• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.13-29
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• 2016

In this study, we analyzed the causes of major faults in the biogas plant through the case of gas engine failure when cogenerating electricity and heat using biogas as a fuel in the actual sewage treatment plant and suggested countermeasures. Hydrogen sulfide in the biogas entering the biogas engine and water caused by intermittent malfunction of the water removal system caused intercooler corrosion in the biogas engine. In addition, the siloxane in the biogas forms a silicate compound with silicon dioxide, which causes scratches and wear of the piston surface and the inner wall of the cylinder liner. The substances attached to the combustion chamber and the exhaust system were analyzed to be combined with hydrogen sulfide and other impurities. It is believed that hydrogen sulfide was supplied to the desulfurization plant for a long period of time because of the high content of hydrogen sulfide (more than 50ppm) in the biogas and the hydrogen sulfide was introduced into the engine due to the decrease of the removal efficiency due to the breakthrough point of the activated carbon in the desulfurization plant. In addition, the hydrogen sulfide degrades the function of the activated carbon for siloxane removal of the adsorption column, which is considered to be caused by the introduction of unremoved siloxane waste into the engine, resulting in various types of engine failure. Therefore, hydrogen sulfide, siloxane, and water can be regarded as the main causes of the failure of the biogas engine. Among them, hydrogen sulfide reacts with other materials causing failure and can be regarded as a substance having a great influence on the pretreatment process. As a result, optimization of $H_2S$ removal method seems to be an essential measure for stable operation of the biogas engine.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.24-33
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• 2012

Recently, finishing materials at spandrel area, a part of curtain-wall system, are gradually forced to improve thermal insulation performance in order to enhance the building energy efficiency. Also, Building Integrated Photovoltaics(BIPV) systems have been installed in the exterior side of the spandrel area, which is generally composed of windows. Those BIPVs aim to achieve high building energy efficiency and supply the electricity to building. However, if transparent BIPV module is combined with high insulated spandrel, it would reduce the PV efficiency for two major reasons. First, temperature in the air space, located between window layer and finishing layer of the spandrel area, can significantly increase by solar heat gain, because the space has a few air density relative to other spaces in building. Secondly, PV has a characteristics of decreased Voltage(Voc and Vmp) with the increased temperature on the PV cell. For these reasons, this research analyzed a direct interrelation between PV Cell temperature and electricity generation performance under different insulation conditions in the spandrel area. The different insulation conditions under consideration are 1) high insulated spandrel(HIS) 2) low insulated spandrel(LIS) 3) PV stand alone on the ground(SAG). As a result, in case of 1) HIS, PV temperature was increased and thus electricity generation efficiency was decreased more than other cases. To be specific, each cases' maximum temperature indicated that 1) HIS is $83.8^{\circ}C$, 2) LIS is $74.2^{\circ}C$, and 3) SAG is $66.3^{\circ}C$. Also, each cases yield electricity generation like that 1) HIS is 913.3kWh/kWp, 2) LIS is 942.8kWh/kWp, and 3) SAG is 981.3kWh/kWp. These result showed that it is needed for us to seek to the way how the PV Cell temperature would be decreased.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.48-59
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• 2018

This study was conducted to suggest the effective management and recycling processes of coffee waste, which can be easily obtained from coffee shops and coffee-related products industries. Prior to the fabrication of pellets, the potential of coffee waste as a raw material of pellet was investigated through the examination of its chemical compositions and fuel characteristics. Major gradient included in coffee waste was holocellulose, followed by fat/oil and protein. Coffee waste contained a small quantity of ash (0.7%), such as calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium. Interestingly, coffee waste was easily dried probably due to its porous structure. Pellets fabricated with coffee waste and larch sawdust showed good fuel characteristics, such as moisture content, ash content, density and durability. The pellets exceed greatly the minimum requirements of $1^{st}$-grade wood pellet standard designated by National Institute of Forest Science (NIFOS). Particularly, the high calorific value of coffee waste showed the potential as a raw material of pellet. However, owing to high nitrogen and sulfur contents, coffee waste is like to be used as a raw material of wood pellet for combined heat and power plants equipped with a reduction system of $NO_x$ and $SO_x$ gases. On the other hand, 91 wt% larch sawdust and 9 wt% coffee waste are required to fabricate the $1^{st}$-grade wood pellets designated by NIFOS. Pellets fabricated with the conditions are estimated to have nitrogen content of 0.298% and sulfur content of 0.03%. Lastly, if amounts of coffee waste and sawdust in the production of wood pellets are adequately adjusted according to its purchasing price, the manufacturing cost of pellet can effectively be reduced. In addition, it is expected tp prepare the effective recycling process of waste and to relieve the environmental burden with the reduction of waste from the commercialization of coffee waste/larch pellets.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.863-870
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• 2016

