• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.778-782
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• 2012

Until a recent day, degradation of PEMFC MEA (membrane and electrode assembly) has been studied, separated with membrane degradation and electrode degradation, respectively. But membrane and electrode were degraded coincidentally at real PEMFC operation condition. Therefore in this work, AST (Accelerated Stress Test) of MEA degradation was done at the condition that membrane and electrode were degraded simultaneously. There was interaction between membrane degradation and electrode degradation. Membrane degradation reduced the decrease range of catalyst active area by electrode degradation. Electrode degradation reduces increase range of the hydrogen crossover current and FER (Fluoride Emission Rate) by membrane degradation.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.305-309
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• 2016

Recently, there are many efforts focused on development of more economical non-fluorinated membranes for PEMFCs (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells). In this study, to test the durability of sPEEK MEA (Membrane and Electrode Assembly), ADT (Accelerated Degradation Test) of MEA degradation was done at the condition that membrane and electrode were degraded simultaneously. Before and after degradation, I-V polarization curve, hydrogen crossover, electrochemical surface area, membrane resistance and charge transfer resistance were measured. Although the permeability of hydrogen through sPEEK membrane was low, sPEEK membrane was weaker to radical evolved at low humidity and OCV condition than fluorinated membrane such as Nafion. Performance after MEA degradation for 144 hours and 271 hours were reduced by 15% and 65%, respectively. It was showed that the main cause of rapid decrease of performance after 144 hours was shorting due to Pt/C particles in the pinholes.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.562-570
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• 2016

At the carbon dioxide capture process using the aqueous amine solution, degradation of absorbents is main factor to reducing the process performance. Also, degradation mechanism of absorbent is important for understanding the environmental risk, route of degradation products, health risk etc. In this study, the degradation products of MEA were studied to clarify mechanism in thermal degradation process. The degradation products were analyzed using a $^1H$ NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) and $^{13}C$ NMR. The analysis methods used in this study provide guidelines that could be used to develop a degradation inhibitor of absorbent and a corrosion inhibitor.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.103-110
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• 2008

The most failure mode of PEM fuel cell is gas crossover caused by pinhole formation in MEAs. The degradation phenomena of MEA with pinholes were evaluated in various accelerated operation condition, such as OCV, low humidity and high partial pressure of oxygen. The performances of MEA with pinholes were almost same before and after normal 144 hours operation($70^{\circ}C$, $640mA/cm^2$, 65%RH $H_2/air$). The results of accelerated operation showed that OCV and low humidity condition more deteriorated MEA than gas crossover owing to pinholes. When oxygen was used as cathode gas, the pinholes of MEA were enlarged due to heat of combustion reaction on Pt catalyst of electrodes. This combustion reaction occurred at pinholes near gas inlet and resulted in local MEA failure.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.385-393
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• 2016

Oxidative and thermal degradation of alkanolamines for a promising $CO_2$ capture technology of absorption might cause decrease in $CO_2$ capture efficiency and formation of hazardous byproducts. In this study, characteristics of a representative absorbent of monoehtanolamine (MEA) were examined for a long term operation using a laboratory scale absorption system. An $CO_2$ absorption system with ID 56 mm and absorption zone height 100 cm was developed for the characterization. Absorption solution of 30 wt% MEA was circulated at 100 mL/min to treat air with 15% $CO_2$ and 1 ppm NO at 10 L/min. Temperatures of absorber and stripper were maintained at $40^{\circ}C$ and $120^{\circ}C$, respectively. For the course of 5 weeks continuous operation, MEA concentration was decreased approximately by 70% and $CO_2$ removal efficiency was dropped from 95% to 65%. Ionic byproducts of $NH_4{^+}$, $NO_2{^-}$, and $NO_3{^-}$ were accumulated up to 48 g/mL, 0.2 g/mL, and 1.5 g/mL, respectively, tracking the variation of MEA concentration. Formation of various organic byproducts were also observed.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.478-482
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• 2017

Humidity control of proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC) is very important control condition during driving. In terms of water management, low humidification conditions are advantageous, and high humidification is advantageous in terms of drainage utilization and energy efficiency. In this study, the characteristics of outlet water in low humidification and high humidification process were studied in terms of utilization of discharged water. Since the impurities in the effluent are generated during the degradation of the membrane and the electrode assembly(MEA), degradation of the MEA under low humidification and high humidification conditions was also studied. The rate of radical generation was high at low humidification condition of the anode RH 0%, which showed that it was the main cause of the degradation of the polymer membrane. Analysis of effluent showed low concentration of fluoride ion concentration of about 20 ppb at high humidification (both electrodes RH 100%) and 0.6 V, which was enough to be used as the feed water for electrolysis. Very low concentration of platinum below 0.2 ppb was detected in the condensate discharged from the high humidification condition.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.558-563
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• 2014

