• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.389-398
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• 2017

The most important characteristic of the polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) for fuel cells, the proton conducting ability is mainly influenced by the distribution and morphology of the water channels inside the PEMs. Non-perfluorinated hydrocarbon PEMs are known to have weaker water channels than perfluorinated PEM, Nafion, and thus relatively low proton conducting ability. In this study, we used a mesoscale simulation technique to observe the water channel formation and phase separation behavior of hydrocarbon PEM, sulfonated polyimides, under the humidification condition. It was observed that the water molecules were distributed evenly through the entire hydrophilic region, and clear water clusters were formed only in the sulfonated polyimide having high sulfonation degree. In addition, it was observed that sulfonated polyimides have a difficulty in forming water channel under the low hydrated condition. These results clearly support the theories of the formation of water channels in non-perfluorinated hydrocarbon PEMs, and also well explain the tendency of proton conducting abilities of sulfonated polyimides. Thus, it is confirmed that mesoscale simulation techniques can be very effective in analyzing phase separation behavior and water channel formation in PEMs for fuel cells and elucidating the ion conducting abilities.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.3114-3119
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• 2008

Relatively high convective flow exists in the under-rib regions of a gas diffusion layer (GDL) when serpentine flow fields are employed in a PEMFC. This under-rib convection is believed to be favorable for the performance of PEMFCs, by enabling more effective use of catalysts in the under-rib regions. From the fact that the under-rib convection in a GDL is directly proportional to the permeability of the GDL, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed to discover the relationship between the GDL permeability and the PEMFC performance. Single-, triple-, and quintuple-path parallel serpentine flow fields for $9\;cm^2$ active cell area were considered while changing the GDL permeability from $1{\times}10^{-12}$ to $5{\times}10^{-11}m^2$. The results showed that higher GDL permeability generally resulted in better performance of PEMFCs, but the degree of performance enhancement became smaller as the parallel path number increased. The effects of the permeability on the local variables were also discussed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.473-480
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• 2011

The proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system is critically dependent on the humidity, which should be properly maintained over the entire operating range. A membrane humidifier is used for the water management in the PEMFC because of the membrane humidifier's reliable performance and zero parasitic power loss. In the PEMFC system, the membrane humidifier is required to provide appropriate humidity for the design point of the fuel cell. Although the performance of the fuel cell depends on the performance of the humidifier, few studies have provided a systematic analysis of the humidifier. We carry out an experimental analysis of the membrane humidifier using a vapor condensation bottle. The dry air pressure, water flow temperature, and air flow rate were chosen as the operating parameters. The results show that the time constant for the dynamic response of the membrane humidifier is relatively short, but additional analysis should be carried out.

• Clean Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2004

Direct methanol fuel cell(DMFC) with proton exchange membrane (PEM) has advantages over the conventional power source (e.g. vehicle). DMFC, however, has a problem to be solved such as methanol crossover, high anodic overpotential and limiting current density, etc. The physicochemical phenomena in DMFC can be described by coupled PDEs (partial differential equations), which can be solved by a PDE solver. In this paper, we utilized a commercial software FEMLAB to solve the PDEs. The FEMLAB is one of the software programs available which are developed as a solver for building physics problems based on PDEs and is designed to simulate systems of coupled PDEs which may be 1D, 2D, 3D, non-liner and time dependent. We performed simulation using the Tafel equation as an electrochemical reaction model to analyze methanol concentration profile in DMFC system. We confirm that the rapid decrease of methanol concentration at anodic catalyst layer with the increase of the current density is a main reason of the low performance in DMFC through simulation results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.503-511
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• 2013

The humidifying supply gas is important in terms of the performance efficiency and membrane life improvement of a PEM fuel cell. A planar membrane humidifier is classified as a cross-flow and counter-flow type depending on the flow direction, and heat and mass transfer occur between the plate and the membrane. In this study, the changes in heat and mass transfer for various inlet temperatures and flow rates are compared according to the flow direction by using the sensible and latent ${\varepsilon}$-NTU method. The obtained results indicate that the counter flow shows higher heat and mass transfer performance than the cross flow at a low flow rate, and the difference in performance decreases as the flow rate increases. Furthermore, changes in the mass transfer performance decrease considerably with a nonlinear increase in the inlet temperature, and variations of the heat transfer performance are small.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.391-403
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• 2013