We investigated the physical/chemical phenomena that a slow loss of $CO_2$ inventory into sodium after the sodium-$CO_2$ boundary failure in printed circuit heat exchangers (PCHEs), which is considered for the supercritical $CO_2$ Brayton cycle power conversion system of a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR). The first phenomenon is plugging inside narrow sodium channels by micro cracks and the other one is damage propagation referred to as wastage combined with the corrosion/erosion effect. Experimental results of plugging shows that sodium flow immediately stopped as $CO_2$ was injected through the nozzle at $300{\sim}400^{\circ}C$ in 3 mmID sodium channels, whereas sodium flow stopped about 60 min after $CO_2$ injection in 5 mmID sodium channels. These results imply that if pressure boundary of sodium-$CO_2$ fails a narrow sodium channel would be plugged by reaction products in a short time whereas a relatively wider sodium channel would be plugged with higher concentration of reaction products. Wastage by the erosion effect of $CO_2$ (200~250 bar) hardly occurred regardless of the kinds of materials (stainless steel 316, Inconel 600, and 9Cr-1Mo steel), temperature ($400{\sim}500^{\circ}C$), or the diameter of the $CO_2$ nozzle (0.2~0.8 mm). Velocities at the $CO_2$ nozzle were specified as Mach 0.4~0.7. Our experimental results are expected to be used for determining the design parameters of PCHEs for their safeties.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.31-39
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• 2009

Purpose : This study proposes the keyhole method in order to improve the time resolution of the proton resonance frequency(PRF) MR temperature monitoring technique. The values of Root Mean Square (RMS) error of measured temperature value and Signal-to-Noise Ratio(SNR) obtained from the keyhole and full phase encoded temperature images were compared. Materials and Methods : The PRF method combined with GRE sequence was used to get MR temperature images using a clinical 1.5T MR scanner. It was conducted on the tissue-mimic 2% agarose gel phantom and swine's hock tissue. A MR compatible coaxial slot antenna driven by microwave power generator at 2.45GHz was used to heat the object in the magnetic bore for 5 minutes followed by a sequential acquisition of MR raw data during 10 minutes of cooling period. The acquired raw data were transferred to PC after then the keyhole images were reconstructed by taking the central part of K-space data with 128, 64, 32 and 16 phase encoding lines while the remaining peripheral parts were taken from the 1st reference raw data. The RMS errors were compared with the 256 full encoded self-reference temperature image while the SNR values were compared with the zero filling images. Results : As phase encoding number at the center part on the keyhole temperature images decreased to 128, 64, 32 and 16, the RMS errors of the measured temperature increased to 0.538, 0.712, 0.768 and 0.845$^{\circ}C$, meanwhile SNR values were maintained as the phase encoding number of keyhole part is reduced. Conclusion : This study shows that the keyhole technique is successfully applied to temperature monitoring procedure to increases the temporal resolution by standardizing the matrix size, thus maintained the SNR values. In future, it is expected to implement the MR real time thermal imaging using keyhole method which is able to reduce the scan time with minimal thermal variations.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.975-984
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• 2018

Fast pyrolysis bio-oil has unfavorable properties that restrict its use in many applications. Among the main issues are high acidity, instability, and water and oxygen content, which give rise to corrosiveness, polymerization during storage, and a low heating value. Esterification and azeotropic water removal can improve all of these properties. A 500 g of Quercus mongollica which grounded 0.8~1.4 mm was processed into bio-oil via fast pyrolysis for 2 seconds at $550^{\circ}C$. The esterification consists of treating pyrolysis oil with a high boiling alcohol like n-butanol at $70^{\circ}C$ under reduced pressure (100 hPa). All products are analyzed for water mass fraction, viscosity, higher heating value, pH, FT-IR and GC/MS. The water mass fraction can be reduced by 91.4 % (from 31.5 % to below 2.7 %), the viscosity by 65.8 % (from 36.5 to 12.5 cP) and the higher heating value can be increased by 96.8 % (from 3,918 to 7,712 kcal/kg), the pH by 1.3 (from 2.7 to 4.0). FT-IR and GC/MS analysis indicated that labile acids, aldehydes, ketones and lower alcohols were transformed to stable target products. Using this approach, the water content of the pyrolysis oil is reduced significantly. These improvements should allow the utilization of upgraded pyrolysis liquids in standard boilers and as fuel in CHP (Combined heat and power) plants.