• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2019

The reduction of nitrogen to produce ammonia has been attracting much attention as a renewable energy technology. Ammonia is the basis for many fertilizers and is also considered an energy carrier that can power internal combustion engines, diesel engines, gas turbines, and fuel cells. Traditionally, ammonia has been produced through the Haber-Bosch process, in which atmospheric nitrogen combines with hydrogen at high temperature ($350-550^{\circ}C$) and high pressure (150-300 bar). This process consumes 1-2% of current global energy production and relies on fossil fuels as an energy source. Reducing the energy input required for this process will reduce $CO_2$ emissions and the corresponding environmental impact. For this reason, developing electrochemical ammonia-production methods under ambient temperature and pressure conditions should significantly reduce the energy input required to produce ammonia. In this review, we introduce the electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction at ambient condition. Numerical studies on the electrochemical nitrogen reduction mechanism have been carried out through the computation of density function theory. Electrodes such as nanowires and porous electrodes have been also actively studied for further participation in electrochemical reactions.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.40 no.10
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• pp.991-997
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• 2003

The effect of A1$_4$C$_3$ additive on the thermoelectric properties of SiC ceramics were studied. Porous SiC ceramics with 47∼59% relative density were fabricated by sintering the pressed $\alpha$-SiC powder compacts with A1$_4$C$_3$at 2100∼220$0^{\circ}C$ for 3 h in Ar atmosphere. Crystalline phases of the sintered bodies were identified by powder X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and their microstructures were observed with a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). In the case of A1$_4$C$_3$ addition, the phase transformation of 6H-SiC to 4H-SiC could be observed during sintering. The Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity were measured at 550∼95$0^{\circ}C$ in Ar atmosphere. In the case of undoped specimens, the Seebeck coefficients were positive (p-type semiconducting) possibly due to a dominant effect of the acceptor impurities (Al, Fe) contained in the starting powder and electrical conductivity increased as increasing sintering temperature. Electrical conductivity of A1$_4$C$_3$doped specimen is larger than that of undoped specimen under the same condition, which might be due to the reverse phase transformation and increasing of carrier density. And the Seebeck coefficient of A1$_4$C$_3$ doped specimen is also larger than that of undoped specimen. The density of specimen, the amount of addition and sintering atmosphere had significant effects on the thermoelectric property.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.13-19
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• 2021

This study examined the effects of stacking faults on the thermoelectric properties for n-type SiC semiconductors. Porous SiC semiconductors with 30~42 % porosity were fabricated by the heat treatment of pressed ��-SiC powder compacts at 1600~2100 ℃ for 20~120 min in an N2 atmosphere. XRD was performed to examine the stacking faults, lattice strain, and precise lattice parameters of the specimens. The porosity and surface area were analyzed, and SEM, TEM, and HRTEM were carried out to examine the microstructure. The electrical conductivity and the Seebeck coefficient were measured at 550~900 ℃ in an Ar atmosphere. The electrical conductivity increased with increasing heat treatment temperature and time, which might be due to an increase in carrier concentration and improvement in grain-to-grain connectivity. The Seebeck coefficients were negative due to nitrogen behaving as a donor, and their absolute values also increased with increasing heat treatment temperature and time. This might be due to a decrease in stacking fault density, i.e., a decrease in stacking fault density accompanied by grain growth and crystallite growth must have increased the phonon mean free path, enhancing the phonon-drag effect, leading to a larger Seebeck coefficient.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.574-583
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• 2021

Waste air containing ethanol (100 ppmv) and hydrogen sulfide (10 ppmv) was continuously treated by waste air-treating system composed of two annular photocatalytic reactors (effective volume: 1.5 L) packed with porous SiO₂ media carrying TiO₂-anatase photocatalyst, one of which was alternately operated for 32 d/run while the other was regenerated by 100 ℃ hot air with 15 W UV(-A)-light on. As its elimination-behavior of ethanol, the removal efficiencies of ethanol at 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd operation of the photocatalytic reactor system(A), turned out to be ca. 60, 55 and 54%, respectively, at their steady state condition. Unlike the elimination-behavior of ethanol, its hydrogen sulfide-elimination behavior showed repeated decrease of hydrogen sulfide removal efficiency by its resultant arrival at a lower level of steady state condition. Nevertheless, the removal efficiencies of hydrogen sulfide at 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd operation of the photocatalytic reactor system, turned out to be ca. 80, 75 and 73%, respectively, at their final steady state condition, higher by ca. 20, 20 and 19% than those of ethanol, respectively. Therefore, assuming that adsorption on porous SiO₂-photocatalyst carrier was regarded to belong to a reversible deactivation and that decreased % of removal efficiency due to the reversible deactivation of photocatalyst including the adsorption was independent of the number of its use upon regeneration, the increments of the decreased % of removal efficiency of ethanol and hydrogen sulfide, due to an irreversible deactivation of photocatalyst, for the 3^rd use of regenerated photocatalyst, compared with the 2^nd use of regenerated photocatalyst, were ca. 1 and 2%, respectively, which was insignificant or the less than those of ca. 5 and 5%, respectively, for the 2^nd use of regenerated photocatalyst compared with the 1^st use of virgin photocatalyst. This trend of the photocatalytic reactor system was observed to be similar to that of the other alternately-operating photocatalytic reactor system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.1092-1099
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• 2022

