• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.124.1-124.1
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• 2010

The impurities in the methanol fuel that is used for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) could greatly affect the performance of membrane electrode assemblies (MEA). The most common impurities in the commercial methanol fuel are mainly ethanol, acetone, acetaldehyde, or ammonia. In this study, the effect of impurities in methanol fuel was investigated on the performance of MEA. The MEA for DMFC were prepared using a semi-automatic bar-coating machine, which can prepare the catalyst layer with uniform thickness for MEA. As a result, a single cell supplied with one of the 6 different kinds of methanol fuels showed a significant degradation of the fuel cell performance. The most common impurities in the commercial methanol fuel is mainly ethanol, acetone, acetaldehyde, or ammonia. The effects of the kind and the concentration of impurities in the methanol fuels were investigated on the performance of MEA for DMFC. We will propose the optimum compositions and limit concentration of impurities in methanol fuel for high performance of MEA for DMFC.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.176-179
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• 2009

The performance of direct methanol fuel cells is affected by operating conditions such as, methanol feeding temperatures, methanol concentrations, and methanol flow rates during the operation in different environmental conditions. In this study, effects of the environmental temperature on performance of direct methanol fuel cells have been investigated in order to test a applicability of direct methanol fuel cell to the vehicle. The environmental temperature (ET) was varied from $-20^{\circ}C$ to $+30^{\circ}C$. The inside fuel cell temperature (CT) during test at various operating conditions was monitored and the performance of fuel cell was measured in the I-V polarization curve. With increasing the ET, the performance of the fuel cell was significantly improved and the CT also almost linearly increased. However, at below $0^{\circ}C$ ET, the DMFC showed very poor performance and needed to control CT or methanol feeding temperature (MFT), methanol flow rate(MFR) to obtain enough power of the vehicle.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.1-6
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• 2003

The engine performance and combustion characteristics of methanol blended fuel in a multiple-point electronic control gasoline engine were discussed on the basis of experimental investigation. The effects of methanol blending fuel on combustion in cylinder were investigated under various conditions of engine cycle and blending ratio. The results showed that the engine performance was influenced by the methanol blended ratio. The results showed that the engine performance was influenced by the methanol blending ratio and the variations of operating conditions of test engine. The increase of blended fuel brought on the improvement of emission characteristics such as THC, CO, and NOx concentration. The effect of methanol blended fuel on the fuel consumption rate and the other characteristics of performance were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2008

A Pt-layer was deposited on the anode side of a Nafion membrane via a sputtering method in order to reduce methanol crossover in a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). The methanol permeation and the proton conductivity through the modified membranes were investigated. The performances of the direct methanol fuel cell were also tested using single cells with a Nafion membrane and the modified membranes. The Pt-layers on the membrane blocked both methanol crossover and proton transport through the membranes. Methanol permeability and proton conductivity decreased with an increase of the platinum layer thickness. At methanol concentration of 2 M, the DMFC employing the modified membrane with a platinum layer of 66 nm-thickness showed similar performance to that of a DMFC with a bare Nafion membrane in spite of the lower proton conductivity of the former. The maximum power density of the cell using the modified membrane with a platinum layer of 66 nm-thickness increased slightly while that of the cell with the bare membrane decreased abruptly when a methanol solution of 6M was supplied.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.197-204
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• 2008

DMFC(Direct Methanol Fuel Cell) is one of promising candidates for power sources of small mobile IT devices like notebook, cell phone, and so on. Efficient operation of fuel cell system is very important for long-sustained power supply because of limited fuel tank size. It is necessary to investigate operation characteristics of fuel cell stack for optimal control of DMFC system. The generated voltage was modeled according to various operating condition; methanol concentration, stack temperature, and load current. It is inevitable for methanol solution at anode to cross over to cathode through MEA(membrane electrode assembly), which reduces the system efficiency and increases fuel consumption. In this study, optimal operation conditions are proposed by analyzing stack performance model, cross-over phenomenon, and system efficiency.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.6-10
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• 2008

The amount of methanol crossover was measured with changing the operating condition by using a liquid methanol concentration sensor. Appropriate operating condition was discussed in terms of methanol crossover. Mechanism of methanol crossover was classified into three items which are diffusion, convection and electro-osmosis. Contribution of each mechanism to methanol crossover and the effect of operating condition were analyzed with varying methanol concentration, pressure difference between anode and cathode, current, temperature, and stoichiometry of anode fuel. Among the three mechanisms diffusion affected mostly and electro-osmosis effect was observed only under high methanol concentration.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.48-55
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• 2018

It has recently been reported that methanol fuel has been used in the product carrier with established duel fuel engine, which has been greatly reducing emissions of $CO_2$, NOx and SOx from the engine. However, to use methanol alone as fuel oil in a general diesel engine, design modification of cylinder head is needed because the ignition aid device or the duel fuel injection system is needed. On the other hand, only if the mixer is installed on the fuel oil supply line, diesel oil - methanol blending oil can be used as fuel oil for the diesel engine, but there is a problem of the phase separation when two fuels are mixed. In this study, diesel oil and methanol were blended compulsorily in preventing the phase separation with installing agitators and a fuel oil boost pump on fuel line of a test engine. Also, cylinder pressure and fuel consumption quantity were measured according to engine load and methanol blending ratio, and indicated mean effective pressure, heat release rate and combustion temperature obtained from the single zone combustion model were analyzed to investigate the effects of latent heat of vaporization of methanol on combustion stability and characteristics. As a result, the combustion stability and characteristics of 10% methanol blending oil are closest to the those of diesel oil, and it could be used as fuel oil in existing diesel engines without deterioration of engine performance and combustion characteristics.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.61-65
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• 2004

This paper presents the effect of methanol blended fuel on the engine performance and the reduction of exhaust emissions. In this wort, the combustion effects of methanol blended fuel in the engine was investigated for the conditions of three kinds of mixing ratios. Based on the experimental results, the output characteristics of the engine show the improvement of output performance due to the blended fuel of methanol. Also, the unburned hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions are decreased in accordance with the increase of methanol blended ratio.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.524-531
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• 2008

The mitigation or elimination of methanol crossover for perfluorosulfonic acid fuel cell membranes has been investigated extensively for direct methanol fuel cell applications with the aim of increasing the electrochemical performance and enhancing the utilization rate of methanol. Self-assembly modifications by applying an oppositely charged polyelectrolyte to Nafion membranes were attempted in order to block or reduce methanol crossover while maintaining the other advantageous properties of Nafion membranes. It was reported that anionic polyallylamine hydrochloride (PAH) was the most efficient polyelectrolyte in reducing methanol crossover, and considerable cell performance was obtained even at a methanol feed concentration of 10 M.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.3381-3386
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• 1996

The engine performance and combustion characteristics of methanol blended fuel in spark ignition engine were discussed on the basis of experimental investigation. The effects of methanol blending fuel on combustion in cylinder were investigated under various conditions of engine cycle and blending ratio. The results showed that the engine performance was influenced by the methanol blending ratio and the variations of operating conditions of test engine. The increase of fuel temperature brought on the improvement of combustion characteristics such as cylinder pressure, the rate of pressure rise and heat release in an engine. The burning rate of fuel-air mixture, the exhaust emissions and the other characteristics of performance were discussed also.