• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.11 no.5
• /
• pp.863-869
• /
• 2001

A systematic study of microbial fuel cells comprised of alkalophilic Bacillus sp. B-31 has been carried out under various operating conditions. A significant amount of electricity was generated when redox mediators were used. Among the phenothiazine-type redox dyes tested, azure A was found to be the most effective both in maintaining a high cell voltage and for the long-term operation. The maximum efficiency was and for the long-term operation. The maximum efficiency was obtained at ca. $50^{\circ}C$ giving an open circuit voltage of 0.7V. A small change in temperature did not significantly affect the cell performance, but a rapid decrease in performance was observed below $20^{\circ}C$ and above $70^{\circ}C$. It was noticeable that fuel cell efficiency and discharge pattern depended strongly on the carbon source used in the initial culture medium. Regardless of the initial carbon sources, only glucose and trehalose were utilized as substrates. Galactose, however, was not substantially utilized except when galactose was used in the initial medium. Glucose, in particular, showed $87\%$ coulombic efficiency, which was the highest value ever reported, when Bacillus sp. was cultured in a maltose-containing medium. This study demonstrates that highly efficient microbial fuel cells can be constructed with alkalophilic microorganisms by fine-tuning the operating conditions and by carefully selecting carbon sources in the initial culture medium.

• Journal of Powder Materials
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.222-228
• /
• 2014

Much research into fuel cells operating at a temperature below $800^{\circ}C$. is being performed. There are significant efforts to replace the yttria-stabilized zirconia electrolyte with a doped ceria electrolyte that has high ionic conductivity even at a lower temperature. Even if the doped ceria electrolyte has high ionic conductivity, it also shows high electronic conductivity in a reducing environment, therefore, when used as a solid electrolyte of a fuel cell, the powergeneration efficiency and mechanical properties of the fuel cell may be degraded. In this study, gadolinium-doped ceria nanopowder with $Al_2O_3$ and $Mn_2O_3$ as a reinforcing and electron trapping agents were synthesized by ultrasonic pyrolysis process. After firing, their microstructure and mechanical and electrical properties were investigated and compared with those of pure gadolinium-doped ceria specimen.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.311-319
• /
• 2013

A clear understanding on cell voltage-reversal behavior due to local hydrogen starvation in a stack is of paramount importance to operate the fuel cell vehicle (FCV) stably since it affects significantly the cell performance and durability. In the present study, a novel experimental method to simulate the local cell voltage-reversal behavior caused by local hydrogen starvation, which typically occurs only one or several cells out of several hundred cells in a stack of FCV, has been proposed. Contrary to the conventional method of overall fuel starvation, the present method of local hydrogen starvation caused the local cell voltage-reversal behavior in a stack very well. Degradation of both membrane electrode assembly (i.e., pin-hole formation) and gas diffusion layer due to an excessive exothermic heat under voltage-reversal condition was also observed clearly.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
• /
• v.53 no.5
• /
• pp.469-477
• /
• 2016

The application of nanomaterials for electrodes of intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) is introduced. In conventional SOFCs, the operating temperature is higher than 1073 K, and so application of nanomaterials is not suitable because of the high degradation rate that results from sintering, aggregation, or reactions. However, by allowing a decrease of the operating temperature, nanomaterials are attracting much interest. In this review, nanocomposite films with columnar morphology, called double columnar or vertically aligned nanocomposites and prepared by pulsed laser ablation method, are introduced. For anodes, metal nano particles prepared by exsolution from perovskite lattice are also applied. By using dissolution and exsolution into and from the perovskite matrix, performed by changing $P_{O2}$ in the gas phase at each interval, recovery of the power density can be achieved by keeping the metal particle size small. Therefore, it is expected that the application of nanomaterials will become more popular in future SOFC development.

• Ceramist
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.182-188
• /
• 2019

Alternative energy sources to the systems using hydrocarbon fuels have been actively developed due to exhaustion of fossil fuels and issue of global warming by CO₂. Fuel cells have attracted great attentions to solve these issues as electricity can be produced with product of clean H₂O by using H₂-O₂ as a fuel. Besides, using reverse reactions make it possible to produce H₂ and O₂ gas from electrolysis of water. There are various fuel cells systems depending on the types of electrolyte, and in this mini-reviews, the main aim is to focus on perovskite oxides as a catalyst for oxygen-evolution reactions in alkaline electrolysis and its potential to application of alkaline electrolysis systems.

