• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.11
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• pp.4120-4124
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• 2023

High-level radioactive waste produced by nuclear power plants are disposed subterraneously utilizing an engineered barrier system (EBS). A gap inevitably exists between the disposal canisters and buffer materials, which may have a negative effect on the thermal transfer and water-blocking efficiency of the system. As few previous experimental works have quantified this effect, this study aimed to create an experimental model for investigating differences in the temperature changes of bentonite buffer in the presence and absence of air gaps between it and a surrounding stainless steel cell. Three test scenarios comprised an empty cell and cells partially or completely filled with bentonite. The temperature was measured inside the buffers and on the inner surface of their surrounding cells, which were artificially heated. The time required for the entire system to reach 100℃ was approximately 40% faster with no gap between the inner cell surface and the bentonite. This suggests that rock-buffer spaces should be filled in practice to ensure the rapid dissipation of heat from the buffer materials to their surroundings. However, it can be advantageous to retain buffer-canister gaps to lower the peak buffer temperature.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.55-61
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• 2014

Fe-Cr-Al powder porous metal was manufactured by using new electro-spray process. First, ultra-fine fecralloy powders were produced by using the submerged electric wire explosion process. Evenly distributed colloid (0.05~0.5% powders) was dispersed on Polyurethane foam through the electro-spray process. And then degreasing and sintering processes were conduced. In order to examine the effect of cell size ($200{\mu}m$, $450{\mu}m$, $500{\mu}m$) in process, pre-samples were sintered for two hours at temperature of $1450^{\circ}C$, in $H_2$ atmospheres. A 24-hour thermo gravimetric analysis test was conducted at $1000^{\circ}C$ in a 79% $N_2$ + 21% $O_2$ to investigate the high temperature oxidation behavior of powder porous metal. The results of the high temperature oxidation tests showed that oxidation resistance increased with increasing cell size. In the $200{\mu}m$ porous metal with a thinner strut and larger specific surface area, the depletion of the stabilizing elements such as Al and Cr occurred more quickly during the high-temperature oxidation compared with the 450, $500{\mu}m$ porous metals.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.193-200
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• 2010

Anode off-gas of high temperature fuel cell still contains combustible components such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon. In this study, a catalytic combustor has been applied to the high temperature fuel cell so that the combustion of anode-off gas can be boosted up. Since the performance of catalytic combustor directly depends on the combustion catalyst, this study is designed to perform the experimental investigation on the combustion characteristics of the three commercial catalysts with a different composition. Screening tests with three catalysts are preceded before the performance examination since it is necessary to determine the most suitable catalyst for design configuration of the catalytic combustor. The performance analysis shows that methane conversion rate strongly depends on gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) as well as inlet gas temperature. Additionally, the GSHV optimization results show that the optimum GHSV will be in the range between 18,000 $hr^{-1}$ and 36,000 $hr^{-1}$. It is also shown that the minimum inlet temperature of catalytic reaction of methane is from $100^{\circ}C$ to $150^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.305-312
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• 2011

The use of a separator to control stack temperature in a molten carbonate fuel cell was studied by numerical simulation using a computational fluid dynamics code. The stack model assumed steady-state and constant-load operation of a co-flow stack with an external reformer at atmospheric pressure. Representing a conventional cell type, separators with two flow paths, one each for the anode and cathode gas, were simulated under conditions in which the cathode gas was composed of either air and carbon dioxide (case I) or oxygen and carbon dioxide (case II). The results showed that the average cell potential in case II was higher than that in case I due to the higher partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the cathode gas. This result indicates that the amount of heat released during the electrochemical reactions was less for case II than for case I under the same load. However, simulated results showed that the maximum stack temperature in case I was lower than that in case II due to a reduction in the total flow rate of the cathode gas. To control the stack temperature and retain a high cell potential, we proposed the use of a separator with three flow paths (case III); two flow paths for the electrodes and a path in the center of the separator for the flow of nitrogen for cooling. The simulated results for case III showed that the average cell potential was similar to that in case II, indicating that the amount of heat released in the stack was similar to that in case II, and that the maximum stack temperature was the lowest of the three cases due to the nitrogen gas flow in the center of the separator. In summary, the simulated results showed that the use of a separator with three flow paths enabled temperature control in a co-flow stack with an external reformer at atmospheric pressure.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.13-21
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• 2016

