• Membrane Journal
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.120-132
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• 2021

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a bio-electrochemical device that generates electricity by utilizing bacterial catalytic activity that degrades wastewater. Proton exchange membrane (PEM) is the core component of MFC that decides its performance, and Nafion membrane is the most widely used PEM. In spite of the excellent performance of Nafion, it has drawbacks such as high cost, biofouling issue, and non-biodegradable property. Recent studies in MFC attempted to synthetize the alternative membrane for Nafion by incorporating various polymers, sulfonating, fluorinating, and doping other chemicals. This review summarizes characteristics and performances of different composite membrane based MFCs, mostly focusing on PEM.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.275-282
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• 2022

In contemporary days, hydrogen-based energies including batteries are renowned to be effective. And its effectiveness comes from the fact that it possesses high efficiency as an energy carrier. Eco-friendly and high purity of hydrogens comes out from water electrolysis. And among different types of electrolysis, proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis is considered the most renewable, cheap, and eco-friendly. It produces oxygen and hydrogens which are feasible in using as energies. Since it has such a number of benefits, increased research is going on in PEM electrolysis. Nafion is widely used as PEM, but high cost and various other disadvantages leads to the exploration of alternative materials. This review is broadly classified into Nafion and non Nafion based PEM for water electrolysis.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.631-638
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• 2023

This paper is to introduce methodologies of travel time reliability evaluation using daily traffic volumes. The methodologies include desirable speed concept, the relation between averaged daily speeds and daily traffic volumes, the standardized way in integration of travel time deviations obtained from continuous highway sections. The study began with traffic data collection from a freeway line with long lasting congestion. And then, provided establishment of the relation between averaged daily speeds and daily traffic volumes, and usability of Point estimate method (PEM) to integrate travel time deviations of sections. Based on the relation between averaged daily speeds and daily traffic volumes, it is identified that travel time reliability begins to decrease around LOS (Level of Service) C even before LOS D or F. It may be concluded that travel time reliability could be evaluated based on daily traffic volumes in highway sections using standardized PEM. The methodologies introduced in the paper, could be useful in practicing evaluation of travel time reliability during the works of highway operation or highway planning.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.56-63
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• 2023

The development of renewable energy technologies, such as solar, wave, and wind power, has led to the diversification of water electrolysis technologies, which can be easily coupled with renewable energy sources in terms of economics and scale. Water electrolysis technologies can be classified into three types based on operating temperature: low-temperature (<100 ℃), medium-temperature (300-700 ℃), and high-temperature (>700 ℃). It can also be classified by the type of electrolyte membrane used in the system. However, the concepts of thermodynamic and thermo-neutral voltages calculations and are very important factors in the evaluation of energy consumption and efficiency of water electrolysis technologies, are often confused. This review aims to contribute to a better understanding of the calculation of operating voltage and efficiency of PEM water electrolysis technologies and to clarify the differences between thermodynamic voltage and thermo-neutral voltage.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.491-499
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• 2014

It is important to accurately measure and control the relative humidity of humidified gas entering a PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell stack because the level of humidification strongly affects the performance and durability of the stack. Humidity measurement devices can be used to directly measure the relative humidity, but they cost much to be equipped and occupy spaces in a fuel cell system. We present soft sensors for predicting the relative humidity without actual humidity measuring devices. By combining FIR (finite impulse response) model with PLS (partial least square) and SVM (support vector machine) regression models, DPLS (dynamic PLS) and DSVM (dynamic SVM) soft sensors were developed to correctly estimate the relative humidity of humidified gases exiting a planar-type membrane humidifier. The DSVM soft sensor showed a better prediction performance than the DPLS one because it is able to capture nonlinear correlations between the relative humidity and the input data of the soft sensors. Without actual humidity sensors, the soft sensors presented in this work can be used to monitor and control the humidity in operation of PEM fuel cell systems.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2008.04c
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• pp.239-241
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• 2008

A powered system with fuel cell is regarded as a high current and low voltage source. Effects of the loads on the electrical power source are important to optimize the integrated power system. The design parameters of the system should be chosen by taking into account the characteristics of the fuel cell, so the costs of the power system at given operating conditions can be reduced. Furthermore, the dynamics characteristic of the system is crucial to acquire performance in applications, particularly interactions between loads and the fuel cell system. Currently, no integrated simulation has been approached to analyze interrelated effects. Therefore, the dynamic models of power conversion system with a PEM fuel cell that includes the PEM fuel cell stack, DC/DC converter and associated controls is developed. Electric lads for the system are derived by using a power theory that separates a load current into active, reactive, distortion or a mixed current component. Dependency of the DC capacitor on the loads are analyzed.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.422-431
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• 2007

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 and effect of temperature. These problems can be approached to be solved by using mathematical models which are useful tools for analysis and optimization of fuel cell performance and for heat and water management. In this paper, the present work is to develop an electrochemical model to examine the electrochemical process inside PEM fuel cell. A complete set of considerations of mass, momentum, species and charge is developed and solved numerically with proper account of electrochemical kinetics. When depth of gas channel becomes thinner, diffusion of reactant makes well into gas diffusion layer(GDL) and the performance increases. Although at low current region there is little voltage difference between experimental data of PEM fuel cell and numerical data. When the porosity size of gas diffusion layer for PEM fuel cell is bigger, oxygen diffusion occurs well and oxygen mass fraction appears high in catalyst layer.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.1018-1026
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• 2005

The proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system consisting of stack and balance of plant (BOP) was modeled in a MATLAB/Simulink environment. High-pressure operating (compressor type) and low-pressure operating (air blower type) fuel cell systems were con­sidered. The effects of two main operating parameters (humidity and the pressure of the supplied gas) on the power distribution characteristics of BOP and the net system efficiency of the two systems mentioned above were compared and discussed. The simulation determines an optimum condition regarding parameters such as the cathode air pressure and the relative humidity for maximum net system efficiency for the operating fuel cell systems. This study contributes to get a basic insight into the fuel cell stack and BOP component sizing. Further research using muli­object variable optimization packages and the approach developed by this study can effectively contribute to an operating strategy for the practical use of fuel cell systems for vehicles.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.386-392
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• 2013

Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stacks are constructed by stacking several to hundreds of unit cells depending on their power outputs required. Fuel and oxidant are distributed to each cell of a stack through so-called manifolds during its operation. In designing a stack, if the manifold sizes are too small, the fuel and oxidant would be maldistributed among the cells. On the contrary, the volume of the stack would be too large if the manifolds are oversized. In this study, we present a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model with a geometrically simplified flow-field to optimize the size of the manifolds of a stack. The flow-field of the stack was simplified as a straight channel filled with porous media to reduce the number of computational meshes required for CFD simulations. Using the CFD model, we determined the size of the oxidant manifold of a 30 kW-class PEM fuel cell stack that comprises 99 cells. The stack with the optimal manifold size showed a quite uniform distribution of the cell voltages across the entire cells.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.118-128
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• 2012

The goal of this paper is to design the target tracking controller for a quadrotor micro UAV using a vision sensor. First of all, the mathematical model of the quadrotor was estimated through the Prediction Error Method(PEM) using experimental input/output flight data, and then the estimated model was validated via the comparison with new experimental flight data. Next, the target tracking controller was designed using LQR(Linear Quadratic Regulator) method based on the estimated model. The relative distance between an object and the quadrotor was obtained by a vision sensor, and the altitude was obtained by a ultra sonic sensor. Finally, the performance of the designed target tracking controller was evaluated through flight tests.