• Korean Membrane Journal
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2003

Due to the increasing intelligence, the increasing connectivity, and always-on characteristics energy needs for the portable electronics cannot be managed by the state-of-art battery technology. Micro fuel cell fuelled by aqueous methanol is gaining lots of interest from the new energy storage developers since it has the potential to offer the longer operation time to the portable electronic devices. Although the technical barriers to the commercialization exit, it is expected that the micro fuel cell technology bring huge benefits to the current energy storage market once it matures. In the article, benefits, challenges and market players of the direct methanol fuel cell arena is briefly reviewed.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.49-52
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• 2008

The present study conducts a series of experiments to develop a novel air supplying module for a micro fuel cell using piezoelectric linear actuator. An intermittently and operating air breathing module with reciprocating motion of the linear actuator has been suggested in the present study. A test bench for a micro fuel cell system has been constructed to estimate performance of the active fuel cell system using the air supplying module. With the stroke and operating duty as main control parameters, the optimal operating method of the air supplying module has been discussed.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.63 no.2
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• pp.205-210
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• 2014

The micro grid considered in this paper consists of a diesel generator, a photovoltaic array, a wind turbine, a fuel cell, and a energy storage system. This paper explains and simulates the micro grid components in terms of accuracy and efficiency of having a system model based on the costs of fuel as well as operation and maintenance. For operational efficiency, the objective function in a diesel generator consists of the fuel cost function similar to the cost functions used for the conventional fossil-fuel generating plants. The wind turbine generator is modeled by the characteristics of variable output. The optimization is aimed at minimizing the cost function of the system while constraining it to meet the customer demand and safety of micro grid. The operating cost in fuel-cell system includes the fuel costs and the efficiency for fuel to generate electric power. To develop the overall system model gives a possibility to minimize of the total cost of micro grid. The application of optimal operation can save the interruption costs as well as the operating costs, and improve reliability index in micro grid.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.289-292
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• 2009

The fabrication method of glass bipolar plates for micro PEM fuel cell application has been established and performance evaluation has been carried out. The advantages of glass bipolar plates for micro PEM fuel cells are light weight, high chemical resistivity, and easy manufacture. The MEMS fabrication process of anisotropic wet etching, thermal & UV bonding along with metal layer deposition has been introduced. From performance evaluation, it was shown that the micro fuel cell with a metal layer deposited on the reactive area yielded higher power density than the one without it. But both power densities of the two cases showed out to be adequate with the current status of micro fuel cell technology.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.218-224
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• 2004

We present a miniature Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (micro-DMFC) using platinum sputtered microcolumn electrodes with a limited amount of fuel. We use the microcolumn electrode in order to improve the power density of the micro-DMFC that consists of two electrodes and polymer electrolyte. We also design the built-in fuel chamber in the anode for the portable electronics applications. We design and fabricate both microcolumn and planar electrodes, having an identical projective area of 5mm${\times}$5mm. The diffusion current density of the microcolumn electrode is 1.73 times higher than that of the planar electrode at electrode potential of 1.1V in the half-cell test. The micro-DMFC based on the microcolumn electrodes shows the maximum power of 10.8$\pm$7.54㎼(43.23$\pm$0.16㎼/$\textrm{cm}^2$) at the projective area of 5mm${\times}$5mm, while the planar electrode micro-DMFC shows the maximum power of 0.81$\pm$0.42㎼(3.24$\pm$1.68㎼/$\textrm{cm}^2$) at the same projective area. The micro-DMFC based on the microcolumn electrodes shows 13 times higher power density that the micro-DMFC based on the planar electrodes does.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2009.04b
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• pp.212-214
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• 2009

The polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell(PEMFC) with the advantages of low-operating temperature, high current density, low cost and volume, fast start-up ability, and suitability for discontinuous operation becomes the most reasonable and attractive power system for transportation vehicle and micro-grid power plant in a household. 200W PEMFC(Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell) system applied to middle and small-scaled micro-grid power system was constructed by this study, then the electrical characteristics and diagnosis of the fuel cell were analyzed with thermal variation.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.1093-1099
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• 2009

Alternative energy sources such as renewable energy like solar power systems, wind power systems, or fuel cell power systems has been the rising issue in the electrical power system. This paper discusses an economic study analysis of fuel cells in the korean electricity market. It includes the basic concept of a fuel cell and the korean electricity market. It also describes the need of renewable energy and how the fuel cell is connected with the local grid. This paper shows the impact of production and recovering thermal energy of a grid-connected fuel cell power system. The profit maximization approach has been structured including electrical power trade with the local grid and heat trade within the micro-grid. The strategies are evaluated using a local load that uses electric and thermal power which has different patterns between summer and winter periods. The solution algorithm is not newly developed one, but is solved by an application called GAMS. Results indicate the need and usefulness of a fuel cell power system.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.2834-2838
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• 2008

An free breathing proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) was developed. This paper presents a study of the several effect on the performance of a fuel cell such as air flow rate, opening ratio, and cathode structures. Especially, an air flow rate is critical condition to improve the fuel cell performance. In this paper, we developed a synthetic jet micro air blower to supply high stoichiometric air. The synthetic jet actuation is usually generated by a traditional PZT-driven actuator, which consists of a small cylindrical cavity, orifices and PZT diaphragms. In comparison with free convection fuel cells, the forced-convection fuel cell which equipped synthetic jet micro air blower brings higher performance and stability for long term test. Also, power consumption of the synthetic jet micro air blower is under 0.3W. The results show that the maximum power density was $188mW/cm^2$ at $400mA/cm^2$. The maximum power density was higher 40% than power density of free convection fuel cell.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.273-276
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• 2005

Performance analysis of a solid oxide fuel cell/micro gas turbine hybrid system is conducted at design-point and part-load conditions and its results are discussed in this study. With detailed considerations of the heat and mass transfer phenomena along various flow streams of the SOFC, the analysis based on a quasi-2D model reasonably predicts its performance at the design-point operating conditions. In case of part-load operations, performance of the hybrid system to three different operation modes(fuel only control, speed control, and VIGV control) is compared. It is found that the simultaneous control of both supplied fuel and air to the system with a variable MGT rotational speed mode is the optimum choice for the high performance operation. And then, the dynamic characteristics of a solid oxide fuel cell are briefly introduced.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Energy Engineering kosee Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.71-74
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• 2003