• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.98.2-98.2
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• 2011

For optimal performance of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) requires hydration, and the membrane's conductivity depends on water content. A humidifier is required to ensure that the reactant gas, usually hydrogen and air, is hydrated before entering the fuel cell. Dry membrane operation or improper hydration causes performance degradation. Typically, the humidification of a fuel cell is carried out by means of an internal or external humidifier. A membrane humidifier is applied to the external humidification of transportation or residential power generation fuel cell due to its convenience and high performance. In this study, The experiments were constructed with a plate-type membrane humidifier in terms of geometric parameters and operating parameters. The results show that the temperature and pressure, the channel length, the membrane thickness and gas flow rate are critical parameters affecting the performance of the humidifier.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.180-182
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• 2007

PEMFC의 상용화 진입에 있어서 걸림돌 중의 하나가 열화(degradation)에 의한 성능감소이다. PEMFC 고분자 막의 열화가 PEMFC 성능 감소에 많은 영향을 미친다. 고분자 막의 성능 감소 원인은 여러가지가 있지만 무가습/OCV조건에서 성능 감소가 잘 된다. 그 이유에 대해서는 OCV/무가습 조건에서 과산화수소나 라디칼이 많이 형성될 수 있다는 것과, OCV조건에서 사용되지 못하는 수소와 산소의 gas-crossover 가 많기 때문이라는 것 그리고 무가습 조건에서 수소와 산소의 분압이 높아 gas-crossover 가 유리하고 악의 건조에 따른 물리적인 영향 등등이 거론되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 같은 조건에서 Cell 운전온도가 막열화에 미치는 영향을 실험하였다. OCV 여려 조건 에서 단위전지 실험을 한 후 I-V, 수소 투과도, 임피던스, FER(fluoride emission rate)등을 측정해 그 결과를 검토 분석하였다. OCV/Anode 무가습 조건이 알려진 대로 막열화 가속조건 이었음을 확인하였고, 실험 결과 Cell 운전온도가 $10^{\circ}C$증가 할 때마다 FER(fluroide emission rate)이 즉 막 열화속도가 약 2배정도 증가함을 보였다.

• 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 Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.1028-1033
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• 2009

In this study, the dynamics of living cells (LC) and dead cells (DC) in a laboratory-scale biofilm membrane bioreactor for waste gas treatment was examined. Toluene was used as a model pollutant. The bacterial cells were enumerated as fluoromicroscopic counts during a 140 operating day period using BacLight nucleic acid staining in combination with epifluorescence and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CSLM). Overall, five different phases could be distinguished during the biofilm development: (A) cell attachment, (B) pollutant limitation, (C) biofilm establishment and colonization, (D) colonized biofilm, and (E) biofilm erosion. The bioreactor was operated under different conditions by applying different pollutant concentrations. An optimum toluene removal of 89% was observed at a loading rate of 14.4 kg $m^{-3}d^{-1}$. A direct correlation between the biodegradation rate of the reactor and the dynamics of biofilm development could be demonstrated. This study shows the first description of biofilm development during gaseous toluene degradation in MBR.

• BMB Reports
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• v.41 no.12
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• pp.858-862
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• 2008

Membrane-type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) is a zinc-dependent proteinase found in cholesterol-rich lipid rafts on the plasma membrane. MT1-MMP hydrolyzes extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, activates pro-matrix metalloproteinase-2 (proMMP-2) and plays an important role in ECM remodeling, cancer cell migration and metastasis. The role of caveolin-1, an integral protein of caveolae, in the activation of MT1-MMP remains largely unknown. Here, we show that the expression of caveolin-1 attenuates the activation of proMMP-2, reduces proteolytic cleavage of ECM and inhibits cell migration. We utilized the cytoplasmic tail domain deletion (${\Delta}CT$) or the E240A mutant of MT1-MMP. Co-expression of caveolin-1 with the wild-type or the ${\Delta}CT$ MT1-MMP decreased the proMMP-2 activation and inhibited collagen degradation and cell migration. Caveolin-1 had no effect on the catalytically inert E240A MT1-MMP. Our findings suggest that caveolin-1 is essential in the down-regulation of MT1-MMP activity by promoting internalization from the cell surface.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.288-294
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• 2009

