest of this study is to set up an applicable model and operating conditions for an ejector in the condition of sonic and subsonic, which can be extended to the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. Experimental and theoretical investigation on the sonic and subsonic ejectors with a converging-diverging diffuser was carried out. Optimization technique and numerical simulation was adopted for an optimal geometry design and satisfying the required performance at design point of ejector for hydrogen recirculation. Also, some ejectors with a various of nozzle throat and mixing chamber diameter were manufactured precisely and tested for the comparison with the calculation results.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.53-56
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• 2008

An ejector is a fluid machinery to be utilized for mixing fluids, maintaining vacuum, and transporting them. The Ejector is applied for a variety of industrial fields such as refrigerators and power plants. It is adopted to recycle anode off gas safely in 5kW Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell system of KEPRI(Korea Electric Power Research Institute). The ejector is placed at mixing point between the anode off gas and the cathode off gas or the fresh air. In this study, the entrainment ratio is measured according to the diametrical ratio of nozzle to throat. In addition, the performance curve of the ejector and the differential pressure in diffuser is observed.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.2589-2593
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• 2008

In a fuel cell vehicle using polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell(PEMFC), hydrogen is over-supplied to gain higher stack efficiency. So it is needed considering fuel efficiency to re-circulate hydrogen which is not reacted in stack. And to re-circulate hydrogen, a blower or an ejector is used. Ejector re-circulation system has several merits compared with blower system, for example no parasite energy, simple structure and no lubrication system. But the secondary flow of an ejector in fuel cell vehicle, has high humidity because of crossover problem in stack. Therefore in this paper, ejector is designed by 1-D modeling and CFD with the primary and secondary flow of hydrogen. And the ejector which has the primary and secondary flow of air, is designed to have the same Reynolds number and Mach number at the nozzle exit as the hydrogen ejector's. And this air ejector is tested while the humidity of the secondary flow is varied.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.481-487
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• 2011

A fuel cell vehicle using a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEM FC) as power source produces electric power by consuming the fuel, hydrogen. The unconsumed hydrogen is recirculated and reused to gain higer stack efficiency and to maintain the humidity in the anode side of the stack. So it is needed considering fuel efficiency to recirculated hydrogen. In this study, the indirect hydrogen recirculation flow rate measurement method for fuel cell vehicle is presented. By modeling of a convergent nozzle ejector and a hydrogen recirculation blower for the hydrogen recirculation of a PEM FC, the hydrogen recirculation flow rate was calculated by means of the mass balance and heat balance at Anode In/Outlet.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.678-685
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• 2011

An Ejector enhances system efficiency, are easily operated, have a mechanically simple structure, and do not require a power supply. Because of these advantages, the ejector has been applied to a variety of industrial fields such as refrigerators, power plants and oil plants. In this work, an ejector was used to safely recycle anode tail gas in a 75-kW Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC) system at KEPCO Research Institute. In this system, the ejector is placed at mixing point between the anode tail gas and the cathode tail gas or the fresh air. Commercial ejectors are not designed for the actual operating conditions for our fuel cell system. A new ejector was therefore designed for use beyond conventional operating limits. In the first place, a few sample ejectors were manufacured and the entrainment ratio was measured at a dummy stack. Through this experiment, the optimum ejector was chosen. The 75-kW MCFC system equipped with this optimum ejector was operated successfully.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.31-37
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• 2009

An ejector is a machine utilized for mixing fluid, maintaining a vacuum, and transporting fluid. The Ejector enhances system efficiency, are easily operated, have a mechnically simple structure, and do not require a power supply. Because of these advantages, the ejector has been applied to a variety of industrial fields such as refrigerators, power plants and oil plants. In this work, an ejector was used to safely recycle anode tail gas in a 5 kW Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell system at KEPRI(Korea Electric Power Research Institute). In this system, the ejector is placed at mixing point between the anode tail gas and the cathode tail gas or the fresh air. Commercial ejectors are not designed for the actual operating conditions for our fuel cell system. A new ejector was therefore designed for use beyond conventional operating limits. In this study, the entrainment ratio is measured according to the diametrical ratio of nozzle to throat in the designed ejector. This helps to define important criteria of ejectors for MCFC recycling.