• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.26-31
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• 2014

High temperature fuel cell system, such as molten carbonate fuel cells(MCFC) and solid oxide fuel cells(SOFC), are capable of operating at MW rated power output. The power output change of high temperature fuel cell imposes the thermal and mechanical stresses on the fuel cell stack. To minimize the thermal-mechanical stresses on the stack and increase the systems reliability, we should divide the power plant configuration to several banks. However, the improvement of reliability in fuel cell power plant system causes an increase of the investment cost, for example, replacement costs, labor costs, and so on. For this reason - the balance between investment and reliability improvement - many studies about the appropriate level of investment have been conducted. In this paper, we evaluate the cost for operation and installation, the benefit for electric energy and thermal energy sales, and the system reliability for several cases : these cases relate with the bank configuration.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.8-18
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• 2012

This paper presents a three-dimensional, transient cold-start polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) model to numerically evaluate the effects of membrane electrode assembly (MEA) design and cell location in a PEFC stack on PEFC cold start behaviors. The cold-start simulations show that the end cell experiences significant heat loss to the sub-freezing ambient and thus finally cold-start failure due to considerable ice filling in the cathode catalyst layer. On the other hand, the middle cells in the stack successfully start from $-30^{\circ}C$ sub-freezing temperature due to rapid cell temperature rise owing to the efficient use of waste heat generated during the cold-start. In addition, the simulation results clearly indicate that the cathode catalyst layer (CL) composition and thickness have an substantial influence on PEFC cold-start behaviors while membrane thickness has limited effect mainly due to inefficient water absorption and transport capability at subzero temperatures.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.99-102
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• 2006

Optimal flow-field design of bipolar-plates for a commercial class PEM(polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell stack was carried out on the basis of three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics(CFD) simulation. A three-dimensional CFD model originally developed by Shimpalee et al., has been utilized for performing large-scale simulation of a single fuel cell consisting of bipolar-plates gas diffusion layers, and a membrane-electrode-assembly(MEA). The CFD model is able to predict the current density, pressure drops, gas velocities, vapor and liquid water contents, temperature distributions, etc. inside a single fuel cell. Depending on simulation results from the CFD modeling of a PEM fuel cell, several flow-fields of bipolar-plates were designed and verified. The final design of the bipolar-plate has been chosen from the simulations and experimental tests and showed the best performance as expected from the simulation results under a normal operating condition. Thus, the CFD simulation approach to design the optimal flow-field of the bipolar-plates was successful. The final design was adopted as the best flow-field to build a commercial scale PEM fuel cell stack, the performance of which shows about 42% higher than that of the older bipolar-plate design.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.530-545
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• 2020

This paper reviews and summarizes the fuel-cell-related studies those have been recently published in major Korean Citation Index journals, aiming at analyzing the research trend in fuel cell technologies. Six major journals are selected for the literature survey; 57 papers are chosen for the detailed analysis through a screening examination on the total 1,040 papers published during between 2018 and 2020. Papers are classified into six technical categories, such as i) electrode, ii) electrolyte, iii) bipolar plate and stack, iv) fuel cell system, v) balance of plant, and vi) diagnosis-related studies, and summarized by the experts in the relevant area. Through this paper, we provide a comprehensive review on the recent trends and progress in fuel-cell-related research work in Korea.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.384-389
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• 2009

KEPRI (Korea Electric Power Research Institute) has studied planar type solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stacks using anode-supported cells and kW class co-generation systems for residential power generation. In this work, a 1 kW SOFC 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 SOFC stack made up of 48 cells, a fuel reformer, a catalytic combustor, and heat exchangers. Thermal management and insulation system were especially designed for self-sustainable operation in that system. A cold BOP part was composed of blowers, pumps, a water trap, and system control units. When the 1 kW SOFC stack was tested using hydrogen at $750^{\circ}C$, the stack power was about $1.2\;kW_e$ at 30 A and $1.6\;kW_e$ at 50 A. Turning off an electric furnace, the SOFC system was operated using hydrogen and city gas without any external heat source. Under self-sustainable operation conditions, the stack power was about $1.3\;kW_e$ with hydrogen and $1.2\;kW_e$ with city gas respectively. The system also recuperated heat of about $1.1\;kW_{th}$ by making hot water.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1996.05a
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• pp.80-83
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• 1996

Among the fuel cell system, solid oxide fuel eels is constructed of ceramics, so stack construction is simple , power density is very high, and there is no corrosion problems. The purpose of this research is investigate the characteristics of unit cell for SOFC .

