• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.39 no.10
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• pp.591-598
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• 2017

Power overshoot phenomenon was observed in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) used non-catalyzed graphite felt as cathode. Voltage loss in MFCs was mainly caused by cathode potential loss. Cheap stainless steel scrubber, which has high conductivity, and Pt/C coated graphite felt as cathode were used for overcoming power overshoot and reducing the cathode potential loss in MFCs. The MFCs used stainless steel scrubber showed no power overshoot even slow catholyte flow rate and produced 29% enhanced maximum current density ($23.9A/m^3$) than MFCs used non-catalyzed graphite felt while the power overshoot phenomenon was existed in Pt/C coated MFCs. Increasing catholyte flow rate resulted in disappearing power overshoot of MFCs used non-catalyzed graphite felt. In addition, maximum power density and current density of both MFCs used non-catalyzed graphite felt and stainless steel scrubber increased by 2-3.5 times. Cathode potential losses in all region of activation loss, ohmic loss, and mass transport loss were reduced according to increase of catholyte flow rate. Therefore, stainless steel scrubber has advantages that are economical materials as electrode and prevents power overshoot, leading to enhance electricity generation. In addition, increasing catholyte flux is one of great solution when power overshoot caused by cathodic overpotential is observed in MFCs.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.758-763
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• 2014

Soil microbial fuel cells (SMFC) have gained a great attention as an eco-friendly technology that can simultaneously generate electricity and treat organic pollutants from the contaminated soil. We evaluated the effect of electrode spacing and size on the performance of SMFC treating soil contaminated with organic pollutants. Maximum power density decreased with increase in electrode distance or decrease in electrode size, likely due to higher internal resistance. The maximum voltage and power density decreased from 326 mV and $19.5mW/m^2$ with 4 cm of electrode distance to 222 mV and $5.9mW/m^2$ with 9 cm of electrode distance. In case of electrode size test, the maximum voltage and power density generated was 291 mV, $0.34mW/m^3$ when both of anode and cathode area were $64cm^2$ with 4 cm of electrode distance. The maximum voltage decreased by 19~29% when the anode area decreased to $16cm^2$ while only 3~12% of voltage decreased with cathode area decrease. The maximum power density decreased by 49~68% with decreasing anode size, and by 29~47% with decreasing cathode size. These results showed that the anode area had more significant effects than the cathode area on the power generation of SMFC which has a high internal resistance due to a coexistence of soil and wastewater in the reactor.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.583-590
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• 2015

Submarine cable installation is essentials for grid connection between existing power grid and newly produced electricity which will be from offshore wind farm in Southwest sea area of Korea. Especially, submarine cable route and protection method is designed in order to ensure the economical efficiency, workability and stability of submarine cable installation. On this paper, we will give the basic information about the submarine cable route and protection method of offshore wind farm which will be built in Southwest sea area of Korea. For this, we have a numerical simulation at high and low tide based on the third-generation wave model SWAN(Simulating WAves Nearshore) using the long term wave data from Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology(KIOST). The results of the study, year mean Hs is 1.03m, Tz is 4.47s and dominant wave direction is NW and SSW When the incident wave direction is NW(Hs: 7.0 m, Tp: 11.76s), the distribution of shallow water design wave height Hs was calculated about 4.0~5.0m at high tide and 2.0~3.0m at low tide. When the incident wave direction is SSW(Hs: 5.84 m, Tp: 11.15s), the distribution of shallow water design wave height Hs was calculated about 3.5~4.5m at high tide and 1.5~2.5m at low tide. The wave direction on a dominant influence in the section of longitude UTM 249749~251349(about 1.6 km) and UTM 251549~267749(about 16.2 km) in the submarine cable route are each NW and SSW. Prominently, wave focusing phenomenon appears between Wi-do and Hawangdeung-do, in this sea area is showing a relatively high wave hight than the surrounding sea areas.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.65-79
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• 2019

