• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.410-420
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• 2012

The heavy reliance on fossil fuels, especially oil and gas has triggered the global energy crisis. Continued use of petroleum fuels is now widely recognized as unsustainable because of their depleting supplies and degradation to the environment. To become less dependent on fossil fuels, current world is shifting paradigm in energy by developing alternative energy sources mainly through the utilization of renewable energy sources. In particular, bioenergy recovery from wastes with the help of microorganism is viewed as one of the promising ways to mitigate the current global warming crisis as well as to supply global energy. It has been proved that microorganism can generate power by converting organic matter into electricity using microbial fuel cells (MFCs). MFC is a bioelectrochemical device that employs microbes to generate electricity from bio-convertible substrate such as wastewaters including municipal solid waste, industrial, agriculture wastes, and sewage. Sustainability, carbon neutral and generation of renewable energy are some of the major features of MFCs. However, the MFC technology is confronted with a number of issues and challenges such as low power production, high electrode material cost and so on. This paper reviews the recent developments in MFC technology with due consideration of electrode materials used in MFCs. In addition, application of biocathodes in MFCs has been discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.44-52
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• 2014

Solid oxide fuel cell(SOFC) makes electric power using hydrogen or reformed from methane and emits high temperature products that contain flammable species like hydrogen, carbon monoxide and methane which varies with operation condition. SOFC/gas turbine integrated system which uses thermal and chemical energy of the discharges is more efficient than SOFC itself. Burning character of the SOFC products will affect the efficiency and stability of the system. Experiments were conducted to know the characteristics of the flame for two typical composition of SOFC products, i.e. start-up and steady state composition. When coflowing air temperature was higher than $600^{\circ}C$, auto-ignitin occurred for both fuels. Though start-up fuel has higher contents of hydrogen, it makes longer flame than steady state composition. It was inferred that the amount of oxidizer necessary to burn makes this phenomenon. Steady state composition fuel was unstable since it contains lots of water. Nozzle that had 6 holes, distance between each hole was 16.7 times of hole diameter, improved the stability of the flame.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.46-51
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to analyze the utilization forms of hydrogen fuel cells, which are the core of building a smart city, and suggest ways to solve them. In the case of power plants to utilize hydrogen fuel cell, it was analyzed as the most promising form of use in the future due to the advantage of being free from intermittence problems. However, despite many advantages, local residents' opposition continues to emerge due to concerns about explosions and the problem of carbon dioxide generation in the case of certain hydrogen production methods, and it is analyzed that resolving them will be the main key to establishing the smart city. Finally, by analyzing the current hydrogen production method and identifying the problems facing it, the solution for the complete construction of the smart city was presented.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.136-146
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• 2019

A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) based hybrid desiccant cooling system model is developed to study the effect of fuel utilization rate of the SOFC on the reduction of energy consumption and $CO_2$ emission. The SOFC-based hybrid desiccant cooling system consists of an SOFC system and a Hybrid desiccant cooling system (HDCS). The SOFC system includes a stack and balance of plant (BOP), and HDCS. The HDCS consists of desiccant rotor, indirect evaporative cooler, electric heat pump (EHP), and heat exchangers. In this study, using energy load data of a commercial office building and SOFC-based HDCS model, the amount of ton of oil equivalent (TOE) and ton of $CO_2$ ($tCO_2$) are calculated and compared with the TOE and $tCO_2$ generation of the EHP using grid electricity.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.46-55
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• 2004

This paper presents a high-frequency ZVS-PWM boost chopper-fed DC-DC converter with a single active auxiliary edge resonant snubber in the load-side which can be designed for power conditioners such as solar photovoltaic generation, fuel cell generation, battery and super capacitor energy storages. Its principle operation in steady-state is described in addition to a prototype setup. The experimental results of ZVS-PWM boost chopper-fed DC-DC converter proposed here, are evaluated and verified with a practical design model in terms of its switching voltage and current waveforms, the switching v-i trajectory, the temperature performance of IGBT module, the actual power conversion efficiency and the EMI of radiated and conducted emissions. And then discussed and compared with the hard switching scheme from an experimental point of view. Finally, this paper proposes a practical method to suppress parasitic oscillation due to the active auxiliary resonant switch at ZCS turn off mode transition with the aid of an additional lossless clamping diode loop, and reduced the EMI conducted emission in this paper.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.223-226
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• 2003

