• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.120-130
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• 2013

A study was conducted for the performance characteristics of methane taking recently the limelight in the world as a next-generation propellant, with the survey for state of the art in the development of methane/oxygen rocket engine being accompanied. Liquid methane as a rocket fuel has the favorable characteristics such as non-toxic, low cost, regenerative cooling capability, and potential for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). The combination of liquid methane and liquid oxygen also provides the excellent performance including high specific impulse and low system mass. For these reasons, many researches have been actively carried out on the methane/oxygen engine, nevertheless, its technology readiness level is not that high enough just yet. Therefore, it is judged that it is the time to mitigate the technical gap with the space technology of advanced countries through a swift onset of the development of methane rocket engine.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.103-110
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• 2003

The present work was conducted to achieve the better understanding of the performance analysis technique for the expander type air turbo ramjet engine. For this purpose, the performance analysis was carried out using a small engine(8.0kN thrust) with two types of fuels. From this analysis, at the same input condition, the thrust of methane-fueled engine was 25% lower than that of hydrogen. In addition, the case of methane shows the inapplicable engine performance cycle.(i.e., The compressor work exceeds the turbine output power) These results come mainly from the different heating value of each fuel and specific heat. This analysis also shows that, to build a same performance cycle as the hydrogen case, the methane-fueled engine requires increased air and fuel flow rates, increased turbine expansion ratio, and decreased compressor pressure ratio.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.66-72
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• 2004

In this study, the effects of oxygen component in fuel and exhaust gas recirculation(EGR) method on the exhaust emissions has been investigated for a D.I. diesel engine. It was tested to estimate change of exhaust emission characteristics for the commercial diesel fuel and oxygenate blended fuel which has five kinds of blending ratio. Dimethoxy methane(DMM) contains oxygen component 42.5% in itself, and it is a kind of effective oxygenated fuel for reduction of smoke emission. It was affirmed that smoke emission was decreased with increasing of DMM blending ratio. But, NOx emission was increased compared with commercial diesel fuel. It was needed a NOx reduction counterplan that EGR method was used as a countermeasure for NOx reduction. It was found that simultaneous reduction of smoke and NOx emission was achieved with DMM blended fuel and cooled EGR method(1015%).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.101-112
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• 2021

SpaceX shows various strategies such as constructing various payload portfolio through the reuse of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, constructing the launch vehicles using one type of engine, the transition from kerosene engine to methane engine, and the use of 3D printing. In this study, launch vehicle proposals that can cover a variety of payloads and trajectories from KOMPSAT to GEO-KOMPSAT were constructed, and ten launch vehicles using kerosene gas generator cycle engine, kerosene staged-combustion cycle engine, and methane staged-combustion cycle engine were reviewed. Of the ten launch vehicles, the reusable launch vehicle using a 35-ton methane engine was rated as the best in terms of development potential.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.557-562
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• 2007

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reforming characteristics and maximum operating condition for the hydrogen production by methane reforming using the compression ignition engine induced partial oxidation. An dedicated compression engine used for methane reforming was decided operating range. The partial oxidation reforming was investigated with oxygen enrichment which can improve hydrogen production, compared to general reforming. Parametric screening studies were achieved as $O_2/CH_4$ ratio, total flow rate, and intake temperature. When the variations of $O_2/CH_4$ ratio, total flow rate, and intake temperature were 1.24, 208.4 L/min, and $400^{\circ}C$, respectively, the maximum operating conditions were produced hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Under the condition mentioned above, synthetic gas were $H_2\;22.77{\sim}29.22%,\;CO\;21.11{\sim}23.59%$.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.1-7
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• 2014

A set of preliminary design parameters for the bipropellant rocket engine using liquid methane-fuel as green propellant were derived through a theoretical performance analysis. Chemical equilibrium analysis utilizing CEA was conducted for the prediction of combustion performance: combustion characteristics according to the O/F ratio and chamber pressure variation were investigated. For a determination of chamber-characteristic length, the vaporization time of fuel-droplet with various performance parameters was calculated by applying Spalding's 1-D droplet vaporization model. Finally, the preliminary design specification of methane-bipropellant rocket engine, which is to be performance-tested under the ground firing condition, was proposed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.119-143
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• 2021

Selecting liquid methane as fuel is a prevailing trend for recent rocket engine developments around the world, triggered by its affordability, reusability, storability for deep space exploration, and prospect for in-situ resource utilization. Given years of time required for acquiring a new rocket engine, a national-level R&D program to develop a methane engine is highly desirable at the earliest opportunity in order to catch up with this worldwide trend towards reusing launch vehicles for competitiveness and mission flexibility. In light of the monumental cost associated with development, fabrication, and testing of a booster stage engine, it is strategically a prudent choice to start with a low-thrust engine and build up space application cases.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.7-12
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• 2015

Hydrogen is usually produced by using syngas generated by the fuel reforming for natural gas so far. The further process is needed for increasing the hydrogen yield of syngas. However, the process for upgrading the hydrogen yield is accompanied by additional energy sources and economic costs. Thus related studies on the method for using as a mixture in itself have been conducted in order to utilize more efficiently syngas. The effect on the engine performance for methane/syngas mixture of 30kW spark ignition gas engine for power generation has been investigated in this study. As a result, it was found that the combustion phenomena such as the maximum in-cylinder pressure and crank angle at that time have been improved by methane/syngas mixture. Through these, fuel conversion efficiency could be enhanced by about 98% of methane/hydrogen mixture and $NO_x$ emissions could be reduced by about 12% of methane-hydrogen mixture.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.18-18
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• 2002

A project where the TPUs(Turbo Pump Units) for 10tf-thrust oxygen/methane LRE (Liquid Rocket Engine) are under development is being implemented to include an experimental combustion chamber developed. In the process of it, we introduced the power-balanced engine cycles in order to substantiate concepts of the engine using the combinations of the propellants. Accordingly, the main engine parameters of nominal operating mode are resulted from the 1-Dcalculations and it is found that the regulators are needed for controlling the expected pressure levels in the characteristics of propellant mixture ratio and thrust supposing the regulator is set to analogue-typed one which is easy to develop.The technical requirements like the nominal flow rate, its deviations expected and the pressure difference In need helped the several main characteristics of regulators to be determine in this stage. Here, a dozen of deviation values in the main parameters related to engineoperation are taken into independent consideration and accepted to the results for additional regimes of the regulators.Finally, we can determine the scheme and the primary dimensions along with the calculation design of the spring acceptable for general configuration which can definitely forwarded to the autonomous tests of the aggregates, The obtained data in further will be used for successive refinement of operating mode of the engine.

• 연구논문집
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• s.30
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• pp.33-42
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• 2000

We must stabilize quickly increasing waste matters in urban life and livestock industry. Biogas including landfill gas and digester gas is byproduct of anaerobic decomposition of organic waste matter and contains 40%-70% methane, which can be used for energy purposes. Utilization of biogas reduce the emission of methane into the atmosphere to minimize greenhouse effect and the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted when biogas is converted to energy has been taken out of the atmosphere by growing plant. Recently, bioenergy is world-widely noticeable as all contributing to the greenhouse effect. This paper presents development process of a biogas engine for cogeneration system and results of application to digester gas and landfill gas in site. The biogas engine is a dual fuel engine operated on biogas with a diesel pilot. At present, the engine can substitute biogas for diesel fuel up to 85%. but it can be said that there is a possibility of improvement in performance.