• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.404-411
• /
• 2023

For the direct reforming of biogas, a three-phase gliding arc plasma reformer was designed to expand the plasma discharge region, and the operation conditions of the plasma reformer, such as the S/C ratio, the gas flow rate, and the plasma input power, were optimized. The H₂ production efficiency is increased at a lower specific plasma input energy density, but byproducts such as C_XH_Y and carbon soot are generated along with the increase in H₂ production efficiency. The formation of byproducts is decreased at higher specific plasma input energy densities and S/C ratios. The optimized operation conditions are 5.5 ~ 6.0 kJ/L for the specific plasma input energy density and 3 for the S/C ratio, considering the conversion efficiency, H₂ production, and byproduct formation. It is expected that the H₂ production efficiency will improve with the decrease in fuel consumption in biogas burners because the heat generated from plasma discharge heats up the feed gas to over 500 ℃.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.786-794
• /
• 2022

Green ammonia is a promising renewable energy carrier. Green ammonia can be used in various energy conversion devices (e.g., engine, fuel cell, etc.). Ammonia has to be fed with hydrogen for start-up and failure protection of some energy conversion devices. Ammonia can be converted into hydrogen by decomposition and partial oxidation. Especially, partial oxidation has the advantages of fast start-up, thermally self-sustaining operation and compact size. In this paper, thermodynamics, start-up and operation characteristics of ammonia partial oxidation were investigated. O₂/NH₃ ratio, ammonia flow rate and catalyst volume were varied as operation parameters. In thermodynamic analysis, ammonia conversion was maximized in the O₂/NH₃ range from 0.10 to 0.15. Ammonia partial oxidation reactor was successfully started using 12 V glow plug. At 0.13 of O₂/HN₃ ratio and 10 LPM of ammonia flow rate, ammonia partial oxidation reactor showed 90% of ammonia conversion over commercial Ru catalyst. In addition, Increasing O₂/NH₃ ratio from 0.10 to 0.13 was more effective for high ammonia conversion than increasing catalyst volume at 0.10 of O₂/NH₃.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.25-31
• /
• 2023

The purpose of this study is to increase the thermal efficiency of a landfill gas (LFG) power generation engine by capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) from landfill gas (LFG) using monoethanolamine (MEA), which is widely used in the chemical CO₂ absorption process. Since the use of LFG as an energy source can be a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, MEA can be used to reduce CO₂ in LFG and increase the concentration of CH₄ to improve the efficiency of power generation. In this study, experiments were conducted to measure the solubility of CO₂ and CH₄ in MEA solution, increase the solubility under different conditions, and analyse the dissolution characteristics. It was found that the CO₂ absorption rate increased as the ratio of MEA to reaction gas increased. There is an optimum MEA concentration to maximise CO₂ solubility, and even if the concentration is increased above this concentration, the solubility does not improve significantly. This study provided fundamental work to develop a more practical fuel by capturing CO₂ from LFG and increasing the concentration of CH₄ while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.5
• /
• pp.1802-1813
• /
• 2023

Conjugate heat transfer between liquid metal and solid is a common phenomenon in a liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor's fuel assembly and heat exchanger, dramatically affecting the reactor's safety and economy. Therefore, comprehensively studying the sophisticated conjugate heat transfer in a liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor is profound. However, it has been evidenced that the traditional Simple Gradient Diffusion Hypothesis (SGDH), assuming a constant turbulent Prandtl number (Pr_t,, usually 0.85 - 1.0), is inappropriate in the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of liquid metal. In recent decades, numerous studies have been performed on the four-equation model, which is expected to improve the precision of liquid metal's CFD simulations but has not been introduced into the conjugate heat transfer calculation between liquid metal and solid. Consequently, a four-equation model, consisting of the Abe k - ε turbulence model and the Manservisi k_𝜃 - ε_𝜃 heat transfer model, is applied to study the conjugate heat transfer concerning liquid metal in the present work. To verify the numerical validity of the four-equation model used in the conjugate heat transfer simulations, we reproduce Johnson's experiments of the liquid lead-bismuth-cooled turbulent pipe flow using the four-equation model and the traditional SGDH model. The simulation results obtained with different models are compared with the available experimental data, revealing that the relative errors of the local Nusselt number and mean heat transfer coefficient obtained with the four-equation model are considerably reduced compared with the SGDH model. Then, the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of liquid metal turbulent pipe flow obtained with the four-equation model are analyzed. Moreover, the impact of the turbulence model used in the four-equation model on overall simulation performance is investigated. At last, the effectiveness of the four-equation model in the CFD simulations of liquid sodium conjugate heat transfer is assessed. This paper mainly proves that it is feasible to use the four-equation model in the study of liquid metal conjugate heat transfer and provides a reference for the research of conjugate heat transfer in a liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.62 no.1
• /
• pp.80-86
• /
• 2024

