• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.95-95
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• 2010

An apparatus for generating flames and more particularly the microwave plasma burner for generating high-temperature large-volume plasma flame was presented. The plasma burner was composed of micvrowave transmission lines, a field applicator, discharge tube, coal and gas supply systems, and a reactor. The plasma burner is operated by injecting coal powders into a 2.45 GHz microwave plasma torch and by mixing the resultant gaseous hydrogen and carbon compounds with plasma-forming gas. We in this work used air, oxygen, steam, and their mixtures as a discharge gas or oxidant gas. The microwave plasma torch can instantaneously vaporize and decompose the hydrogen and carbon containing fuels. It was observed that the flame volume of the burner was more than 50 times that of the torch plasma. The preliminary experiments were carried out by measuring the temperature profiles of flames along the radial and axial directions. We also investigated the characteristics for coal combustion and gasification by analyzing the byproducts from the exit of reactor. As expected, various byproducts such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, etc. were detected. It is expected that such burner cab be applied to coal gasification, hydrocarbon reforming, industrial boiler of power plants, etc.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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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.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.34-43
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• 2014

The reformer system is a method for hydrogen production from hydrocarbon fuels such as natural gas under high temperature environment($about{\sim}1,000^{\circ}C$). The premixed swirl burner with mixing swirler and combustion swirler designed to deliver fuel cell electric output from 0.5 kW to 1.5 kW. Premixed swirl burner experiments using natural gas and mixture of natural gas and anode off gas were carried out to analyse flame patterns and stability by equivalence ratio respectively. The results show that the stable swirl flame can be established for all cases of fuels type using the premixed swirl burner. The swirl flame had a wide stability region and it showed very low CO(50 ppm) and $NO_x$(20 ppm) emission at different fuel type and various equivalence ratio conditions. The operating range of premixed swirl burner for stable swirl flame is found to exist between equivalence ratio of 0.70 to 0.90 for turn down ratio of 3:1.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1413-1417
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• 1999

Chemical poisoning of Ni/MgO catalyst was induced by hot alkali carbonate vapor in molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC), and the poisoned (or contaminated) catalyst was characterized by TPR/TPO, FTIR, and XRD analysis. Carbonate electrolytes such as K and Li were transferred to the catalyst during DIR-MCFC operation at 650 ℃. The deposition of alkali species on the catalyst consequently led to physical blocking on catalytic active sites and structural deformation by chemical poisoning. TPR/TPO analysis indicated that K species enhanced the reducibility of NiO thin film over Ni as co-catalyst, and Li species lessened the reducibility of metallic Ni by chemical reaction with MgO. FTIR analysis of the poisoned catalyst did not exhibit the characteristic ${\vector}_1$$(D_{3h})$ peaks (1055 $cm^{-1},\;1085\;cm{-1})$ for pure crystalline carbonates, instead a new peak (1120 $cm^{-1})$ was observed proportionally with deformed alkali carbonates. From XRD analysis, the oxidation of metallic Ni into $Ni_xMg_{1-x}O$ was confirmed by the peak shift of MgO with shrinking of Ni particles. Conclusively, hot alkali species induced both chemical poisoning and physical deposition on Ni/MgO catalyst in DIR-MCFC at 650 ℃.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.13-22
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• 2023

With the increased interest in renewable energy, various hydrogen production technologies have been developed. Hydrogen production can be classified into green, blue, gray, and pink hydrogen depending on the production method; each method has different technical performance, costs, and CO₂ emission characteristics. Hence, selecting the technology priorities that meet the company strategy is essential to develop technologically and economically feasible projects and achieve the national carbon neutrality targets. In addition, in early development technologies, analyzing the technology investment priorities based on the company's strategy and establishing investment decisions such as budget and human resources allocation is important. This study proposes a method of selecting priorities for various hydrogen production technologies as a specific implementation plan to achieve the national carbon neutrality goal. In particular, we analyze key performance indicators for technology, economic feasibility, and environmental performance by various candidate technologies and suggest ways to score them. As a result of the analysis using the aforementioned method, the priority of steam methane reforming (SMR) technology combined with carbon capture & storage (CCS) was established to be high in terms of achieving the national carbon neutrality goal.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.607-615
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• 2022

In this study, economic analysis program was developed for economic evaluation of hydrogen production, storage/delivery, and utilization technologies as well as overseas import of hydrogen. Economic analysis program can be used for the estimation of the levelized cost of hydrogen for hydrogen supply chain technologies. This program include five hydrogen production technology on steam methane reforming and water electrolysis, two hydrogen storage technologies (high compressed gas and liquid hydrogen storage), three hydrogen delivery technologies (compressed gas delivery using tube trailer, liquid hydrogen, and pipeline transportation) and six hydrogen utilization technologies on hydrogen refueling station and stationary fuel cell system. In the case of overseas import hydrogen, it was considered to be imported from five countries (Austraila, Chile, India, Morocco, and UAE), and the transportation methods was based on liquid hydrogen, ammonia, and liquid organic hydrogen carrier. Economic analysis program that was developed in this study can be expected to utilize for planning a detailed implementation methods and hydrogen supply strategies for the hydrogen economy road map of government.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.267-273
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• 2023