In this paper we are trying to explain the effect of temperature on polymer membrane exchange water electrolysis (PEMWE) and polymer membrane exchange fuel cell (PEMFC) simultaneously. A comprehensive studying approach is proposed and applied to a 50Watt PEM fuel cell system in the laboratory. The monitoring process is carried out through wireless LoRa node and gateway network concept. In this experiment, temperature sensor measure the temperature level of electrolyzer, fuel cell stack and $H_2$ storage tank and transmitted the measured value of data to the management control unit (MCU) through the individual node and gateway of each PEMWE and PEMFC. In MCU we can monitor the temperature and its effect on the performance of the fuel cell system and control it to keep the lower heating value to increase the efficiency of the fuel cell system. And we also proposed a mathematical model and operation algorithm for PEMWE and PEMFC. In this model, PEMWE gives higher efficiency at lower heating level where as PEMFC gives higher efficiency at higher heating value. In order to increase the performance of the fuel cell system, we are going to monitor, communicate and control the temperature and pressure of PEMWE and PEMFC by installing these systems in a building of university which is located in the southern part of Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.77-85
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• 2017

Thin crystalline silicon (C-Si) solar cell is expected to be a low price energy source by decreasing the consumption of Si. However, thin c-Si solar cell entails the bowing and crack issues in high temperature manufacturing process. Thus, the conventional tabbing process, based on high temperature soldering (> $250^{\circ}C$), has difficulties for applying to thin c-Si solar cell modules. In this paper, a conductive paste (CP) based interconnection process has been proposed to fabricate thin c-Si solar cell modules with high production yield, instead of existing soldering materials. To optimize the process condition for CP based interconnection, we compared the performance and stability of modules fabricated under various lamination temperature (120, 150, and $175^{\circ}C$). The power from CP based module is similar to that with conventional tabbing process, as modules are fabricated. However, the output of CP based module laminated at $120^{\circ}C$ decreases significantly (14.1% for Damp heat and 6.1% for thermal cycle) in harsh condition, while the output drops only in 3% in the samples process at $150^{\circ}C$, $175^{\circ}C$. The peel test indicates that the unstable performance of sample laminated at $120^{\circ}C$ is attributed to weak adhesion strength (1.7 N) between cell and ribbon compared to other cases (2.7 N). As a result, optimized lamination temperature for CP based module process is $150^{\circ}C$, considering stability and energy consumption during the fabrication.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.283-289
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• 2010

A two-dimensional isothermal model has been employed for numerical simulations of a high temperature hydrogen fuel cell with proton exchange membrane. The model is validated with existing experimental data and used for examination on the effects of various operating conditions on the fuel cell performance. The present numerical results show that the cell performance increases with increasing exchange current density, ion conductivity of the membrane, inlet gas flow rate as well as operating pressure. Also, higher porosity of gas diffusion layer (GDL) results in higher cell performance due to enhancement of the diffusion through the GDL, where the cathode GDL porosity more influences on the performance as compared with the anode one.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.75-81
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• 2010

The feasibility of using the thin film technology in utilizing lanthanum strontium manganite (LSM) for a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) cathode in a low-temperature regime is investigated in this study. Thin film LSM cathodes were fabricated using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on anode-supported SOFCs with yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolytes. Although cells with a 1 ${\mu}m$-thick LSM cathode showed poor low-temperature cell performance compared to that of a cell with a bulk-processed cathode due to the lack of a triple-phase boundary length, the cell with 200 nm-thick gadolinia-doped ceria (GDC) inserted between the LSM and YSZ showed enhanced performance and more stable operation characteristics in a comparison of a cell without a GDC layer. We postulate that the GDC layer likely improved the cathode adhesion, therefore contributing to the improvement of the cell performance instead of serving as an interfacial reaction buffer.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.367-372
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• 2020

As packaging processes for atomic gyroscope vapor cells, the glass tube tip-off process, anodic bonding, and paste sealing have been widely studied. However, there are stability issues in the alkali metal which are caused by impurity elements and leakage during high-temperature processes. In this study, we investigated the applicability of a vapor cell low-temperature packaging process by depositing Au on a Pyrex cell in addition to forming an Au-Sn thin film on a cap to cover the cell, followed by laser irradiation of the Au/Au-Sn interface. The mechanism of the thin film bonding was evaluated by XRD, while the packaging reliability of an Ne gas-filled vapor cell was characterized by variation of plasma discharge behavior with time. Furthermore, we confirmed that the Rb alkaline metal inside the vapor cell showed no color change, indicating no oxidation occurred during the process.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.33-37
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• 2017

Today, photovoltaic power generation mostly uses Si crystalline solar cell modules. The most vulnerable part of the Si solar cell module is that the power generation decreases due to the temperature rise. But, it is widely used because of low installation cost. In the solar market, where Si crystalline solar cell modules are widely used. The CPV (Concentrated Photovoltaic) module appeared in the solar market. The CPV module reduces the manufacturing cost of the solar cell by using non-Si in the solar cell. Also, there is an advantage that a rise in temperature does not cause a drop in power generation. But this requires high technology to install and has a disadvantage that the initial installation cost is expensive compared to normal Si solar cell module. So that we built a testbed to see these characteristics. The testbed was used to measure the amount of power generation in a long-term outdoor environment and compared with the general Si solar cell module.