This study was conducted to evaluate the potential of rape stalk (RAS) as a raw material for the production of solid bio-fuels. RAS was immersed in an aqueous solution with acetic acid concentration of 1 percent, The content of reducing sugars separated from the RAS was analyzed. Glucose showed the highest content followed by xylose, galactose, arabinose and mannose. The immersed and non-immersed RAS were used for producing pellets with a pilot-scaled flat-die pellet mill. Bulk density and calorific values of the pellets improved with the use of the immersed RAS and the addition of wood particles. The values exceeded the minimum requirements for the A-grade of non-woody pellets (≧600 kg/m³ & ≧ 14.5 MJ/kg) designated by the ISO. Ash content of the pellets reduced with the immersion of RAS and the value satisfied the A-grade level (≦6.0%) of the ISO standard. The durability of the immersed RAS-based pellets was much higher than that of non-immersed IRS-based pellets, and the values were increased with the addition of wood particles. However, the durability did not meet the acceptance level for the B-grade of non-woody pellets (≧96.0%) designated by the ISO. These results suggested that the addition of binders in the production of non-woody pellets using an RAS immersed in acetic acid-based aqueous solution is required for the commercialization of the pellets.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.58-64
• /
• 2024

Approximately 250 marine oil spill accidents have occurred in Korea, with profound impact on local communities and the environment. The restoration process necessitates significant resources and costs to return affected areas to their pre-accident state. In accordance with the polluter pays principle, compensation is demanded from polluter, as stipulated in both international conventions and national laws. Consequently, investigations are conducted to determine civil and criminal liability. As the importance of investigation actors in oil spill accidents increases, standards such as CEN 15522-2 and ASTM D 3248 are employed to determine the similarity between the spilled oil and the oil of the suspected ship. Among these standards, CEN 15522-2, the most actively used European standard, underwent its third revision and is now known as EN 15522-2, as of 2023. This study used EN 15522-2 to analyze samples from marine oil spill accidents that occurred in Korea. The results indicated that, considering the characteristics of domestic spills where light fuel oil spills account for more than 40%, the application of EN 15522-2, which includes low-boiling point substances such as Adamantanes, was confirmed to be highly effective.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.33-40
• /
• 2006

The characteristics of the aluminum waste melting and the distribution of the radioactive nuclides have been investigated for the estimation on the volume reduction and the decontamination of the aluminum wastes from the decommissioning of the TRIGA MARK it and III research reactors at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute(KAERI). The aluminum wastes were melted with the use of the fluxes such as flux $A:NaCl-KCl-Na_3AlF_6$, flux B:NaCl-NaF-KF, flux $C:CaF_2$, and flux $D:LiF-KCl-BaCl_2$ in the DC graphite arc furnace. For the assessment of the distribution of the radioactive nuclides during the melting of the aluminum, the aluminum materials were contaminated by the surrogate nuclides such as cobalt(Co), cesium(Cs) and strontium(Sr). The fluidity of aluminum melt was increased with the addition of the fluxes, which has slight difference according to the type of fluxes. The formation of the slag during the aluminum melting added the flux type C and D was larger than that with the flux A and B. The rate of the slag formation linearly increased with increasing the flux concentration. The results of the XRD analysis showed that the surrogate nuclide was transferred to the slag, which can be easily separated from the melt and then they combined with aluminum oxide to form a more stable compound. The distribution ratio of cobalt in ingot to that in slag was more than 40% at all types of fluxes. Since vapor pressures of cesium and strontium were higher than those that of the host metals at the melting temperature, their removal efficiency from the ingot phase to the slag and the dust phase was by up to 98%.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.23-30
• /
• 2007

