• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.81-84
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• 2006

To investigate the characteristics of water droplet on the gas diffusion layer from both upper-view and side-view of flow channel, a rig test apparatus was designed and fabricated with L-shape acryl plate in a $1mm{\times}1mm$ micro-channel. This experimental device is used to simulate the single droplet growth and its transport process under fuel cell operating condition. As a first step, we investigated the growth and transport of single water droplet with working temperature and air flow velocity. The contact angle and its hysteresis of water droplet at departing moment are measured and analyzed. It is expected that this study can provide the basic understanding of liquid water droplet behavior in gas flow channel and GDL interface during the PEM fuel cell operation.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.2227-2230
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• 2008

Crossover of nitrogen from cathode to anode is inevitable in typical membranes used in PEM fuel cells. This crossovered nitrogen accumulates in anode recirculation system and excessive buildup of nitrogen in the recirculating anode gas lowers the hydrogen concentration and finally affects the performance of fuel cell stacks. In this study, characterization of nitrogen gas crossover was investigated in PEM fuel cell stacks. The mass spectroscopy (MS) has been applied to measure the amount of the crossovered nitrogen at the exit of anode. Results show that anode and cathode stoichiometric number ($SR_c$) have a big effect of nitrogen crossover.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.5 s.248
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• pp.489-495
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• 2006

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) should be sufficiently hydrated with a careful consideration of heat and water management. Water management has been a critical operation issue for better understanding the operation and optimizing the performance of a PEM fuel cell. The flooding on cathode side resulting from excess water can limit the fuel cell performance. In this study, the visual cell was designed and fabricated fur the visualization of liquid water droplet dynamics related to cathode flooding in flow channels. The experiment was carried out to observe the formation, growth and removal of water droplets using CCD imaging system. Effects of operating conditions such as cell temperature, air flow rate and air relative humidity on cathode flooding characteristics were mainly investigated. Based on this study, we can get the basic insight into flooding phenomena and its two-phase flow nature. It is expected that data obtained can be effectively used fur the setup and validation of two-phase PEM fuel cell models considering cathode flooding.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.137-141
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• 2007

The startup behaviour of PEM fuel cells at subfreeze zero is one of the most challenging tasks to be solved before PEM fuel cell vehicle is commercialized. Automotive companies are trying to increase cold statup capability of fuel cell. In this study, we found out the design factor of the stack to increase cold startup capability using 4kW stack and then cold startup test was performed at the various shutdown condition and the various current. In order to test the cold startup possibility and capability in vehicle, we installed 80kW stack in the vehicle and this 80kW fuel cell vehicle was housed in an environmental chamber to investigate the characteristics of cold startup and driving. We found that it is possible for fuel cell vehicle with 80kW stack to self-heated cold startup and drive at $-15^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.739-748
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• 2010

The increased integration of fuel cells with power electronics, critical loads, and control systems has prompted recent interest in accurate electrical terminal models of the polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell. Advancement in computing technologies, particularly parallel computation techniques and various real-time simulation tools have allowed the prototyping of novel apparatus to be investigated in a virtual system under a wide range of realistic conditions repeatedly, safely, and economically. This paper builds upon both advancements and provides a means of optimized model construction boosting computation speeds for a fuel cell model on a real-time simulator which can be used in a power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) application. Significant improvement in computation time has been achieved. The effectiveness of the proposed model developed on Opal RT's RT-Lab Matlab/Simulink based real-time engineering simulator is verified using experimental results from a Ballard Nexa fuel cell system.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.157-160
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• 2007

The catalyst layer of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell is a mixture of polymer, carbon, and platinum. The characteristics of the catalyst layer play critical role in determining the performance of the PEM fuel cell. This research investigates the role of catalyst layer composition using a Central Composite Design (CCD) experiment with two factors which are Nafion content and carbon loading while the platinum catalyst surface area is held constant. For each catalyst layer composition， polarization curves are measured to evaluate cell performance at common operating conditions, Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS), and Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) are then applied to investigate the cause of the observed variations in performance. The results show that both Nafion and carbon content significantly affect MEA performance. The ohmic resistance and active catalyst area of the cell do not correlate with catalyst layer composition, and observed variations in the cell resistance and active catalyst area produced changes in performance that were not significant relative to compositions of catalyst layers.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.39-46
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• 2006

The fuel cell is one of promising environment-friendly energy sources for the next generation. The bipolar plate is a major component of the PEM fuel cell stack, which takes a large portion of stack cost. In this study, as alternative materials for bipolar plate of PEM fuel cells, graphite composites were fabricated by compression molding. Graphite particles mixed with epoxy resin were used as the main substance to provide electric conductivity To achieve desired electrical properties, specimens made with different mixing ratio, processing pressure and temperature were tested. To increase mechanical strength, one or two layers of woven carbon fabric were added to the graphite and resin composite. Thus, the composite material was consisted of three phases: graphite particles, carbon fabric, and epoxy resin. By increasing mixing ratio of graphite, fabricated pressure and process temperature, the electric conductivity of the composite was improved. The results of tensile test showed that the tensile strength of the two-phase graphite composite was about 4MPa, and that of three-phase composite was increased to 57MPa. As surface properties, contact an91e and surface roughness were tested. Graphite composites showed contact angles higher than $90^{\circ}$, which mean low surface energy. The average surface roughness of the composite specimens was $0.96{\mu}m$.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.353-356
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• 2005

We developed a dynamic model of PEM fuel cell system which can analyze its transient response to dynamic load current. System components such as compressor, air cooler, humidifier, and stack were modeled based on their dynamic equations and performance maps by using Matlab Simulink platform. Through this simulation model, dynamic characteristics of fuel cell system including oxygen excess rat io, stack voltage, and system efficiency were shown. In addition to that, we briefly analyzed the humidity effect on cathode pressure and system efficiency, expecting that this model can be further used to optimize fuel cell system parameters just like operating pressure and temperature, humidity and oxygen excess ratio.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.1018-1026
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• 2005

The proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system consisting of stack and balance of plant (BOP) was modeled in a MATLAB/Simulink environment. High-pressure operating (compressor type) and low-pressure operating (air blower type) fuel cell systems were con­sidered. The effects of two main operating parameters (humidity and the pressure of the supplied gas) on the power distribution characteristics of BOP and the net system efficiency of the two systems mentioned above were compared and discussed. The simulation determines an optimum condition regarding parameters such as the cathode air pressure and the relative humidity for maximum net system efficiency for the operating fuel cell systems. This study contributes to get a basic insight into the fuel cell stack and BOP component sizing. Further research using muli­object variable optimization packages and the approach developed by this study can effectively contribute to an operating strategy for the practical use of fuel cell systems for vehicles.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.124.2-124.2
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• 2010

Generally, a coolant of the nuclear power plant is manufactured by electrolyzing the sea water near the plant for making the sodium hypochlorite(NaOCl), which is used for sterilizing the bacteria and the shellfishes sticking to the drains or the pumps at the outlet of the cooling system due to $8-10^{\circ}C$ warmer temperature than the inlet sea water. During manufacturing the sodium hypochlorite, the hydrogen with the high purity is also produced at the anode side of the electrolyzer. This paper describes a novel power plant system combined with the polymer electrolyte membrane(PEM) fuel cell, the wasted hydrogen from the sea water electrolyzer and the wasted heat of the nuclear power plant. The present status over the exhausted hydrogen at twenty nuclear power plants in Korea was investigated in this study, from which an available power generation is estimated. Furthermore, the economic feasibility of the PEM fuel cell power plant is also evaluated by a current regulations over the power production and exchange using a renewable energy shown in Korea Power Exchange(KRX).