• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.601-607
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• 2023

Pyrolysis oil (C5-C20) produced using plastic non-oxidative pyrolysis technology produces naphtha oil (C5-C10) through a separation process, and naphtha oil produces hydrogen through a reforming reaction to secure economic efficiency and social and environmental benefits. In this study, waste plastic pyrolysis oil was subjected to a steam reforming reaction on a commercialized catalyst of 46-3Q And it was found that the 46-3Q catalyst reformed the pyrolysis oil to produce hydrogen. Therefore, an experiment was performed to increase hydrogen yield and minimize the byproduct of ethylene. The reaction experiment was performed using actual waste plastic oil (C8-C11) with temperature, steam/carbon ratio (S/C) ratio, and space velocity as variables. We studied reaction conditions that can maximize hydrogen yield and minimize ethylene byproducts.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.627-631
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• 2005

The $(La_{0.8}Sr_{0.2})_{0.95}MnO_3$/yttria-stabilized zirconia (LSM/YSZ) composites were investigated as anode materials for high temperature steam electrolysis using X-ray diffractometry, scanning electron microscopy, galvanodynamic and galvanostatic polarization method. For this purpose, the LSMperovskites were fabricated in powders by co-precipitation method and then were mixed with 8 mol% YSZ powders in different molar ratios. The LSM/YSZ composites were deposited on 8 mol% YSZ electrolyte disks by means of a screen printing method, followed by sintering at temperatures above $1,100^{\circ}C$. From the experimental results, it is concluded that the electrochemical properties of LSM and the LSM/YSZ composites are closely related to their microstructure and operating temperatures.

• Clean Technology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.53-58
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• 2023

This study shows the summary of the economic performance of excess electricity conversion to hydrogen as well as methane and returned conversion to electricity using a fuel cell. The methane production process has been examined in a previous study. Here, this study focuses on the conversion of methane to electricity. As a part of this study, capital expenditure (CAPEX) is estimated under various sized plants (0.3, 3, 9, and 30 MW). The study shows a method for economic optimization of electricity generation using a fuel cell. The CAPEX and operating expenditure (OPEX) as well as the feed cost are used to calculate the discounted cash flow. Then the levelized cost of returned electricity (LCORE) is estimated from the discounted cash flow. This study found the LCORE value was ¢10.2/kWh electricity when a 9 MW electricity generating fuel cell was used. A methane production plant size of 1,500 Nm³/hr, a methane production cost of $11.47/mcf, a storage cost of $1/mcf, and a fuel cell efficiency of 54% were used as a baseline. A sensitivity analysis was performed by varying the storage cost, fuel cell efficiency, and excess electricity cost by ±20%, and fuel cell efficiency was found as the most dominating parameter in terms of the LCORE sensitivity. Therefore, for the best cost-performance, fuel cell manufacturing and efficiency need to be carefully evaluated. This study provides a general guideline for cost performance comparison with LCORE.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.156-165
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• 2017

This study quantitatively assessed the environmental impacts of fuel cell (FC) systems by performing life cycle assessment (LCA) and analyzed their energy efficiencies based on energy return on investment (EROI) and electrical energy stored on investment (ESOI). Molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) system and polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system were selected as the fuel cell systems. Five different paths to produce hydrogen ($H_2$) as fuel such as natural gas steam reforming (NGSR), centralized naptha SR (NSR(C)), NSR station (NSR(S)), liquified petroleum gas SR (LPGSR), water electrolysis (WE) were each applied to the FCs. The environmental impacts and the energy efficiencies of the FCs were compared with rechargeable batteries such as $LiFePO_4$ (LFP) and Nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH). The LCA results show that MCFC_NSR(C) and PEMFC_NSR(C) have the lowest global warming potential (GWP) with 6.23E-02 kg $CO_2$ eq./MJ electricity and 6.84E-02 kg $CO_2$ eq./MJ electricity, respectively. For the impact category of abiotic resource depletion potential (ADP), MCFC_NGSR(S) and PEMFC_NGSR(S) show the lowest impacts of 7.42E-01 g Sb eq./MJ electricity and 7.19E-01 g Sb eq./MJ electricity, respectively. And, the energy efficiencies of the FCs are higher than those of the rechargeable batteries except for the case of hydrogen produced by WE.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 1996

Alkaline water electrolysis has been commercialized as the only large-scale method for a long time to produce hydrogen and the technology is superior to other methods such as photochemical, thermochemical water splitting, and thermal decomposition method in view of efficiency and related technical problem. However, such conventional electrolyzer do not have high electric efficiency and productivity to apply to large scale hydrogen production for energy or chemical feedstocks. Solid polymer electrolyte water electrolysis using a perfluorocation exchange membrane as an $H^+$ ion conductor is considered to be a promising method, because of capability for operating at high current densities and low cell voltages. So, this is a good technology for the storage of electricity generated by photovoltaic power plants, wind generators and other energy conversion systems. One of the most important R&D topics in electrolyser is how to minimize cell voltage and maximize current density in order to increase the productivity of the electrolyzer. A commercialized technology is the hot press method which the film type electrocatalyst is hot-pressed to soild polymer membrane in order to eliminate the contact resistance. Various technologies, electrocatalyst formed over Nafion membrane surface by means of nonelectrolytic plating process, porous sintered metal(titanium powder) or titanium mesh coated with electrocatalyst, have been studied for preparation of membrane-electrocatalyst composites. In this study some experiments have been conducted at a solid polymer electrolyte water electrolyzer, which consisted of single cell stack with an electrode area of $25cm^2$ in a unipolar arrangement using titanium mesh coated with electrocatalyst.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.11-17
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• 2020