The ultimate objective of this study is to develop oxygen-enriched combustion techniques applicable to the system of practical industrial boiler. To this end the combustion characteristics of lab-scale LNG combustor were investigated as a first step using the method of numerical simulation by analyzing the flame characteristics and pollutant emission behaviour as a function of oxygen enrichment level. Several useful conclusions could be drawn based on this study. First of all, the increase of oxygen enrichment level instead of air caused long and thin flame called laminar flame feature. This was in good agreement with experimental results appeared in open literature and explained by the effect of the decrease of turbulent mixing due to the decrease of absolute amount of oxidizer flow rate by the absence of the nitrogen species. Further, as expected, oxygen enrichment increased the flame temperatures to a significant level together with concentrations of $CO_2$ and $H_2O$ species because of the elimination of the heat sink and dilution effects by the presence of $N_2$ inert gas. However, the increased flame temperature with $O_2$ enriched air showed the high possibility of the generation of thermal $NO_x$ if nitrogen species were present. In order to remedy the problem caused by the oxygen-enriched combustion, the appropriate amount of recirculation $CO_2$ gas was desirable to enhance the turbulent mixing and thereby flame stability and further optimum determination of operational conditions were necessary. For example, the adjustment of burner with swirl angle of $30\sim45^{\circ}$ increased the combustion efficiency of LNG fuel and simultaneously dropped the $NO_x$ formation.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.217-225
• /
• 2015

Local heating system providing hot air locally to growing parts including shoot apex and flower cluster which were temperature-sensitive organs of cherry tomato was developed to reduce energy consumption for greenhouse heating without decline of crop growth. Growing part following local heating system was composed of double duct distributer which connected inner and outer ducts with hot air heater and winder which moved ducts up and down following growing parts with plant growth. Growing part local heating system was compared with conventional bottom duct heating system with respect to distributions of air and leaf surface temperatures according to height, growth characteristics and energy consumption. By growing part local heating, air temperature around growing part was maintained $0.9{\sim}2.0^{\circ}C$ higher than that of lower part of crop and leaf surface temperature was also stratified according to height. Investigations on crop growth characteristics and crop yield showed no statistically significant difference except for plant height between bottom duct heating and growing part local heating. As a result, the growing part local heating system consumed 23.7% less heating energy than the bottom duct heating system without decrease of crop yield.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.189-203
• /
• 2008

The physical and chemical properties of radioactive waste drums, which have been temporarily stored on site, should be characterized before their shipment to a disposal facility in order to prove that the properties meet the acceptance guideline. The investigation of NDT(Nondestructive Test) method was figured out that the contents in drum, the quantitative analysis of free standing water and void fraction can be examined with X-ray NDT techniques. This paper describes the characteristics of X-ray NDT such as its principles, the considerations for selection of X-ray system, etc. And then, the waste drum characteristics such as drum type and dimension, contents in drum, etc. were examined, which are necessary to estimate the optimal X-ray energy for NDT of a drum. The estimation results were that: $(R)\acute{A}$ the proper X-ray energy is under 3 MeV to test the drums of 320 ${\beta}\S$ and less; $(R)\ddot{E}$ both X-ray systems of 450 keV and/or 3 MeV might be needed considering the economical efficiency and the realization. The number of drums that can be tested with 450 keV and 3 MeV X-ray system was figured out as 42,327 and 18,105 drums (based on storage of 2006. 12), respectively. Four testing scenarios were derived considering equipment procurement method, outsourcing or not, etc. The economical and feasibility assessment for the scenarios was resulted in that an optimal scenario is dependent on the acceptance guide line, the waste generator's policy on the waste treatment and the delivery to a disposal facility, etc. For example, it might be desirable that a waste generator purchases two 450 keV mobile system to examine the drums containing low density waste, and that outsourcing examination for the high density drums, if all NDT items such as quantitative analysis for 'free standing water' and 'void fraction', and confirmation of contents in drum have to be characterized. However, one 450 keV mobile system seems to be required to test only the contents in 13,000 drums per year.