• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.42-46
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• 2008

Even though fuel cell have high efficiency when pure hydrogen from gas tank is used as a fuel source, it is more beneficial to generate hydrogen from city gas (mainly methane) in residential application such as domestic or office environments. Thus hydrogen is generated by reforming process using hydrocarbon. Unfortunately, the reforming process for hydrogen production is accompanied with unavoidable impurities. Impurities such as CO, $CO_2$, $H_2S$, $NH_3$, $CH_4$, and $CH_4$ in hydrogen could cause negative effects on fuel cell performance. Those effects are kinetic losses due to poisoning of the electrode catalysts, ohmic losses due to proton conductivity reduction including membrane and catalyst ionomer layers, and mass transport losses due to degrading catalyst layer structure and hydrophobic property. Hydrogen produced from reformer eventually contains around 73% of $H_2$, 20% or less of $CO_2$, 5.8% of less of $N_2$, or 2% less of $CH_4$, and 10ppm or less of CO. This study is aimed at investigating the effect of carbon dioxide on fuel cell performance. The performance of PEM fuel cell was investigated using current vs. potential experiment, long run(10 hr) test, and electrochemical impedance measurement when the concentrations of carbon dioxide were 10%, 20% and 30%. Also, the concentration of impurity supplied to the fuel cell was verified by gas chromatography(GC).

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.240-245
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• 2010

In this study, characteristics of wood pellet gasification was studied using a Two Stage Gasifier which is consisted of pyrolysis reactor and ultra high temperature reformer. The average yields of $H_2$, $CH_4$, CO, $CO_2$ were 16.7, 11.3, 37.2, 26.6 L/mim, conversion rate from biomass to gas was 65% in pyrolysis reactor and gas yields in reformer were 55.4, 0.8, 120.8, 56.8 L/mim, respectively. The hydrogen flow rate from reformer is obtained 360.1 L/hr. The most of $CH_4$ was decomposed from 12.3 to 0.3 vol.% while $H_2$ is from 18.2 to 23.7 vol.% in reformer by methane dry reforming, Boudouard reaction, oxidation and/or steam reforming. The amount of $H_2O$ generated by hydration reaction from reformer was 1111.8 g, its accelerated conversion of $CH_4$ to other products. The conversion rate from $CH_4$ to other Compounds was 97.2%. Cold gas efficiency was 53.2%.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.337-343
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• 2007

The reforming catalyst and the electrodes in fuel cells can be poisoned by the organic sulfur compound which is added as an odorant for checking out the leakage of natural gas, and that makes a big problem of system degradation. In this study, various adsorbents, such as silica, ${\gamma}$-alumina, activated carbon, HZSM-5, Ultra-stable Y zeolite (USY), and beta zeolite (BEA), were utilized to remove tetra-hydrothiophene (THT) and tert-butylmercaptan (TBM), and to confirm the performance in the adsorption of those odorants by using a continuous adsorptive bed. The effects of Si/Al ratio of zeolites, adsorption temperature and the type of balance gas (methane or He) on the adsorption performance in the packed bed have been investigated. In addition, the competitive adsorption between TBM and THT on the adsorbents was also estimated. The result shows that H-type BEA zeolite exhibited the highest adsorption capacity for TBM and THT odorant, and the higher amount of THT was removed adsorptively on the same adsorbent than TBM. The physical and chemical adsorption of those compounds on acid sites of zeolite were confirmed by temperature programmed desorption (TPD) and infrared spectrum (IR) analyses.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.43 no.12 s.295
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• pp.812-822
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• 2006

This study amis to investigate the functional analysis of anode and cathode materials in Anode supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cell. The concentration polarization of single cell was investigated with CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) method for the case of the different morphology by using four types of unit cell and discussed to reduce the concentration polarization. The concentration polarization at anode side effected the voltage loss in Anode supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cell and increased contact areas between fuel gas and anode side could reduce the concentration polarization. For intermediate temperature operation, Anode-supported single cells with thin electrolyte layer of YSZ (Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia) were fabricated and short stacks were built and evaluated. We also developed diesel and methane autothermal reforming (ATR) reactors in order to provide fuels to SOFC stacks. Influences of the $H_2O/C$ (steam to carbon ratio), $O_2/C$ (oxygen to carbon ratio) and GHSV (Gas Hourly Space Velocity) on performances of stacks have been investigated. Performance of the stack operated with a diesel reformer was lower than with using hydrogen as a fuel due to lower Nernst voltage and carbon formation at anode side. The stack operated with a natural gas reformer showed similar performances as with using hydrogen. Effects of various reformer parameters such as $H_2O/C$ and $O_2/C$ were carefully investigated. It is found that $O_2/C$ is a sensitive parameter to control stack performance.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.170-180
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• 2007