Various polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) startup procedures were tested to explore possible techniques for reducing performance decay and improving durability during repeated startup-shutdown cycles. The effects of applying a dummy load, which prevents cell reversal by consuming the air at the cathode, on the degradation of a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) were investigated via single cell experiments. The electrochemical results showed that application of a dummy load during the startup procedure significantly reduced the performance decay, the decrease in the electrochemically active surface area (EAS), and the increase in the charge transfer resistance ($R_{ct}$), which resulted in a dramatic improvement in durability. After 1200 startup-shutdown cycles, post-mortem analyses were carried out to investigate the degradation mechanisms via various physicochemical methods including FESEM, an on-line $CO_2$ analysis, EPMA, XRD, FETEM, SAED, FTIR. After 1200 startup-shutdown cycles, severe Pt particle sintering/agglomeration/dissolution and carbon corrosion were observed at the cathode catalyst layer when starting up a PEMFC without a dummy load, which significantly contributed to a loss of Pt surface area, and thus to cell performance degradation. However, applying a dummy load during the startup procedure remarkably mitigated such severe degradations, and should be used to increase the durability of MEAs in PEMFCs. Our results suggest that starting up PEMFCs while applying a dummy load is an effective method for mitigating performance degradation caused by reverse current under a repetition of unprotected startup cycles.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.148-154
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• 2009

With respect to the durability of large scale ($150cm^2$) membrane electrode assembly (MEA) of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), degradation phenomena at cathode is monitored and analyzed according to the position on the cathode surface. After constant current mode operation of large scale MEA for 500 hr, the MEA is divided into three parts along the cathode channel; (close to) inlet, middle, and (close to) outlet. The performance of each MEA is tested and it is revealed that the MEA from the cathode outlet of large MEA shows the worst performance. This is due to the catalyst degradation and GDL delamination caused by flooding at cathode outlet of large MEA during the 500 hr operation. Particularly on the catalyst degradation, the loss of electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) of catalyst gets worse along the cathode channel from inlet to outlet, of which the reason is believed to be loss of catalysts by dissolution and migration rather than their agglomeration. The extent of loss in the performance and catalyst degradation has strong relation to the cathode flooding and it is required to develop proper water management techniques and separator channel design to control the flooding.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.127-136
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• 2023

In this study, the electrochemical performance of a 5-layer fuel cell stack using silica composite membranes as polymer electrolyte membranes was evaluated. It was observed that the flow rate of the fuel gases plays a crucial role in stack performance, particularly being mainly dependent on the flow rate of hydrogen. Increasing the flow rate of oxygen resulted in negligible changes in performance, whereas an increase in the flow rate of hydrogen demonstrated performance improvements. However, this led to an imbalance in the ratio of hydrogen to oxygen flow rates, causing significant degradation in stack performance and durability. A decline in stack performance was also observed over time due to the degradation of stack components. This phenomenon was consistently observed in individual unit cells. Based on these findings, it was emphasized that, in addition to optimizing the performance of each component during stack operation, it is important to optimize design and operating conditions for uniform flow rate control. Lastly, the developed silica composite membrane was assessed to have sufficient performance for application in actual fuel cell systems, exhibiting a performance of over 25 W based on maximum power.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.344-350
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• 2019

Durability is very important for the commercialization of membranes and electrode assemblies (MEA) developed for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). Durability evaluation of stationary PEMFC MEA has a problem that the voltage change rate should be measured for a long time over 1000 hours under constant current conditions. In this study, the electrochemical durability evaluation protocol of membranes (OCV holding method) using to vehicle MEAs was applied to the stationary MEA for the purpose of shortening the durability evaluation time. After operation of the stationary and automobile MEA for 168 hours under conditions of OCV, cathode oxygen, $90^{\circ}C$ and relative humidity of 30%, I-V, LSV, CV, impedance and FER were measured and compared. When the hydrogen permeability, OCV change, ionic conductivity, and fluorine flow rate, which represent the durability of the membrane after degradation, were all examined, it was shown that durability of stationary MEA membrane was better than that of vehicles MEA membrane. In addition, the electrode degradation of stationary MEA was smaller than that of vehicles MEA after degradation operation. It was possible to evaluate in a short time using automotive protocol that the durability of stationary MEA was superior that of vehicle MEA in terms of membrane and the electrode.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.8-14
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• 2005

The hyaluronic acid (HA) with excellent biocompatibility can be combined with the monomer polylactide with good biodegradability to produce biocompatible materials which can control the period of degradation in a human body. By freeze drying method, HA and the lactic acid, monomer of polylactide, or lactide, the ester dimer of polylactide, were crosslinked with crosslinking agent, l-ethyl-3-(3-dimethyl aminopropyl) carbodiimide. The analysis of infrared spectroscopy showed that the ester linkage was formed and the analysis of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy showed that the ester linkage was due to the reaction of lactic acid and HA. The conversion (6∼32%) and degree of crosslinking (4∼19%) increased but the selectivity was almost constant at 62% as the mole ratio of LA to HA increased from 1 to 10 in the crosslinking reaction. The brittleness became more pronounced and the rate of degradation became faster with more addition of lactic acid resulting from the higher ratio of LA to HA, and the swelling ratio was in the range of 500 to 2000%.