Copper has been proved to be the best catalyst for electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction, however, for optimal efficiency and selectivity, its performance requires improvements. Electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (RR) using CuO nanowire electrode was performed with different concentrations of KHCO3 electrolyte (0.1 M, 0.5 M, and 1 M). Cu(OH)2 was formed on Cu foil, followed by thermal-treatment at 200℃ under the air atmosphere for 2 hrs to transform it to the crystalline phase of CuO. We evaluated the effects of different KHCO3 electrolyte concentrations on electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (RR) using the CuO nanowire electrode. At a constant current (5mA), low concentrated bicarbonate exhibited a more negative potential -0.77 V vs. Reversible Hydrogen Electrode (RHE) (briefly abbreviated as VRHE), while the negative potential reduced to -0.33 VRHE in the high concentration of bicarbonate solution. Production of H2 and CH4 increased with an increased concentration of electrolyte (KHCO3). CH4 production efficiency was high at low negative potential whereas HCOOH was not influenced by bicarbonate concentration. Our study provides insights into efficient, economically viable, and sustainable methods of mitigating the harmful environmental effects of CO2 emission.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.543-549
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• 2010

The hydrogen energy had recognized clean and high efficiency energy source. The research field of hydrogen energy was production, storage, application and transport. The commercial storage method was using high pressure tanks but it was not safety. However metal hydride was very safety due to high chemical stability. Mg and Mg alloys are attractive as hydrogen storage materials because of their lightweight and high absorption capacity (about 7.6 wt%). Their range of applications could be further extended if their hydrogenation properties and degradation behavior could be improved. The main emphasis of this study was to find an economical manufacturing method for Mg-Ti-Ni-H systems, and to investigate their hydrogenation properties. In order to examine their hydrogenation behavior, a Sievert's type automatic pressure-compositionisotherm (PCI) apparatus was used and experiments were performed at 423, 473, 523, 573, 623 and 673 K. The results of the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed that the absorbed hydrogen contents were around 2.5wt.% for (Mg8Ti2)-10 wt.%Ni. With an increasing Ni content, the absorbed hydrogen content decreased to 1.7 wt%, whereas the dehydriding starting temperatures were lowered by some 70-100 K. The results of PCI on (Mg8Ti2)-20 wt.%Ni showed that its hydrogen capacity was around 5.5 wt% and its reversible capacity and plateau pressure were also excellent at 623 K and 673 K.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.983-989
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• 2008

Human insulin is a hormone well-known to regulate the blood glucose level. Recombinant preproinsulin, a precursor of authentic insulin, is typically produced in E. coli as an inactive inclusion body, the solubilization of which needs the addition of reducing agents such as $\beta$-mercaptoethanol. To make authentic insulin, recombinant preproinsulin is modified enzymatically by trypsin and carboxypeptidase B. The effects of $\beta$-mercaptoethanol on the formation of human insulin derivatives were investigated in the enzymatic modification by using commercially available human proinsulin as a substrate. Addition of 1 mM $\beta$-mercaptoethanol induced the formation of various insulin derivatives. Among them, the second major one, impurity 3, was found to be identical to the insulin B chain fragment from $Phe_1$ to $Glu_{21}$. Minimization of the formation of insulin derivatives and concomitant improvement of the production yield of human insulin were achieved by the addition of hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide bound with $\beta$-mercaptoethanol and thereby reduced the negative effects of $\beta$-mercaptoethanol considerably. Elimination of the impurity 3 and other derivatives by the addition of over 10 mM hydrogen peroxide in the presence of $\beta$-mercaptoethanolled to a 1.3-fold increase in the recovery efficiency of insulin, compared with those for the case without hydrogen peroxide. The positive effects of hydrogen peroxide were also confirmed with recombinant human preproinsulin expressed in recombinant E. coli as an inclusion body.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.175-188
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• 2023

Water electrolysis holds great potential as a method for producing renewable hydrogen fuel at large-scale, and to replace the fossil fuels responsible for greenhouse gases emissions and global climate change. To reduce the cost of hydrogen and make it competitive against fossil fuels, the efficiency of green hydrogen production should be maximized. This requires superior electrocatalysts to reduce the reaction energy barriers. The development of catalytic materials has mostly relied on empirical, trial-and-error methods because of the complicated, multidimensional, and dynamic nature of catalysis, requiring significant time and effort to find optimized multicomponent catalysts under a variety of reaction conditions. The ultimate goal for all researchers in the materials science and engineering field is the rational and efficient design of materials with desired performance. Discovering and understanding new catalysts with desired properties is at the heart of materials science research. This process can benefit from machine learning (ML), given the complex nature of catalytic reactions and vast range of candidate materials. This review summarizes recent achievements in catalysts discovery for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The basic concepts of ML algorithms and practical guides for materials scientists are also demonstrated. The challenges and strategies of applying ML are discussed, which should be collaboratively addressed by materials scientists and ML communities. The ultimate integration of ML in catalyst development is expected to accelerate the design, discovery, optimization, and interpretation of superior electrocatalysts, to realize a carbon-free ecosystem based on green hydrogen.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.158-163
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• 2009

It is difficult for a burner to achieve an increase in combustibility and a reduction of NOx emission, simultaneously. The reason is because thermal NOx could be reduced at low temperature, while the combustibility should be decreased. To solve this problem, an externally oscillated staging burner was developed, and experiment was conducted according to effective parameters. The combustibility could be improved through the accelerated transfer of heat, mass and momentum obtained by external oscillation. Also, NO is reduced by the decrease of residence time of burning gas in the local highest-temperature spot, which is decreased by the external oscillation and fuel staging. Experiments on variables were conducted to determine the reference flame, and the flame generating the lowest NO concentration was selected. The conditions of reference flame were oscillation frequency 250 Hz, sound pressure 1 VPP, and air ratio 1.1, and NO and CO concentrations were 1ppm and 20 ppm, respectively.