• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.59-66
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• 2011

Recently, an UAV using green energy for propulsion has been developed due to exhaustion of fossil fuel. This aircraft runs on electric motors rather than internal combustion engines, with electricity coming from fuel cells, solar cells, ultracapacitors, and/or batteries. Especially solar cells are installed in HALE UAV and flight tests are performed in the stratosphere. Although the solar powered UAV has the advantage of zero emission, its energy conversion efficiency is low and operation time is limited. Therefore, the solar powered UAV has been designed to operate with the secondary battery obtaining flexibility of energy management. In this study, we suggest the new operational concept of the solar powered UAV using directed-energy rayed from the surface of earth to UAV. An UAV is able to secure additional power through attaching solar cell to the lower surface of elevator. As a result, the additional energy supplied by directed-energy can improve the energy management and operational flexibility of the solar powered UAV.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.505-506
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• 2008

The direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is a promising power source for portable applications due to many advantages such as simple construction, compact design, high energy density, and relatively high energy-conversion efficiency. In this work, an electrochemical methanol sensor for monitoring the methanol concentration in direct methanol fuel cells was fabricated using a thin composite nafion membrane as the electrolyte. We have analyzed the I-V characteristic of the fabricated methanol sensor as a function of methanol concentration, catalyst electrode and platinum(Pt) dot.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.270-278
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• 2002

In order to reduce the exhaust emissions of a spark ignition engine, it is important not only to improve the catalyst conversion efficiency, but also to directly reduce the engine-out exhaust emissions during a cold starting of the engine and warm up periods. The purpose of this study is to evaluate feasibility of a glow plug for an early fuel evaporator. In order to promote atomization, gasoline is injected on the glow plug with room temperature(20$\^{C}$) and high temperature(250$\^{C}$). To analyze the spray behavior characteristics, a PMAS is used to measure the SMD and the dropsize distribution of an impinging spray and a free spray. Results show that the evaporation rate of the impinging spray on the high temperature surface of the glow plug was higher than that of the free spray on the room temperature surface.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.132.1-132.1
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• 2010

Anode off-gas of high temperature fuel cells such as MCFC still contain combustible components such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon. Thus, it's very important to fully burn anode off-gas and use the generated heat in order to increase system efficiency. In the present study, catalytic combustors have been applied to high temperature MCFC system so that the combustion of anode-off gas can be boosted up. Since the performance of catalytic combustor directly depends on the combustion catalyst, this study has been focused on the experimental investigation on the combustion characteristics of multiple commercial catalysts having different structures and compositions. In order to determine the design conditions of the catalytic combustor, parameters such as inlet temperature, space velocity and excess air ratio have been varied and optimized for combustor design. Results show that $H_2$ in off-gas assists $CH_4$ combustion in a way that it decreases minimum inlet temperature limit and increases maximum space velocity while keeping high fuel conversion efficiency.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.27-32
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• 2013

Renewable gas fuels such as biogas and landfill gas are obtained from the biodegradable organic wastes so that they inherently have carbon-neutral nature which can respond global warming. Therefore, attentions are paid to use this renewable gases as a main fuel for internal combustion engines. However, the composition of the fuel varies by its origin or conversion process, it is necessary to make stable combustion and accomplish high efficiency when used in power generating spark ignition (SI) engines. In this study, efforts have been made to investigate the effect of the composition of renewable gas fuel on the engine performance and exhaust emissions. In addition, a new spark plug with a long electrode was tested and compared with a base spark plug as a way to improve engine efficiency and reduce harmful emissions.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.213-217
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• 2009

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have been known as a new alternative energy conversion technology for treating wastewater and producing electricity simultaneously. A MFC converts the chemical energy of the organic compounds to electrical energy through microbial catalysis at the anode under anaerobic conditions. To examine the performance of MFC, in this work, the characteristics of the efficiency of wastewater treatment and generation of electricity was evaluated for sewage. When acetate as a carbon source was added into the sewage, the removal efficiency of COD was increased from 75.7% to 88.2% and the voltage was increased significantly from 0.22 V to 0.4 V. The influence of distance between anode and cathode was examined and the effect of the surface area of anode was investigated under the various external resistances. It was found that the maximum power density was $610mW/m^2$ and power generation was effective when the distance between the electrodes was shorter and the surface area of the anode was smaller.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.39-44
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• 2016

Oxygen reduction reaction in the fuel cell (ORR) plays a dominant role in the overall reaction. In addition, the low compatibility between the membrane and the binder consisted of different materials, greatly reduces the efficiency of the fuel cell performance. In view of these two problems, geometrically modified copolymers with 9.9_Bis (4-hydroxyphenyl) were synthesized via condensation reaction instead of conventional biphenol and were adopted as hydrocarbon ionomer binders. By utilizing these binders, two kinds of MEAs using fluorinated Nafion membrane and hydrocarbon based membrane were manufactured in order to electrochemical performance evaluation. With current-voltage curves, there was no significant difference in the 0.6 V when two types of membrane were applied. Also, tafel slope became considerably lower as compared to the Nafion membrane. Thus, it is determined that the new hydrocarbon binder is expected to contribute the improvement in performance of fuel cells.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.474-481
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• 2013

Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate the application of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) to the wastewater treatment systems employed in the Living Building Challenge. Methods: I reviewed a range of information on decentralized wastewater treatment technologies such as composting toilets, constructed wetlands, recirculating biofilters, membrane bioreactors, and MFCs. Results: The Living Building Challenge is a set of standards to make buildings more eco-friendly using renewable resources and self-treating water systems. Although there are various decentralized wastewater treatment technologies available, MFCs have been considered an attractive future option for a decentralized system as used in the Living Building Challenge. MFCs can directly convert substrate energy to electricity with high conversion efficiency at ambient and even at low temperatures. MFCs do not require energy input for aeration if using open-air cathodes. Moreover, MFCs have the potential for widespread application in locations lacking water and electrical infrastructure Conclusions: This paper demonstrated the feasibility of MFCs as a novel decentralized wastewater treatment system employed in the Living Building Challenge.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.7-14
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• 2002

In order to reduce exhaust omissions of spark ignition engine, it is important not only to improve catalyst conversion efficiency but also to directly reduce engine out exhaust emissions, during cold starting and warm up process. Therefore many researchers have been attracted to develop an early fuel evaporator(EFE) by Introducing a ceramic heater fur a solution of engine out exhaust emissions in SI engine. But, the performance of the EFE in MPI engine to reduce the exhaust emissions and to improve the cold startability has not been clarified yet. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of a glow plug far EFE. Impinging spray using heated and unheated glow plug helps the vaporization of the fuel and heat up the three way catalyst sufficiently. The amount of CO, and UHC is reduced overall. The amount of NOx is higher at the initial stage, but become lower as time goes on than without glow plug.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.31 no.3 s.258
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• pp.234-241
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• 2007

The regulations for hydrocarbon emission from vehicles have become much more stringent in recent years. These more stringent regulations request vehicle manufacturers to develop the advanced exhaust system for reducing exhaust emissions. The exhaust emissions has many sources in vehicle. In order to investigate the characteristics of hydrocarbon(HC) in the exhaust manifold, concentrations of individual HC species were measured in exhaust process. Using sampling valve, the light hydrocarbon emissions were captured in the exhaust manifold(catalyst before and after) and analyzed from LPLi engine exhaust manifold(catalyst before and after) using different fuel properties. Then exhaust samples were measured by gas chromatography(GC) and exhaust gas analyzer. Catalyst conversion efficiency for fuel properties of Butane 100% was better than Propane 100%. Start delay of LPLi engine was observed as increment of propane contents in LPG fuels.