• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.652-658
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• 2019

Direct hydrazine fuel cells (DHFCs) have been considered to be one of the promising fuel cells because hydrazine as a liquid fuel possesses several advantages such as no emission of CO₂, relatively high energy density and catalytic activity over platinum group metal (PGM)-free anode catalysts. Judging from plenty of research works, however, regarding key components such as electrocatalysts as well as their physicochemical properties, it becomes quite necessary to understand better the underlying processes in DHFCs for the long term stability. Herein, we highlight recent studies of DHFCs in terms of a systematic approach for developing cost-effective and stable anode catalysts and electrode structures that incorporate mass transport characteristics of hydrazine, water and gas bubbles.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.85-92
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• 2009

Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells are a promising technology for short-term power generation required in residential and automobile applications. Proper management of water has been found to be essential for improving the performance and durability of PEM fuel cells. This study investigated the liquid water exhaust capabilities of various flow channels having different geometries and surface properties. Three-pass serpentine flow fields were prepared by patterning channels of 1 mm or 2 mm width onto hydrophilic Acrylic plates or hydrophobic Teflon plates, and the behaviors of liquid water in those flow channels were experimentally visualized. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were also conducted to quantitatively assess the liquid water exhaust capabilities of flow channels for PEM fuel cells. Numerical results showed that hydrophobic flow channels have better liquid water exhaust capabilities than hydrophilic flow channels. Flow channels with curved corners showed less droplet stagnation than the channels with sharp corners. It was also found that a smaller width is desirable for hydrophobic flow channels while a larger width is desirable for hydrophilic ones. The above results were explained as being due to the different droplet morphologies in hydrophobic and hydrophilic channels.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.156-163
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• 2015

The fuel cells have been investigated in the applications of marine as the high efficient and eco-friendly power generating systems. In this study, modeling of IR Type molten carbonate fuel cell (Internal Reforming Type molten carbonate fuel cell) has been developed to analyze the feasibility of thermal energy utilization. The model is developed under Aspen plus and used for the study of system performances over regarding fuel types. The simulation results show that the efficiency of MCFC system based on NG fuel is the highest. Also, it is also verified that the steam reforming is suitable as pre-reforming for diesel fuel.

• International Journal of Safety
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-4
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• 2011

The fuel cell is one of the green energy receiving a lot of attention. Among the fuel cells, it is generally referred to SOFC(solid oxide fuel cell) which is made up composites of a solid. SOFC has excellent merits in the side of environment and energy. However because of the high operating temperature, it has economic loss by the using of expensive materials and problems of structural instability by thermal stresses. Therefore, this study aims to the effect of analysis by the FEMLAB. The results have deformations and the maximum stresses from the variation of the thickness of vulnerability spots. The deformation shows expansion as 0.82% and the stress ${\sigma}_{xx}$ is 392MPa in electrolyte and -56.31MPa in anode. When increasing or decreasing the thickness to 50% of the reference thickness about the electrolyte which is vulnerable spots.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.200-203
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• 2007

Parametric investigation of the polyol process for the preparation of carbon supported Pt nano particles as catalysts for fuel cells was carried out. It was found that the concentration of glycolate anion, which is a function of pH, plays an important role in controlling Pt particle size and loading on carbon. It was observed that Pt loading decreased with increasing alkalinity of the solution. As evidenced by zeta potential measurement, this was mainly due to poor adsorption or repulsive forces between the metal colloids and the supports. In order to modify the conventional polyol process, the effect of the gas purging conditions on the characteristics of Pt/C was examined. By the optimization of the gas environment during the reaction, it was possible to obtain high loading of 39.5wt% with a 2.8 nm size of Pt particle. From the single cell test, it was found that operating in ambient $O_{2}$ at 70oC can deliver high performance of more than 0.6 V at 1.44 A $cm^{-2}$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.21-30
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• 2008

