• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.687-693
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• 2019

As the hydrogen fuel cell market is expanded starting from hydrogen electric vehicle and power generation field, the demand for fuel cells and hydrogen increases recently. Therefore, research works on fuel cell durability and fuel efficiency are required in order to activate the fuel cell market and commercialization. A dead-ended anode system was used in this study to optimize the fuel cell performance and fuel efficiency. The effect of purge condition according to the applied current and hydrogen supply pressure on the fuel cell performance were evaluated. In addition, the influence of water back diffusion on the different electrolyte membrane thickness was analyzed. The accumulated water was purged with a solenoid valve in the case of 3% voltage decrease in the dead-ended anode system. The experiment was performed with the hydrogen supply pressure of 0.1~0.5 bar and purge duration of 0.1~1 second. A maximum fuel efficiency of 98.9% was achieved under the purge duration of 0.1 s and hydrogen supply pressure of 0.1 bar with a NR 211 (25.4 um) membrane. However, the fuel cell performance decreased in a long-term operation due to some frequent flooding. The fuel efficiency and purge interval increased due to decreased back diffusion rates of the water and nitrogen with a NR 212 (50.8 um) membrane.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.135-143
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• 2016

Biogas is a renewable fuel from anaerobic digestion of organic matters such as sewage sludge, manure and food waste. Raw biogas consists mainly of methane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and water. Biogas may also contain other impurities such as siloxanes, halogenated hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons. Efficient power technologies such as fuel cell demand ultra-low concentration of containments in the biogas feed, imposing stringent requirements on fuel purification technology. Biogas is upgraded from pressure swing adsorption after biogas purification process which consists of water, $H_2S$ and siloxane removal. A polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell power plant is designed to operate on reformate produced from upgraded biogas by steam reformer.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.141-145
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• 2016

Polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) are key components to determine electrochemical fuel cell performances, in addition to electrode materials. The PEMs need to satisfy selective transport behaviors to small molecules including gases and protons; the PEMs have to transport protons as fast as possible, while they should act as hydrogen barriers, since the permeated gas induces the thermal degradation of cathode catalyst, resulting in rapid electrochemical reduction. To date, limited tools have been used to measure how fast hydrogen gas permeates through PEMs (e.g., Constant volume/variable Pressure (time-lag) method). However, most of the measurements are conducted under vacuum where PEMs are fully dried. Otherwise, the obtained hydrogen permeance is easily changeable, which causes the measurement errors to be large. In this study, hydrogen permeation properties through Nafion212 used as a standard PEM are evaluated using an in-situ measurement system in which both temperature and humidity are controlled at the same time.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.12 s.255
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• pp.1196-1202
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• 2006

A MEMS methanol reformer was fabricated and its performance was evaluated in the present study. Catalytic steam reforming of methanol was selected because the process had been widely applied in macro scale reformers. Conventional Cu/ZnO catalyst that was prepared by co-precipitation method to give the highest coating quality was used. The reactor structure was made by bonding three layers of glass wafers. The internal structure of the wafer was fabricated by the wet-etching process that resulted in a high aspect ratio. The internal surface of the reactor was coated by catalyst and individual wafers were fusion-bonded to form the reactor structure. The internal volume of the microfabricated reactor was $0.3cm^3$ and the reactor produced exhaust gas with hydrogen concentration at 73%. The production rate of hydrogen was 4.16 ml/hr that could generate power of 350 mW in a typical PEM fuel cell.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.183-190
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• 2012

Hydrogen was generated by the reaction of metal hydride with water. The variation of hydrogen generation with the kind of powders (milled $MgH_2$, and $MgH_2$ milled with various contents of MgO, $MgCl_2$ or $Ni+Nb_2O_5$) was investigated. $MgH_2$ powder with a hydrogen content of 6.05 wt% from Aldrich Company was used. Hydrogen is generated by the reaction of Mg as well as $MgH_2$ with water, resulting in the formation of byproduct $Mg(OH)_2$. For about 5 min of reaction time, milled $95%MgH_2+5%MgO$ has the highest hydrogen generation rate among milled $MgH_2+x%MgO$ (x=0, 5, 10, 15 and 20) samples. Milled $90%MgH_2+10%MgCl_2$ has the highest hydrogen generation rate among all the samples.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.335-340
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• 2016

Hydrogen production through proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) is expeditiously receiving international attention for renewable energy sources as well as energy storage system applications due to its environmentally friendly uses. A series of $Ir_{0.2}Ru_{0.8}O_2$ $Ir_{0.5}Ru_{0.8}O_2$ & $IrO_2$ catalysts were synthesized and electrochemically evaluated by using linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) technique. Furthermore, the PEMWE performances of full cells were evaluated by recording I-V Curves. The developed PEMWE stack was also operated in combination with a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) to demonstrate the discrete regenerative fuel cell (DRFC) performances. Produced hydrogen and oxygen from PEMWE were used as a fuel to operate PEMFC to establish a DRFC system.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.458-465
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• 2018

This study reports the fabrication of anion exchange membranes (AEMs) containing two kinds of functional groups: i) trimethylphosphite (TMP) and ii) trimethylamine (TMA). We carried out the synthesis of polymers to enhance thermal stability and ion conductivity. The alternative polymer was prepared using 2,2-bis(4-hydroxy-3-methylphenyl)propane and decafluorobiphenyl. The membrane was fabricated by solution casting method. The thermal stability of membranes was examined by TGA. The physiochemical properties of membranes were also investigated in terms of water uptake, swelling ratio, ion exchange capacity, and ion conductivity. The hydroxide ion conductivity of the membranes reached about 20.2 mS/cm for quaternary ammonium poly(arylene ether) (QA-PAE) containing TMA moiety and 5.1 mS/cm for quaternary phosphonium PAE (QP-PAE) containing TMP moiety at $90^{\circ}C$.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.207-214
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• 2009

Crossover of nitrogen from cathode to anode is inevitable in typical membranes used in PEM fuel cells. This crossovered nitrogen normally accumulates in the hydrogen recirculation system at anode side channels. Excessive buildup of nitrogen in the anode side lowers the relative hydrogen concentration and finally affects the performance of fuel cell stack. So it is very important to analysis the nitrogen gas crossover at various operating conditions. In this study, characterization of nitrogen gas crossover in PEM fuel cell stack was investigated. The mass spectroscopy (MS) has been applied to measure the amount of the crossovered nitrogen gas at the anode exit. Results show that nitrogen gas crossover rate was affected by current density, anode and cathode stoichiometric ratio and operating pressure. Current density, anode stoichiometric ratio and anode operating pressure do not affect nitrogen crossover rate but anode exit concentration of nitrogen. Cathode pressure and stoichiometric ratio largely affect the nitrogen crossover rate.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.39-42
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• 2007

Hydrogen fuel cell is clean and efficient technology along with high energy densities. While there are many different types of fuel cells, the proton exchange membrane fuel cell stands out as one of the most promising for transportation and small stationary applications. This paper focuses on design of bipolar plate for proton exchange membrane fuel cell. The bipolar plate model is realistically and accurately simulated velocity distribution, current density distribution and its effect on the PEMFC system using CFD tool FLUENT.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.490-496
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• 2023

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) research is recently actively underway. Especially, fuel cell battery hybrid systems are widely used to overcome the limitations of continuous operation. However, fuel cell systems must be operated in combination with a battery due to their low specific output characteristics. Therefore, a hybrid power system model for UAVs is developed. The rule-based strategy is applied to the model to properly distribute power to batteries and fuel cells. As a result, the designed rule-based power distribution control operates UAVs while maintaining battery state of charge(SOC) at an appropriate level.