• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2009

High density polyethylene (HDPE) is degraded due to a radiation-induced oxidation when it is used as a neutron moderator in a neutron counter for a nuclear material accounting of spent fuels. The HDPE exposed to the gamma-ray emitted from the fission products in a spent nuclear fuel results in a radiation-induced degradation which changes its original molecular structure to others. So a neutron moderating power variation of HDPE, irradiated by a gamma radiation, was investigated in this work. Five HDPE moderator structures were exposed to the gamma radiation emitted from a $^{60}Co$ source to a level of $10^5-10^9$ rad to compare their post-irradiation properties. As a result of the neutron measurement test with 5 irradiated HDPE structures and a neutron measuring system, it was confirmed that the neutron moderating power for the $10^5$ rad irradiated HDPE moderator revealed the largest decrease when the un-irradiated pure one was used as a reference. It implies that a neutron moderating power variation of HDPE is not directly proportional to the integrated gamma dose rate. To clarify the cause of these changes, some techniques such as a FTIR, an element analysis and a densitometry were employed. As a result of these analyses, it was confirmed that the molecular structure of the gamma irradiated HDPEs had partially changed to others, and the contents of hydrogen and oxygen had varied during the process of a radiation-induced degradation. The mechanism of these changes cannot be explained in detail at present, and thus need further study.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.375-380
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• 1994

Matrices retaining electrolyte in phosphoric acid fuel cell were prepared with SiC to SiC whisker mixing ratios of 1:0.5, 1:1, 1:1.5, 1:2, 1:3 by tape casting method. When viscosity of the slurry was 5.9 poise and the SiC to SiC whisker mixing ratios were 1:1, 1:1.5, 1:2, the ranges of porosity, acid absorbency and bubble pressure were 80~90%, 2.5~6 and 700~2200 mmH2O, respectively. Those ranges are acceptable for a practical electrolyte-retaining matrix. With increasing the mixing ratio of SiC whisker to SiC, the porosity and the vol.% of large pores in the main pore size distribution which is between 1 and 10 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$, increased rapidly. Impedance spectroscopy was measured to know characteristics of matrix inside and contact region of matrix to catalyst layer. When the SiC to SiC whisker mixing ratio was 1:2, hydrogen ions were transported in the matrix most effectively because of high ionic conductivity and low activation energy due to high acid absorbency in spite of high interfacial resistance. The cell current density of the cell made using the matrix was 220 mA/$\textrm{cm}^2$ at 0.7 V.

• Clean Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.239-250
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• 2020

Biomass is an abundant renewable energy resource that can replace fossil fuels for the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG). Indonesia has a large number of cheap biomass feedstocks, such as reforestation (waste wood) and palm residues (empty fruit bunch or EFB). In general, raw biomass contains more than 20% moisture and lacks calorific value, energy density, grindability, and combustion efficiency. Those properties are not acceptable fuel attributes as the conditions currently stand. Recently, torrefaction facilities, especially in European countries, have been built to upgrade raw biomass to solid fuel with high quality. In Korea, there is no significant market for torrefied solid fuel (co-firing) made of biomass residues, and only the wood pellet market presently thrives (~ 2 million ton yr-1). However, increasing demand for an upgraded solid fuel exists. In Indonesia, torrefied woody residues as co-firing fuel are economically feasible under the governmental promotion of renewable energy such as in feed-in-tariff (FIT). EFB, one of the chief palm residues, could replace coal in cement kiln when the emission trading system (ETS) and clean development mechanism (CDM) system are implemented. However, technical issues such as slagging (alkali metal) and corrosion (chlorine) should be addressed to utilize torrefied EFB at a pulverized coal boiler.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.126-132
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• 2022

Alkaline fuel cells using liquid fuels such as hydrazine and ammonia are gaining great attention as a clean and renewable energy solution possibly owing to advantages such as excellent energy density, simple structure, compact size in fuel container, and ease of storage and transportation. However, common shortcomings including cathode flooding, fuel crossover, side yield reactions, and fuel security and toxicity are still challenging issues. Real time monitoring of fuel concentrations integrated into a fuel cell device can help improving fuel cell performance via predicting any loss of fuels used at a cathode for efficient energy production. There have been extensive research efforts made on developing real-time sensing platforms for hydrazine and ammonia. Among these, recent advancements in electrochemical sensors offering high sensitivity and selectivity, easy fabrication, and fast monitoring capability for analysis of hydrazine and ammonia concentrations will be introduced. In particular, research trend on the integration of metallic and metal oxide nanoparticles and also their hybrids with carbon-based nanomaterials into electrochemical sensing platforms for improvement in sensitivity and selectivity will be highlighted.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2020

