• Clean Technology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.72-78
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• 2020

The use of fossil fuel and biogas production causes air pollution and climate change problems. Research endeavors continue to focus on converting methane and carbon dioxide, which are the major causes of climate change, into quality energy sources. In this study, a novel plasma-carbon converter was proposed to convert biogas into high quality gas, which is linked to photovoltaic and wind power and which poses a problem on generating electric power continuously. The characteristics of conversion and gas production were investigated to find a possibility for biogas conversion, involving parametric tests according to the change in the main influence variables, such as O₂/C ratio, total gas feed rate, and CO₂/CH₄ ratio. A higher O₂/C ratio gave higher conversions of methane and carbon dioxide. Total gas feed rate showed maximum conversion at a certain specified value. When CO₂/CH₄ feed ratio was decreased, both conversions increased. As a result, the production of solar fuel by plasma oxidation destruction-carbon material gasification conversion, which was newly suggested in this study, could be known as a possibly useful technology. When O₂/C ratio was 0.8 and CO₂/CH₄ was 0.67 while the total gas supply was at 40 L min^-1 (VHSV = 1.37), the maximum conversions of carbon dioxide and methane were achieved. The results gave the highest production for hydrogen and carbon dioxide which were high-quality fuel.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.406-413
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• 2011

Recently the fuel cell has been spotlighted as a technology to reduce greenhouse gases emission from a ship. In this research, internal reforming 500kW solid oxide fuel cell stacks fueled by methane for a ship were developed. Characteristics of power and efficiency depending on the number of cells in the stack, hydrogen conversion ratio, and active area of the cell are evaluated. Also the effects of air and methane supplying conditions on performance are analyzed. As a result, as the number of cells, hydrogen conversion ratio, active area of the cell, or supplied air flow rate increase, the stack power and efficiency increase. When the methane flow rate increases, the power increases. However the efficiency decreases. In addition, the case at the current of 976.4 A, voltage of 529.1 V, with corresponding power of 516.6 kW shows that the efficiency of fuel cell stack is 42.91%.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.283-287
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• 2014

This experiment was conducted to determine methane production and emission factors for a range of roughage diets fed to Hanwoo cows at a level of maintenance energy requirement. Seven cows were fed mixed hay only, 12 cows were fed mixed hay containing 30~50% rice straw and 6 cows were fed a mixed hay diet supplemented with 1.0 kg of wheat bran. Each cow was placed in a metabolic crate for 10 consecutive days, including last 7 days for sampling of feces and urine. At the end of the sampling period, the cows were transferred to an open-circuit respiration chamber for 24 consecutive hours. Methane conversion rate (5.5~6.2%, mean value = 5.8%) and emission factor (33.6~38.6 kg/head/year, mean value = 35.2) were not significantly affected by the diets although the mixed hay only diet resulted in 11 and 15% higher respective rates than the other two. However, in light of the many assumptions that forage with good quality might reduce methane production, additional experiments should be required for participation in the greenhouse gas emission trading system.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.583-592
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• 2001

The combustion characteristics of the hybrid catalytic(catalytic+thermal) combustor with a lean methane-air mixture on platinum catalyst were investigated numerically using a 2-D boundary layer model with detailed homogeneous and heterogeneous chemistries. for the more accurate calculations, the actual surface site density of monolith coated with platinum was decided by the comparison with experimental data. It was found that the homogeneous reactions in the monolith had little effect on the change of temperature profile, methane conversion rate and light off location. However, the radicals such as OH and CO were produced rapidly at exit by homogeneous reactions. The effect of operation conditions such as equivalence ratio, temperature, velocity, pressure and diameter of the monolith channel at the entrance were studied. In thermal combustor, the production of N$_2$O was more dominant than that of NO due to the relative importance of the reaction N$_2$+O(+M)→N$_2$O(+M). Finally the productions of CO and NOx by amount of methane addition were studied.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.1623-1626
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• 2003

The dependency of the rate of $CO_2$ reforming of methane on the catalyst loading and the reactor size was examined at a fixed temperature of $750\;^{\circ}C$ and a fixed GHSV of 18000 mL(STP)/$g_{cat}.h$. The conversion of methane in $CO_2$reforming decreased with increase in the reactor size. The catalyst was severely deactivated with increase in the catalyst amount. The amount of carbonaceous species combustible below $550\;^{\circ}C$, determined by TPO experiments with the used catalyst samples increased with increase in the catalyst amount, which was again confirmed by XRD and TEM experiments. The increase of the carbonaceous species combustible below $550\;^{\circ}C$ may be due to the suppression of the reverse Boudouard reaction, since the $CO_2$ reforming of methane, a highly endothermic reaction, resulted in lowering the reaction temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.446-452
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• 2014

