• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.279-288
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• 2014

Nuclear energy is expected to meet the growing energy demand while avoiding CO2 emission. However, the problem of accumulating spent fuel from current nuclear power plants which is mainly composed of uranium oxides should be addressed. One of the most practical solutions is to reduce the spent oxide fuel and recycle it. Next-generation fuel cycles demand innovative features such as a reduction of the environmental load, improved safety, efficient recycling of resources, and feasible economics. Pyroprocessing based on molten salt electrolysis is one of the key technologies for reducing the amount of spent nuclear fuel and destroying toxic waste products, such as the long-life fission products. The oxide reduction process based on the electrochemical reduction in a LiCl-$Li_2O$ electrolyte has been developed for the volume reduction of PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor) spent fuels and for providing metal feeds for the electrorefining process. To speed up the electrochemical reduction process, the influences of the feed form for the cathode and the type of anode shroud on the reduction rate were investigated.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.41-51
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• 2016

In the stratosphere, the air is stable and a photovoltaic (PV) system can produce more solar energy compared to in the atmosphere. If unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) fly in the stratosphere, the flight stability and efficiency of the mission are improved. On the other hand, the weakened lift force of the UAV due to the rarefied atmosphere can require more power for lift according to the weight and/or wing area of the UAV. To solve this problem, it is necessary to minimize the weight of the aircraft and improve the performance of the power system. A regenerative fuel cell (RFC) consisting of a fuel cell (FC) and water electrolysis (WE) combined PV power system has been investigated as a good alterative because of its higher specific energy. The WE system produces hydrogen and oxygen, providing extra energy beyond the energy generated by the PV system in the daytime, and then saves the gases in tanks. The FC system supplies the required power to the UAV at night, so the additional fuel supply to the UAV is not needed anymore. The specific energy of RFC systems is higher than that of Li-ion battery systems, so they have less weight than batteries that supply the same energy to the UAV. In this paper, for a stratospheric long-endurance hybrid UAV based on an RFC system, three major design factors (UAV weight, wing area and performance of WE) affecting the ability of long-term flight were determined and a simulation-based feasibility study was performed. The effects of the three design factors were analyzed as the flight time increased, and acceptable values of the factors for long endurance were found. As a result, the long-endurance of the target UAV was possible when the values were under 350 kg, above 150 m² and under 80 kWh/kg H₂.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.28-38
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• 2004

The characteristics of cyanide decomposition in aqueous phase by electric oxidization have been explored in an effort to develop a process to recycle waste water. Considering current efficiency and voltage, the free cyanide decomposition experiment by electric oxidization indicated that 5 V of voltage and copper catalytic Cu/CN mole ratio 0.05 was the most appropriate condition, where current efficiency was 26%, and decomposition speed was 5.6 mM/min. High voltage and excess copper addition increased decomposition speed a little bit but not current efficiency. The experiment of free cyanide density change proves that high density cyanide is preferred because speed and current efficiency increase with density. Also, the overall decomposition reaction could be represented by the first order with respcect to cyanide with the rate constant of $1.6∼7.3${\times}$10^{-3}$ $min^{-1}$ The mass transfer coefficient of electric oxidization of cyanide came out as $2.42${\times}$10^{-5}$ $min^{-1}$ Furthermore, the Damkohler number was calculated as 5.7 in case of 7 V and it was found that the mass transfer stage was the rate determining step.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.8-15
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• 1998

The catalytic hydrogenation of carbon dioxide has been studied for the fixation of carbon dioxide to mitigate global warming problems, but it needed hydrogen, which the price is still high. Recently, the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide has been drawn attractions because carbon dioxide could be converted to the valuable chemicals such as methane, ethane and alcohols electrochemically in the electrolyte solution using a catalytic electrode. This system is simple because the water electrolysis and hydrogenation take place at the same time using the surplus electricity at midnight. In this work, a continuous electrochemical reduction system was fabricated, which was composed of the reduction electrode (copper or perovskite type, $2{\times}2cm^2$), reference electrode(platinum, $2{\times}6cm^2$), standard electrode(Ag/AgCl), and potassium bicarbonate electrolyte solution saturated with carbon dioxide. The quality and quantity of the products and reduction current were analyzed, according to the electrolyte concentration and electrode type.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.8-12
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• 2007

