Khairul Imran Sainan

An Overview of Hydrogen Production from Renewable Energy Source for Remote Area Application

Hydrogen production through solar energy technology plays a very important role in the development of sustainable energy systems. Traditionally, a wide variety of methods are available for hydrogen production from conventional sources such as natural gas, coal and oil. Their application, however, contributes to emission of ozone depleting gases such as CO2. This paper reviews the recent developments of hydrogen production methods related to solar-hydrogen production for remote area application. The methods discussed are thermochemical, photoelectrochemical and electrochemical where water is the basic raw material. From this review, the low overall efficiency of photoelectrochemical and thermochemical processes make them non-attractive for remote areas application. This paper concludes that the most suitable method for hydrogen production for remote area application is electrochemical process where electrolyzer represents the most important process to obtain hydrogen without any emission of air pollutants or greenhouse gases. This paper will be useful for manufacturers, academicians and researchers who are involved and interested in solar hydrogen system.

Thermal performance of Al2O3 in water - Ethylene glycol nanofluid mixture as cooling medium in mini channel

Continuous need for an optimum conversion efficiency of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) operation has triggered varieties of advancements namely on the thermal management engineering scope. Nanofluids as an innovative heat transfer fluid solution are expected to be a promising candidate for alternative coolant in mini channel cooling plate of PEMFC. In this work, heat transfer performance of low concentration of 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 % Al2O3 in water: Ethylene glycol (EG) mixtures of 100:0 and 50:50 nanofluids have been studied and compared against its base fluids at Re number ranging from 10 to 100. A steady, laminar and incompressible flow with constant heat flux is assumed in the channel of 140mm × 200mm. It was found that nanofluids have performed better than the base fluid but the demerit is on the pumping power due to the higher pressure drop across mini channel geometry as expected.

Yaw Stability Analysis for UiTM's BWB Baseline-II UAV E-4

This paper presents a study about yaw stability analysis for UiTMs Blended-Wing-Body (BWB) Baseline-II E-4. This aircraft is equipped with split drag flaps in order to perform directional motion. One of the split drag flaps will be deflected to generate yawing moment. This yawing moment is generated through the drag that is produced upon deflection of flaps. The study was carried out using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for various sideslip angles (β) and various flaps deflection angle (δT). The simulation was conducted at 0.1 Mach number (35 m/s) and results in terms of coefficient such yawing and rolling moment are tabulated in order to determine the stability of the aircraft. The result reveals that the aircraft is directionally unstable. This is as expected because the aircraft does not have any vertical tail configuration to provide the yawing moment. However, high deflection of split flaps can still generate adequate restoring moment for the aircraft.

Development of 1:1 and 2:1 Channel Ratio Bipolar Plates (BPPs) for PEMFC

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is a device that generates electricity through an electrochemical reaction of oxygen air and hydrogen fuel. Thetransportofoxidantand fuel through the bipolarplatesis a significant factor affecting the cell performance. Currently, present work concentrates highly on flow field layout and channels design configurations. In this paper, the development two flow field layouts are discussed with different inlet/outlet channel ratio. Serpentine-paralleldesignisusedasthe base layout. The flow fields have inlet/outlet channel ratio of 1:1 and multiple inlet 2:1 configurations. Graphite is used as theplate material.Theanodeflowchannelis 2 mmx 1.2 mmx 2 mm meanwhile the cathode channel is 2 mm x 0.5 mm x 2 mm fora xbxwrespectively.Theactiveareais 25 cm2 with 5 cmx 5 cm dimensions. The fields were fabricated by Roland EGX-360 Desktop Engraver machine that involved drilling and profiling process. The fuel cell assembly process is explained in detail. The gasketmaterialis made from two materials which are Polyimide and Silicon. A series of pre-conditioning experiments were carried out in both fuel cells for confident purposes.

Operating Condition Optimization of PEMFC via Visualization Technique

Fuel cell water management has two conflicting requirements; too less water causing membrane dehydration and too much water causing liquid water flooding. Both phenomena resulting in significantly instability voltage performance because of imbalance water presence. Therefore, it is vital to analyze and understand the root cause of the problem hence a 96cm2 transparent fuel cell was analyzed experimentally. The fuel cell allows clear visualization of flow channels, thus making it practical to analyze the transportation of reactants and products behavior. The experimental analyses were conducted under different reactant flow rate and inlet humidification variations. Highest cell performance was obtained under both reactant inlets humidification with largest air flow rates. On the other hand, when fuel and air in dry conditions, relatively lower cell voltage was obtained. Meanwhile, stable voltage was obtained under anode humidified and cathode non-humidified conditions with correct air to fuel ratio. Images of liquid water and voltage behavior are presented graphically corresponding to the changes in performance.

Performance Analysis of Ground-Based Static Test for Hydrogen Fuelcell Propulsion System

Combustion engines are increasingly being regarded as unsustainable in the long-term, because of their negative impact on the environment (e.g. pollution, green-house gas production, and global warming). This has generated worldwide interest in propulsion systems based on renewable alternative energy sources for the future. Fuel cell technology is a promising alternative power source because of their high specific energy, efficiency, and reliability. Hydrogen proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) in particular produces zero carbon emissions by having only water vapor as the exhaust. Although there has been much research by automotive industries in developing fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles (FCHEV), fuel cell research for aircraft application is relatively new. Therefore, there is a pressing need for research related to development of aircraft fuel cell electric propulsion systems. Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) is conducting static experiments on different configurations of fuel cell electric propulsion systems. The objective of this study is to understand the behavior of a PEMFC propulsion system under a ground-based static test. A 1 kW PEMFC was used as the main power source for a brushless DC motor electric propulsion system. The electrical characteristics, rotational speed, and thrust data were presented for two different electrical propellers. Analyses of the results were used to characterize the effectiveness of the fuel cell system and its balance of plant. The results were beneficial as a predictive method on defining the optimum electric propulsion system performance needed for future actual flight development.