As the impacts of global climate change become increasingly apparent, the reduction of carbon emissions has emerged as a critical subject of discussion. Nuclear power has garnered attention as a potential carbon-free energy source; however, the rapidity of load following in nuclear power generation poses challenges in comparison to fossil-fueled methods. Consequently, power-to-gas systems, which integrate nuclear power and hydrogen, have attracted growing interest. This study presents a preliminary design of a very high temperature reactor (VHTR) integrated blue hydrogen production process utilizing DWSIM, an open-source process simulator. The blue hydrogen production process is estimated to supply the necessary calorific value for carbon capture through tail gas combustion heat. Moreover, a thermodynamic assessment of the main recuperator is performed as a function of the helium flow rate from the VHTR system to the blue hydrogen production system.

• Clean Technology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.68-75
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• 2015

In this study, we investigated the structure and properties of a highly heat conductive metal-ceramic core-shell CoAl₂O₄@Al micro-composite for heterogeneous catalysts support. The CoAl₂O₄@Al was prepared by hydrothermal surface oxidation of Al metal powder, which resulted in the structure with a high heat conductive Al metal core encapsulated by a high surface area CoAl₂O₄ shell. For comparison, CoAl₂O₄ was also prepared by co-precipitation method and also utilized for a catalyst support. Rh catalysts supported on CoAl₂O₄@Al and CoAl₂O₄ were prepared by incipient wetness impregnation and characterized by N₂ adsorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), CO chemisorption, and temperature-programmed reduction (TPR). The properties of catalysts were investigated for glycerol steam reforming reaction for hydrogen production at 550 ℃. Rh/CoAl₂O₄@Al exhibited about 2.8 times higher glycerol conversion turnover frequency (TOF) than Rh/CoAl₂O₄ due to facilitated heat transport through the core-shell structure. The CoAl₂O₄@Al and CoAl₂O₄ also showed some catalytic activities due to a partial reduction of Co on the support, and a higher catalytic activity was also found on the CoAl₂O₄@Al core-shell than CoAl₂O₄. These catalysts, however, displayed deactivation on the reaction stream due to carbon deposition on the catalysts surface.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.343-350
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• 2012

A planar solid oxide fuel cell (PSOFC) is studied in its application in a high-temperature stationary power plant. Even though PSOFCs with external reformers are designed for application from the distributed power source to the central power plant, such PSOFCs may sacrifice more system efficiency than internally reformed SOFCs. In this study, modeling of the PSOFC with an external reformer was developed to analyze the feasibility of thermal energy utilization for the external reformer. The PSOFC system model includes the stack, reformer, burner, heat exchanger, blower, pump, PID controller, 3-way valve, reactor, mixer, and steam separator. The model was developed under the Matlab/Simulink environment with Thermolib$^{(R)}$ modules. The model was used to study the system performance according to its configuration. Three configurations of the SOFC system were selected for the comparison of the system performance. The system configuration considered the cathode recirculation, thermal sources for the external reformer, heat-up of operating gases, and condensate anode off-gas for the enhancement of the fuel concentration. The simulation results show that the magnitude of the electric efficiency of the PSOFC system for Case 2 is 12.13% higher than that for Case 1 (reference case), and the thermal efficiency of the PSOFC system for Case 3 is 76.12%, which is the highest of all the cases investigated.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.126-132
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• 2016

This study numerically investigates the characteristics of chemical reactions and thermal deformation in a steam reformer. These phenomena are significantly affected by the high-temperature burner gas and the process gas conditions. Because the high temperature of the burner gas ranges from 800 to 1000 K, the reformer tubes undergo substantial thermal deformation, eventually resulting in structural failure. Thus, it is necessary to understand the characteristics of the reaction and thermal deformation under the operating conditions to evaluate the reformer tubes for sustainable, stable operation. Extensive numerical simulations were carried out using commercial CFD code (ANSYS FLUENT/MECHANICA Ver. 13.0) while considering three-dimensional turbulent flows and combined heat transfer including conduction, convection, and radiation. Structural analysis considering conjugated heat transfer between solid tubes and fluid flows was conducted using the Fluid-Solid Interaction (FSI) method. The results show that when the injection temperature of the process gas and burner gas decreased, the hydrogen production rate decreased significantly, and thermal deformation decreased by at least 15 to 20%.