Anhydrous magnesium chloride, dehydration product from magnesium chloride hydrate is a general raw material to prepare electrolytic magnesium. However, the dehydration is not trivial and can be accompanied by hydrolysis leading to the production of undesirable hydroxy chloride compounds of magnesium. Therefore, dehydration process is actually the most complicated and hardest in the electrolysis methods for the production of magnesium. In this work, the influence of dehydrating temperature has been studied at the temperature range from $200^{\circ}C$ to $600^{\circ}C$ in air and HCl gas atmosphere individually to compare the results. With increasing of dehydration temperature MgOHCl and MgO were obtained in air. On the other hand, when the temperature was increased above $300^{\circ}C$ anhydrous magnesium chlorides were prepared in HCl gas atmosphere. Anhydrous magnesium chloride was formed at near $300^{\circ}C$ and completely crystallized at about $500^{\circ}C$. All of the HCl used as atmosphere gas in the dehydration was recovered as hydrochloric acid solution at a water vessel up to 41% by weight at $20^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.92-96
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• 2019

Transition metal oxide is widely used as a water electrolysis catalyst to substitute for a noble metal catalyst such as $IrO_2$ and $RuO_2$. In this study, the sol-gel method is used to synthesize the $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$ catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER),. The CuxCo3-xO4 is synthesized at various calcination temperatures from $250^{\circ}C$ to $400^{\circ}C$ for 4 h. The $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$ synthesized at $300^{\circ}C$ has a perfect spinel structure without residues of the precursor and secondary phases, such as CuO. The particle size of $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$ increases with an increase in calcination temperature. Amongst all the samples studied, $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$, which is synthesized at 300?, has the highest activity for the OER. Its onset potential for the OER is 370 mV and the overpotential at $10mA/cm^2$ is 438 mV. The tafel slope of $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$ synthesized at $300^{\circ}C$ has a low value of 58 mV/dec. These results are mainly explained by the increase in the available active surface area of the $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$ catalyst.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.205-211
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• 2022

Deuterium (D) is an isotope with one more neutron number than hydrogen (H). Heavy elements rarely change their chemical properties with little effect even if the number of neutrons increases, but low-mass elements change their vibration energy, diffusion rate, and reaction rate because the effect cannot be ignored, which is called an isotope effect. Recently, in the semiconductor and display industries, there is a trend to replace hydrogen gas (H₂) with deuterium gas (D₂) in order to improve process stability and product quality by using the isotope effect. In addition, as the demand for D₂ in industries increases, domestic gas producers are making efforts to produce and supply D₂ on their own. In the case of high purity D₂, most of them are produced by electrolysis of heavy water (D₂O), and among D₂, hydrogen deuteride (HD) molecules are present as isotope impurities. Therefore, in order to maximize the isotope effect of hydrogen in the electronic industry, HD, which is an isotope impurity of D₂ used in the process, should be small amount. To this end, purity analysis of D₂ for industrial processing is essential. In this study, HD quantitative analysis of D₂ for high purity D₂ purity analysis was established and hydrogen isotope RM (Reference material) was developed. Since hydrogen isotopes are difficult to analyze with general gas analysis instrument, they were analyzed using a high-precision mass spectrometer (Gas/MS, Finnigan MAT271). High purity HD gas was injected into Gas/MS, sensitivity was determined by a signal according to pressure, and HD concentrations in two bottles of D₂ were quantified using the corresponding sensitivity. The amount fraction of HD in each D₂ was (4518 ± 275) μmol/mol, (2282 ± 144) μmol/mol. D₂, which quantifies HD amount using the developed quantitative analysis method, will be manufactured with hydrogen isotope RM and distributed for quality management and maintenance of electronic industries and gas producers in the future.

• Composites Research
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.37-41
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• 2023

The treated water inside the ballast electrolytic cell creates a highly alkaline atmosphere due to hydroxide generated at the DSA(Dimension Stable Anode) electrode during electrolysis. In this study, a composite material that can replace the weakness of the PE-coated steel pipe used in the existing ballast pipe was prepared. The test samples are BRE(Basalt fiber reinforced epoxy), BRP(Basalt fiber reinforced unsaturated polyester), GRE(Glass fiber reinforced epoxy), and GRP(Glass fiber reinforced unsaturated polyester). And then it was immersed in NaOH for 720 hours. The friction test of each specimen was conducted. The Friction coefficient analysis according to material friction depth and interfacial adhesion behavior between resin and fiber were analyzed. As a result, the mechanism of interfacial separation between resin and fiber could be analyzed. In the case of the unsaturated polyester resin with low interfacial bonding strength the longer the immersion time in the alkaline solution, the faster the internal deterioration caused by the deterioration that started from the surface, resulting in a decrease in the friction coefficient. It is hoped that this study will help to understand the degradation behavior of composite materials immersed in various chemical solutions such as NaOH, acid, and sodium hypochlorite in the future.