• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.7-19
• /
• 2022

Hydrogen purification is generally performed through chemical and physical methods. Among various types of purification method PSA(Pressure Swing Adsorption) is widely used with its purification capacity and economic efficiency. In Korea, most of the hydrogen used in automobiles and power generation fuel cells is purified using PSA. Hydrogen produced in petrochemical complexes has difficulties in transportation. The government is planning to install hydrogen extractors that produce hydrogen directly from consumers in connection with the city gas supply chain, and companies are also installing related research and demonstration facilities one after another. Europe and others have recently established safety standards related to PSA and are making efforts for systematic safety management at the construction and operation stage, but domestic safety standards related to PSA are still insufficient. This study aims to identify problems of existing facilities through surveys and risk assessment by companies operating existing PSA, and to prepare domestic technical standards including them in overseas technical standards to promote the safety of new and existing PSA systems.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.337-342
• /
• 2022

Although printing technology has recently been widely used in IT fields including displays and fuel cells, residual and thermal stress are generated by a manufacturing process of stacking the layers of the print head and result in the substrate deformation and nozzle plate crack, which may cause ink leaks or not be ejected onto a desired region. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a new design of thermal inkjet print head with a robust and reliable structure. Diverse types of inkjet print head such as a rib, pillar, support wall and individual feed hole are designed to reduce the deformation of the substrate and nozzle plate, and their feasibility is numerically investigated through FEA analysis. The numerical results show that the maximum stress and deformation of proposed print head dramatically drops to at least 40~50%, and it is confirmed that there is no nozzle plate cracks and ink leakage through the fabrication of pillar and support wall typed print head. Therefore, it is expected that the proposed head shape can be applied not only to ink ejection in the normal direction, but also to large-area printing technology.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
• /
• v.55 no.1
• /
• pp.32-37
• /
• 2022

In a carbon-zero social atmospher, research is underway to reduce the use of fossil fuels. Interest in cleaner energy sources and their storage system is growing, and among them, research on effective energy storage is being actively conducted. Energy storage system(ESS) can be divided into secondary batteries, fuel cells, and capacitors, and the superiority of energy density of secondary batteries has a dominent influence on the ESS market. However, as problems with secondary batteries, charge/discharge speed, safety, and deterioration of electrodes are being highlighted. In this study, an electrode for supercapacitor with superior charge/discharge speed and specific capacitance is manufactured. The manufactured spinel nickel cobalt electrodes had specific capacitances of 1018.8 F/g, 690.8 F/g, and 475.1 F/g at 1 A/g in 1 M KOH electrolyte, and shows a performance retention rate of 77.48%, 63.30%, and 58.16% after 2000cycles at 7 A/g.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.32 no.10
• /
• pp.1325-1334
• /
• 2022

Global warming has accelerated in recent decades due to the continuous consumption of petroleum-based fuels. Cyanobacteria-derived biofuels are a promising carbon-neutral alternative to fossil fuels that may help achieve a cleaner environment. Here, we propose an effective strategy based on the large-scale cultivation of a newly isolated cyanobacterial strain to produce phycobiliprotein and biodiesel, thus demonstrating the potential commercial applicability of the isolated microalgal strain. A native cyanobacterium was isolated from Goryeong, Korea, and identified as Pseudanabaena mucicola GO0704 through 16s RNA analysis. The potential exploitation of P. mucicola GO0704 was explored by analyzing several parameters for mixotrophic culture, and optimal growth was achieved through the addition of sodium acetate (1 g/l) to the BG-11 medium. Next, the cultures were scaled up to a stirred-tank bioreactor in mixotrophic conditions to maximize the productivity of biomass and metabolites. The biomass, phycobiliprotein, and fatty acids concentrations in sodium acetate-treated cells were enhanced, and the highest biodiesel productivity (8.1 mg/l/d) was achieved at 96 h. Finally, the properties of the fuel derived from P. mucicola GO0704 were estimated with converted biodiesels according to the composition of fatty acids. Most of the characteristics of the final product, except for the cloud point, were compliant with international biodiesel standards [ASTM 6761 (US) and EN 14214 (Europe)].

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.60 no.3
• /
• pp.321-326
• /
• 2022

As the thickness of the polymer membrane of PEMFC(Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells) is getting thinner for PEMFC performance and price reduction, research on improving durability has become more important. In the durability evaluation of membranes, the mechanical durability evaluation time is more than twice that of the chemical durability evaluation time, so it is necessary to select the durability evaluation conditions well. In this study, we tried to check how much the mechanical durability evaluation time changes when there is a difference in the inflow gas type and flow rate in the mechanical durability evaluation protocol (Wet/Dry). When nitrogen was used at a flow rate of 2,000 mL/min, the evaluation time increased by 1.25 times compared to when air was used. An increase in the degradation rate of the electrode Pt was the main factor when air was used. When the flow rate was reduced to 800 mL/min, the air and nitrogen evaluation times increased by 1.5 times and 1.2 times, respectively.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.209-217
• /
• 2022

