• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.9
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• pp.815-821
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• 2013

The efficiency and lifetime of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system is critically affected by the humidity of the incoming gas, which should be maintained properly under normal operating conditions. Typically, the incoming gas of a fuel cell is humidified by an external humidifier, but few studies have reported on the device characteristics. In this study, a laboratory-scale planar membrane humidifier is designed to investigate the characteristics of water transport through a hydrophilic membrane. The planar membrane humidifier is immersed in a constant temperature bath to isolate the humidifier from the effect of temperature variations. The mass transfer capability of the hydrophilic membrane is first examined under isothermal conditions. Then, the mass transfer capability is investigated under various conditions. The results show that water transport in the hydrophilic membrane is significantly affected by the flow rate, operating temperature, operating pressure, and flow arrangement.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.336-342
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• 2007

This paper presents the development of a fuel cell dynamic simulator using a programmable DC power supply and LabVIEW graphical user interface. The developed simulator closely describes the static and dynamic characteristics of an actual proton exchange membrance fuel cell (PEMFC). The experimental results are provided to verify the operation of the simulator. The developed simulator can be used as a convenient and economic alternative to an actual fuel cell for developing and testing a fuel cell power conditioning system.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Energy Engineering kosee Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.232-237
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• 2006

• Current Industrial and Technological Trends in Aerospace
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.95-105
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• 2009

Fuel cells are applied to the propulsion system of aircraft based on environmental-friendly characteristics with low noise and zero emission of CO2, currently many kinds of UAV and small manned aircraft equipped with fuel cells are being developed. Fuel cells for aircraft typically classified into PEMFC(Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) type and SOFC(Solid Oxide Fuel Cell) type and the system is developed to adapt missions and operational conditions of aircraft. For UAV, various types of aircraft mostly based on PEM fuel cell technology are investigated for military or commercial uses, and the stability and endurance of system will be improved. For small manned aircraft, many researches are carried out to substitute the propulsion system by fuel cell, also some developments for the higher performance of APU of large commercial aircraft to apply fuel cells are in progress. In the future, a fuel cell aircraft will be expected to improve the reliability and efficiency with higher power density.

• Plant Journal
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.45-51
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• 2014

This study performs several experiments on a newly developed temperature safety system that can be used for residential building heating systems, the heat source of which is derived from a conventional fuel cell. Prior to this, the hot water made from a fuel cell was not used in residential housing but just went to waste. The present safety system is installed in the current underfloor heating system. At first we used the CFD technique to develop a new heat exchanger. The fuel cell must satisfy the thermal conditions of the inlet temperature being $55^{\circ}C$ and the outlet temperature being $60^{\circ}C$. But variations in weather cause fluctuations in the heating water temperature. The experimental results show our new system capable of maintaining the temperature difference within a ${\pm}0.5^{\circ}C$ range. So we believe that our new PFMFC fuel cell stack array is a good candidate for being used in residential heating systems.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.41-48
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• 2008

This paper proposes a three-phase Z-source dynamic voltage restorer (Z-DVR) to mitigate the voltage sag for the critical loads. The proposed system is composed of passive filter and Z-source topology inverter. As an ESS(Energy Storage System) of the proposed system is employed the Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC). To calculate and control the harmonics and compensation voltage, $i_{d}-i_{q}$ theory in dq rotating reference frame and PI controller are used. In case that three-phase voltage sags occurred, a PSIM simulation was done for the performance comparison of the conventional method employed battery stacks and proposed method. As a result, considering the voltage compensation performance, each method was nearly similar. Also, the compensation performance and the %THD(%Total Harmonic Distortion) result under the various source voltage conditions (sag or swell) were presented and discussed to show the performance of the proposed system.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.99-99
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• 2011

Fuel cell systems are a completely different form of electricity source that has been used so far and is an aggregation of multiple technologies with multidisciplinary features that can be operated safely only when gas and electrical safety are being considered. Since fuel cells generate through electrochemical reactions there are difficulties in ensuring electricity safety, power quality assessment, effective control and reliability standards for system faults using conventional inspection techniques and even though they are necessary as a primary means for reduction of CO2 owing to the Climate Convention, electrical safety assessment and measures are required for the prevention of faults in residential facilities. Although small-scaled distributed power supplies can be utilized as important means of peak control and energy management measures, research is required for observing the effects on the system and the development of inspection technology to ensure stable operation, and the electrical safety of residential fuel cell systems need to be assessed and the problems derived for establishing electrical safety standards. From the year 2002, Japan has established laws on technical safety standards and development and rules on the product specifications and standards for the industrialization of hydrogen fuel cells. Also, a lot of effort have been made for the commercialization of fuel cells by building one-stop certification services. Internationally, the IEC TC 105 has established international standards based on fuel cells. In order to protect the national interest, the country should be able to respond accordingly meet global standards. In fact, in Korea, to comply with the international trend, Korea Energy Management Corporation is establishing a certified agenda for fuel cells and Korean Agency for Technology and Standards is enacting technical standards for fuel cells. The current terms of fuel cells are that research has been focused more on the quality and performance of manufactured products rather than stable power operation and maintenance over time. In this paper, by considering the household fuel cell as a power device, the safety standards of the fuel cell system for a reliable operation with the existing power system is being proposed.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.226-231
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• 2011

Graphene was coated on STS 316L by electro spray coating method to improve its properties of corrosion resistance and contact resistance. Exfoliated graphite (graphene) was made of the graphite by chemical treatment. Graphene is distributed using dispersing agent, and STS 316L was coated with diffuse graphene solution by electro spray coating method. The structure of the exfoliated graphite was analyzed using XRD and the coating layer of surface was analyzed by using SEM. Analysis showed that multi-layered graphite structure was destroyed and it was transformed into fine layers graphene structure. And the result of SEM analysis on the surface and the cross section, graphene layer was uniformly formed with 3~5 ${\mu}m$ thickness on the surface of substrate. Corrosion resistance test was applied in the corrosive solution which is similar to the PEM fuel cell stack inside. And interfacial contact resistance test was measured to simulate the internal operating conditions of PEM fuel cell stack. The results of measurements show that stainless steel coated with graphene was improved in corrosion resistance and surface contact resistance than stainless steel without graphene coating layer.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.78-86
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• 2005

Recently, a fuel cell with low voltage and high current output characteristics is remarkable for new generation system. It needs both a dc-dc boost converter and dc-ac inverter to be used in fuel cell generation system. Therefore, this paper presents dc-dc active clamp current-fed half-bridge converter with ZVS for fuel cell generation system. The proposed converter has outstanding advantages over the conventional dc-dc converters with respect to high efficiency and high component utilization. The Fuel Cell generation system consist of active clamp current-fed half-bridge converter to boost the Fuel Cell(PEMFC) voltage(28∼43[Vdc]) to 380[Vdc]. A single phase full-bridge inverter is implemented to produce 220[Vac], 60[Hz] AC outputs.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.82-89
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• 2011

Differences in the frequency characteristic applied to a ripple current may shorten fuel cell life span and worsen the fuel efficiency. Therefore, this paper presents an experimental analysis of the ripple current applied variable frequency characteristic in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). This paper provides the first attempt to examine the impact of ripple current through immediate measurements on a single cell test. After cycling for hours at three frequencies, each polarization and impedance curve is obtained and compared with those of a fuel cell. Through experimental results, it can be absolutely concluded that low frequency ripple current leads to long-term degradation of a fuel cell. Three different PEMFC failures such as membrane dehydration, flooding and carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning that lead to an increase in the impedance magnitude at low frequencies are simply introduced.