This paper deals with the economy of scale for domestic on-site hydrogen stations fueled with natural gas and naptha. We evaluate the economic feasibility of on-site hydrogen stations with hydrogen production capacities of $30Nm^3/hr,\;100Nm^3/hr\;and\;300Nm^3/hr$. We build a classical economic feasibility model and we make some sensitivity analyses by changing the values of input factors such as the hydrogen sale price and the discount rate. The estimated hydrogen prices of steam methane reforming stations with production capacities of $30\;Nm^3/hr,\;100\;Nm^3/hr\;and\;300\;Nm^3/hr$ are 18,472 won/kg, 10,689 won/kg and 7,758 won/kg, respectively. Also, the hydrogen prices are about the same if we use naptha as a raw material for hydrogen energy instead of natural gas. It turns out that small and medium size domestic on-site hydrogen stations will not be economical in the near future. This indicates that we need to construct large scale on-site hydrogen fueling stations even for the initial phase of the hydrogen economy.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.319-324
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• 2013

The partial oxidation reaction of methane was investigated to produce syngas with $Ni/CeO_2-ZrO_2$, $Ni-Ru/CeO_2-ZrO_2$ and $Ni-Pd/CeO_2-ZrO_2$ catalysts. Honeycomb metallic monolith was applied in order to obtain high catalytic activity and stability in partial oxidation reforming. The catalysts were characterized by XRD and FE-SEM. The influence of various catalysts on syngas production was studied for the feed ratio (O/C), GHSV and temperature. Among the catalysts used in the experiment, the $Ni-Pd/CeO_2-ZrO_2$ catalyst showed the highest activity. The 99% of $CH_4$ conversion was obtained at the condition of T=$900^{\circ}C$, GHSV=10,000 $h^{-1}$ and feed ratio O/C=0.55. It was confirmed that $H_2$ yield increased slightly as O/C ratio increased, while CO yield remained almost constant. Also, $CH_4$ conversion decreased as GHSV increased. It was found that the safe range of GHSV for high $CH_4$ conversion was estimated to be less than 10,000 $h^{-1}$.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.296-301
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• 2023

Solid oxide fuel cell has received more attention recently due to the fuel flexibility via internal reforming. Commonly used Ni/YSZ anode, however, can be easily deactivated by carbon coking in hydrocarbon fuels. The carbon deposition problem can minimize by developing alternative perovskite anode. This study is focused on improving conductivity and catalytic activity of the perovskite anode by introducing rGO (reduced graphene oxide). Sr_0.92Y_0.08TiO₃(SYT) anode with perovskite structure was synthesized with 1wt% of rGO. The presence of rGO during anode fabricating process and cell operation is confirmed through XPS and Raman analysis. The maximum power density of rGO/SYT anode improved to 3 times in H₂ and 6 times in CH₄ comparing to that of SYT anode due to the high electrical conductivity and good catalytic activity for CH₄.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.148-154
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• 2011

Metal-ceramic composite membrane have been developed to separate hydrogen from mixed gases, particularly product streams generated during coal gasification and methane reforming. Cermet membrane was fabricated with palladium as hydrogen-permeable metal and $Y_2O_3$-stabilized $ZrO_2$ (YSZ) as ceramic supporter. As-prepared membrane showed dense structure with continuous channel of palladium. The hydrogen flux of Pd/YSZ membrane have been measured in the range of 0.5~2 atm with 100% hydrogen gas. The results indicate that the hydrogen flux was 0.333 mL/$min{\cdot}cm^2$ at $450^{\circ}C$ and 2 atm. The crack was formed in the surface and cross-section of membrane.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.582-589
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• 2011

The fuel cell technology has been considered as a technology to reduce greenhouse gases emission from a ship. In this research, internal reforming 500kW solid oxide fuel cell system fueled by methane for a ship were developed. Characteristics of gas temperature, stack power and system efficiency depending on the air flow rate, $CH_4$ flow rate, $H_2O$ flow rate, and system operation pressure are evaluated. As a result, air and $CH_4$ flow rate directly affect the temperature of inlet and outlet gas in the fuel cell stack. When the air and $H_2O$ flow rate increase, the stack power and system efficiency increases. However, the case of $CH_4$ flow rate increase, the efficiency decreases.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.392-397
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• 2017

Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) coated NiCrAl alloy foam is fabricated using ultrasonic spray pyrolysis deposition (USPD). To confirm the influence of the FTO layer on the NiCrAl alloy foam, we investigated the structural, chemical, and morphological properties and chemical resistance by using USPD to adjust the FTO coating time (12, 18, and 24 min). As a result, when an FTO layer was coated for 24 min on NiCrAl alloy foam, it was found to have an enhanced chemical resistance compared to those of the other samples. This improvement in the chemical resistance of using USPD NiAlCr alloy foam can be the result of the existence of an FTO layer, which can act as a protection layer between the NiAlCr alloy foam and the electrolyte and also the result of the increased thickness of the FTO layer, which enhances the diffusion length of the metal ion.