• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.244-249
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• 2012

Recently energy crisis and environmental pollution using fossil fuel became social issue. The Fuel Cell, one of the new and renewable energy has great advantage for the former mentioned problems. The PEM Fuel Cell needs highly purified hydrogen for fuel, in many cases CH4 was reformed to H2 basically using steam reforming. The purpose of this paper is to understand the probability of ceramic honeycomb to apply the combustor of STR. We tested the heat accumulation performance of ceramic honeycomb by change of excess air ratio. The results were suitable for our purpose and also these results can be used to make high temperature air at mild combustion field.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2016

In this study, CFD model for a Heat Exchange Steam Reformer (HESR) used for a 10kW SOFC system is developed for the design optimization of the HESR. The model is used to explore the effect of design parameters on the performance of the HESR. In the HESR, heat is delivered from the hot gas channel to the fuel channel to supply the heat required for the fuel reforming. In the fuel channel where the fuel is reformed, thermo-fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and chemical reaction are considered to predict the performance of the reformer. The model is validated with experimental data within 2~3% error. The validated model is used for the parametric study of the HESR design. Channel length, channel diameter, and flow direction are selected as the design parameters. The effects of the HESR design parameters on the outlet temperature, outlet H2 mole fraction, and pressure drop across the reformer are presented using the model.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.515-524
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• 2022

In this study, the on-site hydrogen production process for refueling stations that were not energy-optimized was improved through exergy analysis and heat exchange network synthesis. Furthermore, the process was scaled up from 30 Nm3/h to 150 Nm3/h to improve hydrogen production capacity. Exergy analysis results show that exergy destruction in the SMR reactor and the heat exchanger accounts for 58.1 and 19.8%, respectively. Thus, the process is improved by modifying the heat exchange network to reduce the exergy loss in these units. As a result of the process simulation analysis, thermal and exergy efficiency is improved from 75.7 to 78.6% and 68.1 to 70.4%, respectively. In conclusion, it is expected to improve the process efficiency when installing on-site hydrogen refueling stations.

• Clean Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.329-335
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• 2020

Methanol synthesized from renewable hydrogen and captured CO2 has recently attracted great interest as a sustainable energy carrier for large-scale renewable energy storage. In this study, molten carbonate fuel cell's performance was investigated with the direct conversion of methanol into syngas inside the anode chamber of the cell. The internal reforming of methanol may significantly improve system efficiency since the heat generated from the electrochemical reaction can be used directly for the endothermic reforming reaction. The porous Ni-10 wt%Cr anode was sufficient for the methanol steam reforming reaction under the fuel cell operating condition. The direct supply of methanol into the anode chamber resulted in somewhat lower cell performance, especially at high current density. Recycling of the product gas into the anode gas inlet significantly improved the cell performance. The analysis based on material balance revealed that, with increasing current density and gas recycling ratio, the methanol steam reforming reaction rate likewise increased. A methanol conversion more significant than 90% was achieved with gas recycling. The results showed the feasibility of electricity and syngas co-production using the molten carbonate fuel cell. Further research is needed to optimize the fuel cell operating conditions for simultaneous production of electricity and syngas, considering both material and energy balances in the fuel cell.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.229-237
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• 2005

A new burner configuration for a compact fuel-cell reformer with a high-temperature air combustion concept was numerically studied. The burner was designed for a 40 $Nm^3/hr$ hydrogen-generated reformer using natural gas-steam reforming method. In order to satisfy the primary requirements for designing a reformer burner (uniform distribution of temperature along the fuel processor walls and minimum heat losses from the reformer), the features of the present burner configuration included 1) a self-regenerative burner for an exhaust-gas-recirculation to apply for the high-temperature air combustion concept, and 2) an annular-type shield for protecting direct contact of flame with the processor walls. For the injection velocities of the recirculated gas of 0.6-2.4 m/s, the recirculated gas temperature of 1000 K, and the recirculated oxygen mole fraction of 4%, the temperature distributions along the processor walls were found uniform within 100 K variation. Thus, the present burner configuration satisfied the requirement for reducing temperature gradients along the processor walls, and consequently demonstrated that the high-temperature air combustion concept could be applied to the practical fuel reformers for use of fuel cells. The uniformity of temperature distribution is enhanced as the amount of the recirculated gas increases.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.2181-2185
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• 2008