The fuel cell generation convert fuel source, and gas directly to electricity in an electro-chemical process. Unlike traditional and conventional turbine engines, the process of fuel cell generation do not burn the fuel and run pistons or shafts, and it has not revolutionary machine, so have fewer efficiency losses, low emissions and no noisy moving parts. A high power density allows fuel cells to be relatively compact source of electric power, beneficial in application with space constraints. In this system, the fuel cell itself is nearly small-sized by other components of the system such as the fuel reformer and power inverter. So, the fuel cell energy's stationary fuel cells produce reliable electrical power for commercial and industrial companies as well as utilities. In this paper, a fuel cell system has been modeled using PSCAD/EMTDC to analyze its electric signals and characteristics. Also the power quality of the fuel cell system has been evaluated and the problems which can be occurred during its operation have been studied by modeling it more detailed. Particularly, we have placed great importance on its power quality and signal characteristics when it is connected with a power grid.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.254-261
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• 2002

The fabrication method for the main components of the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell stack such as electrodes, membrane-electrode assemblies, and bipolar plates was established for the effective electrode area of 240 ㎠. A counter-flow type 100-cell stack was fabricated by using the above components and then a maximum power of 7.44 kW for H$_2$/O$_2$ and 5.56 kW for H$_2$/air could be obtained at 70$\^{C}$ and 1 atm. It was seen that the distribution of the OCV for unit cells in the stack was uniform but the voltage deviation increased as the load increased due to the IR drop and the electrode polarization. The stack was applied to the power source of the fuel cell/battery hybrid electric golf car. It produced about 1 kW at a room temperature operation during the test run, which occupied about 43% of the total power required by the 2.3 kW motor.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.217-221
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• 2010

In order to overcome the drawback of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), solid alkalime membrane fuel cells (SAMFCs) have been studied. In this report, we synthesized new sulfonated polybenzimidazole derivatives for SAMFCs. The polyimidazole derivatives were doped by KOH, and base-doped polybenzimidazoles showed high hydroxy ion conductivity and excellent mechanical properties. Especially, sPBI-co-PBI (75 : 25 for molar ratio of sulfonated and non-sulfonated moiety) showed good possibility for the anion exchange membrane. It has $2.98{\times}10^{-2}\;S/cm$ at $90^{\circ}C$ under 100% relative humidity.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.295-300
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• 2007

A new characterization method using a porous plug model was proposed to determine the degree of sulfonation (DS) of ionomer binder with respect to the membrane used in membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) and to analyze the fraction of proton pathways through ionomer-catalyst combined electrodes in MEAs for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs). Sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) was prepared to use a polymeric electrolyte and laboratory-made SPEEK solution (5wt.%, DMAc based) was added to catalyst slurry to form catalyst layers. In case of the SPEEK-based MEAs in this study, DS of ionomer binder for catalyst layers should be the same or higher than that of the SPEEK membrane used in the MEAs. The porous plug model suggested that most of protons were via the ionomer binder (${\sim}92.5%$) bridging the catalyst surface to the polymeric electrolyte, compared with the pathways through the alternative between the interstitial water on the surface of ionomer binder or catalyst and the ionomer binder (${\sim}7.3%$) and through only the interstitial water on the surface of ionomer or catalyst (${\sim}0.2%$) in the electrode of the MEA comprising of the sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) membrane and the 5wt.% SPEEK ionomer binder. As a result, it was believed that the majority of proton at both electrodeds moves through ionomer binder until reaching to electrolyte membrane. The porous plug model of the electrodes of MEAs reemphasized the importance of well-optimized structure of ionomer binder and catalyst for fuel cells.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.456-461
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• 2003

A fuel cell is an electrochemical device in which the energy of a chemical reaction is converted directly into electricity. By combining hydrogen fuel with oxygen from air, electricity is formed, without combustion of any form. Water and heat are the only by-products when hydrogen is used as the fuel source. Fuel cell stack consists of multi-layered unit cells. A unit cell consists of MEA and bipolar plates. The end plate of fuel cell stack should give a uniform distributed pressure to multi unit cell layers so as to reduce the contact resistance and to prevent the leakage of reactant gases and the damage of multi layer components. The current end plate is redundantly large and heavy. It makes the power per unit volume reduced. Topology optimization of end plate is conducted for mass reduction and enhancement of bending rigidity. The evaluation of the current design and the recommendation for the future design is remarked.