Research on exhaust aftertreatment devices to reduce air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions is being actively conducted. However, in the case of the particulate matters/nitrogen oxides (PM/NOx) simultaneous reduction device for ships, the problem of back pressure on the diesel engine and replacement of the filter carrier is occurring. In this study, for the optimal design of the integrated device that can simultaneously reduce PM/NOx, an appropriate standard was presented by studying the flow inside the device and change in back pressure through the inlet/outlet pressure. Ansys Fluent was used to apply porous media conditions to a diesel particulate filter (DPF) and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) by setting porosity to 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, and 70%. In addition, the ef ect on back pressure was analyzed by applying the inlet velocity according to the engine load to 7.4 m/s, 10.3 m/s, 13.1 m/s, and 26.2 m/s as boundary conditions. As a result of a computational fluid dynamics analysis, the rate of change for back pressure by changing the inlet velocity was greater than when inlet temperature was changed, and the maximum rate of change was 27.4 mbar. This was evaluated as a suitable device for ships of 1800kW because the back pressure in all boundary conditions did not exceed the classification standard of 68mbar.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.222-230
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• 1983

This study was designed to develop a process for the immobilization of xylose isomerase(D-xylose ketol isomerase, EC 5.3.1.5) from Streptomyces griseolus previously isolated by the authors and its application on a pilot plant scale for the production of high fructose corn syrup. The biomass which has endo-excreted xylose isomerase was homogenized under a pressure of $500kg/cm^2$ and 90.8% of the enzyme recovery of the native activity was obtained as compared to 54.7% recovery by the lysozyme treatment. Ionic bonding method was adopted for the enzyme immobilization due to its many reported merits. It was found that the porous resins such as Diaion HP 20, Duolite A-7, Amberlite IRA 93 and 94 were effective in immobilizing the enzyme. In addition, it was disclosed that the regeneration form of $BO_4--$ is effective for Amberlite IRA 93 and $HCO_3-$ for Diaion HP 20. Optimal immobilization condition for Amberlite IRA 93 was pH 8.0 and $55^{\circ}C$ yielding 80.6% of immobilization. Activity decay test showed half life of the immobilized enzyme with Amberlite IRA 93 was more than 24 days at $65^{\circ}C$. The carrier was evaluated to be resuable and its result showed the relative immobilization yields were 98.2, 93.3, 90.7 and 87.5%, respectively at second, third, forth and fifth rebinding test of the enzyme on Amberlite IRA 93. Optimal temperature of the immobilized enzyme was slightly lowered and the range widened to $60\sim70^{\circ}C$, while optimal pH moved toward $8.0\sim8.3$ in its isomerization reaction. The trial production result of high fructose corn syrup in pilot scale immobilization showed that one liter of immobilized xylose isomerase (350 IXIU/ml-R) is capable producing about 293l high fructose corn syrup(75% dry substance) in 30 days.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.103-110
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• 2003

Stable production of fermented kanjang containing 1.8% (v/v) ethanol was obtained within four days using traditional kanjang containing 4% added glucose in packed-bed bioreactor systems filled with immobilized Zygosaccharomyces rouxii and Candida versatilis on porous alumina ceramic bead carrier at $28{\pm}0.5^{\circ}C$ and aeration rate of 0.05 vvm. Specific rates of alcohol production for Z. rouxii and C. versatilis were 0.0033 and 0.0031/day, respectively, and those of glucose consumption were both -0.0087/day in the batch type of alcoholic fermentation. In semi-continuous alcoholic fermentation at a dilution rate of 0.25/day, specific rates of alcohol production for Z. rouxii and C. versatilis were 0.0045 and 0.0029/day, and those of glucose consumption were -0.01 and -0.008/day, respectively, using identical bioreactor system. Similar specific rates of alcohol production were observed both in the batch or semi-continuous process and in the continuous one at the dilution rate of 0.25/day. Sensory characteristics of all alcoholic-fermented kanjang by Z. rouxii, C. versatilis, and a mixture of both yeasts (2:1, w/w) were shown to be significantly superior to those of home-made kanjang as revealed through organoleptic evaluation tests (p<0.05).

• 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.