The study attempted to estimate the optimal facility capacity by combining renewable energy sources that can be connected with gas CHP in industrial complexes. In particular, we reviewed industrial complexes subject to energy use plan from 2013 to 2016. Although the regional designation was excluded, Sejong industrial complex, which has a fuel usage of 38 thousand TOE annually and a high heat density of $92.6Gcal/km^2{\cdot}h$, was selected for research. And we analyzed the optimal operation model of CHP Hybrid System linking fuel cell and photovoltaic power generation using HOMER Pro, a renewable energy hybrid system economic analysis program. In addition, in order to improve the reliability of the research by analyzing not only the heat demand but also the heat demand patterns for the dominant sectors in the thermal energy, the main supply energy source of CHP, the economic benefits were added to compare the relative benefits. As a result, the total indirect heat demand of Sejong industrial complex under construction was 378,282 Gcal per year, of which paper industry accounted for 77.7%, which is 293,754 Gcal per year. For the entire industrial complex indirect heat demand, a single CHP has an optimal capacity of 30,000 kW. In this case, CHP shares 275,707 Gcal and 72.8% of heat production, while peak load boiler PLB shares 103,240 Gcal and 27.2%. In the CHP, fuel cell, and photovoltaic combinations, the optimum capacity is 30,000 kW, 5,000 kW, and 1,980 kW, respectively. At this time, CHP shared 275,940 Gcal, 72.8%, fuel cell 12,390 Gcal, 3.3%, and PLB 90,620 Gcal, 23.9%. The CHP capacity was not reduced because an uneconomical alternative was found that required excessive operation of the PLB for insufficient heat production resulting from the CHP capacity reduction. On the other hand, in terms of indirect heat demand for the paper industry, which is the dominant industry, the optimal capacity of CHP, fuel cell, and photovoltaic combination is 25,000 kW, 5,000 kW, and 2,000 kW. The heat production was analyzed to be CHP 225,053 Gcal, 76.5%, fuel cell 11,215 Gcal, 3.8%, PLB 58,012 Gcal, 19.7%. However, the economic analysis results of the current electricity market and gas market confirm that the return on investment is impossible. However, we confirmed that the CHP Hybrid System, which combines CHP, fuel cell, and solar power, can improve management conditions of about KRW 9.3 billion annually for a single CHP system.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.292-303
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• 2021

This study identifies the terms frequently used together with energy in online science news articles and topics of the news reports to find out how the term energy is used in everyday life and to draw implications for science curriculum and instruction about energy. A total of 2,171 online news articles in science category published by 11 major newspaper companies in Korea for one year from March 1, 2018 were selected by using energy as a search term. As a result of natural language processing, a total of 51,224 sentences consisting of 507,901 words were compiled for analysis. Using the R program, term frequency analysis, semantic network analysis, and structural topic modeling were performed. The results show that the terms with exceptionally high frequencies were technology, research, and development, which reflected the characteristics of news articles that report new findings. On the other hand, terms used more than once per two articles were industry-related terms (industry, product, system, production, market) and terms that were sufficiently expected as energy-related terms such as 'electricity' and 'environment.' Meanwhile, 'sun', 'heat', 'temperature', and 'power generation', which are frequently used in energy-related science classes, also appeared as terms belonging to the highest frequency. From a network analysis, two clusters were found including terms related to industry and technology and terms related to basic science and research. From the analysis of terms paired with energy, it was also found that terms related to the use of energy such as 'energy efficiency,' 'energy saving,' and 'energy consumption' were the most frequently used. Out of 16 topics found, four contexts of energy were drawn including 'high-tech industry,' 'industry,' 'basic science,' and 'environment and health.' The results suggest that the introduction of the concept of energy degradation as a starting point for energy classes can be effective. It also shows the need to introduce high-tech industries or the context of environment and health into energy learning.

• Journal of Appropriate Technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.127-135
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• 2021

To respond to the threat of global warming, countries around the world are promoting the spread of renewable energy and reduction of carbon emissions. In accordance with the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal to combat climate change and its impacts, global automakers are pushing for a full transition to electric vehicles within the next 10 years. Electric vehicles can be a useful means for reducing carbon emissions, but in order to reduce carbon generated in the stage of producing electricity for charging, a power generation system using eco-friendly renewable energy is required. In this study, we propose a smart electric mobility operating system integrated with off-grid solar power plants established in Tanzania, Africa. By applying smart monitoring and communication functions based on Arduino-based computing devices, information such as remaining battery capacity, battery status, location, speed, altitude, and road conditions of an electric vehicle or electric motorcycle is monitored. In addition, we present a scenario that communicates with the surrounding independent solar power plant infrastructure to predict the drivable distance and optimize the charging schedule and route to the destination. The feasibility of the proposed system was verified through test runs of electric motorcycles. In considering local environmental characteristics in Tanzania for the operation of the electric mobility system, factors such as eco-friendliness, economic feasibility, ease of operation, and compatibility should be weighed. The smart electric mobility operating system proposed in this study can be an important basis for implementing the SDGs' climate change response.