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1997.07d
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• pp.1250-1251
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• 1997

Among the fuel cell system, solid oxide fuel cell is constructed of ceramics, so stack construction is simple, power density is very high, and there is no corrosion problem. The purpose of this research is to investigate the characteristics of state of art for SOFC.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.239-242
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• 2005

고분자 전해질형 연료전지에서는 수소이온의 이온전도성 저하를 방지하기 위하여 외부에서 가습하여 주는 방식이 일반적이지만, 가습에 소요되는 부품을 일부라도 제거할 경우 연료전지의 효율은 높이고 제작단가도 경감할 수 있다. 이를 위하여 저가습 및 무가습 실험을 수행하였으며, 정확한 data의 수집과 시험장비의 자동제어를 위하여 National Instrument사의 compact field point (cFP)를 사용하였다. 무가습 실험 중 stack의 안정성 측면을 고려하기 위하여 수소연료가 부족하거나 갑작스런 voltage drop이 발생할 경우 LabVIEW logic에 의한 stack 보호용 자동차단 시스템을 구현하였다. Humidifier와 heater의 온도를 조절하여 공급유체의 상대습도 및 온도를 각각 조절하였으며, 이에 필요한 이론적 온도는 Antoine equation을 사용하여 산정하였다. Anode와 cathode 양측 $100\%$ 가습 경우를 기준으로 가습량을 조절하면서 실험을 수행하였으며 성능 차이를 그래프로 도시하여 양측의 변화에 대한 영향을 볼 수 있도록 하였다. Stack의 온도가 $70^{\circ}C$이고 양측 무가습일 경우에 성능 측정이 불가능하여 stack의 온도를 저온에서부터 변화시키면서 무가습 성능을 실시간으로 측정하여 보았다 일반적으로 hydronium ion은 anode측에서 cathode측으로 계속 이동하여야 전기를 생성할 수 있으므로 cathode측 무가습이 anode측 무가습보다 성능이 더 잘 나오는 것으로 예측하였으나 이와 반대되는 경향의 실험 결과를 얻었다. Anode측 무가습과 cathode측 무가습의 standard deviation은 anode 무가습일 경우가 크게 발생하였고 양측 무가습일 경우는 stack의 온도가 높을수록 크게 관찰되었다. 이와 같은 현상은 공기중의 상대습도와 back diffusion등에 영향을 받을 수 있으므로 각종 변수들의 영향을 분리하여 관찰할 수 있는 실험을 수행중에 있다.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.79.2-79.2
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• 2010

FCEV(Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle)는 연료전지스택의 각 셀에서 반응하는 화학에너지를 전기에너지로 변환하여 차량을 구동하는 시스템이다. 이러한 연료전지 셀이 정상적인 발전이 되지 않을 경우 비정상적인 전압이 발전되고 이것을 방치한다면 연료전지 스택의 영구적인 고장을 야기할 수 있다. 이를 방지하기 위해 SVM(Stack Voltage monitor) 제어기는 각 셀의 전압을 측정하고 그 정보를 상위 제어기인 FCU(Fuel cell Control Unit)에 전달한다. 이에 FCU는 연료전지스택의 고장을 운전자에게 알리고 연료전지스택의 발전을 멈추게 한다. 기존에 SVM 제어기는 각 셀마다 분압저항을 통하여 측정하며 이 전압의 차를 이용하여 셀 전압을 계산하는 방식이었다. 이는 상위 셀로 갈수록 오차가 커지는 문제가 있고 다수의 CPU 및 DC/DC 컨버터가 적용이 필요하여 복잡한 구성과 가격이 높은 문제가 있었다. 이러한 문제점을 해결하기 위하여 cell monitoring IC를 적용하였고 좀 더 정밀한 측정과 간단한 인터페이스를 구성할 수 있었다. 본 연구에서는 기존 SVM 제어기보다 안정되고 정밀한 SVM 제어기의 개발에 대해 기술하였다.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.339-345
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• 2007

In the present study, a 10-cell PEMFC stack with straight type cathode flow channels is employed to investigate the effect of inlet air flow header configuration on the overall fuel cell performance. Four different types of inlet flow headers are considered and the flow patterns according to the air inlet flow header configuration are numerically obtained. The computed result for a modified header predicts about 8.5% improvement in the air flow distribution at 10-cell cathode channel inlets. Experiments are also carried out to confirm the numerical findings by measuring actual air flow distributions and the polarization curves of the PEMFC stack.