This paper presents a high-frequency ZVS-PWM boost chopper-fed DC-DC converter with a single active auxiliary edge-resonant snubber which is used for power conditioner such as solar photovoltaic generation and fuel cell generation. The experimental results of boost chopper fed ZVS-PWM DC-DC converter are evaluated. In audition to its switching voltage and current waveforms, and the switching v-i trajectory of the power devices are discussed and compared with the conventional hard switching DC-DC converter treated here. The temperature performance of IGBT module,, efficiency, and EMI noise characteristics of this ZVS-PWM DC-DC converter using IGBTs are measured and evaluated from an experimental point of view.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.140-148
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• 2005

The molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) is endowed with the high potential especially in future electric power generation industry by its own outstanding characteristics. KEPCO (KEPRI) started a 100 kW MCFC system development program in 1993 and has been executed 100kW system develpilot plant successfully completed first phaseopment by 2005 on the basis of successful results of 25kW system development. In this program, the components and mechanical structure for 100 kW stack and system construction were completed on last year and now system pre - commissioning was being executed. A 100 kW MCFC power plant was constructed at the site of Boryeong Thermal Power Plant. A 100 kW MCFC system has characterized as a high pressure operation mode, CO2 recycle, and externally reforming power generation system. The 100 kW MCFC system consisted with stacks which was made by two 50 kW sub-stacks, 90 cells with 6,000 cm2 active area and BOP including a reformer, a recycle blower, a catalytic burner, an inverter, and etc. The system has been operated from 13th of September on this year and produced 50 kW AC under atmospheric pressure condition and expected to operate by the end of this year.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.568-576
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• 2004

This paper presents a new anti-islanding method for distributed power generation system (DPGS) using renewable energy. Based on the concept of real and reactive power mismatch, three different islanding conditions are analyzed. It is shown via analysis that islanding voltage is a function of real power alone, where as its frequency is a function of both real and reactive power. Using this analysis, a new anti-islanding method is developed. The proposed protection algorithm continuously perturbs ($\pm$5%) the reactive power supplied by DPGS while simultaneously monitoring the utility voltage and frequency. If a measurable frequency deviation took place by islanding, the real power of DPGS is further reduced to 80%. This detection method is shown to be fast acting under resonant loads. Possible islanding conditions are simulated and verified with analysis. Experimental results on a 0.5kW utility-interactive fuel cell system are suggested.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.405-412
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• 2012

In the MCFC power generation system, the combustor supplies a high temperature mixture of gases to the cathode and heat to the reformer by using the off-gas from the anode; the off-gas includes high concentrations of $H_2O$ and $CO_2$. Since a combustor needs to be operated in a very lean condition and avoid local heating, a catalytic combustor is usually adopted. Catalytic combustion is also generally accepted as one of the environmentally preferred alternatives for generation of heat and power from fossil fuels because of its complete combustion and low emissions of pollutants such as CO, UHC, and $NO_x$. In this study, experiments were conducted on catalytic combustion behavior in the presence of Pd-based catalysts for the BOP (Balance Of Plant) of 5 kW MCFC (Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell) power generation systems. Extensive investigations were carried out on the catalyst performance with the gaseous $CH_4$ fuel by changing such various parameters as $H_2$ addition, inlet temperature, excess air ratio, space velocity, catalyst type, and start-up schedule of the pilot system adopted in the BOP.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.308-320
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• 2022

The high internal resistance (R_int) that develops across the sediment microbial fuel cells (SMFC) limits their power production (~4/10 mW m^-2) that can be recovered from an initial oil-contaminated sediment (OCS). In the anolyte, R_int is related to poor biodegradation activity, quality and quantity of contaminant content in the sediment and anode material. While on the catholyte, R_int depends on the properties of the catholyte, the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), and the cathode material. In this work, the main factors limiting the power output of the SMFC have been minimized. The power output of the SMFC was increased (47 times from its initial value, ~4 mW m^-2) minimizing the SMFC R_int (28 times from its initial value, 5000 ohms), following the main modifications. Anolyte: the initial OCS was amended with several amounts of gasoline and kerosene. The best anaerobic microbial activity of indigenous populations was better adapted (without more culture media) to 3 g of kerosene. Catholyte: ORR was catalyzed in birnessite/carbon fabric (CF)-cathode at pH 2, 0.8M Na₂SO₄. At the class level, the main microbial groups (Gammaproteobacteria, Coriobacteriia, Actinobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria) with electroactive members were found at C-anode and were associated with the high-power densities obtained. Gasoline is more difficult to biodegrade than kerosene. However, in both cases, SMFC biodegradation activity and power output are increased when ORR is performed on birnessite/CF in 0.8 M Na₂SO₄ at pH 2. The work discussed here can focus on bioremediation (in heavy OCS) or energy production in future work.