Ion exchange membrane (IEM) is an important class of membrane applied in batteries, fuel cells, chloride-alkali processes, etc to separate various mono and multivalent ions. The membrane process is based on the electrically driven force, green separation method, which is an emerging area in desalination of seawater and water treatment. Electrodialysis (ED) is a technique in which cations and anions move selectively along the IEM. Anion exchange membrane (AEM) is one of the important components of the ED process which is critical to enhancing the process efficiency. The introduction of cross-linking in the IEM improves the ion-selective separation performance due to the reduction of free volume. During the desalination of seawater by reverse osmosis (RO) process, there is a lot of dissolved salt present in the concentrate of RO. So, the ED process consisting of a monovalent cation-selective membrane reduces fouling and improves membrane flux. This review is divided into three sections such as electrodialysis (ED), anion exchange membrane (AEM), and cation exchange membrane (CEM).

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.161-167
• /
• 2023

Despite the various medications used in clinics, the efforts to develop more effective treatments for depression continue to increase in the past decades mainly because of the treatment-resistant population, and the testing of several hypotheses- and target-based treatments. Undesirable side effects and unresponsiveness to current medications fuel the drive to solve this top global health problem. In this study, we focused on neuroinflammatory response-mediated depression which represents a cluster of depression etiology both in animal models and humans. Several meta-analyses reported that proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were increased in major depressive disorder patients. Inflammatory mediators implicated in depression include type-I interferon and inflammasome pathways. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms of neuroinflammatory cascades underlying the pathophysiology of depression, we introduced hycanthone, an antischistosomal drug, to check whether it can counteract depressive-like behaviors in vivo and normalize the inflammation-induced changes in vitro. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment increased proinflammatory cytokine expression in the murine microglial cells as well as the stimulation of type I interferon-related pathways that are directly or indirectly regulated by Janus kinase-signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK-STAT) activation. Hycanthone treatment attenuated those changes possibly by inhibiting the JAK-STAT pathway and inflammasome activation. Hycanthone also ameliorated depressive-like behaviors by LPS. Taken together, we suggest that the inhibitory action of hycanthone against the interferon pathway leading to attenuation of depressive-like behaviors can be a novel therapeutic mechanism for treating depression.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.21-28
• /
• 2023

The electromembrane process, which has advantages such as scalability, sustainability, and eco-friendliness, is used in renewable energy fields such as fuel cells and reverse electrodialysis power generation. Most of the research to visualize the internal flow in the electromembrane process has mainly been conducted on heterogeneous ion exchange membranes, because of the non-uniform swelling characteristics of the homogeneous membrane. In this study, we successfully visualize the electro-convective vortices near the Nafion homogeneous membrane in PDMS-based microfluidic devices. To reinforce the mechanical rigidity and minimize the non-uniform swelling characteristics of the homogeneous membrane, a newly developed swelling supporter was additionally adapted to the Nafion membrane. Thus, a clear image of electroconvective vortices near the Nafion membrane could be obtained and visualized. As a result, we observed that the heterogeneous membrane has relatively stronger electroconvective vortices compared to the Nafion homogeneous membranes. Regarding electrical response, the Nafion membrane has a higher limiting current and less overlimiting current compared to the heterogeneous membrane. Based on our visualization, it is assumed that the heterogeneous membrane has more activated electroconvective vortices, which lower electrical resistance in the overlimiting current regime. We anticipate that this work can contribute to the fundamental understanding of the ion transport characteristics depending on the homogeneity of ion exchange membranes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
• /
• 2022.05a
• /
• pp.519-521
• /
• 2022

As appearance of diverse electric power supplies and fuel cells have been emerging, UAVs have capacity to prolong their flight missions. Nowadays, the rotary based UAVs that are commonly distributed on the open market, adapt rechargeable batteries and have around 50 centimeters in width and generally within 30 minutes in hovering flight capacities. UAV's flight time highly depends on the capacity and the weight of its batteries. To cope with the flight time, recharging methods are also being researched. their researches are mainly divided into coupled and decoupled in manner. In this article, we propose the method to refine the position more effectivly and precisely adapting QR Code and 3-D position estimation so that UAVs enable to land on the recharging system successfully.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
• /
• v.34 no.6
• /
• pp.673-681
• /
• 2023

Hydrocarbon-based polymer membranes to replace perfluorinated polymer membranes are being continuously researched. However, hydrocarbon-based membranes have a problem in that they are less durable than fluorine-based membranes. In this study, we sought to compare the annealing effect to improve the durability of sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK). After membranes formation, thermogravimetric analysis and tensile strength were measured to compare changes in membranes properties due to annealing. After manufacturing the membrane and electrode assembly (MEA), the initial performance and chemical durability was compared with unit cell operation. During the 24-hour annealing process, the strength increased due to the increase in-S-O-S-crosslinking, and the sulfonic acid group decreased, leading to a decrease in I-V performance. By annealing, the hydrogen permeability was reduced to less than 1/10 of that of the nafion membrane, and as a result, open circuit voltage (OCV) and durability was improved. The SPEEK membranes annealed for 24 hours showed higher durability than the nafion 211 membranes of the same thickness.