• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.27-30
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• 2007

This study considers the feasibility of the concentration control of the methanol solution by oscillating flow in the anode channel of passive type Direct Methanol Fuel Cells(DMFC). DMFC stack performance is largely influenced by the fuel concentration. If the fuel concentration is either lower than 0.5M or more than 2M, its performance deteriorates seriously because of the fuel starvation or the fuel crossover. In this respect the optimization of the fuel concentration is crucially important to maximize the DMFC stack performance. In this work, the effects of oscillating actuation in the fuel supply are studied to control the fuel concentration. Two important nondimensional parameters are introduced, each of which represents either the oscillating frequency or the oscillating amplitude. It is shown how these factors affect the stack performance and the efficiency of the DMFC stack.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.319-322
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• 2009

This paper investigated environmental effects for passive, air-breathing, and vapor-feeding direct methanol fuel cells. In these experiments, experimental parameters are temperature($30^{\circ}C$, $40^{\circ}C$ and relative humidity(25%, 50%, 75%). From these experimental results, the water contents play a key role in terms of optimal ionic conductivity at the cathode catalyst layer. In case of pure methanol feeding, the performance is inversely proportional to the relative humidity. The water generation resulting from methanol crossover maintains ionic conductivity at the cathode. On the contrary, diluted methanol solution (50wt.%) lowers methanol crossover to the cathode. In order to increase ionic conductivity, the relatively high humidity is required to the cathode catalyst layer for the water generation. The relative humidity scales with the performance.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.292-298
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• 2011

This study examines the effects of the ambient temperature (AT), methanol feeding temperature (MFT), methanol concentration (MC) and methanol flow rate (MFR) on the performance and cell temperature (CT) of a 5-stacked direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). The AT, MFT, MC, and MFR are varied from $-10^{\circ}C$ to $+40^{\circ}C$, $50^{\circ}C$ to $90^{\circ}C$, 0.5M to 3.0M and 11.7 mL $min^{-1}$ to 46.8 mL $min^{-1}$, respectively. The performance of the DMFC under various operating conditions is analyzed from the I-V polarization curve, and the methanol crossover is estimated by gas chromatography (GC). The performance of the DMFC improves significantly with increasing AT. The open circuit voltage (OCV) decreases with increasing MC due to the enhanced likelihood of methanol crossover. The cell performance is improved significantly when the MFR is increased from 11.7 mL $min^{-1}$ to 28.08 mL $min^{-1}$. The change in cell performance is marginal with further increases in MFR. The CT increases significantly with increasing AT. The effect of the MFT and MFR is moderate, and the effect of MC is marginal on the CT of the DMFC.

• Journal of the korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.18-26
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• 1981

The purpose of this paper is to study the possibility of practical use of gasoline-methanol mixed fuel as an alternative fuel of gasoline engines in the light of engine performances and harmful exhaust emissions as well as mixings and separations of the mixed fuels. When the methanol of 99.8% purity is mixed with super or regular gasoline available on the market today, the experimental results obtained without modifying carburetor in this study are as follows; 1.The separation ratio depends upon the gasoline-methanol mixing ratio only, regardless of fuel temperature and fuel additives for preventing separation of phase. 2.The critical absorption ratio is affected by the gasoline-methanol mixing ratio, its temperature and the quantity of fuel additives. 3.Concerning the distillation temperature, the initial point of all sorts of fuels is almost same,but 10% point and 35-60% point of mixed fuels are lower than those of gasoline only. 4.In case of throttle valve opening set, engine output using the mixed fuels is decreased compared to gasoline, but thermal efficiency is increased as a consequence of decreasing specific energy consumption. 5.In case of fixed load test, thermal efficiency is increased at low engine speed even under low part-load as well as under comparatively high part-load including full load. 6.CO and NOx emissions are reduced remarkably with the mixed fuels.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.45-48
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• 2008