To study the effects of fabrication methods on the performance and durability of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) were fabricated using a Dr blade method, a spray method, screen print method and screen print + spray method. The performance of single cells assembled with the prepared MEAs were initially measured and compared. Electrode accelerated stress testing (AST) involving a potentiostatic step-wave with 10 s at 0.6 V followed by 30 s at 0.9 V was applied to test durability of MEAs. Before and after 6,000cycles of the AST, I-V curves, impedance spectra, cyclic voltammograms, linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were measured. Under the operating conditions, the Dr Blde MEA exhibited the highest initial performance. After electrode accelerated stress testing, screen print + spray MEA showed lowest degradation rate.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.68-72
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• 2013

Until a recent day, degradation of PEMFC MEA (membrane and electrode assembly) has been studied, separated with membrane degradation and electrode degradation, respectively. But membrane and electrode were degraded coincidentally at real PEMFC operation condition. During simultaneous degradation, there was interaction between membrane degradation and electrode degradation. The effect of electrode degradation on membrane degradation was studied in this work. We compared membrane degradation after electrode degradation and membrane degradation without electrode degradation. I-V performance, hydrogen crossover current, fluoride emission rate (FER), impedance and TEM were measured after and before degradation of MEA. Electrode degradation reduced active area of Pt catalyst, and then radical/$H_2O_2$ evolution rate decreased on Pt. Decrease of radical/$H_2O_2$ reduced the velocity of membrane degradation.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.195-199
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• 2010

The reversible chemical absorption using MEA (monoethanolamine), one of alkanolamine, is generally used as a conventionally method for $CO_{2}$ capture. Even MEA absorbent has excellent reactivity with $CO_{2}$, it has been known to have the decrease of absorption capacity caused by $CO_{2}$, $O_{2}$ or other acid gases in flue gas, corrosion and thermal degradation. In this study, MEA solutions degraded in the steam reforming process of refinery used and the absorption performance were compared for the used of conventional MEA solution. In case of 30 wt% MEA and mixture of 20 wt% thermal degraded absorbent (DP) and 10 wt% PZ, the absorption capacities were $0.5365mol-CO_{2}$/mol-absorbent and $0.5939mol-CO_{2}$/mol-absorbent respectively. PZ added thermally degraded absorbent showed the enhanced absorption capacity. On the contrary, the absorption rates were $1.1610kg_{f}/cm^2{\cdot}min$ for 30 wt% MEA, $0.5310kg_{f}/cm^2{\cdot}min$ for mixture of 20 wt% thermal degraded absorbent (DP) and 10 wt% PZ and $0.3525kg_{f}/cm^2{\cdot}min$ for 30 wt% thermally degraded absorbent only. The absorption rates of PZ added thermally degraded absorbent was higher than that of thermally degraded absorbent only. Therefore, it can be confirmed that thermally degraded absorbent can be reused as an absorbent for $CO_{2}$ by the addition of suitable additives.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.217-222
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• 2022

It is very important to analyze the OCV change behavior during the open circuit potential holding (OCV holding) process, which accelerates the evaluation of the electrochemical durability of the PEMFC membrane. In this study, an empirical formula using the experimental data of three MEAs with different durability was created and compared. The durability evaluation time of the reinforced membrane MEA without radical scavenger inside the membrane was 383 h, and the durability evaluation time of the reinforced membrane MEA with radical scavenger inside the membrane was 1,000 and 1,650 h, respectively. The degradation of the membrane was divided into the reversible degradation that can be recovered by activation and the irreversible degradation that is not recovered. The irreversible degradation of the membrane was indicated by an increase in hydrogen permeability, and the change in hydrogen permeability was similar to the irreversible degradation constant c of all three MEAs. The initiation of irreversible deterioration without recovery is indicated by an increase in hydrogen permeability, and the OCV is not recovered due to an increase in hydrogen permeability, so the slope of the OCV recovery line (ORL) decreases, which can be confirmed by an increase in the constant c value of the empirical formula.