• Korean Membrane Journal
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2003

Due to the increasing intelligence, the increasing connectivity, and always-on characteristics energy needs for the portable electronics cannot be managed by the state-of-art battery technology. Micro fuel cell fuelled by aqueous methanol is gaining lots of interest from the new energy storage developers since it has the potential to offer the longer operation time to the portable electronic devices. Although the technical barriers to the commercialization exit, it is expected that the micro fuel cell technology bring huge benefits to the current energy storage market once it matures. In the article, benefits, challenges and market players of the direct methanol fuel cell arena is briefly reviewed.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2000.04b
• /
• pp.264-269
• /
• 2000

As a part of the ongoing effort towards commercial application of high-temperature fuel cell power generation systems, we have recently built a pilot-scale molten carbonate fuel cell power plant and tested it. The stack test system is composed of diverse peripheral units such as reformer, pre-heater, water purifier, electrical loader, gas supplier, and recycling systems. The stack itself was made of 40cells of $6000cm^2$ area each. The stack showed an output higher than 25kW power and a reliable performance at atmospheric operation. A pressurized performance was also tested, and it turned out the cell performance increased though a few cells have shown a symptom of gas crossover. The pressurized operation characteristics could be analyzed with numerical computation results of a stack model.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
• /
• v.1 no.2
• /
• pp.92-96
• /
• 2010

A new synthesis method for the preparation of Pt electrocatalysts on carbon nanofibers (CNFs) is reported. In this method, Pt electrocatalysts are loaded onto 2-naphthalenethiol (NT) functionalized CNFs. The noncovalent functionalization of CNFs by NT is the effective way for better distribution of Pt particles and higher electrocatalytic activity in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. It was found that the presence of NT acts as a poison to catalysts. Therefore, it is necessary to remove NT through the heat treatment at $400^{\circ}C$.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.813-818
• /
• 2004

A systematic study of microbial fuel cells comprised of thermophilic Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus thermoglucosidasius has been carried out under various operating conditions. Substantial amount of electricity was generated when a redox mediator was used. Being affected by operation temperature, the maximum efficiency was obtained at 50$^{\circ}C$ with an open circuit voltage of ca. 0.7 V. While a small change around the optimum temperature did not make much effect on the cell performance, the rapid decrease in performance was observed above 70$^{\circ}C$. It was noticeable that fuel cell efficiency and discharge pattern strongly depended on the kind of carbon sources used in the initial culture medium. In the case of B. thermoglucosidasius, glucose alone was utilized constitutively as a substrate in the microbial fuel cell irrespective of used carbons sources. When B. licheniformis was cultivated with lactose as a carbon source, best charging characteristics were recorded. Trehalose, in particular, showed 41.2% coulombic efficiency when B. thermoglucosidasius was cultured in a starch-containing medium. Relatively good repetitive operation was possible with B. thermoglucosidasius cells up to 12 cycles using glucose as a carbon source, when they were cultured with lactose as an initial carbon source. This study demonstrates that highly efficient thermophilic microbial fuel cells can be constructed by a pertinent modulation of the operating conditions and by carefully selecting carbon sources used in the initial culture medium.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.219-224
• /
• 2019

In this study, we evaluated the energy production from plant-microbial fuel cells using representative indoor plants, such as Scindapsus aureus and Clatha minor. The maximum power density of microbial fuel cell (MFC) using S. aureus ($3.36mW/m^2$) was about 2 times higher than that of the MFC using C. minor ($1.43mW/m^2$). It was confirmed that energy recovery is possible using plant-MFCs without fuel. However, further research is needed to improve the performance of plant-MFCs. Nevertheless, plant-MFCs have proved their potential as a novel energy source to overcome the limitations of the conventional renewable energy sources such as wind power and solar cells, and could be employed to a power source for the sensor in charge of the fourth industrial revolution.