Fuel processing systems which convert HC fuel into $H_2$ rich gas (such as stream reforming, partial oxidation, auto-thermal reforming) need high temperature environment($600-1000^{\circ}C$). Generally, anode-off gas or mixture of anode-off gas and LNG is used as input gas of fuel reformer. In order to make efficient and low emission burner system for fuel reformer, it is necessary to elucidate the combustion and emission characteristic of fuel reformer burner. The purpose of this study is to develop a porous premixed flat ceramic burner that can be used for 1-5kW fuel cell reformer. Ceramic burner experiments using natural gas, hydrogen gas, anode off gas were carried out respectively to investigate the flame characteristics by heating capacity and equivalence ratio. Results show that the stable flat flames can be established for natural gas, hydrogen gas, anode off gas and mixture of natural & anode off gas as reformer fuel. For all of fuels, their burning velocities become smaller as the equivalence ratio goes to the lean mixture ratio, and a lift-off occurs at lean limit. Flame length in hydrogen and anode off gas became longer with increasing the heat capacity.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2014.11a
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• pp.107-109
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• 2014

Through the economic development, people enjoying the camping and demand of camping goods are increasing since they have free time. So they use portable butane gas range outdoor. In addition to that, many restaurants that offer hotpot or meat in Korea use portable butane gas ranges for their convenience. But 19% of gas accidents are using portable butane gas range, 13.7% of them are using oversized cookware. Despite the high accident rate, there is no safety standards about portable butane gas range using oversized cookware. Therefore we conducted to measure temperature and pressure of portable butane gas ranges for reforming safety standards. As a result. we confirmed relation between bottom temperature of the portable butane gas barrel and pressure of the butane gas. Also we confirmed that portable butane gas ranges operate safely when bottom temperature of the portable butane gas barrel is bellow $50^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.1652-1657
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• 2004

Model for the dynamic simulation of dynamic behaviors of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is provided. This model is based upon (1) coupled mass and heat transfer characteristics and (2) important chemical reactions such as electrochemical and reforming reaction in high temperature fuel cells such as SOFC. It is found that the thermal inertia of solid materials in SOFC plays an important role to the dynamic behavior of cell temperature. Dynamic characteristics of cell voltage, power and chemical compositions with different levels of load changes are investigated.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.19-22
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• 2007

In this study, we investigated operating characteristics of natural gas fuel processor for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The fuel processor consists of a natural gas reformer, a water-gas shift reactor, a heat-exchanger and a burner, in which the overall integrated volume is exactly(exceptionally) small, namely, about 10L except outer insulation. The producted hydrogen is $1Nm^3/hr$ and the maximum thermal efficiency is ${\sim}76%$(low heating value) at full operating load. A compact and highly efficient $1Nm^3/hr$ class natural gas fuel processor was developed at UNISON is an advantage for application in residential PEMFCs co-generation systems.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.3125-3130
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• 2008

Coal is one of the most abundant and cheapest energy sources in the earth, but its typical combustion product, $CO_2$, is related with serious recent environmental issues such as global warming. The Integrated Coal Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) with $CO_2$ sequestration is one of the most promising options to produce electricity using a relatively cheap fuel (coal) with minimum impact on environment. In IGCC power generation systems, some chemical reactions are required to gasify coal to produce syngases such as $H_2$ and CO, which would be burnt in the combustor to produce heat for power generation, with a penalty of additional energy consumption. In this paper, several chemical reactions for the gasification of coal are considered and their characteristics are investigated.