In recent days, fuel cell has received attention from the world as an alternative power source to hydrocarbon used in automobile engines. With the industrial advances of fuel cell, There have been a lot of researches actively conducted to find a way of generating hydrogen. Among many hydrogen production methods, Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell(SOEC) is not only a basic way but also environment-friendly method to produce hydrogen gas. Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell has lower electrical energy demands and high thermal efficiency since it is possible to operate under high temperature and high pressure conditions. For these reasons, experimental researches as well as studies on numerical modeling for Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell have been under way. However, studies on numerical modeling are relatively less enough than experimental accomplishments and have limited performance prediction, which mostly is considered as a result from inadequate effects of electrochemical properties by temperature and pressure. In this study, various experimental studies of commercial Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) composed of Ni-YSZ (40wt%, Ni-60 wt% YSZ)/8-YSZ (TOSOH, TZ8Y)/LSM (La_0.9Sr_0.1MnO₃) was utilized for improving effectiveness of SOEC model. After numerically analyzing effects of electrochemical properties according to operating temperature, causing the largest deviation between experiments and simulation are that Charge Transfer Coefficient (CTC), exchange current density, diffusion coefficient, electrical conductivity in SOEC. Analyzing temperature effect on parameter used in overpotential model is conducted for modeling of SOEC. cross-validation method is adopted for application of various MEA and evaluating feasibility of model. As a result, the study confirm that the numerical model of SOEC based on structured process of effectiveness evaluation makes performance prediction better.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.592-598
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• 2011

Electrode of solid oxide fuel cell must have sufficient porosity to allow gas transport to the interface with electrolyte effectively but high porosity has a negative impact on structural stability in electrode support. Thus, the upper limit of porosity is based on consideration of mechanical strength of electrode. In this study, the effect of microstructure of Ni-YSZ anode supported SOFC on the mechanical and electrical property was investigated. LSCF composite cathode and 8YSZ electrolyte were used. The porosity of the anode was modified by the amount of graphite powder and added graphite contents were 24, 18, 12 vol%, respectively. The higher the porosity, the better the electrical performance, $P_{max}$. While the flexural strength decreased with increasing the amount of graphite. But the rate of increase in electrical performance and the rate of decrease in mechanical strength were not directly proportional to amount of graphite. The optimum graphite content incorporating both electrical and mechanical performance was 18 vol%.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.357-363
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• 2021

Eco-friendly hybrid railroad propulsion system with fuel-cell and battery was suggested to reduce carbon dioxide gas and replace retired diesel railroads. Lithium-ion battery with high energy/power density and long lifetime is selected as the energy source at the battery side due to its excellent performance. However, the performance of lithium-ion batteries was affected by temperature, current rate, and operating condition. Temperature is known to be the most influential factor in changing battery parameters. In addition, appropriate thermal management is required to ensure the safe and effective operation of lithium-ion battery. Electro-thermal coupled model with varying parameter depends on temperature, and state-of-charge (SOC) is suggested to estimate battery temperature. The electric-thermal coupled model contains diffusion current using parameter identification by adaptive control algorithm when considering thermal diffusion effect. An experiment under forced convection was conducted using cylindrical cell and 18 parallel-connected battery module to demonstrate the method.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.49-57
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• 2019

Biomass, a carbon-neutral fuel, has great advantages because it can replace fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, due to its low density, high water content, and hydrophilicity, biomass has disadvantages for transportation and storage. To improve these properties, a pretreatment process of biomass is required. One of the various pre-treatment technologies, torrefacion, makes biomass similar to coal through low-temperature pyrolysis. In this study, torrefacion treatment was carried out at 200, 230, 250, 280, and $300^{\circ}C$ for wood pellet, empty fruit bunch (EFB) and kenaf, and the feasibility of replacing coal with fuel was examined. Hygroscopicity tests were conducted to analyze the hydrophobicity of biomass, and its chemical structure changes were investigated using Infrared spectrum analysis. It was confirmed that the hygroscopicity was decreased gradually as the torrefacion temperature increased according to the hygroscopicity tests. The hydrophilicity was reduced according to the pyrolysis of hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin of biomass.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.403-409
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• 2008

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is very interesting power source due to high power density, simple construction and operation at low temperature. But it has problems such as high cost, improvement of performance, effect of temperature and initial start at low temperature. These problems can be approached to be solved by using experiment and mathematical method which are general principles for analysis and optimization of control system for heat and hydrogen detecting management. In this paper, insulation vessel and control system for stable operation of fuel cell at low temperature were developed for experiment. The constant temperature capability and the heating time at sub-zero temperatures with insulation control system were studied by using a heating bar of 60W class. PEMFC stack which was made by 4 cells with $50\;mc^2$ active area in each cell is a thermal source. Times which take to reach constant temperature by the state of insulation vacuum were measured at variable environment temperatures. The test was performed at two conditions: heating mode and cooling mode. Constant temperature capability was better at lower environment temperature and vacuum pressure. The results of this experiment could be used as basis data about stable operation of fuel cell stack in low temperature zone.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.74-82
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• 2012

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell performance is changed by the complicated physical phenomenon. In this study, water discharge performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell were performed numerically to compare serpentine channel flow fields of 5-pass 4-turn serpentine and 25 $cm^2$ reaction surface between with and without sub-channel at the rib. Through the supplement of sub channel flow field, it is shown from the results that water removal characteristic inside channel improves because the flow direction of under-rib convection is changed into the sub channel. Reacting gases supplied from entrance disperse into sub channel flow field and electrochemical reaction occurs uniformly over the reaction surface. The results obtained that total current density distributions become uniform because residence time of reacting gases traveling to sub-channel flow field is longer than to main channel.