• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.293-299
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• 2012

The serpentine flow channel is widely used in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) to prevent flooding phenomena because it effectively removes liquid water in the flow channel. The pressure drop between inlet and outlet increases as compared with straight channels due to minor losses associated with the corners of the turning configurations. This results in a strong pressure gradient between adjacent channels in specific regions, where some amount of reactant gas can be delivered to catalyst layers by convection through a gas diffusion layer (GDL). The enhancement of the convective flow in the GDL, so-called bypass flow, affects fuel cell performance since the bypass flow influences the reactant transport and thus its concentration over the active area. In the present paper, for the bipolar plate design, a simple analytic model has been proposed to predict the bypass flow in the serpentine type flow channels and validated with three-dimensional numerical simulation results.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2022

The regulations of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) have been steadily strengthened in ship emissions. Accordingly, there is a growing need for development of related technologies for the removal of contaminants that may occur during the treatment of SOx and NOx using a wet scrubber. However, this system also leads to wastewater production when the exhaust gas is scrubbed. In this research, we evaluated the performance of an ion selective resin process in accordance with scrubber wastewater discharge regulations, specifically nitrate discharge, by the IMO. Accelerated real and synthetic wastewater of wet scrubbers, contained high amounts of TDS with high nitrate, is used as feed water in lab scale systems. Furthermore, a pilot scale dissolved air flotation (DAF) using microbubble generator with ion exchange resin process was combined and developed in order to apply for the treatment of wet scrubber wastewater. The results of the present study revealed that operating conditions, such as resin property, bed volume (BV), and inlet wastewater flow rate, significantly affect the removal performance. Finally, through a pilot test, DAF with ion exchange resin process showed a noticeable improvement of the nitrate removal rate compared to the single DAF process.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.11-16
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• 2021

Recently, three-dimensional (3D) cell culture systems, which are superior to conventional two-dimensional (2D) vascular systems that mimic the in vivo environment, are being actively studied to reproduce drug responses and cell differentiation in organisms. Conventional two-dimensional cell culture methods (scaffold-based and non-scaffold-based) have a limited cell growth rate because the culture cannot supply the culture medium as consistently as microvessels. To solve this problem, we would like to propose a 3D culture system with an environment similar to living cells by continuously supplying the culture medium to the bottom of the 3D cell support. The 3D culture system is a structure in which microvascular structures are combined under a scaffold (agar, collagen, etc.) where cells can settle and grow. First, we have manufactured molds for the formation of four types of microvessel-mimicking chips: width / height ①100 ㎛ / 100 ㎛, ②100 ㎛ / 50 ㎛, ③ 150 ㎛ / 100 ㎛, and ④ 200 ㎛ / 100 ㎛. By injection molding, four types of microfluidic chips were made with GPPS (general purpose polystyrene), and a 100㎛-thick PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) film was attached to the top of each microfluidic chip. As a result of observing the flow of the culture medium in the microchannel, it was confirmed that when the aspect ratio (height/width) of the microchannel is 1.5 or more, the fluid flows from the inlet to the outlet without a backflow phenomenon. In addition, the culture efficiency experiments of colorectal cancer cells (SW490) were performed in a 3D culture system in which PDMS films with different pore diameters (1/25/45 ㎛) were combined on a microfluidic chip. As a result, it was found that the cell growth rate increased up to 1.3 times and the cell death rate decreased by 71% as a result of the 3D culture system having a hole membrane with a diameter of 10 ㎛ or more compared to the conventional commercial. Based on the results of this study, it is possible to expand and build various 3D cell culture systems that can maximize cell culture efficiency by cell type by adjusting the shape of the microchannel, the size of the film hole, and the flow rate of the inlet.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.185-189
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• 2010

This study considered the feasibility of controlling the air concentration by oscillating flow in fuel cell channels. The fuel cell stack performance is largely influenced by the air concentration. If the air concentration is lower than 2.5 times the stoichiometric of the inlet air, the fuel cell stack performance seriously deteriorates because of air starvation. In this respect, optimizing the air concentration is crucially important to maximizing the fuel cell stack performance. In this work, the effects of oscillating actuation were studied to control the concentration. Studies have shown that there are two non-dimensional key parameters related to the frequency and oscillating amplitude. This paper presents how those parameters affect the performance of the stack.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 1995

The effect of operating conditions on separation of soybean proteins in a home-made free-flow electrophoresis apparatus was investigated. Measurement of the pH, conductivity, and UV-absorbance(280 nm) were carried out at each run and the purity of the sample was tested with SDS-PAGE analysis. The soybean extract pretreated with Tris and boric acid was mixed with the amino acids composed of glutamic acid, histidine, arginine, glycine(1 mM each) with glycyl-glycine(2mM) and KCl(1mM). When the cellulose acetate was used as a compartment between the electrode and the buffer solution in the cell, pH distribution in the separation cell varied from 3.0 at the anodic side to 8.0 at the cathodic side and had two inflection point. The applied voltage was from 300V to 1000V and the separation was better at a higher voltage but the voltage was limited by the capability of the cooling system due to Joule heat. The proteins focused near the middle of the channel. From the change of pH and conductivity it was found that the ions in the channel moved out to the electrodes through the membrane. In the case when the concentration of the buffer solution was increased 5 times, proteins were focused at 300V. We could not increase up to the ten times of the concentration since the temperature difference between inlet and outlet was more than $25^{\circ}C$ and denaturation of proteins was expected. When ion-exchange membranes were used U-type pH distribution was set up due to the ionic polarization near the membrane. The commercial ampholytes, instead of the mixed amino acids showed not much improvements in purity of the separated sample.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.311-315
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• 2010

