• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.58.2-58.2
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• 2012

Heavy hydrocarbon reforming is a core technology for "Dirty energy smart". Heavy hydrocarbons are components of fossil fuels, biomass, coke oven gas and etc. Heavy hydrocarbon reforming converts the fuels into $H_2$-rich syngas. And then $H_2$-rich syngas is used for the production of electricity, synthetic fuels and petrochemicals. Energy can be used efficiently and obtained from various sources by using $H_2$-rich syngas from heavy hydrocarbon reforming. Especially, the key point of "Dirty energy smart" is using "dirty fuel" which is wasted in an inefficient way. New energy conversion laboratory of KAIST has been researched diesel reforming for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) as a part of "Dirty energy smart". Diesel is heavy hydrocarbon fuels which has higher carbon number than natural gas, kerosene and gasoline. Diesel reforming has difficulties due to the evaporation of fuels and coke formation. Nevertheless, diesel reforming technology is directly applied to "Dirty fuel" because diesel has the similar chemical properties with "Dirty fuel". On the other hand, SOFC has advantages on high efficiency and wasted heat recovery. Nippon oil Co. of Japan recently commercializes 700We class SOFC system using city gas. Considering the market situation, the development of diesel reformer has a great ripple effect. SOFC system can be applied to auxiliary power unit and distributed power generation. In addition, "Dirty energy smart" can be realized by applying diesel reforming technology to "Dirty fuel". As well as material developments, multidirectional approaches are required to reform heavy hydrocarbon fuels and use $H_2$-rich gas in SOFC. Gd doped ceria (CGO, $Ce_{1-x}Gd_xO_{2-y}$) has been researched for not only electrolyte materials but also catalysts supports. In addition, catalysts infiltrated electrode over porous $La_{0.8}Sr_{0.2}Ga_{0.8}Mg_{0.2}O_3-{\delta}$ and catalyst deposition at three phase boundary are being investigated to improve the performance of SOFC. On the other hand, nozzle for diesel atomization and post-reforming for light-hydrocarbons removal are examples of solving material problems in multidirectional approaches. Likewise, multidirectional approaches are necessary to realize "Dirty energy smart" like reforming "Dirty fuel" for SOFC.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.529-545
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• 2013

Strong restrictions on emissions from marine power plants (particularly $SO_x$, $NO_x$) will probably be adopted in the near future. In this paper, a combined solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and gas turbine fuelled by natural gas is proposed as an attractive option to limit the environmental impact of the marine sector. It includes a study of a heat-recovery system for 18 MW SOFC fuelled by natural gas, to provide the electric power demand onboard commercial vessels. Feasible heat-recovery systems are investigated, taking into account different operating conditions of the combined system. Two types of SOFC are considered, tubular and planar SOFCs, operated with either natural gas or hydrogen fuels. This paper includes a detailed thermodynamic analysis for the combined system. Mass and energy balances are performed, not only for the whole plant but also for each individual component, in order to evaluate the thermal efficiency of the combined cycle. In addition, the effect of using natural gas as a fuel on the fuel cell voltage and performance is investigated. It is found that a high overall efficiency approaching 70% may be achieved with an optimum configuration using SOFC system under pressure. The hybrid system would also reduce emissions, fuel consumption, and improve the total system efficiency.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.405-411
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• 2010

A 5kW class SOFC cogeneration system consisted of a hot box part, a cold BOP (balance of plant) part, and a hot water reservoir. The hot box part contained a stack, a fuel reformer, a catalytic combustor, and heat exchangers. A cold BOP part was composed of blowers, pumps, a water trap, and system control units. A 5kW stack was designed to integrate 2 sub-modules. In this paper, the 5kW class SOFC system was operated using 2 short stacks connected in parallel to test the sub-module and the system. A short stack had 15 cells with $15{\times}15 cm^2$ area. When a natural gas was used, the total power was about 1.38 kW at 120A. Because the sub-modules were connected in parallel and current was loaded using a DC load, voltages of sub-modules were same and the currents were distributed according to the resistance of sub-modules. The voltage of the first stack was 11.46 V at 61A and the voltage of the second stack was 11.49V at 59A.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.45 no.12
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• pp.772-776
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• 2008

The Korea Electric Power Research Institute (KEPRI) has been developing planar solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and power systems for combined heat and power (CHP) units. The R&D work includes solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) materials investigation, design and fabrication of single cells and stacks, and kW class SOFC CHP system development. Anode supported cells composed of Ni-YSZ/FL/YSZ/LSCF were enlarged up to $15{\times}15\;cm^2$ and stacks were manufactured using $10{\times}10\;cm^2$ cells and metallic interconnects such as ferritic stainless steel. The first-generation system had a 37-cell stack and an autothermal reformer for use with city gas. The system showed maximum stack power of about $1.3\;kW_{e,DC}$ and was able to recover heat of $0.57{\sim}1.2\;kW_{th}$ depending on loaded current by making hot water. The second-generation system was composed of an improved 48-cell stack and a prereformer (or steam reformer). The thermal management subsystem design including heat exchangers and insulators was also improved. The second-generation system was successfully operated without any external heat source. Under self-sustainable operation conditions, the stack power was about $1.3\;kW_{e,DC}$ with hydrogen and $1.2\;kW_{e,DC}$ with city. The system also recuperated heat of about $1.1\;kW_{th}$ by making hot water. Recently KEPRI manufactured a 2kW class SOFC stack and a system by scaling up the second-generation 1kW system and will develop a 5kW class CHP system by 2010.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.484-496
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• 2009

