• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.292-303
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• 2022

An eco-friendly energy conversion device without the emission of pollutants has gained much attention due to the rapid use of fossil fuels inducing carbon dioxide emissions ever since the first industrial revolution in the 18th century. Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) that can produce water during the reaction without the emission of carbon dioxide are promising devices for automotive and residential applications. As a key component of PEMFCs, polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) need to have high proton conductivity and physicochemical stability during the operation. Currently, perfluorinated sulfonic acid-based PEMs (PFSA-PEMs) have been commercialized and utilized in PEMFC systems. Although the PFSA-PEMs are found to meet these criteria, there is an ongoing need to improve these further, to be useful in practical PEMFC operation. In addition, the well-known drawbacks of PFSA-PEMs including low glass transition temperature and high gas crossover need to be improved. Therefore, this review focused on recent trends in the development of high-performance PFSA-PEMs in three different ways. First, control of the side chain of PFSA copolymers can effectively improve the proton conductivity and thermal stability by increasing the ion exchange capacity and polymer crystallinity. Second, the development of composite-type PFSA-PEMs is an effective way to improve proton conductivity and physical stability by incorporating organic/inorganic additives. Finally, the incorporation of porous substrates is also a promising way to develop a thin pore-filling membrane showing low membrane resistance and outstanding durability.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.9-16
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• 2000

The growing concerns on environmental protection have been constantly demanding cleaner and more energy efficient vehicles without compromising any conveniences provided by the conventional vehicles. The recent significant advances in proton-exchange-membrane (PEM) fuel cell technology have shown the possibility of developing such vehicles powered by fuel cells. Several prototype fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) have been already developed by several major automotive manufactures, and all of the favorable features have been demonstrated in the public roads. FCEV is essentially a zero emission vehicle and allows to overcome the range limitation of the current battery electric vehicles. Being motivated by the laboratory and field demonstrations of the fuel cell technologies, variety of fuel cell alliances between fuel cell developers, automotive manufactures, petroleum companies and government agencies have been formed to expedite the realization of commercially viable FCEV. However, there still remain major issues that need to be overcome before it can be fully accepted by consumers. This paper describes the current fuel cell vehicle development status and the staggering challenges for the successful introduction of consumer acceptable FCEVS.

• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.203-211
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• 2022

The aim of this paper is to analyze the performance of commercial fuel cell (rated capacity 1000W) with the help of resistive load and output power variation with change in H₂ flow rate and calculate the maximum power point (MPP) of the proton exchange membrane (PEM) while changing AC and DC load respectively. The factors influencing the output power of a fuel cell are hydrogen flow rate, cell temperature, and membrane water content. The results show that when the H₂ flow rate is changed from 11, 13, and 15 Lpm, MPP is increased from lower to higher flow rate. The power of the fuel cell is increased at the rate of 29% by increasing the flow rate from 11 to 15 lpm. This study will allow small-scale industries and residential buildings (in remote or inaccessible areas) to characterize the performance of PEMFC. Furthermore, fuel cell helps in reducing emission in the environment compared to fossil fuels. Also, fuel cells are ecofriendly as well as cost effective and can be the best alternative way to convert energy.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.1 no.4 s.4
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• pp.43-48
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• 2005

This study presents the integrated modeling approach to simulate the proton exchange membrane [PEM] fuel cell system for vehicle application. The fuel cell system consisting of stack and balance of plant (BOP) was simulated with MATLAB/Simulink environment to estimate the maximum system power and investigate the effect of BOP component sizing on system performance and efficiency. The PEM fuel cell stack model was established by using a semi-empirical modeling. To maximize the net efficiency of fuel cell system, multi-variable optimization code was adopted. Using this method, the optimized operating values were obtained according to various system net power levels. The fuel cell model established was co-linked to AVL CRUISE, a vehicle simulation package. Through the vehicle simulation software, the fuel economy of fuel cell powered electric vehicle for two types of driving cycles was presented and compared. It is expected that this study can be effectively employed in the basic BOP component sizing and in establishing system operation map with respect to net power level of fuel cell system.

