• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제27권1호
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• pp.42-48
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• 2016

This study presents an experiment investigation on natural convection heat transfer of air-cooling Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) in a enclosure system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Considered are replacing fuel cell stack with Aluminum block for heat generating inside a enclosure chamber. The volume ratio of fuel cell stack and chamber for simulation to the actual size of aerial vehicle is 1 to 15. The parameters considered for experimental study are the environmental temperature range from $25^{\circ}C$ to $-60^{\circ}C$ and the block heat input of 10 W, 20 W and 30 W. Effect of the thermal conductivity of the block and power level on heat transfer in the chamber are investigated. Experimental results illustrate the temperature rise at various locations inside the chamber as dependent upon heat input of fuel cell stack and environmental temperature. From the results, dimensionless correlation in natural convection was proposed with Nusselt number and Rayleigh number for designing air-cooling PEMFC powered high altitude long endurance (HALE) UAV.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제32권5호
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• pp.308-314
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• 2021

Chemical durability issue in polymer electrolyte membranes has been a challenge for the commercialization of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In this study, we proposed a manufacturing method of Nafion composite membrane containing a stable polyimide antioxidant to improve the chemical durability of the membrane. The thermal casting of the Nafion solution with poly (amic acid) induced polyimide reaction. We evaluated proton conductivity, oxidative stability with ex-situ Fenton's test, and fluoride ion emission to analyze the effect of polyimide antioxidants. We confirmed that incorporating the polyimide antioxidant improves the chemical durability of the Nafion membrane while maintaining inherent proton conductivity.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.63-70
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• 2022

Compared with hydrogen, ammonia has the advantages of high gravimetric hydrogen densities (17.8 wt.%), ease of storage and transportation as a chemical hydrogen storage medium, while its application in small-scale on-site hydrogen production scenarios is limited by the need for complex separation equipment during high purity hydrogen production. Therefore, the study of PEMFC, which can directly utilize ammonia decomposition gas, can greatly expand the application of fuel cells. In this paper, the output characteristics, fuel efficiency and the variation trend of hydrogen concentration and local current density in the anode channel of fuel cell with the output voltage of PEMFC fueled by ammonia decomposition gas were studied by experiment and simulation. The results indicate that the maximum output power of the hybrid fuel decreases by 9.6% compared with that of the pure hydrogen fuel at the same inlet hydrogen equivalent. When the molar concentration of hydrogen in the anode channel is less than 0.12, the output characteristics of PEMFC will be seriously affected. Employing ammonia decomposition gas as fuel, the efficiency corresponding to the maximum output power of PEMFC is approximately 47%, which is 10% lower than the maximum efficiency of pure hydrogen.

• Advances in Energy Research
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• 제8권4호
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• pp.203-211
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• 2022

The aim of this paper is to analyze the performance of commercial fuel cell (rated capacity 1000W) with the help of resistive load and output power variation with change in H₂ flow rate and calculate the maximum power point (MPP) of the proton exchange membrane (PEM) while changing AC and DC load respectively. The factors influencing the output power of a fuel cell are hydrogen flow rate, cell temperature, and membrane water content. The results show that when the H₂ flow rate is changed from 11, 13, and 15 Lpm, MPP is increased from lower to higher flow rate. The power of the fuel cell is increased at the rate of 29% by increasing the flow rate from 11 to 15 lpm. This study will allow small-scale industries and residential buildings (in remote or inaccessible areas) to characterize the performance of PEMFC. Furthermore, fuel cell helps in reducing emission in the environment compared to fossil fuels. Also, fuel cells are ecofriendly as well as cost effective and can be the best alternative way to convert energy.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.271-279
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• 2014

A 25kW-class polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell system has been developed for the propulsion of a leisure boat. The fuel cell system was designed to satisfy various performance requirements, such as resistance to shock, stability under rolling and pitching oscillations, and durability under salinity condition, for its marine applications. Then, the major components including a 30kW-class PEM fuel cell stack, a DC-DC converter, a seawater cooling system, secondary battery packs, and balance of plants were developed for the fuel cell system. The PEM fuel cell stack employs a unique design structure called an anodic cascade-type stack design in which the anodic cells are divided into several blocks to maximize the fuel utilization without hydrogen recirculation devices. The performance evaluation results showed that the stack generated a maximum power of 31.0kW while maintaining a higher fuel utilization of 99.5% and an electrical efficiency of 56.1%. Combining the 30-kW stack with other components, the 25kW-class fuel cell system boat was fabricated for a leisure. As a result of testing, the fuel cell system reached an electrical efficiency of 48.0% at the maximum power of 25.6kW with stable operability. In the near future, two PEM fuel cell systems will be installed in a 20-m long leisure boat to supply electrical power up to 50kW for propelling the boat and for powering the auxiliary equipments.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• 제1권2호
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• pp.102-111
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• 2010

Molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) power plants are one of most attractive electricity generation systems for the use of biogas to generate high-efficiency ultra-clean power. However, MCFCs are considerably more expensive than comparable conventional electricity generation systems. The commercialization of MCFCs has been delayed more than expected. After being effective in the Kyoto protocol and considerably increasing the fossil price, the attention focused on $CO_2$ regression and renewable energy sources has increased dramatically. In particular, the commercialization and application of MCFC systems fed with biogas have been revived because of the characteristics of $CO_2$ collection and fuel variety of MCFCs. Better economic results of MCFC systems fed with biogas are expected because biogas is a relatively inexpensive fuel compared to liquefied natural gas (LNG). However, the pretreatment cost is added when using anaerobic digester gas (ADG), one of the biogases, as a fuel of MCFC systems because it contains high $H_2S$ and other contaminants, which are harmful sources to the MCFC stack in ADG. Thus, an accurate economic analysis and comparison between MCFCs fed with biogas and LNG are very necessary before the installation of an MCFC system fed with biogas in a plant. In this paper, the economic analysis of an MCFC fed with ADG was carried out for various conditions of electricity and fuel price and compared with the case of an MCFC fed with LNG.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제25권4호
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• pp.405-418
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• 2014

Fuel cells are suitable for a power plant of a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as it is not only environmentally friendly and quiet but also more efficient than an internal combustion engine. A fuel cell hybrid UAV has better performance in endurance than a fuel cell only or battery only UAV. One of the key purposes of making fuel cell hybrid UAVs is having long endurance and now maximum 26 hours of flight is possible. Because optimal design and control methods for fuel cell hybrid UAVs are absolutely needed for their long endurance we have to check the methods. The aircraft made by using application-integrated design method has less BOP mass and better performances. The optimal design and control methods are generally based on computer simulations or Hardware-In-The-Loop simulations by using dynamic models for their design and control. The Hardware-In-The-Loop simulation (HILS) is to use a hardware device like a fuel cell stack as well as a simulation program and it allows for making optimally designed applications. This paper introduce efficient methods of design, control and evaluation for the fuel cell hybrid UAVs.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• 제53권5호
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• pp.584-589
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• 2015

잠수함 및 수중무인체계 등의 산소희박환경에서 연료전지를 통한 효과적인 전력생산을 위해서는 높은 수소저장밀도를 갖는 수소공급원이 필요하다. 디젤연료는 액체연료로서 저장 및 공급이 용이하며, 연료전지의 연료가 되는 수소의 단위질량 및 단위부피당 저장밀도가 높은 장점을 갖고 있다. 이러한 디젤연료의 장점을 기반으로 본 연구에서는 산소희박환경에서 수소생산을 위해 디젤연료의 개질반응을 이용하였으며, 산화제로 단위부피당 산소 저장밀도가 높고 액상으로 보관이 용이한 과산화수소 수용액을 기존의 산화제인 물과 산소의 대체산화제로 이용하는 방법을 제안하였다. 과산화수소 수용액의 디젤개질 산화제로써의 특성을 파악하기 위해 물, 공기 산화제와의 비교실험을 진행하였으며, 기존의 산화제와 디젤 개질반응 시 동일한 특성을 갖는 것을 실험적으로 확인하였다. 또한 상용디젤을 연료로 온도 및 과산화수소 수용액의 농도에 따른 개질성능을 평가하였으며, 49시간의 가속 열화실험을 통하여 디젤, 과산화수소 수용액을 이용한 수소생산의 가능성을 확인하였다.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제31권10호
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• pp.981-985
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• 2007

We present a MEMS-based portable Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (micro-DFMC), featured by a platinum sputtered microcolumn electrode and a built-in fuel chamber containing a limited amount of methanol fuel. Also presented is a micro-DMFC stack structure having a common electrolyte sandwiched by the microcolumn electrodes. The single cells with ME16 and PE16 electrodes show the maximum power densities of $31.04{\pm}0.29{\mu}W/cm^2$ and $9.75{\pm}0.29{\mu}W/cm^2$, respectively; thus indicating the microcolumn electrode (ME16) generates the power density (3.2 times) higher than the planar electrode (PE16). The single cell tests of ME16 and ME4 electrodes (Fig.8) show the maximum power of $31.04{\pm}0.29{\mu}W/cm^2$, and $25.23{\pm}2.7{\mu}W/cm^2$, respectively; thus demonstrating the increased window frame reduces the normalized standard power deviation (standard deviation over the average power). The normalized deviation of 0.11 in ME4 cell has been reduced to 0.01 in ME16 cell due to the increased window frames. The maximum power density of 4-cell stack is 15.7 times higher than that of the single cell. 4-cell stack produces the power capacity of 20.3mWh/g during 980min operation at the voltage of 450mV with the load resistance of $800{\Omega}$.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• 제35권4호
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• pp.406-413
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• 2011

최근 선박에서 배출되는 온실가스를 저감하기 위한 기술로 연료전지가 주목 받고 있다. 본 연구에서는 메탄을 연료로 사용한 내부개질형 500kW급 고체산화물 연료전지의 선박 적용을 가정하여 연료전지 스택을 모델링하여 스택을 구성하는 셀의 수, 수소 변환율, 셀의 반응면적에 따른 출력 및 효율에 관한 특성을 평가하고, 공기와 메탄의 공급조건이 연료전지 스택의 성능에 미치는 영향 등에 관하여 검토하였다. 그 결과 셀의 수, 수소 변환율, 셀의 반응면적 및 공급 공기 유량이 증가할수록 스택의 출력 및 효율이 증가하였고, 메탄 공급 유량이 증가하면 출력은 증가하지만 효율은 감소하였다. 또한 Case 3의 경우에 전류가 976.4 A, 전압이 529.1 V에서 출력이 516.6 kW이고 이때의 연료전지 스택의 효율은 42.91%를 얻을 수있었다.