Propeller aircraft propelled by an electric propulsion system is gaining a renewed interest because of ever-increasing environmental concern on harmful emissions emitted from conventional jet engines and national energy security. Traditional aircraft sizing methods are not readily applicable to electric propulsion aircraft that utilize a variety of alternative energy sources and power generation systems. This study showcases an electric propulsion aircraft sizing exercise based on a generalized, power based sizing method. A general aviation aircraft is propelled by an electric propulsion system that comprises of a propeller, a high temperature super conducting motor, a Proton Exchange Membrance(PEM) fuel cell system fuelled with hydrogen, and power conditioning equipment. In order to assess the impact of technology progression, aircraft sizing was conducted for two different sets of technology assumptions for electric components, and the results were compared with conventional baseline aircraft.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.75-85
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• 2010

In this paper, a Z-source hybrid active power filter is proposed to compensate the harmonics and reactive power in power distribution system. The proposed system is composed of a 7th harmonics-tuned passive filter and an active power filter with a Z-source inverter topology, while voltage source PWM inverter or current source PWM inverter are applied as the power converter topology of conventional active power filters. The Z-source impedance network along with shoot through capability would ensure a constant DC voltage across the DC link. A polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell is employed as an compensation DC energy source of the proposed system and its equivalent R-L-C circuit is modeled for simulation. As the compensation and control algorithm of the proposed system, the current synchronous detection algorithm is applied. The simulation analysis by PSIM is performed under the three-phase 220V/60Hz voltage source and 25A nonlinear diode loads. The effectiveness of the proposed the system is verified in the steady and transient states.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.141-145
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• 2016

Polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) are key components to determine electrochemical fuel cell performances, in addition to electrode materials. The PEMs need to satisfy selective transport behaviors to small molecules including gases and protons; the PEMs have to transport protons as fast as possible, while they should act as hydrogen barriers, since the permeated gas induces the thermal degradation of cathode catalyst, resulting in rapid electrochemical reduction. To date, limited tools have been used to measure how fast hydrogen gas permeates through PEMs (e.g., Constant volume/variable Pressure (time-lag) method). However, most of the measurements are conducted under vacuum where PEMs are fully dried. Otherwise, the obtained hydrogen permeance is easily changeable, which causes the measurement errors to be large. In this study, hydrogen permeation properties through Nafion212 used as a standard PEM are evaluated using an in-situ measurement system in which both temperature and humidity are controlled at the same time.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.181-188
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• 2009

Pt catalyst was adsorbed on Carbon nanofiber (CNF) by modified polyol method after acid treatment of the carbon support with $HNO_3$ and $H_{2}SO_{4}$. As the time for acid treatment increases, more oxygen functional groups on carbon surface were produced which improve the loading amount and dispersion of Pt catalyst on carbon supports. In order to inspect the effect of CNF acid treatment time on electrochemical corrosion, constant potential of 1.4 V was applied to a single cell for 30 min and the amount of $CO_2$ emitted was monitored with on-line mass spectrometry. According to the results of our experiment, more $CO_2$ was produced with Pt/ oxidized-CNF catalyst in compared to that with unoxidized-CNF. Increasing acid treatment time also induces the more $CO_2$ emission. Besides, performance degradation after corrosion test expanded with severer carbon corrosion. From the observed results, it can be concluded that the acid treatment of CNF is beneficial to catalyst loading, but it also is a significant factor declining the fuel cell durability by accelerating electrochemical oxidation of carbon support.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.103-110
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• 2008

The most failure mode of PEM fuel cell is gas crossover caused by pinhole formation in MEAs. The degradation phenomena of MEA with pinholes were evaluated in various accelerated operation condition, such as OCV, low humidity and high partial pressure of oxygen. The performances of MEA with pinholes were almost same before and after normal 144 hours operation($70^{\circ}C$, $640mA/cm^2$, 65%RH $H_2/air$). The results of accelerated operation showed that OCV and low humidity condition more deteriorated MEA than gas crossover owing to pinholes. When oxygen was used as cathode gas, the pinholes of MEA were enlarged due to heat of combustion reaction on Pt catalyst of electrodes. This combustion reaction occurred at pinholes near gas inlet and resulted in local MEA failure.