• 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.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.541-544
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• 2005

This study presents the integrated modeling approach to simulate the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system for vehicle application. The fuel cell system consisting of stack and balance of plant (BOP) was simulated with MATLAB/Simulink environment to estimate the maximum system power and investigate the effect of BOP component sizing on system performance and efficiency. The PEM fuel cell stack model was established by using a semi-empirical modeling. To maximize the net efficiency of fuel cel1 system, multi-variable optimization code was adopted. Using this method the optimized operating values were obtained according to various system net power levels. The fuel cell model established was co-linked to AVL CRUISE, a vehicle simulation package. Through the vehicle simulation software, the fuel economy of fuel cell powered electric vehicle for two types of driving cycles was presented and compared. It is expected that this study tan be effectively employed in the basic BOP component sizing and in establishing system operation map with respect to net power level of fuel cell system.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.8
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• pp.1551-1558
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• 2009

This paper proposes a new power conditioning system for the fuel cell power generation, which consists of a LLC resonant DC-DC converter and 3-phase inverter. The LLC resonant converter boosts the fuel cell voltage of 26-48V up to 400V, using the hard-switching boost converter and the high-frequency ZVS half-bridge converter. The operation of proposed power conditioning system was verified through simulations with PSCAD/EMTDC software. The feasibility of hardware implementation was verified through experimental works with a laboratory prototype, which was built with 1.2kW PEM fuel-cell stack, 1kW LLC resonant converter, and 3kW PWM inverter. The proposed system can be utilized to commercialize a real interconnection system for the fuel-cell power generation.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.9
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• pp.1728-1734
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• 2009

This paper proposes a new power conditioning system for the fuel cell power generation, which consists of a ZVS DC-DC converter and 3-phase inverter. The ZVS DC-DC converter with a digital controller boosts the fuel cell voltage of 26-50V up to 400V, and the grid-tie inverter controls the active power delivered to the grid. The operation of proposed power conditioning system was verified through simulations with PSCAD/EMTDC software. The feasibility of hardware implementation was verified through experimental works with a laboratory prototype, which was built with 1.2kW PEM fuel-cell stack, 1kW DC-DC converter, and 3kW PWM inverter. The proposed system can be utilized to commercialize an interconnection system for the fuel-cell power generation.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.326-329
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• 2005

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) should be sufficiently hydrated with proper water management to maintain a good ionic conductivity and performance of a PEM fuel cell. However. cathode flooding resulting from excess water can impede the transport of reactants and hence deteriorate the fuel cell performance. For the PEM fuel cell to be commercially viable as vehicle or portable applications, the flooding on the cathode side should be minimized during the fuel cell operation. In this study, visualization technique was applied to understand the cathode flooding phenomena on the cathode side of a PEM fuel cell. To this end. a transparent PEM unit fuel cell wi th an act ive area of $25cm^2$ was designed and manufactured to allow for the visualization of cathode channel with performance characteristics. Two-phase flow resulting from the electro-chemical reaction of fuel cell was investigated experimentally. The images photographed by CCD camera with cell operating temperatures $(30\~50^{\circ}C)$ were presented. Results indicated that the flooding on the cathode side first occurs near the exit of cathode channel. As the operating temperature of fuel cell increases. it was found that liquid water droplets tend to evaporate easily and it can have an influence on lowering the flooding level. It is expected that this study can effectively contribute to the detailed researches on modeling water transport of an operating PEM fuel cell including two-phase flow phenomena.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.274-277
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• 2009

본 논문에서는 소형 PEM(Proton Exchange Membrane) 연료전지 스택의 BOS(Balance of Stack) 제어에 관하여 논의한다. 별도의 가습 장치가 필요치 않고 BOS의 구성이 비교적 간단한 소형 PEM 연료전지 시스템에서는 팬과 퍼지밸브만의 제어를 통해 스택 내부 수분의 조절과 열 관리가 수행된다. 따라서 본 논문에서는 부하에 따른 최적의 공기유량을 계산하고 요구되는 유량의 공급을 위해 팬을 제어하는 알고리즘을 통해 소형 연료전지 시스템의 과도응답 특성과 안정성을 향상시키는 방법에 관하여 제안한다. 150W급 소형 연료전지 시스템을 꾸미고, 마이크로컨트롤러를 이용한 제어회로를 구현하여 실험함으로써 제안된 알고리즘의 유용함을 검증하였다.