• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers A
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• v.55 no.12
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• pp.561-569
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• 2006

Because of the trend of deregulation, power industry is going through an unprecedented transformation in North America and Europe, and there are a host of acquisitions and mergers by the private sector to position themselves to take advantage of new business opportunities. Deregulation has accelerated the development of smaller generators and fuel cells will gradually become more attractive to mainstream electricity users as they improve in capability and decrease in cost. Fuel Cell technology is surveyed and the potential of using fuel cell as a distributed generation source is presented. This paper recommends the fuel cell power plants as alternative energy sources for distributed generation in Jeju Island, Korea. This will help in increasing fuel efficiency, at least double the current thermal plants', increasing the reliability of power supply, reducing the dependency on the HVDC link, providing quality power to the growing infrastructure, and maintaining clean air in meeting the free-trade international island.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.145-150
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• 2013

Optimal preparation guidelines of a cathode catalyst layer by non-precious metal catalysts were evaluated based on electrochemical performance in single-chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Experiments for catalyst loading rate revealed that iron(II) phthalocyanine (FePc) can be a promising alternative, comparable to platinum (Pt) and cobalt tetramethoxyphenylporphyrin (CoTMPP), including effects of substrate concentration. Results showed that using an optimal FePc loading of $1mg/cm^2$ was equivalent to a Pt loading of $0.35mg/cm^2$ on the basis of maximum power density. Given higher loading rates or substrate concentrations, FePc proved to be a better alternative for Pt than CoTMPP. Under the optimal loading rate, it was further revealed that 40 wt% of FePc to carbon support allowed for the best power generation. These results suggest that proper control of the non-precious metal catalyst layer and substrate concentration are highly interrelated, and reveal how those combinations promote the economic power generation of single-chamber MFCs.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.1367-1379
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• 2020

The small modular sodium-cooled fast reactor (SMSFR) is an important component of Generation-IV reactors. The objective of this work is to improve the reactivity control in SMSFR by using innovative systems, including burnable poisons and optimized control rods. SMSFR with MOX fuel usually exhibits high burnup reactivity loss that leads to high excess reactivity and potential fuel melting in control rod withdrawal (CRW) accidents, which becomes an important constraint on the safety and economic efficiency of SMSFR. This work applies two types of burnable poisons in a SMSFR to reduce the excess reactivity. The first one homogenously loads minor actinides in the fuel. The second one combines absorber and moderators in specific assemblies. The influence of burnable poisons on the core characteristics is discussed and integrated into the analysis of CRW accidents. The results show that burnable poisons improve the safety performance of the core in a significant way. Burnable poisons also lessen the demand for the number, absorption ability, and insertion depth of control rods. Two optimized control rod designs with rare earth oxides (Eu₂O₃ and Gd₂O₃) and moderators are compared to the conventional design with natural boron carbide (B₄C). The optimized designs show improved neutronic and safety performance.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2008

This study was carried out to investigate physical and chemical characteristics of the distillates and residue of Athabasca oilsand bitumen obtained from Canada, using a vacuum distillation unit. The distillates and residue produced from the vacuum distillation were characterized through atomic analysis, SARA analysis, and measurement of boiling point distribution, molecular weight, and API gravity. The vacuum distillation equipment consisted of a 6-litter volume vessel, a glass-packed column, a condenser, a reflux device, a flask fer collecting distillates, and a temperature controller. The cutting of distillates was performed with four steps under the condition of full vacuum and maximum temperature of $320^{\circ}C$. The results showed that the sulfur amount and average molecular weight of the distillates were significantly reduced compared to those of oilsand bitumen. As the cutting temperature increased, the hydrogen amount decreased but the sulfur amount and average molecular weight increased in the distillates.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.336-342
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• 2007

This paper presents the development of a fuel cell dynamic simulator using a programmable DC power supply and LabVIEW graphical user interface. The developed simulator closely describes the static and dynamic characteristics of an actual proton exchange membrance fuel cell (PEMFC). The experimental results are provided to verify the operation of the simulator. The developed simulator can be used as a convenient and economic alternative to an actual fuel cell for developing and testing a fuel cell power conditioning system.

• Korean System Dynamics Review
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.5-23
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• 2007

According to the system dynamics model of this study, if there is a significant network effect on vehicle operating costs, it is difficult to achieve the shift to AFV even in the long term without a policy intervention because the car market is locked in to the current structure. Network effect can be caused by an increasing return to scale in fuel supply sector as well as in maintenance service sector. It is also related to the fact that the reliability and awareness of consumers on new products increases with the growth of the market share of the new products. There are several possible policy options to break the 'locked in' structure of car market, such as subsidy on vehicle price (capital cost), subsidy on fuel (operating cost) and niche management policy. Combined policy options would be more effective than relying on a single policy option to increase the market share of AFV.

• Journal of Institute of Convergence Technology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.1-6
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• 2013

The ionic liquids are known to potential alternative solvents capable of replacing the commercial solvents in various processes including those in nuclear fuel cycle. As to the material, a number of studies have already reviewed the interesting results and addressed the spectroscopic as well as electrochemical behaviors of metal elements included in spent nuclear fuels. It has found that the important properties of metal ions in TBP dissolved ILs have led the development of alternative technologies to traditional solvent extraction processes. On the other hand, the electrochemical deposition of metal ions in ILs have been investigated for the application of the solvents to aqueous as well as to non-aqueous processes. In this work, a review on the application of ILs in nuclear fuel cycle is briefly presented to understand the notable researches on ILs focusing on aqueous processes.

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.118-134
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• 2021

In this study, we provide trends on alternative fuel vehicles promoted by postal agencies in 10 countries in North America, the EU, and Asia. It describes the specifications of most EV vehicles in operation, plans, and strategies to replace existing internal combustion engines with new vehicles in the future and provides the current status of alternative vehicle charging networks in each postal agency. This paper will help postal agencies, logistics companies, automobile companies, motorcycle companies, and even individuals who want to use vehicles with alternative fuels, such as electric vehicles, on strategies to establish and implement before introducing and operating the vehicles.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.182-188
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• 2008

This paper is to compare the carbon-balanced and liner air-fuel ratio determination methods for alternative fuels. In the previous work, expansion of Eltinge chart, unburned hydrocarbon compensation, comparison of the results from various methods were discussed. It has been also concluded that Eltinge method might be regarded as the most general equation of AFR determination among the existing ones. In the recent years, however, increasing demand for the environmental preservation, including global warming-up protection, and energy conservation lead to introduce the alternative fuel to the internal combustion engine. Therefore, the exact calculations of AFR for these fuels are needed. Especially, for the fuel that contains oxygen, all AFR calculation equations except Eltinge have to be re-formulated. In this paper, the AFR for alternative fuel were calculated by re-formulated carbon balance, accuracy of which was already confirmed, and linear equations, which are newly proposed by statistical method for each fuel. The results show that AFRs based on carbon balance have a little more error compared with gasoline, however, the accuracy is enough for this formula to apply to various fuel. The proposed linear equation also have excellent accuracy below $\lambda=1.2$.

• Proceedings of the Korea Air Pollution Research Association Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.103-105
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• 2005