The strengthened regulations for atmospheric emissions from ships like MARPOL Annex VI have caused a necessity of new, alternative power system in ships for the low pollutant emissions and the high energy efficiency. This paper attempts to investigate the configuration of SOFC/GT hybrid power system for LNG tanker taking into account the safety and to analyze the influence of design parameters on the system performance. The simulation results provide the basic data for the design and efficiency improvement of SOFC/GT hybrid system and indicate the guidelines for the safe system operation.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.78.1-78.1
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• 2010

The metal-supported solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) was studied. Hydrocarbon fueled operation is necessary to make SOFC system. Different operating characteristics for metal-supported SOFC are used than for conventional ones as hydrocarbon fueled operation. Metal-supported SOFC was successfully fabricated by a high temperature sinter-joining method and the cathode was in-situ sintered. Synthetic gas, which is compounded as the diesel reformate gas composition and low hydrocarbons was completely removed by the diesel reformer. Metal-supported SOFC with synthetic gas was operated and evaluated and its characteristics analyzed. Button cell and $5{\times}5cm^2$ single stack were mainly operated and analyzed. Long-term operation using diesel reformate shows degradation, and degradation analysis was completed in the view of metal oxidation. Solution to increase stability of long-term operation was tried in the way of materials and operating conditions. Finally, $5{\times}5cm^2$ metal-supported single stack using synthetic gas was operated for 1000 hours under the modified condition.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.233-243
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• 2009

The strengthened regulations for atmospheric emissions from ships like MARPOL Annex VI have caused a necessity of new, alternative power system in ships for the low pollutant emissions and the high energy efficiency. This paper attempts to investigate the configuration of SOFC system for LNG tanker taking into account the safety and to analyze the influence of design parameters on the system performance. The simulation results provide the basic data for the design and efficiency improvement of SOFC system and indicate the guidelines for the safe system operation.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.110-115
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• 2007

Solid oxide fuel cell(SOFC) has high fuel flexibility due to its high operating temperatures. Hydrocarbonaceous fuels such as diesel has several advantages such as high energy density and established infrastructure for fuel cell applications. However diesel reforming has technical problems like coke formation in a reactor, which results in catastrophic failure of whole system. Performance degradation of diesel autothermal reforming (ATR) leads to increase of undesirable hydrocarbons at reformed gases and subsequently degrades SOFC performance. In this study, we investigate the degradation of SOFC performance(OCV, open circuit voltage) under hydrocarbon(n-Butane) feeds and characteristics of diesel performing under various ratios of reactants($H_2O/C,\;O_2/C$ molar ratios) for improvement of SOFC performance. Especially we achieved relatively high performance of diesel ATR under $H_2O/C=0.8,\;O_2/C=3$ condition.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.399-407
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• 2011

This study analyzes the performance of hybrid power systems combining a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and a gas turbine (GT). Research focus is given to the influence of the size-dependent gas turbine performance on hybrid system performance. Three hybrid systems adopting different gas turbines (kW, sub-MW, multi-MW classes) are designed. As the gas turbine power increases (i.e. as the gas turbine performance enhances), the gas turbine power portion increases and the hybrid system efficiency increases. The hybrid system shows efficiency improvement over the SOFC only system even in the case where the gas turbine net power is nearly zero. The increase of gas turbine pressure ratio contributes to the net hybrid system power output in all of the three cases, while system efficiency is almost independent on the pressure ratio.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.609-615
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• 2011

A 5 kW class SOFC system for cogeneration power units was consisted of a hot box part and cold BOPs. High temperature components such as a stack, a fuel reformer, a catalytic combustor, and heat exchanges are arranged in the bot box considering their operating temperatures for the system efficiency. The hot box was made of ceramic boards for the thermal insulation. A 5 kW class SOFC stack was composed of 2 sub-modules and each module had 64 cells with $15{\times}15cm^2$ area and stainless steel interconnects. The 5 kW class SOFC system was operated with a hydrogen and a city gas. With a hydrogen, the total power of the stacks was about 7.1 kWDC and electrical efficiency was about 49.3% at 80 A. With a city gas, the total power of the stacks was about 5.7 $kW_{DC}$ and electrical efficiency was about 38.8% at 60 A. Under self-sustained operating condition, the system efficiency including a power conditioning loss and a consumed power by BOPs was about 30.2%.