Methanol was directly produced by the partial oxidation of methane with four-component mixed oxide catalysts. Four-component(Mo-Bi-Cr-Si) mixed oxide catalysts were prepared by the co-precipitation and sol-gel methods. The catalyst prepared by the sol-gel method showed about eleven times higher surface area than that prepared by the co-precipitation method. From the $O_2$-TPD experiment of the prepared catalysts, it was proven that there exists two types of oxygen species, and the oxygen species that participates in the partial oxidation reaction is the lattice oxygen desorbing around $750^{\circ}C$. The optimum reaction condition for methanol production was $420^{\circ}C$, 50 bar, flow rate of 115 mL/min, and $CH_4/O_2$ ratio of 10/1.5, providing methane conversion and methanol selectivity of 3.2 and 26.7%, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.104-116
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• 1996

Anaerobic digestion is generally used for the treatment of volatile organic solids such as manure and sludge from waste water treatment plants. However, the reaction rate of anaerobic process is slow, and thus it requires a large reactor volume. To minimize such a disadvantage, physical and chemical pre-treatment is generally considered. Another method to reduce the reactor size is to adopt different reactor system other than CSTR. In this paper, the effects of heat pre-treatment and reactor configurations on the anaerobic treatability of volatile solids was studied. Carrot, kale, primary sludge, and waste activated sludge was chosen as the test materials, and the BMP method was used to evaluate the maximum methane production and first order rate constants from each sample. After the heat treatment at $130^{\circ}C$ for 30min., the measured increase in SCOD per gram VS was up to 394 mg/L for the waste activated sludge. However, the methane production potential per gram VS was increased for only primary and waste activated sludge by 17-23%, remaining the same for carrot and kale. The overall methane production process for the tested solids can be described by first order reactions. The increased in reaction constant after heat pre-treatment was also more significant for the primary and waste activated sludge than that for carrot and kale. therefore, the heat pre-treatment appeared to be effective for the solids with high protein contents rather than for the solids with high carbohydrate contents. Among the four reactor systems studied, CSTR, PFR, CSTR followed by PFR, and PFR with recycle, CSTR followed by PFR appeared to be the best choice considering methane conversion rate and the operational stability.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.21-28
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• 1986

Conversion of anaerobic mesophilic digestion to thermophilic range has been investigated using a synthetic sludge. When temperature was raised at a rate of 2, 1, and $0.5^{\circ}C$ per day with continuous feeding, a lower reaction rate was observed with a high rate of temperature change. Although methane fermentation ceased completely for an digesters at thermophilic temperature, acid fermentation continued. Methane fermentation was never achieved even with neutralization during 6 months of resting. The methane formers were completely inactivated by the temperature shock and accumulation of volatile acids due to continuous feeding, while the acid formers lost biological activity quickly, but gradually acclimated to a high temperature. When temperature was raised without feeding, successful thermophilic digestion was achieved with 1 day of resting at thermophilic temperature at a rate of $1^{\circ}C$ per day, and also achieved with 20 days of resting at a direct increase. Conversion to a thermophilic range is easily achieved with resting. A short period of resting is required at a low rate of temperature increase, while a long period of resting enough to balance methane formers with acid fermers makes a conversion possile when temperature is raised at a high rate. Soured thermophilic digesters were recovered after seeding of mesophilic sludges, and sludge seeding could be a good method of start-up, conversion, or recovery of a thermophilic digester. Significant amount of thermophiles seemed to be present in the mesophilic digesters.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.60-68
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• 2009

The steam reformer for hydrogen production from methane is studied by a numerical method. Langmuir- Hinshelwood model is incorporated for catalytic surface reactions, and the pseudo-homogeneous model is used to take into account local equilibrium phenomena between a catalyst and bulk gas. Dominant chemical reactions are Steam Reforming (SR) reaction, Water-Gas Shift (WGS) reaction, and Direct Steam Reforming (DSR) reaction. The numerical results are validated with experimental results at the same operating conditions. Using the validated code, parametric study has been numerically performed in view of the steam reformer performance. As increasing a wall temperature, the fuel conversion increases due to the high heat transfer rate. When Steam to Carbon Ratio (SCR) increases, the concentration of carbon monoxide decreases since WGS reaction becomes more active. When increasing Gas Hourly Space Velocity (GHSV), the fuel conversion decreases due to the heat transfer limitation and the low residence time. The reactor shape effects are also investigated. The length and radius of cylindrical reactors are changed at the same catalyst volume. The longer steam reformer is, the better steam reformer performs. However, system energy efficiency decreases due to the large pressure drop.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.112-116
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• 2011

In this paper, a preconverter of MCFC for an emergence electric power supplier is numerically simulated to increase the hydrogen production from natural gas (methane). Commercial code is used to simulated the porous catalyst with user subroutine to model three dominant chemical reactions which are Stream Reforming(SR), Water-Gas Shift(WGS), and Direct Stram Reforming(DSR). To get 10% fuel conversion rate in preconverter. the required external heat flux is supplied from outer wall of preconverter. The calculated results show that very nonuniform temperature distribution and chemical reaction happen near the wall of preconverter. These phenomena can be explained by the low heat conductivity of porous catalyst and the endothermic reforming reaction.