The effects of $SO_2$ on the performance of proton exchange membrane(PEMFC) were investigated by introduction air containing $SO_2$ into cathode inlet of PEMFC. And the recovery of the cell performance by applying clean air, cycle voltammetry(CV) and high voltage holding following exposure contaminated air was studied. The $SO_2$ concentration range used in the experiments was from 20 ppb to 1.3 ppm. The performance degradation and recovery were measured by constant-current discharging, I-V polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS). The cell voltage gradually decayed with time and decreased by 17 mV after 200 hours of 20 ppb $SO_2$ injection. The cell performance can be recovered partially by clean air flushing, CV and high voltage holding due to desorption of S from Pt catalyst.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.213-218
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• 2009

We examined the intracellular antioxidative effects of 20 Arctic seaweed extracts in Raw 264.7 cells. Each seaweed species was subjected to extraction using acetone/dichloromethane and methanol, respectively, after which the extracts were combined and used as the test sample. The antioxidant ability of all 20 seaweeds extracts was evaluated using four different activity tests, including the degree of occurrence of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), $ONOO^-$, and lipid peroxidation in Raw 264.7 cells, as well as the extent of oxidative damage of genomic DNA purified from Raw 264.7 cells. Crude extracts from Monostroma obscurum, Alaria esculnta, Laminaria digitata, Desmarestia aculeata, Chorda filum, Ptilota seriata, Phycidrys rubens, Devaleraea ramentacea and Palmaria palmata exhibited significant scavenging effects on the generation of intracellular ROS. Among them, Monostroma obscurum and Phycidrys rubens significantly inhibited membrane lipid peroxidation and DNA oxidation. Moreover, Phycidrys rubens exhibited scavenging effects on peroxynitrite generated from SIN-1.

• Plant Journal
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.45-51
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• 2014

This study performs several experiments on a newly developed temperature safety system that can be used for residential building heating systems, the heat source of which is derived from a conventional fuel cell. Prior to this, the hot water made from a fuel cell was not used in residential housing but just went to waste. The present safety system is installed in the current underfloor heating system. At first we used the CFD technique to develop a new heat exchanger. The fuel cell must satisfy the thermal conditions of the inlet temperature being $55^{\circ}C$ and the outlet temperature being $60^{\circ}C$. But variations in weather cause fluctuations in the heating water temperature. The experimental results show our new system capable of maintaining the temperature difference within a ${\pm}0.5^{\circ}C$ range. So we believe that our new PFMFC fuel cell stack array is a good candidate for being used in residential heating systems.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.273-278
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• 2018

Due to the lack of water in arid and semi-arid areas, reuse of wastewater can be a suitable way to compensate for water scarcity. Therefore, in this research, evaluation of the quality of wastewater of Kashan Treatment Plant to use for irrigation was studied. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016. pH, TSS, TDS, turbidity, COD, BOD5, Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen, Total Phosphorus, Total Coliform, fecal coliform, nematode eggs of inlet and outlet of wastewater treatment plant in Kashan were studied. Mean and standard deviation and wastewater quality parameters before and after treatment were tested with SPSS 22 (2014) software. The mean wastewater output of COD, BOD5, TSS, TDS and turbidity were respectively 86.6, 41.2, 11.11, 1095 mgL-1 and 17.5 NTU and the pH was equal to 7.22. Also, the average of Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen and phosphorus were 22.4 and 2.2 mgL-1 respectively. The mean of Total Coliform and fecal coliform were 225, 161 MPN / 100 ml respectively. In addition, no nematode eggs were found in final effluent. The results indicated that the treatment plants had a significant role in the control of microbial and organic pollution load of wastewater. Also, it is concluded that all parameters were in accordance with the standards of Iran's Department of Environment, so, it can be used for unrestricted irrigation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.41-49
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• 2004

The porous media of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is made of deformable materials. The shape of cross sectional area in air plate channels has been changed by structural deformation of the porous media. The uniform mass flow rate and pressure are major factors for safe and efficient operation in the PEMFC. Two kinds of models are provided for the flow analyses. Deformable and undeformable porous media are considered for numerical analysis and experiment of the air plate model. The numerical flow analysis results with deformable and undeformable porous media has some discrepancy in pressure distribution. The pressure differences are measured in order to compare with numerical analysis results. Pressures are measured between inlet and outlet of the air plate. The numerical analysis and experimental results show similar pressure distribution. It is shown that the pressure drops in the two approaches are well matched each other. It is proven that the consideration of structural deformation is required in the numerical analysis/experiment for the PEMFC design.