This paper presents a passive air-breathing direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) which has been designed and tested. The single cell is fuelled by methanol vapor that is supplied through flow channel from a methanol reservoir at the anode, and the oxygen is supplied via natural air-breathing at the cathode. The methods for supplying the methanol vapor to the single cell were parallel channel and chamber. This research investigates various methods to identify the effects of using flow channels for providing the methanol vapor at the anode, and the opening ratio between the inlet and outlet ports for the methanol flow at the anode. The best flow channel condition for passive DMFC was a chamber, and the opening ratio was 0.8. Under these conditions, the peak power was 10.2mW/$cm^2$ at room temperature and ambient pressure. The key issues for the Passive DMFCs for using methanol vapor are that sufficient methanol needs to be supplied using a large as possible opening ratio. However, it is shown that the performance of the passive DMFC, which has a channel at the anode,is low due to the low differential pressure and insufficient methanol supply rate.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.354-361
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• 2022

In a direct methanol fuel cell system (DMFC), one of the drawbacks is methanol crossover. Methanol from the anode passes through the membrane and enters the cathode, causing mixed potential in the cell. Only Pt-based catalysts are capable of operating as cathode for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in a harsh acidic condition of DMFC. However, it causes mixed potential due to high activity toward methanol oxidation reaction of Pt. To overcome this situation, developing Pt-based catalyst that has methanol tolerance is significant, by controlling reactant adsorption or reaction kinetics. Pt/C decorated with phosphate ion was prepared by modified polyol method as cathode catalyst in DMFC. Phosphate ions, bonded to the carbon of Pt/C, surround free Pt surface and block only methanol adsorption on Pt, not oxygen. It leads to the suppression of methanol oxidation in an oxygen atmosphere, resulting in high DMFC performance compared to pristine Pt/C.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.24-31
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• 1999

The engine performance and combustion characteristics of methanol blended fuel of spark ignition engine were discussed on the basics of experimental investigation. The effects of methanol blending fuel on combustion in cylinder were investigated under various conditions of engine cycle and blending fuel on combustion in cylinder were investigated tinder various conditions of engine cycle and blending ratios. The results showed thai the engine performance was influenced by the methanol blending ratio and the variations of operating conditions 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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.77-84
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• 1994

The oil crises in 1973 and 1978 stimulated the alternative fuel research activities in many countries around the world. Among the alternative fuels, methanol is one of the highest potential fuels for transportation. Methanol has been considered for use as automotive fuel, but it has a defect of the great latent vaporization heat. Therefore, authors have made the fuel vaporizing device in order to eliminate the fuel film flow heating the mixture. This paper presents a study on the characteristics of vaporization, engine performance, and emission which result from using the fuel vaporizing device.

• Carbon letters
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.303-307
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• 2008

The studies on integrated operation of fuel cell with fuel processor are very essential prior to its commercialization. In this study, Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) was operated with a fuel processor, which is mainly composed of two parts, methanol steam reforming reaction and preferential oxidation (PROX). In fuel processor, ICI 33-5 (CuO 50%, ZnO 33%, $Al_2O_3$ 8%, BET surface area: $66\;m^2g^{-1}$) catalyst and CuO-$CeO_2$ catalyst were used for methanol steam reforming, preferential oxidation (PROX) respectively. PEMFC was operated by hydrogen fuel generated from fuel processor. The resulting gas from PROX reactor is used to operate PEMFC equipped with our prepared anode and cathode catalyst. PtRu/C catalyst gives more tolerance to CO.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.21-26
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• 2007

DMFC(Direct Methanol Fuel Cell) has been considered as an attractive option to produce electric power in many application. In this study, in order to estimate the effects of the methanol concentration, wind velocity and temperature on the performance of DMFC, a physical prototype of DMFC was designed and manufactured, and the stack voltage of DMFC was measured during the operation of DMFC. Expecially, the experimental results showed that a low stack temperature, a low wind velocity and an excess methanol concentration lead to the increase of the time to reach the maximum stack voltage.